Michael Boyle's weblog
Security Systems Standards and Certification Act from Wired News’ Declan McCullagh: Hollywood Loves Hollings’ Bill.
“If this would go forward, it would be a huge gift for the fair-use community. It would be right up there with Sklyarov,” says Jaszi, talking about the outcry the DMCA prosecution of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov has caused. “It would be an amazing mobilizing tool.”
has given birth to his book, Design for Community! Huzzah! Huzzah!
I’ve never written a book, but I have had the experience of holding a book I helped produce (I co-designed, layed out, and helped edit) in my hot little hands when it first arrived from the publisher. I have had very few more satisfying feelings than that one – so I can just imagine how great Derek feels holding his book having written the thing!
All of which prompted an expensive day at Amazon yesterday. I bought DfC, Jeff Veen’s book, and the new-ish edition of Rheingold’s classic The Virtual Community, in which I believe my name is mentioned (among many others, a testament more to Howard’s supreme graciousness than to any contribution I may have made) in the Forward.
seeing all the riot cops last night, and about the (several) experiences I’ve had in my life of “riots” – plus the many more stories I’ve heard from friends and others in my circle. And – as I’ve felt for ages but not expressed in so many words – I have grave misgivings about the situation. Notwithstanding my past as a political theory student and very minor-league activist, I think I’m a bit of a poster boy for “non-radical” in most ways. I now work in Big Industry. I own things, I pay taxes. I enjoy considering a purchase of a new car for the first time in my life in a couple of months. Also – I live in a community, I try my best (and succeed to some extent) to contribute to my community and society in various ways. I have an ever-deepening commitment to urban living.
Time was when I was exactly who the cops were “serving and protecting”. When people like me were precisely who was enfranchised by our society to the exclusion of many, if not most, others. But now, for me, I don’t feel that included. I don’t think they represent me. I don’t feel that they in any way reflect my values or wishes as a citizen. And if they can’t even represent me – well, there’s a fundamental problem there. And, thinking back to Quebec City, it’s obvious that many, many people are in the same boat as I am. Poster kids for “doing pretty well” and completely nonplussed by the government and its institutions – indeed, convinced that they are actively undermining my values and those of my friends and community.
this weekend was that people learned that a hoax was perpetrated in the case a Kaycee Nicole, a young women who people thought had died of leukemia. It may still come out that there was some kernel of truth to the whole thing, but still – people who meant nothing but the best in such a (seemingly) sad situation were taken advantage of.
I don’t have much to add to the whole thing, since I didn’t really follow “Kaycee’s” blog at all. The only comment to make, perhaps, is that each new type of community on the web seems to have their very own betrayal/hoax experience. It might even be said to come with the turf. I’ve been involved in similar (roughly) situations in the past on old-school community sites – a couple of them. And from that experience, my only take-away was that in each case there were some who backed away from the communities at hand – and others deepened their links, consciously or not marking the hoax as an anomaly, and nothing to prompt total scepticism.
I hope something like that happens here. I do think there’s a broad community, of sorts, among people who keep weblogs, a certain amount of it focused on Matt’s excellent MetaFilter, where much of the present drama was played out.
Webby Award nominations. Others have said plenty about this, although for the record I think it’s perfectly appropriate for Fray to have been included in the community category. At the same time, I agree that it was a drastic oversight that MetaFilter wasn’t included. There are several other community sites that I would also have liked to have seen – and I find it interesting that no old guard VC sites were included. Last year’s winner (Cafe Utne) came from the old school.
