September 30, 2003
Howard Dean's Internet Initiative
06:52 UTC » Emergent Democracy - US Policy and Politics
The Dean campaign just announced Howard Dean's Internet Initiative.
I will be participating in the Net Advisory Net and I am in good company.
The Net Advisory NetI think the Dean campaign's involvement of the Internet could revolutionize the way politics and democracy work. I'm excited to be part of the team and am very interested in how this ties into emergent democracy. I'm also looking forward to taking what we learn and bringing it back to Japan.The Net Advisory Net will present to the Governor and his team diverse and highly-informed opinions concerning the Internet and its potential impact upon society. While many of the members support Dean, he is seeking advice, not endorsements, and the advisors do not necessary support the campaign. Learn more at http://www.deanforamerica.com/NAN.
The first NAN team will focus on how to bridge the "digital divide" by providing universal broadband access to the Internet. Initial members of the broadband committee include: Hal Abelson, Laura Breeden, DeWayne Hendricks, Joi Ito, Lawrence Lessig, Bob Lucky, David Reed, Richard Rowe and David Weinberger. Other working groups will be established to address the potential of e-government to increase our democracy, balancing the rights of artists and the public domain, protecting the privacy of customers and citizens, electronic voting, protecting children and vulnerable communities from Internet exploitation, and controlling spam without impeding the basic architecture of the Web. The goal of each working group will be to frame issues and hold conversations about public policies in order to prepare specific suggestions for the Governor to consider and proposals for addressing these issues in a Dean administration.
There is a less boastful and better post about this with a bunch of links on David Weinberger's blog.
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Mob Spots
06:22 UTC » Emergent Democracy - US Policy and Politics
Steven Johnson, the author of Emergence, (the book that inspired me to start thinking about Emergent Democracy) recently blogged about grassroots political ads created with desktop tools. He created a cool quicktime mock ad for the Clark campaign and later Sean created a version with music and voiceover. Steven created this with iPhoto and Keynote.
Very cool use of desktop technology and weblogs. I hope we see a lot more of this stuff. I particularly like the collaborative aspect. Steven, you should put a creative commons license on your ad. ;-)
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Can computers help reverse falling employment?
06:06 UTC » Economics - Software
Andy Oram just posted an interesting article on the O'Reilly Weblog.
This has sparked an interesting discussion over on Slashdot.Andy OramCan computers help reverse falling employment?
Information technologies are implicated in a worldwide and world-historic crisis: falling employment.
[...]
Each labor-saving device means the idling of thousands of people, wasting their years of experience, rigorous training, and practical insights.
[...]
Anyone who writes programs or plans system deployment should start thinking, "What can I do to bring average people back into the process of wealth creation?"
My personal opinion is that short term quarter-by-quarter capitalism can't possibly think long term enough to deal with many of the larger social issues. I don't think it's just about creating jobs. I think issues such as the environment, poverty, privacy, even computer architectures defy short term profits/gains thinking sometimes. I think it's a good idea for computer professionals to be socially responsible and think long term whenever possible. (See CPSR and EFF).
I think the idea of creating jobs directly by writing software for small businesses is a bit complex. I think that "good jobs" come from innovation and new industries. Many old industries such as the restaurant business are rather zero-sum. I think that increasing the public domain and the commons (spectrum, computer software, creative content...) is the best way to allow people to innovate and be entrepreneurial without being shackled in the well-funded proprietary world. I think that focusing on creating and sharing intellectual wealth in the commons is the best way to create jobs.
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September 29, 2003
Armed for further stealth disco with a DCR-IP7
 Browsing on my DCR-IP7 Video Camera through Hirata's Docomo PHS 663S via bluetooth |
I haven't used it yet to take video, but we were able to connect it via bluetooth to Hirata's PHS mobile phone and connect to the Net and browse the web. Very cool, but almost completely useless. ;-)
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September 28, 2003
Israel Reels at Pilots' Refusal to Go on Mission
15:50 UTC » Global Politics - Warblogging
I'm sure most of you have already seen this news, but 27 pilots including a brigadier general and two colonels, nine in active duty, signed a letter saying that the Israeli air strikes were "illegal and immoral" and that they refused to take part in such missions.
