On Point Discussion : SOPA/PIPA

This was a very interesting and timely discussion.

Direct to mp3 download.

Broken into 4 x 12 minute segments:

1.
2.
3.
4.

I liked the comment about the buggy-whip manufacturers. They content providers could lock down their content if they wanted to do it. They're asking everyone else to change to accommodate their outdated business model.

Reddit Goes Black to Protest SOPA/PIPA

Reddit is down to protest SOPA/PIPA. Wikipedia is also down. As an experiment, let's see if I can still write something from memory and without fact checking. ;)

Of course, if wikipedia were up and running, I could have simply linked to their article on the subject. I am sure that their crowd-sourced article is infinitely better than what I've pieced together here. Write your congressman to stop introducing breakage into the internet.

• Tit: The internet perceives censorship as damage and routes around it.


• Tat: SOPA would break DNS at the TLD level

In case, you haven't heard about reddit, here is my summary of what it is. Reddit is one of the most popular and innovative sites on the internet. It is ranked within the top 75 websites in the world, as estimated by total traffic; it is ranked within the Alexa top 125. Recently, Reddit released some of their traffic statistics that showed 2 billion page views in one month. That's fine and good, but what is it? It is a website that is designed to provide news aggregation to appropriate sub-communities within their total audience. They have the seemingly simple goal of matching the topic being discussed with an appropriate news consumer. This isn't a new idea- not by any measure. TV news (remember TV news?) was originally categorized into segments for basic news, weather, and sports. Newspapers (remember newsprint?) have always had a lot of sections: local, national, editorial, comics, classifieds, etc. The concept is the same, only Reddit takes this concept to its ultimate limit. There are literally tens of thousands of categories with content provided and driven by a matching community. Most reddit communities, or subreddits, are small. However, the most popular have over 1 million subscribers! Popular subreddits are r/pics, r/funny, r/todayilearned, r/askreddit, r/iama, r/explainitlikeimfive. There are a lot of technical subreddits, too: r/linux, r/buildapc, r/opensource, etc. The content on most of these subreddits is lightly moderated. That means users will mostly decide what will be popular and what is relevant. A story rises and falls based on popularity. Users really vote for good stories, moving them up in the massive stack of past stories. Also, bad stories get voted down, and they sink deeper into the accumulated pile. If a story becomes popular at the subreddit level it can be promoted to the main page and receive wide coverage from the vast overall audience. The method seems to work. Even stories with very obscure content can receive coverage, simply by catching the interest of a critical mass of the community. That is my view from 10,000 feet. I really could've used wikipedia to check my facts!

Here is a recent screenshot showing the SaltLakeCity subreddit:
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Because Reddit is doing a lot of things right, and providing a lot of innovation it is the heir-apparent to earlier web pioneers that showed the potential and versatility of on demand news sites. Slashdot is the grandfather of all of these sites. Reddit added features and flexibility and it's hard to see it losing out to anyone else. The government is trying to interject itself into this space. Reddit would be affected to the point that they've said they'd close their doors. Amazingly, reddit keeps their website running with only ten or eleven employees. If SOPA/PIPA pass, then bye-bye reddit!

Here is a taste of what the law could lead to, no more reddit:

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What about reddit has made it popular?

• Empowers users to build and manage their own content


• Easy and powerful user interface to format text, embed graphics, and link to other sites in a totally immersed web environment


• heir-apparent to earlier news aggregation sites (slashdot, digg)
  
• heir-apparent to usenet classification-type system. subreddits match closely with newsgroups in usenet. For example, comp.os.linux.misc matches up with discussions at r/linux and r/opensource.


• Dynamic rendering of the site on a per user basis. Rendering is determined based on several factors including user subscription and group access control lists. I am guessing that these requirements must place significant demand on their Amazon based servers that are used to provide the site to its 1 million plus simultaneous users. As users know, the site sometimes struggles with delivering content 100% of the time.
  

Sites like reddit are at the forefront of innovation. Empowering users means giving people what they want. That can be as simple as providing the news they want. It also can be used in creative ways, ways never imagined by their creators. Social media and technology were at the heart of the Arab Spring uprisings. The people demanded their governments give them what they want, or get out of the way.

Is a tablet form factor patentable?

Here is a misc. slashdot
headline. I'll have to rewatch that part of 2001 to see if they are using tablets. I remember for sure that Star Trek and Star Trek TNG made extensive use of handheld electronic devices. But even with all that futuristic hardware somehow Kirk still needed a yoeman to help with the ship's log.

DIY: Rockstar

This was an interesting report today from NPR's Planet Money team. It is more evidence that cutting out the middleman is not only possible, it is profitable as well. It used to be that an appearance on Johnny Carson guaranteed stardom. Has the mantle been passed to Slashdot/Reddit/etc. ?

Story: Audio (mp3) and cached here.

I last wrote about this new marketplace here.

Apple's Walled Garden

Apple is working to make their version of the internet snowy white. Their latest target is James Joyce's often censored work, Ulysses.

Here is Slashdot's
headline.

The "Mother, may I" saga continues. I don't think Apple has thought this through. Apple appointing themselves top censor is an echo to 1984 and "Big Brother is watching." That's a PR nightmare.

More practically, the job of censor is not easy, either. Could Apple be found liable if someone's delicate sensibilities are offended by some "approved" content? It's a slippery slope when someone sets themselves up as the be-all, end-all censor. It looks like excellent fodder for a lawsuit against Apple.

1. Find "approved" content that is "offensive." Shouldn't be hard.
   
2. Find a lawyer to take case on contingency. Shouldn't be hard- Apple has deep pockets.
   
3. Profit!!!
   

A better answer to Apple's walled garden is to warn the user:

• "buyer beware!"
  
• "It's a jungle out there."
  
• etc.
  

I think it's almost impossible not to offend anyone. First of all, some people are easily offended. This leads to a least-common-denominator that all content has to be fit for a preschooler, etc.

p.s. The Atlantic discusses Apple's walled garden view here.

Update 2010-06-16 : Apple reverses its decision.

• Developer: Mother, may I post my Ulysses comic?
  
• Apple: You may not! Wait, yes you may.
  

I'm just waiting for the moral police's knee jerk reaction,

"Look, there's a drawing of a penis! I'm outraged! I was counting on you protecting me from anything offensive. You'll be hearing from our lawyers!

Here is Slashdot's
headline.

This comment definitely earned its "Score:4, Funny" rating.

p.s. By the way, the New York Times discusses Ulysses being used by ATT in the 1950's to broaden the liberal arts education of their top managers. Most of the targeted audience had come to work with ATT via their background in engineering and other technical disciplines. Ulysses was the capstone to the program given at U Penn.

Peek-a-boo!

My blog post hosted on another site.

iPad...what they forgot

My blog post hosted on another site.