The point of the essay seemed to be that IF broadband is ever to become ubiquitous in the US, it is wireless technology that will drive this, since the economics of providing customers service work against broad participation from both the phone companies and the cable companies. Wireless changes the framework for the cost of service since many customers can be served by a single installation.
I think this is an interesting and valuable point. The comparison with 19th century railroads and postal services was illuminating. It is also helpful to see the thoughtful posts people have made about why broadband is or is not attractive to them.
I would warrant that if broadband does become ubiquitous it will be provided in some fashion through a wireless system, and it will not be primarliy experienced through a browser interface but through something else. The big radio pipes will be giving us video portals, mobile internet, new media channels, art/culture community interfaces of a different kind than we have seen. I predict something like this will take off in the late years of this decade if Bush is defeated and someone with a sense of technological optimism, grasp, and creativity is elected.
This is an insightful post. I wonder though, if things are truly as bleak as presented here. Many people have been able to fashion meaningful lives that are not as alienated as this. This does not gainsay the sadness of those who are stuck within the "iron cage" as the sociologist Max Weber put it. Certainly unconsciously or consciously, this entrapment contributes to motivational issues.
It is striking to me to read so many/.ers acknowledging the same motivational problems and suggesting ways to each other that they can better conform in order to succeed in some kind of game that evidently is not intrinsically healthy or satisfying. Of course the motivation must then be external reward = money. In the end, will money alone be enough?
From a cultural vantage point, then, what does this malaise reveal?
I read/., and this is probably hopelessly naive, because I believe that it may be possible to change "the nature of the modern marketplace" through this extraordinary new medium of the internet, and the potential for new forms of organization, property, and community that open source promises. The point of these new forms should be to enable people to prosper in new ways, and part of this may be to engage in work and work relationships in new ways. We should all have the right to be craftspeople, damnit!
Of course there will always be drudgery, and there will always be tricks to get us going. The big questions, though, of who we are in our own skins, what are relationships are with each other and our work, and how we are in touch with the ground of our being often underlie these chemical or cognitive issues.
More like a bluegrass jam community (or any other healthy informal community of aesthetic practice). These folk communities are engaged in an evolving process of refinement of individual skill and knowledge based upon collaboration, critique, consensus, further practice. Of course the analogy breaks down at some point -- open source work usually creates applications not experiences for one thing.
But is not much of the motivation for open source development aesthetic?
It looks from the specifications that this, alas, too fails to meet the demand for high quality digital capture and storage devices for purposes like media production, research, ethnographic fieldwork, radio journalism, music recording etc. We seem to be very close to developing marvelous recording tools:
A sturdy well built 20 gig portable hard drive with rugged microphone inputs, real time level adjustments, choice of digital audio formats.
It should record at digitally pure and rich CD and DVD level quality effortlessly and dependably.
It should be little and indestructible.
It should fold seamlessly into the computer through drag and drop compatible with major operating systems.
One should be able to get media onto the web with one click of a button.
The Archos and Creative Jukeboxes are close, but do not seem as dependable and well built as they should be.
Minidiscs show promise but present transfer problems and a marginal compression format.
Card recorders are too small for really high quality recording.
Has anyone heard of a solution to this need?
Whoever develops such a tool would sell 'em like hotcakes!
The net will have to become media rich. The question is whose media will it be? Devices like this will help the media be part of the voice of the people...
Slashdot Mirror
The point of the essay seemed to be that IF broadband is ever to become ubiquitous in the US, it is wireless technology that will drive this, since the economics of providing customers service work against broad participation from both the phone companies and the cable companies. Wireless changes the framework for the cost of service since many customers can be served by a single installation. I think this is an interesting and valuable point. The comparison with 19th century railroads and postal services was illuminating. It is also helpful to see the thoughtful posts people have made about why broadband is or is not attractive to them. I would warrant that if broadband does become ubiquitous it will be provided in some fashion through a wireless system, and it will not be primarliy experienced through a browser interface but through something else. The big radio pipes will be giving us video portals, mobile internet, new media channels, art/culture community interfaces of a different kind than we have seen. I predict something like this will take off in the late years of this decade if Bush is defeated and someone with a sense of technological optimism, grasp, and creativity is elected.
This is an insightful post. I wonder though, if things are truly as bleak as presented here. Many people have been able to fashion meaningful lives that are not as alienated as this. This does not gainsay the sadness of those who are stuck within the "iron cage" as the sociologist Max Weber put it. Certainly unconsciously or consciously, this entrapment contributes to motivational issues. It is striking to me to read so many /.ers acknowledging the same motivational problems and suggesting ways to each other that they can better conform in order to succeed in some kind of game that evidently is not intrinsically healthy or satisfying. Of course the motivation must then be external reward = money. In the end, will money alone be enough?
From a cultural vantage point, then, what does this malaise reveal?
I read /., and this is probably hopelessly naive, because I believe that it may be possible to change "the nature of the modern marketplace" through this extraordinary new medium of the internet, and the potential for new forms of organization, property, and community that open source promises. The point of these new forms should be to enable people to prosper in new ways, and part of this may be to engage in work and work relationships in new ways. We should all have the right to be craftspeople, damnit!
Of course there will always be drudgery, and there will always be tricks to get us going. The big questions, though, of who we are in our own skins, what are relationships are with each other and our work, and how we are in touch with the ground of our being often underlie these chemical or cognitive issues.
http://www.asksam.com/ You have probably come across this software -- it is not free and is windows based, but it does address many of your needs.
More like a bluegrass jam community (or any other healthy informal community of aesthetic practice). These folk communities are engaged in an evolving process of refinement of individual skill and knowledge based upon collaboration, critique, consensus, further practice. Of course the analogy breaks down at some point -- open source work usually creates applications not experiences for one thing. But is not much of the motivation for open source development aesthetic?
It looks from the specifications that this, alas, too fails to meet the demand for high quality digital capture and storage devices for purposes like media production, research, ethnographic fieldwork, radio journalism, music recording etc. We seem to be very close to developing marvelous recording tools: A sturdy well built 20 gig portable hard drive with rugged microphone inputs, real time level adjustments, choice of digital audio formats. It should record at digitally pure and rich CD and DVD level quality effortlessly and dependably. It should be little and indestructible. It should fold seamlessly into the computer through drag and drop compatible with major operating systems. One should be able to get media onto the web with one click of a button. The Archos and Creative Jukeboxes are close, but do not seem as dependable and well built as they should be. Minidiscs show promise but present transfer problems and a marginal compression format. Card recorders are too small for really high quality recording. Has anyone heard of a solution to this need? Whoever develops such a tool would sell 'em like hotcakes! The net will have to become media rich. The question is whose media will it be? Devices like this will help the media be part of the voice of the people...