WIP (work in progress) reports for class

In this posting, Prof. Cooke asked her students to look around on the net and find what we think might be a good example of 'Good' & 'Bad' websites. Here's what I found:
Bad
Silvana's web on symbols. Why you wonder? My guess is she is still learning about her site. It seems unfinished. Her text runs outside the designated area. She has picked yellow lettering on white background and that's painful on the eyes. There is also annoying advertisement on the site that detracts to the mistier of her site.

Good
I won't say this one is good, yet it's simple and maybe something I would do. Hallmark Welsh Ponies. I could get around, I know what I was looking at, they had a pleasing and appropriate background. It didn't fit and it tiled and I now know what and how that happens. This is a site that I will try to emulate just because I understand the elements of simplicity.

What is the solution to the file-sharing issue?

Starting with why Public domains are never as desirable as Private ones. Public vs. Private, it has been a feud the rich will always triumph over; parks, homes, golf courses, clubs, schools, are all supposedly better when privately managed, at the least they are more expensive. Why is it that across the board private, controlled territories have more value? Is it the input – is it the quality? And if so, why is that? With anything educational, if it’s privately owned, and funded – it lends to a higher caliber. Its standards will be excellent; the rules will be strict and well-enforced. We have come to expect the nature of private controlled groups of power as worthy of our time and dedication. So, why don’t publicly owned and operated groups nearly capture the respect and regard for their output? Money! Coin my friends, capital, cash, dinero. Income must be generated - and at great levels. A collection of taxes can never, or has yet to, amount to the needs of all who preside in the public domain. Public service workers, though mostly dedicated, don’t get the big bucks to work for the people so, the problem will not be solved by them anytime soon.
I will not address the issue of power today, that 'human-failing' is big enough on its own. What I will discuss is, in most societies, respect walks with worth, always has, always will.

There is also a saying: “You get what you pay for.” Though it’s not really about receiving quality product for the dollar paid, where I'm coming from is about an appreciation and regard of the thing rendered. ~ It’s an attitude people!

My father paid me very-well for babysitting – at the time I didn’t know or care why. When it came time in my life for a good 10-speed, I had the money to pay for it. “You don’t expect me to use my money!” says I. “If you buy it yourself, you’ll appreciate it more,” says he. When something is free we tend to value it less. Its worth lacks a bit even though someone else paid greatly for it. You pay - the joy is yours. You own it.
I would like to see the day when we move away from actual paper currency altogether – it’s one of the two organized entities that breed greed and hypocrisy. (But we are far from that day right now.) I’ve always admired the philosophy in Gene Rodenberry’s world: - personal growth and achievement constituted the value in a person. The need for payment of labor was a fine idea, and necessary for markets and communities to grow and prosper.

Industries like the entertainment business are having a particular go-of-it. Music, beat-making, movies, gaming ideas, are all being ransacked out of millions in lost revenue. Dollars are not going back into the pockets of the artist who labored over their work. What is the solution for requiting costs of equipment, talent, energy and the time it took away from an artist’s life to create their work? Entertainment is a Business, and, the business mind runs over the playful artistic spirit with a coldly detached force; though both groups may be genius in their fields, with the very nature of each, the ruthless one lays obvious doom to the more free and flexible one. Yet one could not survive without the other. They are unmistakably symbiotic. Their relationship is beneficial in that – great organization is needed to harvest the benefits of great aesthetic works. The business end, shrewd and clever, leaves the art up to the artist to muse and inspire.
What we are currently lacking is a system that shares the credit and success. Goods and services are what I’ve been pondering in the above paragraphs. Having access to the use of a product as a resource, however, is a canyon of a gray area. Taking copyrighted material and reworking it as your own, adds still more complications to this new wrench-in-the-works called: P2P, (peer-to-peer) a popular and contagious file-sharing process. This is an activity that makes files from one computer available to other users on the Internet. The computer data is then shared with other networks. One way to ‘get a handle’ on what goes out and who’s involved, is to have different levels of access privileges to different clients. Hey, “New Rule!”
Free exchange of information and musical product is the philosophy of youth. Some say it’s all in the marketing – a direction I will always concur. (People weren’t starting fights over the shortage of new VW Bugs or PT Cruisers - that was some ad guy’s bright little campaign idea.)
As far as ideas for fixing the file-sharing piracy issue:

* Keep and demand superior quality. - Bootlegs are facts of life; they have their place but are far from running the world.

