Ok, so they have choosen not to answer, I'm not going to flame them as I'm sure they had their own reasons. So I'll give my take on the situation. It is becoming increasingly important for people to think for themselves with the increase in information, disinformation, corporate and political spin. Advocacy is important in showing what is positive while at the same time being able to admit failings and highlight them so the community can grapple with them. This can be seen in the Linux Advocacy Mini How Too in the first line of the introduction "The Linux community has known for some time that for many applications, Linux is a stable, reliable, robust (although not perfect) product.", Advocacy is about being able to make a contribution to the community in which you live, without the huge ego that seems to be a requirement in the mainstream corporate and political world, its about an even handed, fair and honest approach. Signs of this are appearing in different forms, if you take a look at the Cluetrain Manifesto ( http://www.cluetrain.com/ ), its a humble document, calling for dialogue and understanding between consumers and producers to build more effective relationships between the two, i.e. its advocacy in the marketing arena, and it seems to me it is only a matter of time before politics goes the same way. I'm not talking about the odd focus group, but continuous dialogues between those that hold the power to govern and those that put them in that position, with a new willingness to listen, even when it does not agree with our own world view. I beleive this can aid in greater understanding and allow us all to have new insights into how we deal with the problems we face on this planet. I hope I am right, and that this has given some food for thought.
Take a look at The Revolution web site, someone is trying to do something other than the normal two parties demonising each other.
http://www.the-revolution.org/
I have a frew ideas of my own that I put down in an email to R U Sirius who started it all. I've copied it here I hope its helpful ----------------------------------------------
Okay I just read your site and it reminds me of Richard Pryors' "None of the above" in Brewsters Millions, that said you are obviously very intune with people like the EFF. So you have a Web site, what now? Well here are some suggestions for you:-
1. The Revolution as fashion a) Run competitions to design cool T-shirts for the party different age groups and fashion students. b) Sell cool designer T-shirts for fundraising c) Cool T-shirt = cool front logo and reverse with one of your 15 points on it, make it like collecting beanie babies. Include URL on collar/cuffs/bottom edge d) Substitute jeans/ jackets/ underwear/ sneakers/ lunch box/ baseball hat/keychain etc. for t-shirt.
2. The-Revolution Cartoon on the Net a) Comic strip - Dilbert subversive style b) Macromedia animation see http://www.kimble.org for a good example, see 1st movie c) Mechandise (see point 1)
3. Never appear in person a) Always over the Net, have rallies via videoconferencing and simultaniously over the Net b) Use a computer animated character to speak your words like on TV when the computer head lip-syncs with someone saying the words c) Have video wall trucks that go from town to town stop and play videos about the Revolution inc. cartoons etc. d) Guest spot on The Simpsons
1. New models of politics What do they think about using the Net to spawn new types of democratic politics, e.g. the ability to vote on individual issues bypassing traditional representatives. Maybe only allowing people to vote if they have already contributed something to the debate on the topic?
2. Advocacy There is strong advocacy within the geek population as epitomised by the Linux Advocacy How To, ways of increasing debate, and providing good quality information rather than FUD, therefore increasing everyones understanding of the situation rather than polarising arguements and ending up in irrational finger pointing. Do you think this ethos can be translated to the world of politics, and what effect do you think it might have?
I understand what Stewart is getting at, and that may happen, but not yet. Why? Because Linux is a work in progress, it is not nearly finished, what about the desktops, CORBA, new filesystems, drivers, etc. In short, there is a huge amount that can be done with Linux, new innovative ideas that will challenge how people use and relate to computers. I'm rather shocked that the new frontier spirit that got Linux this far is so easily discarded by one of its advocates, maybe you cant see what is coming next in the computing world, but someone will, why dont you try throwing out some new ideas, hack something together, and see if people like it, who knows you might invent a whole new area of computing, or even an industry, think big, think small, just think and then act on it. Linux is an excellent base for hacking together new ideas, no more musical APIs a la Redmond, just an ability to express the ideas in code, and it might even end up in some distros.
Why not use the approach/. uses when it generates a page "Page constructed by 100 monkeys" etc. then if they try to sue how are they going to show the info didnt come from 100 monkeys, it would make them sound so silly in court they would never sue.
Here in the UK we have the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, its not a union, more like a professional/social thing read about it at the following URL
As I was reading the article I thinking, okay sounds good, then I got to the end bit and became all dewy eyed, its so great to see a group of people who really want to give back to the community obviously not for ego gratification but because you can really help, truely inspirational, I wish you all the best, Jeremy
I think the actual capacity of the brain cannot be measured in bits, it is missleading as the brain is not an n-bit processor and we don't know what is stored. Take vision for example, if you look at the work of retinal cells in the eye the information is highly processed before being sent to the brain, and alot of the resulting information is regarding movement in the scene, see the work of Carver Mead who developed a silicon retina for more information. Also the memory storage maybe self-adaptive as well, so the memory density might vary depending on previous experience and thus have no measurable unit of storage. Also the ability to create conceptual connections is not recognised in this discussion, where two previously unrelated items are linked in the mind thus creating new data, is this already implicitly stored and just breaks into consiousness or is new information created? This is important as no one addresses this especially in the scientific community, where does a new theory come from? Did Einstein come up with the idea of riding a light wave by reference to what had gone before or was it a spontaneous creation? These mysteries may one day be solved, but we have a way to go yet.
