Month: December 2002

The web is where writing becomes reading

Greg Elin, who really needs a weblog whose brand new weblog is here, from a mailing list
Most of the efforts of “electronic publishing” have been about how to make READING a better experience. But the READING experience is actually very well solved by linear text (e.g., books, articles, etc.) So the big money went into systems for more varied DISTRIBUTION of information already being written. And those systems failed.
But personal web sites were an instant hit — people paid money to have them. And now Weblogs appear to be here to stay. And Weblogs make it easier to WRITE. (They are also easy to read, but in large part because they are easy to WRITE.) The tools that have made money on the Internet/Web are tools that have improved the WRITING, the authorship, experience. (And the large media giants have only tried mostly to develop tools for the MANAGEMENT of written information, that is PUBLISHING WORKFLOWS.

Ed’s mobile office rating guide

from Ed Vielmetti’s Vacuum email list
In thinking about how to find places to carry on my daily work, I started composing a rating guide for the mobile office location for the
telecommuter. This involves the key technologies of
– wireless Internet on your laptop
0 stars: no signal
1/4 star: pay-per-use rental computers
1/2 star: pay-per-use wireless; free computers
1 star: free wireless with strong signal
– a mobile phone, and a place to talk on it
0 stars: no signal
1/4 star: signal, but no place to talk – too noisy or too quiet
1/2 star: signal, a place to talk, but no door to keep private
1 star: signal and a door to shut, or a wireline phone and same
– Kinko’s services (print, photocopy, office supply)
0 stars: nothing, and nothing nearby
1/4 star: you know where to go to, but it’s inconvinent
1/2 star: within walking distance, or local but incomplete
1 star: more copy, fax, print tools than you know how to use
– coffee, tea, or other convivial snacks
0 stars: you go hungry
1/4 star: institutional burnt black coffee
1/2 star: your own kitchen, or a place to snack sans atmosphere
1 star: a place to hang out with comfy couches and people around
– power outlets
0 stars: none to be found
1/4 star: only for the floor polishing machines
1/2 star: at some places to sit, but not many, or not enough
1 star: one seat, one power outlet
– books
0 stars: only the ones you carry on your back
1/4 star: a smattering of resume how-tos and business best sellers
1/2 star: a store or library or good personal collection
1 star: a major research library or exceptional special collection
No one organization that I know of offers all of these in one place. E.g.
The library. Our library is working on mobile wireless, and has lots of public use computers (1/2 *), but there are very few places you can engage in phone calls without bothering someone (0 *). There are copiers but no office supplies (1/2 *), no food and beverages allowed (0 *), but plenty of power (1 *) and more reference and popular books than you’d ever be able to read (1 *). Total rating: 3 of 6.
Kinko’s. These vary more widely than I’d like, and no particular store is guaranteed to have them all. Generally there’s at least a for-pay computer but sometimes you can get full internet via the printer stations (1/4 – 1 *). Your co-workers will notice if you’re on the phone (1/2 *), but there are office supplies and copiers galore (1 *). The beverage selection is almost always utilitarian and office-spartan (1/4 *). Power is readily available (1 *) but the only books you will find are
motivational and self-help (1/4 *). Total: 3-4 of 6.
Your favorite coffee shop. My favorite is Cafe Ambrosia, which has no Internet at the moment (0 *) but makes up for it by having power outletsat every table (1 *). Phone calls are expected (1 *), there’s good coffee and even comfy couches to sit on (1 *). It’s within a short walk of a Kinko’s (1/2 *) and Borders #1 (1/2 *) so the lack of books and copiers on site are easily made up for in a pinch. Total: 4 of 6.
My home office. Good internet (1 *), decent power though I need another power strip (1/2 *). Exceptionally good place to make or take phone calls (1 *). The kitchen is downstairs, but it’s self-service, and convivial is not really the way to describe the office — there’s no way you could have a four person meeting here (1/2 *). Getting copies made is a pain (1/4 * – could be improved with investment). As for books, there are lots of books here, but not always the specialized reference or brand new books that I can get downtown; give 1/2 * for the library, and another 1/4 * for the #5 bus that takes 10 minutes to get downtown where the books live. Total: 4 of 6, with notes for improvement that would add 1 more star almost all the way to 6 except for “convivial”.

Blog chat doesn’t work yet

None of the blog chat/ IM tools I’ve tried has worked so far — need to take the Yahoo button down at left because it doesn’t work.
The blogchat beta technically worked, but it took a multi-step process. Not only did you need to open a browser with your blog up, you needed to go to their site and log in with a password. Also, the sound notification feature requires flash, and I don’t have flash working in Mozilla. So you need to be looking at the window to see if someone is trying to talk to you. I’m never staring at a chat window, waiting for someone to talk to me! When I had it turned on, I missed people, and most of the time I never got around to turning it on during the day.
The Yahoo IM is easier. When your blog window is up and you’re live with IM, it shows that you’re available. But it doesn’t work. I never get the messages (if you tried to send me an IM I wasn’t ignoring you — I didn’t get the message).
If you’ve successfully troubleshot the Yahoo IM feature, please let me know.
I really like the idea of starting conversations with people who are reading the blog; wish I could get the tools to work.
(What is the past tense of troubleshoot by the way? Troubleshot? Troubleshooted? Debugged? Gotten the damn thing to work?)

