Two issues that I see. First, the author's confusing an increased cultural prominance for geekish things with an increase in the number of geeks. One does not necessarily imply the other and geekish things have gone through a constant ebb and flow in popularity for years. Comics and SciFi were big business back in the 1950s and I'm sure The Beav would have rocked him some Counter Strike if he'd had the opportunity. The question of *why* geek culture is becoming more popular or more accepted is probably less inflamatory, but probabaly tells us more about who we are and where we're going.
Second, the author's operating under the assumption that "mainstream" or "non-geek" culture is any less disfunctional than geek culture. At that point we're operating in the Land of Value Judgements and Idle Speculation. I've never seen a single study showing that gamers, comic readers, or CS people are any more socially retarded than anyone else even if the conventional wisdom dictates that it's the case. What's the difference between playing in a D&D campaign every Wednesday night and keeping your eyes glued to the TV whenever The Game is on? The distinction has everything to do with culture, specifically the social affect attached to different kinds of knowledge or interests.
This line probably has something to do with the general impression that you were getting in a cheap joke over a bereaved woman's ignorance, both from those who thought it was funny and those who thought you looked like an asshole. Simpsons quotes that get used as a punch line on every third thread around here kind of have that effect.
Either way, this is water under the bridge. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted you. If not... I'm sorry for getting in your face.
It's worth taking two seconds out to think that, like most people, she doesn't undertand exactly what the Internet is or how it works. Based on a quick reading of that article, I'd guess that's she's never been online; hell, it's possible that she's never used a computer. All she knows is that her son's death is joke fodder for a bunch of strangers.
Seriously, man... take two seconds to reconsider your m1573r l337 attitude and grow up.
Hmm... the non-technical isn't strictly true. I'm doing an MIS at IU Bloomington's SLIS program and the course work can go either way. There are things like organizational/social informatics or policy classes that are 100% theory, and you can stay on that side, but there are a lot of things like introductions to various programming languages, databases, lots of web dev stuff, etc. The technical classes often focus on introducing you to a given topic and... teaching you how to learn it, I guess? There's also a lot of stuff that straddles theory/practice, like HCI, information architecture, information visualization, and social network analysis stuff.
Our department is kind of funny because it draws both CS and, like, humanities or social science people. Makes for interesting bar-hopping conversations on the weekends.:)
I work at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in downtown Baltimore and spend a lot of time signing people up to use our public terminals. In this position we mostly get questions relating to basic computer and Internet skills, followed by questions about applications like word processors and questions about how to design and host a web page. The web page questions is very common.
You might want to target classes to different groups in the community, maybe divided by general interest areas and age group. Let the gamers and the senior citizens learn skills they want with people who're interested in the same things.
It's important to remember that we take a lot of our skills for granted. I just helped a woman figure out how to use a Hotmail account (logging in, reading, composing, and responding to mail) and in the process needed to spend some time explaining conventions like case sensitivity, how to type in a URL, etc. We get questions like these all of the time from people of every age, ethnicity, and level of affluence. It's not uncommon for us to work with people who have no idea how to use a search engine or even a mouse. You'll want to make more advanced offerings available, but don't forget to provide a lot of offerings covering the basics.
Haven't you ever seen a guest blogger before? It's ualways struck me as a good way to bring a fresh perspective to the issue that the site in question covers. If Dean uses this opportunity to speak to the tech community about his feelings on Open Source, the DMCA, or the RIAA how on Earth would that be off topic?
Your argument makes sense to a degree, but you're ignoring the difference between physical and intellectual property and the argument scatually being put forward by Eldred, Lessig, et al.
Second part first. Eldred's case wasn't based on a claim that all intellectul property should be made free. If you don't belive me (And why should you?), read Lessig's book, The Future of Ideas. He makes a very clear argument concerning the need to give creators monopoly control over their works for as limited time as prescribed by the U.S. Constiution. The key here is the phrase, "limited time." The copyright regime in this country was worked out to strike a rather elegant balance between the need for innovators to profit from their creations and the need for the public to absorb those ideas and create derivative works. This balance furthers the progress of science and culture. Current policy increases the power of the copyright holder and diminishes the secondary aspect, threatening to stifle progress.
First part second. There is a fundamental difference between physical property (say four of Tetley's) and intellectual property (the recipe for Tetley's), specifically, that freely distributing your physical property will eventually leave you without beer, but freely distributing your intellectual property won't leave you qithout beer, it will merely allow others to have access to the recipe. The brewers should have the right to monopoly control over their product for a limited time, but even when the recipe for Tetley's goes into the public domain it doesn't prevent them from brewing their beer, it merely allows others to do the same... or to put out higher quality versions of Casablanca without previews you can't fast forward through, sample Louis Armstrong recordings for your hip hop tracks, etc. You could even argue that legacy copyright holders like film studios have an advantage when it comes value added features like "behind the scenes" footage, scripts and notes, etc. But it's on their head to leverage that advantage in order to compete.
