I Believe In The Internet - The Content Industry Doesn't
I am sympathetic to the content industries struggles with piracy, but my belief system tells me the answer is to capitalize on the great strengths of the Internet to create a healthy and profitable relationship with their users not to sue them.
Seeing technological changes as an opportunity to “create a healthy and profitable relationship with users” is what it’s all about. Internet companies that deal in content (O’Reilly, Amazon) are proving this out. It’s possible to do, and it’s interesting and exciting to figure out.
Rather than protect outdated business models, we need to encourage the creative discovery of new ones.
Source: bradburnham
The important tests of whether or not a regulation is fit for a purpose are first whether it will work, and second whether or not it will, in the course of doing its work, have effects on everything else. If I wanted Congress, Parliament, or the E.U. to regulate a wheel, it’s unlikely I’d succeed. If I turned up, pointed out that bank robbers always make their escape on wheeled vehicles, and asked, “Can’t we do something about this?”, the answer would be “No”. This is because we don’t know how to make a wheel that is still generally useful for legitimate wheel applications, but useless to bad guys. We can all see that the general benefits of wheels are so profound that we’d be foolish to risk changing them in a foolish errand to stop bank robberies. Even if there were an epidemic of bank robberies—even if society were on the verge of collapse thanks to bank robberies—no-one would think that wheels were the right place to start solving our problems.
Source: Boing Boing
Steve Spiker: New Year's Focus
So screw it, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to segment my thoughts on landscape photography, consumer tech, government tech, open government, democracy, opendata, geospatial, community engagement, social science research, community development, statistics, social justice movements and community development, public service, leadership, hip-hop and faith. No more hours trying to think of cool domain names for each segment of my life, this is me. Like you I’m something of a mess, but I have a lot of fun being this way.
Love it! There is something about the new year that brings out the best in us.
Source: stevespiker
The biggest problem is there aren’t that many good programmers in the world,” says co-founder Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock, “We see programming as a craft and we see Hacker School as environment were people can flourish.
SV Angel And Founder Collective Give Hackruiter $200K For Its Hacker School | TechCrunch
I am so happy to see that Hackruiter is growing and continuing to see success. I worked with both Nick and Sonali for several years at OpenPlans, and have been watching HireHive, and now Hackruiter’s progress since.
These guys are as smart as they come, and I really like the way they’re growing their business (Hackruiter) and the related programs (Linked List NYC, Braindump, and now Hacker School). All of their stuff definitely has (much more than) Minimum Viable Personality, and that’s perhaps the thing I like the most about it.
Re: Hacker School - somewhere in here is a lesson about the future of education. Students pay no tuition, but it’s a competitive process, and it’s all financed by placement fees upon their exit of the program. Maybe this only works in tech, but it’s still clever.
Congrats guys, and keep up the good work!
Source: TechCrunch
New
I love new years. It is my favorite holiday, by far. Nothing like an agreed upon fresh start — an opportunity to tidy up the office, the inbox (I am proud to say I am at Inbox zero — personal email not work, so not that big an accomplishment — right now), and the mind.
Ok, now that I’ve written that, I see that I started my 2011 new years post with almost the exact same line. But it’s true: there is something really powerful about milestones — and I’ve written about this before — that helps make life more manageable and gives things more meaning. It’s the reason I prefer living in the East and not the west (seasons). It’s part of what makes the Code for America fellowship program (as well as schools and other fellowship-type programs) hum. Milestones create a rhythm. I wish there were more — maybe I’ll try and create some new ones, or start celebrating the quarters more deliberately.
Anyway, for 2012, I’m going to keep the resolutions short and simple.
* Think out loud (i.e., write more in public). This is a constant refrain for me, and was on my 2011 list. I did OK in 2011, with some pickup towards the end of the year. Watch this blog, plus my more tumblr-ish tumblelog, The Slow Hunch.
* Be prepared. I’m somewhat of an Urgency Addict — I don’t expect to change completely, but I think there are a handful of things I can do to improve. Likely to do with a tenacious focus on doing the most important thing, perhaps w/ a dash of building a more regular rhythm to things. This is also not a new resolution, more of an ongoing personal project.
