Digital thoughts

Yes this is a test. Personal impressions after the break.

---

So, we've had two book fairs in a row here in Bucharest. The good news is that both were chock-full of interesting books. The bad news is that now I won't be buying the wireless router I need, not anytime soon.

What can I say? These events are incredibly popular around here; audiences range from little kids dragging their mommies around, all the way to little old ladies coming to buy beloved old movies at bargain prices.

Speaking of which: nowadays, "book fair" is a misnomer; they're more like multimedia fairs. Most interestingly, there were a couple of aisles which, along with movies, music, audiobooks and so on, also sold tea and tea-making accessories. Talk about a complete experience.

Something good: an increasing number of libraries offer English language books, new and used. They're highly sought after, too, as translations usually range in quality from "could be worse" to "one step above Google Translate".

Something bad: all too often, they'll either publish only an author's best known books, or else the least-known, and you need to search in a lot of places to put together a complete series. Then again, that's part of the fun with books.

All in all, a good opportunity to meet friends, and to read a couple of books on paper for a change. I tend to forget what a pleasure it is.

P.S. The full-sized photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/felixp7/archives/date-posted/2009/11/29/

Mobile at the book fair by Felix Pleșoianu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

A few days ago, a group of journalists has published the following Manifesto. You may want to read it all; it's about your freedoms in the 21st century.

---

Internet Manifesto: How journalism works today. Seventeen declarations.

1. The Internet is different.

It produces different public spheres, different terms of trade and different cultural skills. The media must adapt their work methods to today’s technological reality instead of ignoring or challenging it. It is their duty to develop the best possible form of journalism based on the available technology. This includes new journalistic products and methods.

2. The Internet is a pocket-sized media empire.

The web rearranges existing media structures by transcending their former boundaries and oligopolies. The publication and dissemination of media contents are no longer tied to heavy investments. Journalism’s self-conception is—fortunately—being cured of its gatekeeping function. All that remains is the journalistic quality through which journalism distinguishes itself from mere publication.

3. The Internet is our society is the Internet.

Web-based platforms like social networks, Wikipedia or YouTube have become a part of everyday life for the majority of people in the western world. They are as accessible as the telephone or television. If media companies want to continue to exist, they must understand the lifeworld of today’s users and embrace their forms of communication. This includes basic forms of social communication: listening and responding, also known as dialog.

4. The freedom of the Internet is inviolable.

The Internet’s open architecture constitutes the basic IT law of a society which communicates digitally and, consequently, of journalism. It may not be modified for the sake of protecting the special commercial or political interests often hidden behind the pretense of public interest. Regardless of how it is done, blocking access to the Internet endangers the free flow of information and corrupts our fundamental right to a self-determined level of information.

5. The Internet is the victory of information.

Due to inadequate technology, media companies, research centers, public institutions and other organizations compiled and classified the world’s information up to now. Today every citizen can set up her own personal news filter while search engines tap into wealths of information of a magnitude never before known. Individuals can now inform themselves better than ever.

6. The Internet changes improves journalism.

Through the Internet, journalism can fulfill its social-educational role in a new way. This includes presenting information as an ever-changing, continual process; the forfeiture of print media’s inalterability is a benefit. Those who want to survive in this new world of information need a new idealism, new journalistic ideas and a sense of pleasure in exploiting this new potential.

7. The net requires networking.

Links are connections. We know each other through links. Those who do not use them exclude themselves from social discourse. This also holds for the websites of traditional media companies.

8. Links reward, citations adorn.

Search engines and aggregators facilitate quality journalism: they boost the findability of outstanding content over a long-term basis and are thus an integral part of the new, networked public sphere. References through links and citations—especially including those made without any consent of or even remuneration of the originator—make the very culture of networked social discourse possible in the first place. They are by all means worthy of protection.

9. The Internet is the new venue for political discourse.

Democracy thrives on participation and freedom of information. Transferring the political discussion from traditional media to the Internet and expanding on this discussion by involving the active participation of the public is one of journalism’s new tasks.

10. Today’s freedom of the press means freedom of opinion.

Article 5 of the German Constitution does not comprise protective rights for professions or technically traditional business models. The Internet overrides the technological boundaries between the amateur and professional. This is why the privilege of freedom of the press must hold for anyone who can contribute to the fulfillment of journalistic duties. Qualitatively speaking, no differentiation should be made between paid and unpaid journalism, but rather, between good and poor journalism.

11. More is more – there is no such thing as too much information.

Once upon a time, institutions such as the church prioritized power over personal awareness and warned of an unsifted flood of information when the letterpress was invented. On the other hand were the pamphleteers, encyclopaedists and journalists who proved that more information leads to more freedom, both for the individual as well as society as a whole. To this day, nothing has changed in this respect.