That isn't socialism, it's a free market. If I can brew a higher quality version of a product that customers prefer, well, continue to innovate or quit and go home.
Funny, I thought the same thing when those cutters came out. I thought it'd be fun to set up stalls at raves and whatever where people could bring a source recording on whatever media and have 45s burned off while they wait. Considering the number of bedroom producers at parties who pawn off CDs to anyone who'll take on, there might be a market... the DJs giging there would be probably be psyched to get a couple of the CDrs in the collection cut to wax... no matter how familiar you are with CD decks, even the new Pioneers don't compare to Techs when you're in the mix. Maybe in five years, but not yet.
The big problem would be people bringing copyrighted materials or CDrs that the producers don't want distributed outside of the stable of DJs they work with. I've heard about D&B DJs who were gigging regularly getting blackballed from the scene because they played a CDr that the producer wanted only certain, big name DJs to play out... the implications as applis to promoters and the people running the cutting stand are pretty obvious...
I'm suprised that no one has mentioned these guys yet. Besides being the DJ duo behind the Ninja Tune label and that funky remix of Paid In Full back in the day they're big time into open source, activists on IP issues, and they wrote their own to cut/mix video live like a traditional DJ would work a turntable (VJamm). Further, they too have done the internet remix contest deal with their tune Space Journey a few months back. If you haven't heard them before, check them out.
Regarding your litmus test for all things P2P:
"1) Does it treat variable connectivity and temporary network addresses as the norm, and 2) does it give the nodes at the edges of the network significant autonomy?"
To what degree do you think these attributes could be incorporated into a buisness model? Could a viable buisness be established on a loose network of laborers or creative staff who are expected to vary in their work loads, availability, resource use and the like with minimal dependece on a central "server" to mete out assignments or suggest collaborations?
I doubt that the digital divide will be going anywhere soon. It's true that there's a greater "middle American" presence online, and that things are starting to diversify along lines of gender and race, but I'd wager that a lot of the new users are far more dependent on a few key points of distribution for their access and information than the Digerati you describe. I'd also guess that they're more dependent on "easy to use" programs and features, needing to be hand-held through many simple processes that we often take for granted. (Like setting up DUN, downloading a mail client, or FTPing HTML documents.) This doesn't make them lesser people, or stupid, but it does indicate that they're still beholden to an elite.
Slashdot Mirror
Two issues that I see. First, the author's confusing an increased cultural prominance for geekish things with an increase in the number of geeks. One does not necessarily imply the other and geekish things have gone through a constant ebb and flow in popularity for years. Comics and SciFi were big business back in the 1950s and I'm sure The Beav would have rocked him some Counter Strike if he'd had the opportunity. The question of *why* geek culture is becoming more popular or more accepted is probably less inflamatory, but probabaly tells us more about who we are and where we're going.
Second, the author's operating under the assumption that "mainstream" or "non-geek" culture is any less disfunctional than geek culture. At that point we're operating in the Land of Value Judgements and Idle Speculation. I've never seen a single study showing that gamers, comic readers, or CS people are any more socially retarded than anyone else even if the conventional wisdom dictates that it's the case. What's the difference between playing in a D&D campaign every Wednesday night and keeping your eyes glued to the TV whenever The Game is on? The distinction has everything to do with culture, specifically the social affect attached to different kinds of knowledge or interests.
This line probably has something to do with the general impression that you were getting in a cheap joke over a bereaved woman's ignorance, both from those who thought it was funny and those who thought you looked like an asshole. Simpsons quotes that get used as a punch line on every third thread around here kind of have that effect.
Either way, this is water under the bridge. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted you. If not... I'm sorry for getting in your face.
It's worth taking two seconds out to think that, like most people, she doesn't undertand exactly what the Internet is or how it works. Based on a quick reading of that article, I'd guess that's she's never been online; hell, it's possible that she's never used a computer. All she knows is that her son's death is joke fodder for a bunch of strangers.
Seriously, man... take two seconds to reconsider your m1573r l337 attitude and grow up.
Our department is kind of funny because it draws both CS and, like, humanities or social science people. Makes for interesting bar-hopping conversations on the weekends. :)
Or you could continue to take part in the development of newer, more distributed models of power that are more efficient than large corporations...
I work at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in downtown Baltimore and spend a lot of time signing people up to use our public terminals. In this position we mostly get questions relating to basic computer and Internet skills, followed by questions about applications like word processors and questions about how to design and host a web page. The web page questions is very common.
You might want to target classes to different groups in the community, maybe divided by general interest areas and age group. Let the gamers and the senior citizens learn skills they want with people who're interested in the same things.