Well US TV might be all a bunch of advertising hype and trash. We lucky people who live in the UK get some quality programming e.g. morning news stories on the BBC included DNA encryption, work on warp drive and the saving of Bletchley Park, as well as quality documentaries and good interviews.
Well I want to know how they are going to deal with the issue of different derivative pricing models, do they include the model and parameters in the markup language or just the resulting numbers?
Yes SETI@home has now managed to garner almost 500K users and there numbers are still growing, and yes not all problems are easily parrallizable, however loosely coupled computation can and will provide huge resources for more global projects such as SETI. Right now we are still looking at mostly "old" problems to solve with new technologies, I'm sure there will be many more "new" problems that can be solved with technology. As for what IBM is doing on the visualisation front well thats something we really need as more and more information is made available it becomes easier to be swamped, and I salute what they are doing,IBM has come along way from the days when they tried to stitch up customers as Microsoft does now with proprietry technology, not only with this new Deep Computing Instuitute but even with more mundane stuff like GMR disk drives. All the best DCI.
Well on a PC you can usually kill the BIOS and every machine on the planet has an equivelent, if its a writable chip e.g. Flash technology you can rewrite it, if its done after an rm -rf then you're in deep doo doo.
Well I don't think this is an easy one, for a start lets say a malicious hacker is a cracker, but what is a malicious hacker? Does it include those that use technology to go after con artists, child abusers etc. and have to break laws to do so because those that claim to uphold the law and seek justice do not? Where is the line? Personally I think its a difficult line to tread and many of those that do seem not only to be guided by their conscience but also such works as A Book Of Five Rings and the writings of Marcus Aurelius and not forgeting The Mentors Last Words. All I know is that I find it easy to distinguish between those that are selfish and only there for themselves and those that know we can all contribute something, the Net is the closest thing there is to anarchy in the world and its only working because people across this world want it to work and are willing to make it happen, hackers are part of that community. Rather than debating the names we will assign to those in a particular community why don't we take what is positive about the Net into the offline world, and show all those that demonise the best because its not in their control that we can do a better job then they can with their zippergate politicians and bean counting assistants?
Slashdot Mirror
Ok, so they have choosen not to answer, I'm not going to flame them as I'm sure they had their own reasons. So I'll give my take on the situation. It is becoming increasingly important for people to think for themselves with the increase in information, disinformation, corporate and political spin. Advocacy is important in showing what is positive while at the same time being able to admit failings and highlight them so the community can grapple with them. This can be seen in the Linux Advocacy Mini How Too in the first line of the introduction "The Linux community has known for some time that for many applications, Linux is a stable, reliable, robust (although not perfect) product.", Advocacy is about being able to make a contribution to the community in which you live, without the huge ego that seems to be a requirement in the mainstream corporate and political world, its about an even handed, fair and honest approach. Signs of this are appearing in different forms, if you take a look at the Cluetrain Manifesto ( http://www.cluetrain.com/ ), its a humble document, calling for dialogue and understanding between consumers and producers to build more effective relationships between the two, i.e. its advocacy in the marketing arena, and it seems to me it is only a matter of time before politics goes the same way. I'm not talking about the odd focus group, but continuous dialogues between those that hold the power to govern and those that put them in that position, with a new willingness to listen, even when it does not agree with our own world view. I beleive this can aid in greater understanding and allow us all to have new insights into how we deal with the problems we face on this planet. I hope I am right, and that this has given some food for thought.
Take a look at The Revolution web site, someone is trying to do something other than the normal two parties demonising each other.
http://www.the-revolution.org/
I have a frew ideas of my own that I put down in an email to R U Sirius who started it all. I've copied it here I hope its helpful
----------------------------------------------
Okay I just read your site and it reminds me of Richard Pryors' "None of the above" in Brewsters Millions, that said you are obviously very intune with people like the EFF. So you have a Web site, what now? Well here are some suggestions for you:-
1. The Revolution as fashion
a) Run competitions to design cool T-shirts for the party different age groups and fashion students.
b) Sell cool designer T-shirts for fundraising
c) Cool T-shirt = cool front logo and reverse with one of your 15 points on it, make it like collecting beanie babies. Include URL on
collar/cuffs/bottom edge
d) Substitute jeans/ jackets/ underwear/ sneakers/ lunch box/ baseball hat/keychain etc. for t-shirt.
2. The-Revolution Cartoon on the Net
a) Comic strip - Dilbert subversive style
b) Macromedia animation see http://www.kimble.org for a good example, see 1st movie
c) Mechandise (see point 1)
3. Never appear in person
a) Always over the Net, have rallies via videoconferencing and simultaniously over the Net
b) Use a computer animated character to speak your words like on TV when the computer head lip-syncs with someone saying the words
c) Have video wall trucks that go from town to town stop and play videos about the Revolution inc. cartoons etc.
d) Guest spot on The Simpsons
4. Revolution dolls that say "vote Revolution".
1. New models of politics
What do they think about using the Net to spawn new types of democratic politics, e.g. the ability to vote on individual issues bypassing traditional representatives. Maybe only allowing people to vote if they have already contributed something to the debate on the topic?