This is truly a significant issue. If upstanding members the Israeli military feel that the justification of the attacks on the Palestinians is weak, it's clear that the extremists who are pushing for the continued attacks are on fairly weak moral ground.ReutersIsrael Reels at Pilots' Refusal to Go on MissionAn F-15 pilot who signed the letter, identified only as Captain Alef, told Israel's Channel Two television: "If dropping a bomb on a seven-storey building only to find out 14 innocent civilians were killed, of them nine children and two women, if that is not an illegal order, then what is?" Israel drew international condemnation last year when 16 civilians died after an F-16 warplane dropped a one-ton bomb on a residential neighborhood in Gaza City to kill Salah Shehada, a top commander in the militant Islamic group Hamas.
This reminds me of the work that Peaceworks is doing to try to amplify the voice of the silent majority in Israel and Palestine who are against the continued conflict.
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Beyond Fear by Bruce Schneier
Just started reading Beyond Fear by Bruce Schneier. He write a lot about actual risks versus perceived risks.
This really illustrates how subjective people's feelings about risk are. Looking at and talking about risk statistically compared to how we mentally deal with risk is interesting. Media coverage of human rights issues based on the closeness of the culture to ours is similarly subjective. The fact is, mentally, the value of a life depends on the context. We are all very subjective. Acting like we aren't clouds the issues. Journalists who say they are impartial and politicians who represent "everyone" all run this risk. Bruce's book takes a very pragmatic approach to risk, trying to describe the actual quantifiable risks, but also describing all of the factors that are involved in the decisions about security methods to deal with those risk.Bruce Schneier - Beyond FearIn America, automobiles cause 40,000 deaths every year; that's the equivalent of a full 727 crashing every day and a half -- 225 total in a year. As a society, we effectively say that the risk of dying in a car crash is worth the benefits of driving around town. But if those same 40,000 people died each year in fiery 727 crashes instead of automobile accidents, you can be sure there would be significant changes in the air passenger systems. (I don't mean to harp on automobile deaths, but riding a car is the riskiest discretionary activity the majority of Americans regularly undertake.) Similarly, studies have shown that both drivers and passengers in SUVs are more likely to die in accidents than those in compact cars, yet one of the major selling points of SUVs is that the owner feels safer in one.
I'll post more about this book as I continue to read it. (I read slowly...)
PS It's interesting to note that traffic accidents account for about 10,000 deaths a year in Japan compared to 30,000+ deaths due to suicide. You're 3 times more likely to commit suicide than get in a deadly traffic accident in Japan.
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September 27, 2003
Nazi's on trampolines
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Off to Kyoto
05:33 UTC » Emergent Democracy - Joi's Diary
I'm off to Kyoto for the day to give a talk on Emergent Democracy. I think the audience is mostly professors and it's a 40 minute talk with 50 minutes of Q&A. Pretty long Q&A. It should be fun, but I'm sure I'm going to be ripped to shreds. ;-)
There are some other interesting speakers. If I have wireless access, I'll be on IRC and will try to post the interesting thoughts.
UPDATE: My wireless card works so I'm going to drop into IRC sometime between 0430 and 0510 GMT/UTC to give a demo...
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September 26, 2003
Strong quake hits northern Japan
I was blogging when this happened. The glass rattled a bit, but I guess we were pretty far away from the epicenter. I went up stairs just in case to wake up Mizuka.BBCStrong quake hits northern JapanA strong earthquake has struck the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, according to reports.
The quake, which hit at about 0450 local time on Friday (1940GMT Thursday), was also felt in central Hidaka and eastern Tokatsu, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, according to Kyodo news agency..
Tokyo is widely acknowledged to be overdue for another "big one" soon. Recently an astronomer reported that a quake of magnitude 7 was going to hit Tokyo soon. The last big quake in the Kanto region was in 1923 and killed more than 120,000 people. This was also the quake where the Japanese army spread rumors that the Koreans had poisoned the wells and hundreds of Koreans were lynched. (I've visited their graves.)
I definitely don't want to be in Tokyo for the next big one and I'm glad I'm moving to Chiba where there are fewer earthquakes and will be living in a house surrounded by bamboo forests which make ground splits quite difficult.