It's important to remember that we take a lot of our skills for granted. I just helped a woman figure out how to use a Hotmail account (logging in, reading, composing, and responding to mail) and in the process needed to spend some time explaining conventions like case sensitivity, how to type in a URL, etc. We get questions like these all of the time from people of every age, ethnicity, and level of affluence. It's not uncommon for us to work with people who have no idea how to use a search engine or even a mouse. You'll want to make more advanced offerings available, but don't forget to provide a lot of offerings covering the basics.
Haven't you ever seen a guest blogger before? It's ualways struck me as a good way to bring a fresh perspective to the issue that the site in question covers. If Dean uses this opportunity to speak to the tech community about his feelings on Open Source, the DMCA, or the RIAA how on Earth would that be off topic?
Try going to the FCC's page and letting them know what you think... comments are being accepted here. (Select the third item down.)
MoveOn has a page where you can send a letter to your members of Congress and add your name to a petition to stop the June 2nd decision.
Your argument makes sense to a degree, but you're ignoring the difference between physical and intellectual property and the argument scatually being put forward by Eldred, Lessig, et al.
Second part first. Eldred's case wasn't based on a claim that all intellectul property should be made free. If you don't belive me (And why should you?), read Lessig's book, The Future of Ideas. He makes a very clear argument concerning the need to give creators monopoly control over their works for as limited time as prescribed by the U.S. Constiution. The key here is the phrase, "limited time." The copyright regime in this country was worked out to strike a rather elegant balance between the need for innovators to profit from their creations and the need for the public to absorb those ideas and create derivative works. This balance furthers the progress of science and culture. Current policy increases the power of the copyright holder and diminishes the secondary aspect, threatening to stifle progress.
First part second. There is a fundamental difference between physical property (say four of Tetley's) and intellectual property (the recipe for Tetley's), specifically, that freely distributing your physical property will eventually leave you without beer, but freely distributing your intellectual property won't leave you qithout beer, it will merely allow others to have access to the recipe. The brewers should have the right to monopoly control over their product for a limited time, but even when the recipe for Tetley's goes into the public domain it doesn't prevent them from brewing their beer, it merely allows others to do the same... or to put out higher quality versions of Casablanca without previews you can't fast forward through, sample Louis Armstrong recordings for your hip hop tracks, etc. You could even argue that legacy copyright holders like film studios have an advantage when it comes value added features like "behind the scenes" footage, scripts and notes, etc. But it's on their head to leverage that advantage in order to compete.
That isn't socialism, it's a free market. If I can brew a higher quality version of a product that customers prefer, well, continue to innovate or quit and go home.
Funny, I thought the same thing when those cutters came out. I thought it'd be fun to set up stalls at raves and whatever where people could bring a source recording on whatever media and have 45s burned off while they wait. Considering the number of bedroom producers at parties who pawn off CDs to anyone who'll take on, there might be a market... the DJs giging there would be probably be psyched to get a couple of the CDrs in the collection cut to wax... no matter how familiar you are with CD decks, even the new Pioneers don't compare to Techs when you're in the mix. Maybe in five years, but not yet.
The big problem would be people bringing copyrighted materials or CDrs that the producers don't want distributed outside of the stable of DJs they work with. I've heard about D&B DJs who were gigging regularly getting blackballed from the scene because they played a CDr that the producer wanted only certain, big name DJs to play out... the implications as applis to promoters and the people running the cutting stand are pretty obvious...
I'm suprised that no one has mentioned these guys yet. Besides being the DJ duo behind the Ninja Tune label and that funky remix of Paid In Full back in the day they're big time into open source, activists on IP issues, and they wrote their own to cut/mix video live like a traditional DJ would work a turntable (VJamm). Further, they too have done the internet remix contest deal with their tune Space Journey a few months back. If you haven't heard them before, check them out.
Regarding your litmus test for all things P2P: "1) Does it treat variable connectivity and temporary network addresses as the norm, and 2) does it give the nodes at the edges of the network significant autonomy?" To what degree do you think these attributes could be incorporated into a buisness model? Could a viable buisness be established on a loose network of laborers or creative staff who are expected to vary in their work loads, availability, resource use and the like with minimal dependece on a central "server" to mete out assignments or suggest collaborations?
I doubt that the digital divide will be going anywhere soon. It's true that there's a greater "middle American" presence online, and that things are starting to diversify along lines of gender and race, but I'd wager that a lot of the new users are far more dependent on a few key points of distribution for their access and information than the Digerati you describe. I'd also guess that they're more dependent on "easy to use" programs and features, needing to be hand-held through many simple processes that we often take for granted. (Like setting up DUN, downloading a mail client, or FTPing HTML documents.) This doesn't make them lesser people, or stupid, but it does indicate that they're still beholden to an elite.