Oh, and I’m going to brush up my coding skills at CodeYear. That is sweet.
So, see you later 2011. You were pretty cool. Howdy 2012, let’s get friendly.
Making the darkest day of the year a little brighter, Make Music NY (Winter) decided to hold a series of musical parades on December 21st. One of the events was Thru-Line from James Holt, MATA & The Knights, which took place on the NYC MTA’s subway F line. From 7 to 8 pm, you could hear J.S. Bach performed on every one of its 44 Coney Island Bound subway platforms. (via Streetfilms | Happy Winter Solstice 2011: Make Music NY Comes to the F-Line)
Source: streetfilms.org
This is a truly interesting and hopeful development. Who would have though the Internet was good for more then porn.
Amazing
Look, I’m a middle class white guy on deadline at a big-time magazine, with no idea of the hornet’s nest I’m about to step into — I’m just trying to be nice and give some advice to some poor poor Black kids. I’m doing the right thing. I’m not even aware that the very gesture and the breezyness of my discussion is insulting because I’m wrapped up in a cocoon of white privilege that blinds me to the realities of being a poor Black kid, so I’m not even aware of how difficult it is to be a poor Black kid because my life has never been anywhere near as difficult. Thank God for that.
Touré on Gene Marks’s If I Were A Poor Black Kid | TIME Ideas | TIME.com
Spot-on response to a ridiculous article in Forbes this week.
Source: TIME
Check out the MulchFest 2012 Foursquare list from the NYC Parks and Recreation Department to find out where you can bring your holiday tree to be recycled into mulch that will nourish plants across NYC.
Learn more:
This is an example of making consumer apps more civic (http://civiccommons.tumblr.com/post/13768675539/what-if-we-were-to-focus-less-on-building-more)
Source: nycdigital
Today, we’re pleased to announce that with the support of Google, Code for America will be growing quite a bit in 2012. The charitable giving team at Google is granting Code for America $1.5M to help us do more with the fellowship, and pilot two new programs designed to help government work better with the people and the power of the web.
You cannot simply flood the market with broccoli and hope that people stop eating french fries.
Source: informationdiet.com
Something to aspire to
Today I spent some time with Brad Burnham from Union Square Ventures. Among other things, we were talking about what’s going on at Code for America and Civic Commons, as well as the latest in the fight to save the Internet.
Separately, during the day today, the USV team was interviewing candidates for their new associate position. It’s sweet job, by pretty much any standard, and apparently they’ve gotten an overwhelming number of amazing candidates. Brad described some of the accomplishments and capabilities of a few of them (details withheld to protect the innocent), and also noted that many of them are still in college. Suffice to say, these folks are really young and really awesome.
So I asked him if he sometimes looks at these applicants and remarks to himself how incredibly accomplished and talented they are, especially in comparison to how he was at that same age. His response was absolutely yes, and that he would have never be able to get this job himself.
That’s kind of an amazing thing to say, and I think it’s something to aspire to. To one day be able to hire for positions you’d never have been able to get yourself.
Of course, people are often in the position of hiring for different skills than their own, but what I mean is to be able to attract such a high calibre of person that the past you would never have been able to compete. That’s a pretty great measure of success.
FWIW, I’ve hired bunch of really great people at OpenPlans who are way smarter than I am, and have always been so amazed and grateful to be able to do that. It’s probably the thing I’m actually most proud of from my years there.
(note, when trying to find the link to the USV job description for this post, this happened)
Remix culture is the new Prohibition, with massive media companies as the lone voices calling for temperance. You can criminalize commonplace activities from law-abiding people, but eventually, something has to give.
- Andy Baio, No Copyright Intended
Give to Code for America
I’ve been an advisor for a great civic fellowship program called Code for America for the past year. CfA matches talented developers, designers, community managers, and project leads with municipal governments that struggle to keep up with the Internet. It’s like Teach for America for geeks. In this season of giving I’d appreciate it if you would make a tax-deductible contribution to our program. Thank You.
Well put, Kevin.
Source: fundly.com