12. Tradition is not a business model.

Money can be made on the Internet with journalistic content. There are many examples of this today already. Yet because the Internet is fiercely competitive, business models have to be adapted to the structure of the net. No one should try to abscond from this essential adaptation through policy-making geared to preserving the status quo. Journalism needs open competition for the best refinancing solutions on the net, along with the courage to invest in the multifaceted implementation of these solutions.

13. Copyright becomes a civic duty on the Internet.

Copyright is a cornerstone of information organization on the Internet. Originators’ rights to decide on the type and scope of dissemination of their contents are also valid on the net. At the same time, copyright may not be abused as a lever to safeguard obsolete supply mechanisms and shut out new distribution models or license schemes. Ownership entails obligations.

14. The Internet has many currencies.

Journalistic online services financed through adverts offer content in exchange for a pull effect. A reader’s, viewer’s or listener’s time is valuable. In the industry of journalism, this correlation has always been one of the fundamental tenets of financing. Other forms of refinancing which are journalistically justifiable need to be forged and tested.

15. What’s on the net stays on the net.

The Internet is lifting journalism to a new qualitative level. Online, text, sound and images no longer have to be transient. They remain retrievable, thus building an archive of contemporary history. Journalism must take the development of information, its interpretation and errors into account, i.e., it must admit its mistakes and correct them in a transparent manner.

16. Quality remains the most important quality.

The Internet debunks homogenous bulk goods. Only those who are outstanding, credible and exceptional will gain a steady following in the long run. Users’ demands have increased. Journalism must fulfill them and abide by its own frequently formulated principles.

17. All for all.

The web constitutes an infrastructure for social exchange superior to that of 20th century mass media: When in doubt, the “generation Wikipedia” is capable of appraising the credibility of a source, tracking news back to its original source, researching it, checking it and assessing it—alone or as part of a group effort. Journalists who snub this and are unwilling to respect these skills are not taken seriously by these Internet users. Rightly so. The Internet makes it possible to communicate directly with those once known as recipients—readers, listeners and viewers—and to take advantage of their knowledge. Not the journalists who know it all are in demand, but those who communicate and investigate.

Internet, 07.09.2009

• Markus Beckedahl
• Mercedes Bunz
• Julius Endert
• Johnny Haeusler
• Thomas Knüwer
• Sascha Lobo
• Robin Meyer-Lucht
• Wolfgang Michal
• Stefan Niggemeier
• Kathrin Passig
• Janko Röttgers
• Peter Schink
• Mario Sixtus
• Peter Stawowy
• Fiete Stegers

Translated from the German original by Jenna L. Brinning

(Via P2P Blog. A Romanian version is available.)

---

Though it mentions journalism a lot, I think it's safe to say the above Manifesto embodies the ideals of any digital native. The world runs mostly on information nowadays, and information has this tendency to spread fast and wide, not restricted by physical limitations. This has made it obvious that social institutions we were taking for granted don't work very well; indeed, better ways to run the show are arising naturally out of the freedom the Internet has granted us. The incumbents - the corrupt, despotic, greedy politicians and CEOs who rule the modern world - are being made obsolete as we speak, and they are fighting back. Hopefully, what they are doing is just thrashing in the tar pit, but because they are so big and powerful, they can still do a lot of harm.

See, what the Internet Manifesto doesn't say is that in order to use the Internet freely, you first need to use your computer freely, without fear of surveillance or censorship. For over six months, I used this blog to warn against attempts to limit that freedom. But it's easy to miss the forest among all the trees. Luckily, there is another Manifesto that was also published a few days ago. It's titled To Liberate Computer Users and, though it is rather technical (and not very coherent), you might want to read it as well. By the way, The Austin, Texas initiative it mentions is the Helios Project.

As for what you can do about it, let me repeat some advice I gave back in May:

1. Learn the basics of programming. Think of it this way: you're using the computer all the time, yet you don't know how to talk to it. Note the emphasis: a GUI restricts you to the equivalent of pointing and grunting. You owe it to yourself to do better than that. And don't feel intimidated, the aura of mystique that seems to surround programming nowadays is purely an illusion.
2. Learn the languages of the Web. Similarly, you surf the Web day in and day out, but can you make a simple Web page if the need arises? Because if you don't, you'll always be dependent on third parties for your continued sharing in the world-wide conversation.
3. Use a free, open source operating system. Isn't it enough that you barely have control over your hardware? Do you really need someone named Steve to tell you how you're supposed to use your own machine, what software to run and when to upgrade? Do I even need to ask you that?

That, and spread the word. It's what the Internet does best, after all.

The Internet Manifesto and Freedomware by Felix Pleșoianu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.p2p-blog.com.