The other interesting thing to note is that Jason D's comment on my blog was what got me to get my face out of my blogging and realize that it was actually a bigger earthquake up north and not a small one here. It's funny that someone in LA is feeding me news about Japan on my blog. ;-)
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RIAA sues first, thinks later, no apologies
05:31 UTC » Intellectual Property - Music
Totally agreed. Now all of you who supported the RIAA suing the 12 year old girl, do you think it's cool for them to be suing people who haven't done anything?Seth GodinLiars, cheats and foolsThe record industry sued a "little old lady" named Sarah Ward. She's not that old, but she's little and she's not a pirate. She's never even downloaded the software you need to download the music. The RIAA has dropped the suit, but Amy Weiss, their spokesman, says, "We have chosen to give her the benefit of the doubt and are continuing to look into the facts... This is the only case of its kind."
Now, regardless of how you feel about litigation as a business strategy, refusing to apologize is just a bad idea. This is clearly NOT the only case of its kind. Instead of stonewalling, why doesn't the RIAA say, "This is terrific! She's an honest citizen and we're proud of her. We made a mistake and we apologize. We're sending Ms. Ward a hundred CDs to apologize for bothering her. If there are any other cases like this one, we'll drop them immediately."
Being sued isn't like, "oh sorry... wrong number.."
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September 25, 2003
SD2
Just Stealth Disco'ed my chairman, Jun. Gee this is addictive. 288K QT File
I must escalate to people outside of my company.
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RSS 2.0 Enclosures
07:14 UTC » Blogging about Blogging
RSS 2.0 has an interesting feature called enclosures. It basically lets you have a link in your RSS feed that points to a media file or something so that you can download it in advance so it plays without having to wait for it when you get to it. It's moving blogging to be more "push" than "pull", but that's a good thing for big files. It certainly fits my blogging/browsing style and makes a lot of sense in the context of RSS.
See Chris Lydon's special RSS feed for a very good example. Currently, PopHeadlines (.Net), Radio (Windows, Mac) and VOX Lite (Windows) support enclosures.
UPDATE: ChrisDodo on #joiito just mentioned a point that I'd missed. The bandwidth issues. I guess the aggregators are going to have to be smart and allow you to filter stuff so you don't end up with tons and tons of media files hogging your bandwidth.
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FCCster
06:37 UTC » Wireless and Mobile
FCCster is "A P2P tool for sharing FrequenCy Control fallacies."
They are trying to coordinate the development of pirate radio equipment to be interoperable. I'm not sure if this is necessarily the right approach to put pressure on the FCC and whether this is a "good thing." It is however pretty interesting and is probably as inevitable as music file sharing...FCCster Operational GoalsOperational Goals
-- Using completely public tools, promote interoperability within the additional data channels to be found in the most accessible Wi-Fi pirate bands
-- Convince the telecom finance industry that businesses dependent on new spectrum auctions and allocations can never again generate positive investment returns
-- FCCster will not promote or condone illegal radio use but believes that its short-term inevitability creates an inescapable social responsibility to promote realism, education, and reform
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September 24, 2003
Neal Stephenson launches a Wiki to explain his new novel
Neal Stephenson launches a Wiki to explain his new novel Quicksilver. Very cool.
via Boing Boing via Jeremy
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The Big Sync
07:16 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - IRC - Introspective
As I was taking a shower this morning I did a self-analysis of my morning process which seems to be standardizing for the moment.
I become aware around 2am and start getting the feeling that something important might be going on that I'm missing. I crawl out of bed between 3am-4am, turn on my computer, go make coffee, and sit down, still a bit groggy. I startup email and NewNewsWire. I scan my inbox quickly for any urgent business email and take care of that while NetNewsWire is getting my RSS feeds. Then I go to the folder containing email from MT and read my trackbacks and comments on my blog. I respond to anything urgent there. Then flip over to NetNewsWire and scan the Technorati feed of new inbounds to my blog and read most of them. I comment on people's blogs where I can. Then I startup iChat and MSN Messenger to see if anyone needs me urgently. Then I chat and go through as many of the 150 RSS feeds as I can. I have the feeds ordered in different folders based on the order I want to read them. I open anything I might want to blog about into browser windows as I go through the feeds. Then I open IRC and see if anything important is going on in that community. Then I multi-task email, blogging, chat and RSS feeds until it's time to take a shower and go to work. Inevitably I think of something to blog while I'm taking a shower and end up here... a bit late for work, but trying to get the blog entry out. (And this inevitably ends up in a poorly written entry.)