2. Advocacy
There is strong advocacy within the geek population as epitomised by the Linux Advocacy
How To, ways of increasing debate, and providing good quality information rather than FUD, therefore increasing everyones understanding of the situation rather than polarising arguements and ending up in irrational finger pointing. Do you think this ethos can be translated to the world of politics, and what effect do you think it might have?
I understand what Stewart is getting at, and that may happen, but not yet. Why? Because Linux is a work in progress, it is not nearly finished, what about the desktops, CORBA, new filesystems, drivers, etc. In short, there is a huge amount that can be done with Linux, new innovative ideas that will challenge how people use and relate to computers. I'm rather shocked that the new frontier spirit that got Linux this far is so easily discarded by one of its advocates, maybe you cant see what is coming next in the computing world, but someone will, why dont you try throwing out some new ideas, hack something together, and see if people like it, who knows you might invent a whole new area of computing, or even an industry, think big, think small, just think and then act on it. Linux is an excellent base for hacking together new ideas, no more musical APIs a la Redmond, just an ability to express the ideas in code, and it might even end up in some distros.
Why not use the approach /. uses when it generates a page "Page constructed by 100 monkeys" etc. then if they try to sue how are they going to show the info didnt come from 100 monkeys, it would make them sound so silly in court they would never sue.
Here in the UK we have the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, its not a union, more like a professional/social thing read about it at the following URL
r vie.htm
http://www.bcs.org.uk/publicat/ebull/may98/inte
The official website is not much at the moment, but there is a livery (shield motif) at http://www.wcit.org.uk/
As I was reading the article I thinking, okay sounds good, then I got to the end bit and became all dewy eyed, its so great to see a group of people who really want to give back to the community obviously not for ego gratification but because you can really help, truely inspirational, I wish you all the best, Jeremy
I think the actual capacity of the brain cannot be measured in bits, it is missleading as the brain is not an n-bit processor and we don't know what is stored. Take vision for example, if you look at the work of retinal cells in the eye the information is highly processed before being sent to the brain, and alot of the resulting information is regarding movement in the scene, see the work of Carver Mead who developed a silicon retina for more information. Also the memory storage maybe self-adaptive as well, so the memory density might vary depending on previous experience and thus have no measurable unit of storage. Also the ability to create conceptual connections is not recognised in this discussion, where two previously unrelated items are linked in the mind thus creating new data, is this already implicitly stored and just breaks into consiousness or is new information created? This is important as no one addresses this especially in the scientific community, where does a new theory come from? Did Einstein come up with the idea of riding a light wave by reference to what had gone before or was it a spontaneous creation? These mysteries may one day be solved, but we have a way to go yet.
Well US TV might be all a bunch of advertising hype and trash. We lucky people who live in the UK get some quality programming e.g. morning news stories on the BBC included DNA encryption, work on warp drive and the saving of Bletchley Park, as well as quality documentaries and good interviews.
Well I want to know how they are going to deal with the issue of different derivative pricing models, do they include the model and parameters in the markup language or just the resulting numbers?
Yes SETI@home has now managed to garner almost 500K users and there numbers are still growing, and yes not all problems are easily parrallizable, however loosely coupled computation can and will provide huge resources for more global projects such as SETI. Right now we are still looking at mostly "old" problems to solve with new technologies, I'm sure there will be many more "new" problems that can be solved with technology. As for what IBM is doing on the visualisation front well thats something we really need as more and more information is made available it becomes easier to be swamped, and I salute what they are doing,IBM has come along way from the days when they tried to stitch up customers as Microsoft does now with proprietry technology, not only with this new Deep Computing Instuitute but even with more mundane stuff like GMR disk drives. All the best DCI.
Well on a PC you can usually kill the BIOS and every machine on the planet has an equivelent, if its a writable chip e.g. Flash technology you can rewrite it, if its done after an rm -rf then you're in deep doo doo.
Well I don't think this is an easy one, for a start lets say a malicious hacker is a cracker, but what is a malicious hacker? Does it include those that use technology to go after con artists, child abusers etc. and have to break laws to do so because those that claim to uphold the law and seek justice do not? Where is the line? Personally I think its a difficult line to tread and many of those that do seem not only to be guided by their conscience but also such works as A Book Of Five Rings and the writings of Marcus Aurelius and not forgeting The Mentors Last Words. All I know is that I find it easy to distinguish between those that are selfish and only there for themselves and those that know we can all contribute something, the Net is the closest thing there is to anarchy in the world and its only working because people across this world want it to work and are willing to make it happen, hackers are part of that community. Rather than debating the names we will assign to those in a particular community why don't we take what is positive about the Net into the offline world, and show all those that demonise the best because its not in their control that we can do a better job then they can with their zippergate politicians and bean counting assistants?