* Live and let live. - Follow the document. Compile the data. Create a company to keep the ‘other’ guy honest.

* If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. - It is said that this activity stimulated social interest in music, a positive action; this effect generates more, not less, fans.

* Encrypt the material; what ever happened to copy-guard?

* Sample Material: Former employers of mine would cut holes in apparel products, so associates would not take them home or profit from the retail they displayed.

My guess is a Private Company, ‘L&CFSA’ will legalize it, legitimize it, market it and sell it.
It will have amazing data collection software, a vast document library, high quality, friendly customer service and guaranteed satisfaction - all in an affordable little package.
There will always be a variety of both private and public institutions. It’s part of the balance. This too will work itself out, time will pass, and, the next phase of exciting problems will originate out of the ever evolving Internet.

Also, an interesting and informative blog spot on this topic: Shuman's.com

Social Responsibility used to be taught in church

On a simian note:
Without a face people, can be utterly rude. Without identity, they can be obnoxious and bold. The coward can be courageous. People can be by nature, more boorish when driving in their cars than say on the beach or at a crowded mall. Put the he's and she's behind car-horns and tinted windows and their mothers might wilt in shame at the very notion of the asinine behaviors their offspring have grown to own. Anonymity is a vast and illusive place to hide. There are no faces on line; accountability doesn’t have to be personally owned. These are the flaws of cyberspace. Compassion comes with close experience and physical interaction. We simian beings, however, haven't done such a good job face to face so, maybe I over emphasize the issue.
Perhaps we could have an open platform of “New Rules”. Not just Bill Maher’s but, everybody’s. We would contribute to these ‘New Rules’ as ongoing Internet Principles with which to abide, argue or defy.

And there they’d be for all to see.
And they would ebb and flow
and come and go
and grow.

I have no answers other than to say: ~ Social Responsibility! Yet depending on your social circle, your ‘tribe’ so changes your version on responsibility. The average ghetto kid, I guarantee you, has a different spin on what’s responsible. The Maori has a whole other set of priorities than the Kiwi does. And the Spammer has intentions of an entire other sort. But I think, deep inside, people have an able idea of how far one can push the envelope before damage is done.

So, play nice everybody. Take care and heed at least one rule, the Golden Rule:
"Treat others only in ways that you're willing to be treated in the same exact situation." We are fast becoming a global interacting community. It will be important that we grasp this simple awareness, and, apply it soon!
This may just be the divide from our simian self that we have so long been working towards.

New Rules

When the surf’s up, and, a wave is walling-up, there is never much time to think about it. Get the ride or get out of the way for somebody else to have a crack.
And like surfing or driving or any other mass transit operation (this evolving Internet entity) for that matter, there cannot be function and achievement without some basic ground rules. For living, some call them the Commandments. There’s also your basic Golden Rule. For SCUBA divers, it’s to: “Always, always, always, follow your bubbles.” There are simpler (common sense) ones too: Don’t piss into the wind or eat the yellow snow. All games, driving, flying and most supermarkets all have rules too.
So do all successful systems. Yet, who is going to decide about the 'Net' and how it's run? What will be the rules placed on the people of the truly Global Internet? Should it be the users that determine policy? Should it be the teachers? Should it be the inventors, programmers, corporate moguls? Who’s to choose how we interact and use this creature called World Wide Web? These are questions that are being discussed and answered as we speak. If you want a voice in this decision, you better speak up and speak soon. In the Lake Charles American Press last week there was an interesting short piece in: “Tech Bits” about Japan to research Internet replacement!
This article is in its entirety at the Washington post:

Is The Internet Organic?

To use the words ‘Tribe’ and ‘Internet’ in the same sentence never would have occurred to me even a year ago. And now it strikes me as an almost natural phenomenon.
In warming-up to an appreciation for ‘micro-content’ I’m seeing the picture change right before my eyes. It’s exciting to see, more than just outrageous behavior and self-absorbed megalomaniacs. With a positive side to the net, we as a species may in fact still have a chance. There’s real opportunity here, and, room for the balance of minds to collaborate and cohabitate in cyberspace. And the tribes man, "they are a formin'". ‘Like’ attracts ‘like’. Thank you too, the ‘filtering’ process. That has made the big difference in focusing information. It’s even fun; those with a specified interest can easily find similar thinking communities, even nations of people with paraelle persutes. There are groups out there that communicate for hours on end, relating solely through the keyboard and mouse, never meeting, yet they have this commonality, this event that connects their allied interests. It is tribal in the sense that social groups form and interact with scores of things, from a fundamental or multifaceted game to a thought, or opinion, or belief. These mind clusters move and shift, ebbing and flowing almost organically as the evolution of the Internet advances.
Distinguished by the Yin and Yang of minds, the gray area is what separates where you and I might fall.
So, where do you fit in all this techno progression my elevated friend? Where is your head? How do you interact on the Net, out in the epic web between craft and perversion?