I used to use the post to blog feature on NetNewsWire, but I've switched entirely to Kung-Log and copy paste from browsers because this seems to give me more control and context.
It feels like a big sync every morning. Then throughout the day, emails to my cell phone, quick hits of IRC, iChat, email and RSS keep me syched. If the morning sync fails, I find myself unable to keep up during the day...
I'd be interested to hear the way other people manage their blogging. I've watched over Cory's shoulder once and THAT was amazing...
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Political idea virus
06:56 UTC » Cool Web Sites - US Policy and Politics
A fascinating experimentVery Seth. Very interesting. ;-)...in ideaviruses, permission marketing and cows.
Worth a look, regardless of your politics: whowillbeatbush.com
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Are U drunk?
06:09 UTC » Art - Cool Web Sites - Joi's Diary
Weird image that tricks your eyes and your mind...
On design media via Boris who just quit his job so he can blog on...
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September 23, 2003
Getting fired for blogging
04:59 UTC » Blogging about Blogging
Dan Gillmor blogs about another person losing their job for blogging. Every HR person should read Halley's A Blogger In Their Midst and every PR person should read the cluetrain manifesto and every editor should read Dan's book when it comes out. There is definitely a rift between the "gets" and the "get nots". Having said that, "getting it" is non-trivial and I think we're inventing it as we go along. A lot of people will probably lose their jobs and many others will find new ones as we push the envelope.
I just hope my employees don't sue me for being stealth disco'ed.
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Oh! THAT Josh!
04:22 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Introspective - Social Software
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September 22, 2003
Technorati getinfo
15:12 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - LOAF
Sifry has just added a new API call to Technorati called getinfo. It lets you get information that a blogger has made available about themselves on their blog like a link to their FOAF file, LOAF file or their GeoURL. The great thing about this is if you've claimed your blog, this is a verifiable way to link your Technorati ID with your blog. LOTS of amazing things this could enable... (There will be a quiz at the end.)
So... who's going to program jibot to retrieve people's Technorati info?
Here is how to get my getinfo http://api.technorati.com/getinfo?username=joichi
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My first Stealth Disco
I just did my first stealth disco. Uploaded the 116K QT file. I'm SD'ing Jim aka mmdc and the video was taken by Adriaan aka ado.
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I want a G5
I wish I had a G5 Mac... These guys have 1100...
Thanks Buridan!
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September 21, 2003
US Treasury Senior Special Agent thanks you for fixing Verisign SiteFinder "bug"
22:26 UTC » Network Technology - Technology Controversy
Andrew Fried, Senior Special Agent for the US Treasury Department posted this on the NANOG list regarding Verisign and the SiteFinder thing. Very cool that someone "patched" Bind to fix the "bug". Also very cool that someone like Andrew is speaking in his own voice in a public forum about this issue.Andrew FriedI have been following the various threads relating to Verisign and wanted to make one comment that I feel has been missing. Simply put, I would like to publicly express my appreciation to Mr. Vixie for taking the time to add the "root-delegation-only" patch for Bind. I'm fairly new to NANOG, but I'm sure that others beside myself also feel a thank you is appropriate.
Via Boing Boing Via This demands work
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Yoichi Funabashi
22:15 UTC » Japanese Policy - Japanese Politics - Joi's Diary
Right on Gen. Rock on Funabashi-san. I met Yoichi Funabashi back in May 2000. He was getting started on the "make English Japan's second language" thing, which I was obviously extremely supportive of. ;-)
Yoichi Funabashi's a smart, balanced guy we should listen to who can speak/write in English. We should get this man a blog...
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Atkins FUD from the British Government
22:04 UTC » Health and Medicine
The British Government warns that the Atkins diet is a bad thing.
'Cutting out starchy foods, or any food group, can be bad for your health because you could be missing out on a range of nutrients,' the statement says. 'This type of diet also tends to be unrealistic and dull, and not palatable enough to be tolerated for a long time.'"Could be missing out on"? "unrealistic and dull"? "Associated with obesity"? Doesn't sound very scientific to me. Bah. I don't have a copy of the official report but sounds like FUD.It adds: 'High-fat diets are also associated with obesity, which is increasing in the UK. People who are obese are more likely to develop conditions such as diabetes and some cancers. Low-carb diets tend to be high in fat, too, and eating a diet that is high in fat could increase your chances of developing coronary heart disease.'
