Subscribe to this blog in Radio:
Didn't find what you were looking for?
E-mail this blog's author, Bruce Umbaugh:  |
|
 |
Monday, October 06, 2003 |
Two from the new First Monday:
10:19:55 PM 
|
|
Esther: It's not just content anymore: In one direction it's
conversations, and in another it's active data (cf. the Semantic Web).
1:17:10 PM
|
|
Avoiding the
Rush to Gloat, by Farai Chideya, AlterNet.
Conservative complaints about the poor, about liberals, about
(Rush's term) "feminazis" are a veiled form of victimology – the very
syndrome they decry. Beset by enemies of his own making, is it any wonder
that Limbaugh could feel the need to turn to powerful drugs for relief?
But before we get too comfortable bashing Limbaugh, we should question the
negativity in our own lives. Individuals on both sides of the political
fence are prone to complaining, to victimology, more than problem solving
or acceptance. Our collective anger also leads to a collective need to numb
that anger – the multi-billion dollar legal alcohol, television, and
tobacco industries, as well as the illegal and illicit drug trade. This
world is dangerous and beautiful, war-torn and peaceful, the site of both
negative and positive changes. The more that we can see the world for what
it is, the better decisions we'll be able to make.
. . .
The opposite of complaining is not silence. As Tolle writes, When you
speak out, you are in power. So change the situation by taking action or by
speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it.
All else is madness. Nor is acceptance the opposite of change.
Acceptance of our situation allows us to see clearly and make change. If we
can see the world as it is, and speak to the necessary and positive changes
we need to implement, we can avoid the trap of victimology and make America
the nation we
dream.
(Direct at
Avoiding the Rush to Gloat, but with the equals sign in the url they
sometimes break in transit.)
11:16:52 AM
|
|
PhilG sez Let's Bash the RIAA Today. Hmm..., the Let's Bash Microsoft posting seems to have served its function (135 comments and counting!). Perhaps today would be a good day to bash the RIAA, a reprise of the comprehensive CD industry bashing posting of September 5, 2003....
A simpler formulation of the troubles of the record industry: the CD is a direct descendant of the Edison cylinder circa 1877. I.e., the record industry is demanding growing revenues from a product that is 125 years old. In 1909 a consumer might have been delighted at the idea of purchasing a Grand Opera Amberol, taking it home, and spending the rest of his life devoting storage space in his home to the physical manifestation of the audio stream. A consumer in 2003 might, however, be forgiven for insisting that paid-for music arrive ethereally, on-demand, and, if there is physical management to be done that it be done by a commercial enterprise at a remote location. This explains why Sirius and XM are gaining customers while the market for physical CDs is shrinking.
[I've talked to a bunch of people who own MP3 jukeboxes. When asked "Would you have paid $200 extra to have the machine preloaded with high-quality music from your choice of genres?" all said "Absolutely." But the product doesn't exist so these folks resorted to ripping their old CDs (not downloading; they are all too busy) rather than giving the recording industry any new revenue.]
America is still the world's greatest Corporate Welfare State but really how is it possible for the government to help an industry that refuses to abandon a 125-year-old product that consumers don't want anymore?
7:32:00 AM
|
|
Bloggercon Statistics. For those of you who emailed me looking for my Bloggercon statistics, here they are. This contains info on the posting habits of Bloggercon attendees in the ten days leading up to the conference -- total posts, average number of posts, post distribution, [Learning the Lessons of Nixon]
7:28:02 AM
|
|
Denise wonders Who Will M Your DRM? and quotes David Opderbeck:
The MPEG Licensing Association, a consortium of companies that licenses patent right relating to MPEG 4 audio and video technology, is seeking to serve as an industry standards-setting forum for DRM systems. In one way, this seems like a good development — let a private DRM market develop and regulate itself. In another way, however, it has some frightening potential — let a consortium of media companies effectively determine the scope of copyright and fair use through DRM standards that cannot be circumvented under the DMCA.
This is exactly the right thing to be worrying about. Part of what I argued in my ALA talk in Toronto this summer was that we can't do fair-use-preserving DRM which means that we have to be especially on guard concerning who benefits and who bears burdens in whatever DRM scheme industries advance.
Stay tuned.
7:25:01 AM
|
|
Blogs, Journalism, and Mathematics. The fallacy of "blogging == journalism revolution" has been on my mind today, from BloggerCon. I've figured out the key reasoning error: People assume production is the same as audience This is wrong. This is false. This is an unwarranted... [Infothought]
7:19:32 AM
|
|
|
