Category Archives: Society

Rocky Mountain News Closes

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While  inevitable, it is sad to see newspapers disappear.  The entire industry is in disarray and until someone somewhere finds a profitable economic model – the mood will be somber.  I work in a similar industry.  We have seen a decade of decline and have struggled to shift in to growing markets.  It is hard, and I know that the day will come when my company closes or is bought out.  The hard, cold reality is that no business can survive if it is not profitable.  Reporters will not volunteer their time (for long).  Printers will not donate paper and ink.  The barriers to entry in to the news industry have dropped so low that anyone can enter and publish online.  But while publishing costs have dropped precipitously, revenue has as well.

The staff of the paper did a great job publishing this video:


Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

E-Mail is not the Problem

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E-mail is top of mind for many people now.  The New York Times and other mainstream media sites have jumped on the bandwagon bemoaning the flood of e-mails burying us all.

“It is a poor craftsman who blames his tool” – or so it’s been said.  With so many of us abusing the same tool you’d think we would have figured it out by now.  But it’s not just tool abuse that is burying us.  We need some new disciplines– and at least one new tool.

Disciplines

The cure to our collective problem starts with each of us.  Just because we can send an e-mail doesn’t mean we should.  Spam not withstanding, we each are inflecting a small wound on each other when we send an e-mail that does not accomplish a purpose.  Be purposeful in what you say.  Be purposeful in what you send.  Are you informing/influencing, entertaining or collaborating?

Informing/Influencing:  Who needs to know?  If everyone needs to know then e-mail is not the right answer.  Post it on a web site, or a bathroom wall.  Whatever works.  How do you know who needs to know?  That’s a post in itself, but until then give some critical thought to each person you copy on each e-mail.

Entertaining:  Please don’t.  The world is full of people sending humorous and inspirational messages.  You can not improve the world order one bit by forwarding the latest collection of jokes.  Believe me – someone already beat you to the punch.

Collaborating:  This is our greatest opportunity for improvement.  There is a genuine need in this space – but we have not decided to use the right tool.  In my role, work is measured in issues, risks and action items.  None of these units of work are best accomplished through e-mail.  A group collaborating on an issue should have a central discussion – open to all stakeholders – of the decision criteria.  Risks likewise should have consequences, likelihood and other characteristics described in one place.  Finally, action items are done, being worked, or not really in action.  Communicate status – done or not done – and any associated issues and risks.  Do it in one place.

GTD advocates (and I’m one) describe a discipline for (mostly) reacting to what the world throws at you.  We need just a little more scaffolding around what we should do when communicating with others.  If enough of the GTD’ers take up the cause, the volume of non-UBE (ham) will be reduced.

Tool

We have the tools in front of us.  Any of the threaded discussion boards meet the need.  The biggest problem with these kinds of tools is they are either too public – or too unstructured.  Imagine a hybrid tool which documents community understanding once – in a central place.  All we need is some enterprising individual to take a basic discussion board and add some ‘smarts’ so that leaders (anyone who has an issue, task or risk) can pin an item to the board and others can link items and add depth.  Now add a nicer user interface and I think you’ll have a winning enterprise application.

Swedish video on Linux

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I have arrived a little late on the open source scene so I tend to take things for granted. The expression “free as in beer” has always struck me as odd.

Based on tests I’ve taken, I am a libertarian politically. The Open Source movement is really a Socialist movement based on the comments shared in this video. It’s interesting that something this liberal could have such far reaching implications on the world economy. I mean really, where would we all be without Linux, WordPress, and all of the other GNU licensed packages in the world?

Those of you who are English speaking will have trouble at times, but this background video on Linux produced in Sweden provides a really interesting background on the Linux movement.

Bulverism

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Anyone who has spent enough time in public positions sooner or later encounters people hostile to your cause. I’ve served in countless volunteer positions through the years and am constantly surprised when I encounter people who have assumed that some self serving or malicious intent sits behind the organization I direct. The fact of the matter is, we are all conditioned to see the worst in organizations (and individuals for that matter).