Second Entry in Blog Phylosophy

How do overly restrictive controls cripple creativity?

The operative word in the former sentence is ‘overly’ restrictive. Can’t we just call some of them guidelines? ‘Them’ being the things that protect the creator and his original work. But then the argument could be, when the creation was original to begin with? Some say that everything has been re-done, re-told, re-formatted, and derived from the Greeks. Though the Internet is no by-product of anything, except maybe some great science fiction writers of the day. But they again probably commandeered it from some by-products of the Greeks.

Some governing is good. If it is done honestly, fairly, justly and for the good of the people it would be a good system. Then we argue what is good for some people is not good for another. Yet I’m not so sure we have done well so far. There will always been a ‘Human Factor’. As a species are we ready for self-governing. If it didn’t work well with a ‘human-factor’ at the helm what makes us think with no one at the helm but the ‘collective’ and the money makers that we’ll be fine now? And picture millions of ships at sea all sailing around without rules. It could get quite dangerous out there. All corrupt, greedful captains operating out there saying “My way or the highway.” The question still remains: “Are we ready to self govern? Can we handle the responsibility?”
Wise-up people! To read more about a Free Culture
to read more: by Lawrence Lessig: 'Free' Quotes

Blog sites and other interesting places to visit

The following sites are borrowed from the 'net. Browse and benefit: ...weird, outrageous, collaborative, curious, intriguing ... and other sites of interest:
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* Travis visited my blog in '06. I visited back and now share with you. BlankSlate

* Dln-D'Tours from the writers previous blog: DLN blog created 2006

* What is 43 Things?
43 Things is a place where you can write down your goals, get inspired by others, and share your own progress.

* ...and what's this about "Tiny Mice"? About TinyMCE Version: 2.0.9
TinyMCE is a platform independent web based Javascript HTML WYSIWYG editor control released as Open Source under LGPL by Moxiecode Systems AB.

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Posted 9/2

There is a battle forming out on the cyber horizon. We quietly surf the virtual ‘net unaware of the relentless conflict beneath the surface, those who need to own and control,
and, everybody else.
We, part of the ‘everybody’, who play and create, communicate and learn, and share, are at odds in our thinking with the owners of systems and monies that run a lot of it, and it probably won’t be a fair fight. So, about what will succeed? The many of us that practice and benefit by putting into action the boundlessness of the technological world just by clicking a mouse…artists, writers, poets, photographers, storytellers, NEED TO HEED! We all sail freely through this ocean of information. For the moment this is at no cost.
All internet users will be affected one way or another by how the ‘net is run and modeled in the near future. We could continue to enjoy our limitless resources found in the global web of mega-data, and pay no attention to the ‘Privet vs. Public Internet’ issue. We could also soon wake to a decision that has been made for us on how we are allowed to use and interact with the World Wide Web and all its occupants. The mere fact that this networking entity is global and approximately 1.4 billion people are ‘at once’ on line at any given time, this is not just a Washington argument.
In my class (EMP) Emerging Media Practices, we have been given a ‘heads-up’ on this crucial issue and the weight of these conflicting of philosophies is evident. The campaign for control is closer that we think. It’s here.
The task at hand for the next class was to find interesting ‘Weblogs’ on preferred topics of choice. Of course where my interests usually wonder is always: the rebel related issues, rooting for the underdog, defending the endangered species, backing-up all things free-thinking. I didn’t like it when they took away my public access to the beach. I’m mad that cable gives so little to Public Access Television compared to their profits in their pockets. And does anybody care that clever untold chunks are being bitten out of our treasured freedom everyday and it’s being blindly overlooked.

~ Proprietary vs. Open Source ~
There are places to visit on the net that give an education on this issue. Follow them. Click the links to get information, and, if you would pass one or two on to me, I’d be grateful.

VHS / Beta
Red or White
Lite / Regular
Dogs or cats
. . .