Via BuzzMachine
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September 20, 2003
If I were Microsoft...
17:06 UTC » LOAF - Network Technology - Technology Controversy
If I were Microsoft I would probably like micro-content and metadata. IE and the browser wars were the pits for them. They should hate html by now. Microsoft also hates Google. Google hates metadata. Google likes scraping html, mixing it with their secret sauce and creating the all-mighty page ranking. Anything that detracts value from this rocket science or makes things complicated for Google or easy for other people is probably a bad thing for Google.
If the Net started to look more and more like XML based syndication and subscriptions with lots of links in the feeds to metadata and other namespaces, it would be more and more difficult to create page ranking out of plain old html.
My guess is that Microsoft knows this and intends to be there when it happens instead of totally missing it at the beginning like when the Internet got started. I have a feeling they will embrace a lot of the open standards that we are creating in the blog space now, but that they will add their usual garbage afterwards in the name spaces and metadata so that at the end of the day it all turns funky and Microsoft.
Just a thought...
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WITNESS - Human Rights Advocacy with Video and IT
11:29 UTC » Activism - Blogging about Blogging - Global Politics - Information and Media
At the joint Social Entrepreneurs and Global Leaders for Tomorrow meeting in Geneva, I met Gillian Caldwell. She is a film maker and an attorney and the Executive Director of WITNESS.
This is incredibly important work. They are causing a great deal of impact already, but I think blogs could help increase their ability to reach a broader audience. This is such a great reason to figure out video blogging.Witness Mission StatementWITNESS advances human rights advocacy through the use of video and communications technology. In partnership with more than 150 non-governmental organizations and human rights defenders in 50 countries, WITNESS strengthens grassroots movements for change by providing video technology and assisting its partners to use video as evidence before courts and the United Nations, as a tool for public education, and as a deterrent to further abuse. WITNESS also gives local groups a global voice by distributing their video to the media and on the Internet, and by helping to educate and activate an international audience around their causes.
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IEEE members: save democracy from a broken standards-committee!
10:38 UTC » Technology Controversy - US Policy and Politics
A very important message from Cory Doctorow about the broken process at the IEEE on electronic voting machine standardization. If you are an IEEE member or have influence at the IEEE you should read this.
Continue reading "IEEE members: save democracy from a broken standards-committee!"
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September 19, 2003
VeriSign sued for SiteFinder
12:04 UTC » Network Technology - Technology Controversy
I blogged earlier about SiteFinder and everyone agreed it was a "bad thing." VeriSign just got sued for it.ReutersVeriSign Sued Over Controversial Web Service
Thu September 18, 2003 09:13 PM ETSAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An Internet search company on Thursday filed a $100 million antitrust lawsuit against VeriSign Inc., accusing the Web address provider of hijacking misspelled and unassigned Web addresses with a service it launched this week.
Thanks for the link Peggy!
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Talk Like A Pirate Day
Ahoy! Happy Talk LIke A Pirate Day!
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September 18, 2003
Howard Dean campaign needs IT support
21:59 UTC » US Policy and Politics
They need a system administrator and a database administrator.Britt BlaserI'm writing from Dean campaign headquarters in Burlington, VT with an urgent appeal.The Howard Dean campaign is growing like a startup that's suddenly got hot. This IS a tech startup, and it needs 2 real pros yesterday.
I've attached descriptions from Harish Rao, IT Director.
If you know anyone qualified, or anyone who might find them, PLEASE contact Harish immediately. This campaign is at an inflection point. They may not pay much now, but there's a good chance it will turn into a VERY interesting 8 year gig.
If you know someone qualified, contact Harish
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September 17, 2003
Going home
I have 2 more meetings and I'm on my way back to Tokyo. It's been a hectic trip but a fun trip, but I'm glad to be headed home. In the last 2 weeks I've been to Geneva, Menorca, Barcelona, Boston, Wood Holes, New York, Detroit and San Francisco. I feel like a blog salesman. I remember walking through LaGuardia airport and not being able to remember what city I was in. It re