It seems no month goes by without some remarkable news coming from the land of ones and zeroes. Even more remarkable is the amount of coolness people turn out when they're not afraid of the future. This time it's about a most traditional medium - Broadway musicals - embracing a very new one: microblogging. The story (or should I say meta-story?) as covered by the New York Times is simple. Some smart people ran a show simultaneously in the theater and as a Twitter adaptation. The result: half a million followers, many of whom were interested enough to go see the live performance, but also to engage with the cast and crew in conversation.

This is just the latest in a long stream of success stories from the relatively young medium of microblogging. It was used to report on the Iranian election protests in June, and to organize the Moldovan election protests in April. It told the world in real time about the Hudson River plane crash in January and arguably helped Mr. Obama win the U.S. presidential elections last year. More recently, we've been shown How an Indie Musician can make $19,000 in 10 hours using Twitter. And still, each new microblogging success story seems to amaze the world. Why is that?

The answer, I think, is perfectly summarized in this tweet quoted by a recent article in Wired Magazine:

@danyork said 'the popularity of microblogging shows us that we were missing a medium,'

Much has been written about what is obviously a major cultural phenomenon. It seems appropriate that the best explanation would fit in 140 characters. Like cellphones and the Internet itself, microblogging filled a void we didn't know existed. Sure, some people use the new medium to send spam, or to tell the whole world what they had for breakfast, while others never post anything, but just follow others. But a surprising number of talented, imaginative enthusiasts use it to do stuff with information that the rest of us didn't think possible, and I can't help but wonder: what's next?

The answer is likely to surprise me.

P.S. Is it a coincidence that Twitter was just hit with a patent lawsuit? As the saying goes, "...then they fight you...". And we all know how that ends.

Microblogging, the missing medium by Felix Pleșoianu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Exactly 9 days ago I started work on my next game. Various factors have conspired against me, so I have very little to show for it yet. (Click through to take a look.)

There isn't much to say at this point, except that the final game will be targeted at mobile phones. The Web version is for comfortable development and ease of getting feedback. A few remarks:

• Vector graphics in 2D games are a good idea; arbitrary zoom in a tile-based game, not so much.
• There is a lot of middle ground between pure retro gaming and modern 3D blockbusters.
• Making games can be more fun than playing them.

I'll keep posting updates from time to time, depending on the amount of interest there is for my little toy.

I'm feeling burnt out again. Moreover, I plan to start working on a larger videogame, and the newsletter is a constant distraction. To top the bad news, the recent streak of optimistic issues ends today. Don't despair, though. I have some ideas for staying in dialogue with you throughout the break, and other suggestions are welcome as well.

To get the worst out of the way, an American judge just defined a journalist as "someone connected to a legitimate news publication". Which, according to him, blogs aren't. Because, you know, somebody can have a monopoly on facts? Oh wait, that's exactly what European publishers are claiming. Hopefully, nobody will take them seriously. But what about the recent ruling by a court that if your website is accessible from Belgium, you must obey Belgian laws? Suuure. Why not the laws of every other country in the world, while we're at it? Including those that contradict one another? Or I could just make sure my site is not accessible from Belgium. Not my loss.

Luckily, European authorities show more intelligence than that. An EU Commissioner sets responsibilities straight with regard to piracy. And his colleagues are pointing their antitrust sights at pharmaceutical patents. Which is a good thing, as the patent craze has reached unimaginable heights. Look, no trying to bash Toyota specifically. I have a friend working there, it's a respectable company. If they didn't take such measures, others would do it to block them, and that is the crazy part. Waiting 20 years for every single invention to be available for the general public might have worked in the 20th century (heh). Nowadays things are moving too fast for this system to be acceptable.

But not everything is doom and gloom. From the other side of the copyfight barricade, we have a long, thoughtful article on Intellectual Property and Deflation of the Knowledge Economy, as well as the Pirate Bay's representative to the EU explaining his political platform. Then there's an American singer pointing out that his best-selling track on iTunes is the one available for free, and a British one debunking the myth of 21st-century business models, which supposedly only work for established artists. And what about these crazy writers and their funky experiment?

Just don't expect common sense to reach up to state level. As French Senate Adopts Revamped '3 Strikes' Anti-Piracy Bill, New Zealand revives their one year-old version of the same law. Guess one world-wide scandal wasn't enough to make it clear what people want (and will do). At least the RIAA appears to finally get it. As for the French, well, grab the popcorn. I hope they find Sarkozy's router first.

Last but not least, in the funky science department, we learn that BitTorrent is good for more than file-sharing and that our data is even easier to intercept than we thought. Still harboring illusions of security? Have a nice digital week... if you can.

P.S. During my leave of absence, the news that would normally go into the newsletter will show up on my Yahoo! Buzz page. I also intend to maintain my presence on Identi.ca. I could also try and post the most interesting news here, one by one, as they show up on the Web. What do you say?

Digital Week #33: the gap grows wider by Felix Pleşoianu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.