It’s hard when you work in a volunteer organization and need to recruit people to fill roles. Overcoming this ‘assumed bias/baggage’ can be challenging. I’ve learned through the years that people will judge actions (not words) but that not all of our actions are visible to others. If you don’t see it happen, it didn’t.

The worst case scenario is when you have to overcome another’s assumption that you are serving some nefarious purpose. I’m guilty without having done anything. My position in the past was to plead my case and try to influence others to believe the best of me. That simply doesn’t work. You have to demonstrate good intentions and avoid the debating your own character. Character can not be proven with words – only deeds.

I was pleased learn that there was a word for this.C.S. Lewis coined the term Bulverism in 1941. In his words:

assume without discussion that he is wrong and then distract his attention from this (the only real issue) by busily explaining how he became to be so silly.

It’s hard to casually use the word. It is hardly a common label, but being able to put a label on it helps me to overcome the challenge.

Eminent Domain

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On my drive home this evening I listened to the Sean Hannity radio program. He was interviewing a set of residents of Niagra, New York. They are contesting the state as it evicts them from their home. The state is invoking eminent domain. It is supporting the local Indian tribe as it seeks to build on its local casino. Approximately 50 acres are targeted.

The Indians have no right of eminent domain, so they have enlisted the assistance of the state to evict local residence who stand in the way of their plans. Due process, as the residents to be evicted describe it, is constituted of a single letter in 2003 notifying them of the Seneca Indian’s intentions. No other subsequent communication has been attempted.

The state and local municipality split 25% of the casino’s slot revenue. What’s disturbing to me is that unless you live in the region – this has not been newsworthy until today.
References:

  1. Buffalo Pundit
  2. Niagra Falls Reporter
  3. Lexis-Nexis

Extraterritorial Jurisdiction

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The 9th Circuit Court overturns a lower court ruling, via Computerworld.

Susan Crawford, a law professor who teaches a course on cyberlaw at Cardozo School of Law in New York, labeled the decision a “missed opportunity” to decide whether “it is appropriate for one country to assert extraterritorial jurisdiction over [Web] servers located in another country.”

Principles Collide

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Amazon.com provides readers with the ability to review books. What happens when the community reviewing a book despises the author? Where does freedom of speech end and harassment start?

Jack Thompson has made a name for himself pursuing what he sees as purveyors of smut. His new book Out of Harms Way is being absolutely roasted on Amazon. Is Jack a victim? If his book was worth the read I’m certain someone would step forward and write positive reviews. I’m seeing one positive review for every 10 negative ones.

He’s probably had his 15 minutes of fame. Unfortunately, Jack somehow is attempting to hold Amazon responsible for not enforcing their terms of service. My advice to Amazon would be to pull the listing and not sell Jack’s book. I doubt the company would miss much revenue.

As a side note, the Jack Thompson critics probably cross the line when they put del.icio.us tags on his book pointing to unsavory terms. It’s like buying advertising for the book on xxx sites.

Self Policing Synthetic Biologists

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Concerned that “biohackers” would wreck havoc, researchers are looking for ways to police the bio engineering field. The idea quoted in this MSNBC article entitled “Researchers creating life from scratch” by Paul Elias(AP) is to have the industry police itself.

One solution could be to require the few companies that sell genetic material to register with some official entity and report biologists who order DNA strains with weapons potential.

Now I am all in favor of the government staying out of many industries. I believe the government’s presence in many industries is so pervasive that it warps competition. Well, this is one industry where I would rather see a heavy hand then a light one. You can screw up in the accounting industry and not wipe out the human race. Mess up here and you don’t get a second chance.

For those of you interested in digging deeper, I would start with the Biohacker web site. This is really a fascinating field – I’m just concerned that we are counting on everyone involved being a fully functioning human being with a solid understanding of the consequences of his or her own actions. Derya and Vineet indicate

By mid-90s we realized that the biological systems were following an exponential advance similar to computer systems, which double in power approximately every 18 months termed the Moore’s law. It was then not difficult to extrapolated the exponential pace of biological technologies to near future where whole genomes could be sequenced or synthesized in single days, hours and eventually in seconds. This amazing technological advance meant that future biohackers could manipulate the biocode as hackers today write, decode and tinker with computer code.

A most fascinating subject but very troubling.