Cory Doctorow on not trading in your rights

via David Weinberger blogging the session at Supernova
“Cory Doctorow is reminding us that “content creators” have always sued new technologies, starting with those music pirates, the piano roll manufacturers. Now it’s the Broadcast Flag initiative that will put a bit into digital TV signals and require all devices touching them to honor that bit. He gives a terrific talk

Decentralization

The Supernova conference organized by Kevin Werbach, is getting started this morning in California.
The shindig is about decentralization — open spectrum, weblogs, WiFi, web services — new forms of decentralized communications, emergent social organization, and grass-roots content that will take down the dinosaurs of industrial bureaucracy and the behemoths of mass media and telecom. I have friends and colleagues at the conference; it sounds like the discussions are going be interesting and clever and fun.
The innovation up for discussion is real.
And the optimistic technological determinism is giving me the willies.
Because, while we’re developing and promoting all of this cool decentralized software and communications, there are:

  • people using centralized money to maintain and increase oligopolies on content and communications
  • people using centralized power trying to turn our country into a totalitarian state, with secret trials and searches without warrants and digital surveillance departments headed by convicted felons
  • people using decentralized power trying to kill people who look like us, trying to destabilize our society, and succeeding

Meanwhile, we’re feeling smart, and socially connected, and politically pretty powerless.
We need organization, with all of the decentralized and centralized tools and methods available to us, online and on the ground, and we need it now.

A new office — Ruta Maya’s in the neighborhood

Ruta Maya just opened on Thursday in my neighborhood. That’s a Central-American themed coffee importer, coffee house, music venue and all around hangout.
For those of you in Austin, it’s on South Congress in a strange, artsy-hip new professional office park, behind, of all places, the Expose strip club.
Now I need to get a wireless card, and I’ll have a coffee-shop office, which I’ve been missing in Austin ever since my favorite coffee place at 7th and Neches shut down. High Life was run by a husband and wife team. She was the head barista and she put artistry into coffee drinks. I can still taste their coffee. He ran the kitchen. Interesting stuff by local artists always on the walls. They left a couple of years ago to follow their dream to open a bed and breakfast in New Mexico. My IQ has gone down 20 points and personal productivity has plummeted since they closed; I used to go there weekend mornings to reflect and write and plan the week.
Even when I have a permanent office workplace, I go to coffee shops to sit, think, and write. There’s something about caffeine and background music that helps focus and concentration.
When I worked in a mostly-virtual team from the Boston area, my favorite office was TeaTray in the Sky, in Porter Square, Cambridge. The name comes from a quote in Alice in Wonderland; they had surreal Alice murals painted on the walls, teas from around the world, really good coffee, expensive but yummy food and desserts, and a secret wall phone jack (this was pre-WiFi). One of the owners had been a pastry chef at Biba’s which was one of Boston’s best restaurants.
In my neighborhood in Austin, Jo’s and Bouldin have the bohemian atmosphere but to be honest, average coffee and average food. Jo’s was built 3 years ago in classic Austin neo-roadside-shack style; the seating area is open-air, with plastic sheeting for rain and chill. The chairs are too short for the tables (for a 5’6″ person) and the tables and chairs rattle. No power supply. It’s nice when the weather is wonderful. Bouldin is genuine, South-Austin hippie, with games and ratty paperback books on the shelves, and a veggie-brunch menu. I wish they had better coffee. South Lamar Starbucks has drinkable coffee and usable chairs. But it’s Starbucks.
The Mad Bird opened up this year on South Congress, as an extension to a garden/landscape story. It is genuinely and delightfully odd; the back deck looks onto the plants display. Last spring, I watched a hummingbird hover around the flowers while working on a presentation over coffee and a sandwich.
A bit further away on Barton Springs, Flipnotics has good coffee and an Austin casual-hipster vibe. Mozart’s has a gorgeous view of the river, good coffee (they roast), mediocre, overpriced pastries, and a frat-child clientele. Mozart’s is my favorite date-screening location, and has been the site of plenty of unspeakably bad dates. Ask me in person if you really and truly want to know.
I’m just thrilled that Ruta Maya’s in the neighborhood. Next posts will be made with music in the background, good coffee and strange art on the walls.

Siva V on copyright

Reading some articles by Siva Vaidhyanathan in preparation for an EFF-Austin copyright dinner on Tuesday.
Great quote lifted from a SlashDot interview.
SV: I think the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is misnamed. I don’t consider it a copyright act. I consider it an anti-copyright act. Copyright is a fluid, open, democratic set of protocols. Conflicts are anticipated by Congress and mediated by courts. The DMCA wipes out the sense of balance, anticipation, and mediation, and installs a technocratic regime. In other words, code tells you whether you can use a piece of material. Under copyright, you could use a piece of material and face the consequences. The DMCA replaces the copyright system with cold, hard technology.
It takes human judgment out of the system and drains the fluidity out of what was a humanely designed and evolved system.