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Monday, November 3, 2003
Politics as unusual 
| | More thinking out loud about the "open source politics" meme. |
| | Trippi: I used to work for a little while for Progeny Linux Systems. I always wondered how could you take that same collaboration that occurs in Linux and open source and apply it here. What would happen if there were a way to do that and engage everybody in a presidential campaign? |
| | Lessig: So is this an open-source presidential campaign? |
| | Trippi: Yes. That moment when that was all going on made me think, "That's sort of what we're building here." I guess it's about as open as you can do it in modern-day politics. |
| | Key modifier: sort of. Metaphors are never 1:1 meaning mappings. That's their irony. We understand things in terms of other things that are in fact quite different. (Example: We understand time in terms of money. That's why we "save," "waste," "invest" and "spend" it.) |
| | Such is the case with "open source politics." |
| | The problem is that we don't have a clear enough understanding of open source to begin with. I mean, it's not like time or money. |
| | Example: we in the open source community (and I'm professionally a member) often talk about "proprietary" software as if it were the opposite of open source. But it isn't. The opposite of open, literally, is closed. The opposite of proprietary is public domain. (This insight is Craig Burton's, and he desevers ample credit for it.) |
| | MySQL is open source software. GPL'd, even. And it's also proprietary. The company, which goes by the same name, offers it under a dual license. They make good money selling the software, and supporting it. |
| | In other words, it's complicated stuff. Full of contradictions that sometimes aren't. |
| | I think what's actually going on with the Dean Campaign is openness and participation, by a huge assortment of people. That's like open source, and meaningful to a lot of us who are around open source, or have positive associations with it; but for the rest of the world it tells an obscure story. |
| | Again, what matters is that democracy is now getting networked, or taking advantage of the fact that the Net is in the world, making the electorate smarter faster than most candidates. The real challenge for the Deans of the world is mainly to catch up with their own constituencies. |
For a moment I almost thought it was.
Talk about moving on
| | I was just talking on the phone with Britt about blogging, and what subjects we choose to blog about. And I found myself saying that Jay Rosen has finally relieved me of the urge to write stuff about the press and blogging. I mean, the guy is just nailing shit left and right. Between Jay and J.D. and a bunch of other good'ns... Guys, take it away. |
| | It's like I'm the voluteer church organist and J.S. Bach shows up, I said. Glad to give him the seat. |
How much are ya'll making by running ads?
iPod only iFlies to 10k feet
| | I've been using my 15gb iPod to supply music in my unpressurized airplane. Today I decided to fly high, returning to the S.F. Bay Area from Las Vegas. At FL190 (~19,000'), my iPod got weird. I could feel the disk seeking, and the display kept resetting. Upon landing, it started up and worked fine. I checked the iPosd web site and saw that the unit's max altitude is 10,000' (3,000 meters). I wonder what's pressure sensitive. Sealed disk drive? |
Blog of the day
| | I'm getting into Terry Heaton's Donata, which observes the intersection of Postmodernism and television. Deep, thoughtful, interesting stuff... |
| | ...if you don't understand a little about Postmodernism, you'll miss what's taking place in our world. Technology has enabled a very different life for Pomos, this new sub-culture being one of them. For Modernists, who cling to logic and reason and order and rules, the first reaction is to dismiss it as a passing fad. After all, haven't there ALWAYS been passing fads? This is the dominant mindset in the TV world, and if it continues, it'll destroy the once proud industry of television. |
Looks vs. Voice
| | I can't help wondering if the "connectedness" we all aspire to and the closeness we try to foster is at all real, or is a trompe l'oeil online intimacy, with no real depth or texture, barely able to withstand the light of day, much less the real world meeting in a bar over beers. |
| | I suppose it depends on which of the senses one favors. Back in radio we used to talk about an air personality's voice/face differential. Often the voice on the radio "looks" very different than it sounds. Think of the sonorous Robert Reich, who has the stature of a hydrant. |
| | We have voices here too — just not audible ones. My guess is that we cut a lot more visual slack to the most authentic voices we "hear" in blog prose. In other words, we care less what they look like; so when we meet them we're less likely to be surprised. |
| | For what it's worth, when I met her for the first time, Halley looked exactly as I had imagined. |
| | And I mean that as a high compliment, Hal. |
| | Software which enables e-mail writers to choose the image they want to portray is being developed by a team of Scottish researchers. |
If you're talking daily print, sure
| | Aside: are there permalinks in Mickey's column? Maybe I'm missing the obvious here... |
Just wondering
| | Would you buy Salon or Slate if either were published in print as well as on the Web? |
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