October 31, 2003
Where Boing Boing is
11:14 UTC » Blogging about Blogging
Cory DoctorowBoing Boing has been down for a couple of days. We're having server problems and working on them -- I hope to be up in a day or so again, but it's exacerbated by my crazy travel schedule.Please direct your friends to this note, and ask for their forebearance in sending email asking what's up with Boing Boing. I'm getting several hundred of these a day, and it's gotten so that answering those messages is actively interfering with my efforts to reestablish service.
In the meantime, we're still blogging, and the mailblog still works:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boingboing-mailblog/
Thanks
Cory
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October 30, 2003
Disney Sea photos
Just posted some photos from Disney Sea.
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Following crowds
15:51 UTC » Introspective - Social Software - Venture Capital
Spent part of the day at Disney Sea with Mizuka for her birthday. There were lots of lines and lots of crowds. When we encountered crowds I realized that my behavior was a bit different than most of the people, but obviously not unique. I would avoid crowds and try to go in the opposite direction of crowds. If I noticed I was near the front of a crowd or ahead of a crowd, I would accelerate and try to stay ahead. Otherwise I would change course or go the other direction. If there were lines, I would choose the shortest one.
I saw some people doing exactly the opposite. Even though there were ticket windows open, they would go to where people were lined up. If there was a crowd, it often attracted more people. Even if people were ahead of the pack, they walked slowly and were engulfed by the crowd.
I think investing and business development is a bit like a theme park where new rides are opening and various things changing, with the crowds rushing from one area to another. I think you should focus on trying to find cool things to do in less crowded spaces. Don't be worried because there's no one there yet. You should try to stay ahead of the crowd if the crowd is headed in the same direction. If you see the crowd coming your way, get your business done quickly.
The social software space is starting to feel a bit crowded. ;-) I think we're still near the head of the crowd, but pretty soon it's going to feel like a crowded Disneyland ride I think... This doesn't mean I'm going to start running in the opposite direction, but there are lots of things we need to do before the follow-the-pack'ers all arrive.
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October 29, 2003
Let's stop picking on journalists who don't blog
14:16 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism
Although Joseph Urbaszewski's blog shows a blogger beating the mass media, I think we should stop picking on professional traditional journalists. I think that if journalists need help from their editors to write, (in the case of Japan) want life-time employment, need someone to protect them in court, need paper boys to reach their readers and need a brand to provide legitimacy, I think they should be allowed to do this. I think it's mean to pick on them too much...
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Joseph Urbaszewski's blog coverage Lake Arrowhead fire
12:46 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism
Joseph Urbaszewski, a teacher who lives near the fire is blogging about the fire and has become a clearinghouse of information. It appears to be more up-to-date than the mass media.
There is also a live scanner feed where you can listen to the overworked, heroic firemen fighting the fire.
Thanks for the info and links Kevin, and hope you are safe.Kevin Barronheard on the scanner -- "some people are refusing to leave
their homes despite mandatory evacuation"response from the base station? "get their name, date of
birth, and the phone number of their dentist"!!
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Copy protection and copyright robs the future
08:40 UTC » Intellectual Property
 Don't mind the bots with $ sign heads behind Mickey and Minnie please |
In May, I blogged about Brewster testifying about why the DMCA is preventing him from breaking copy protection on old software which he wants to archive. I think this is an important issue. Old films are decaying in the cans, books are decaying. Current copyright law combined with the DMCA prevent archivists from preserving most of the content created in any form. Mickey lives on in Disneyland at the expense of the wilting commons.
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Freenode
IRC, or more specifically, the #joiito channel on the Freenode network has become a very important part of my life. I use it during conferences, meetings, when I'm thinking, when I'm trying to find some information... It's become one of my main modes of keeping in touch with people. What I sometimes forget, and what most people don't even realize is that Freenode is actually not "free". It's run by real people who fight denial of service attacks, set up servers and keep this incredible network running. There are many IRC networks, but Freenode is the one we use.
I've tried to promote Freenode by mentioning it in interviews I've done recently, but "chatting on #joiito on Freenode", usually gets abbreviated to "chat". ;-)
So this is an official request and a plug for Freenode. Freenode is a service of Peer-Directed Projects Center, an IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation. If you've benefitted from Freenode at a conference, at home or have started hanging out on #joiito, think about donating some money to the organization that keeps this going. Lilo, the director of Freenode is too humble/proud to ask for money on the channel, but I'm going to do it here.
I am not involved in running Freenode and obviously since it is a non-profit, I have no financial interest in Freenode
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October 28, 2003
Pet Rock Star's back and "Your Own Dot Org" is up
08:43 UTC » Creative Commons - Music
Shannon's just blogged about a song that I asked her to write for Ben and Mena for their birthdays. (In case you've ever wondered, the reason their company is called Six Apart is because they're birthdays are six days apart...) Shannon went above and beyond the call of duty and did a most amazing job. In order to get the humor/wit balance just right, she read everything Ben and Mena had ever blogged and probably knows more about them now than even the most dedicated stalker.
She ended up with a song called "Your Own Dot Org." I love it. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0 deed of course.
Thanks again for this great work and welcome back, wherever you've been Shannon. Your new site looks great. Now come and hang out with us again on #joiito. ;-)
Lyrics follow.
Continue reading "Pet Rock Star's back and "Your Own Dot Org" is up"
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October 27, 2003
Gary Wolf on the Internet side of the Dean campaign for Wired
17:48 UTC » Emergent Democracy - Media and Journalism - US Policy and Politics
I had a really interesting IM chat with Gary this morning. He's writing an article for Wired about the Internet side of the Dean campaign. He's blogging about it as well. Very cool. It looks like he's having a lot of interesting conversations. A must read blog entry, which will probably lead to a great article. Like Dan Gillmor and Jeff Jarvis, he is another journalists who seems to understand the value of blogging. And... free fact checking. ;-)
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October 26, 2003
Weird dream about standards
07:46 UTC » Introspective - LOAF - Technology Controversy
I had a weird dream last night. I had a dream that I was spinning records and I had a little chart. On one axis was the record label and on the other was the record player. When ever I played a record, I had to check the label and cross it with the record player to know what the right speed setting for the record was. In real life, I remember being annoyed when records didn't have 45 rpm or 33 rpm on their labels when I was a DJ.
Anyway, a few observations. I'm totally losing it because I remember thinking in the dream, "oh, I should blog this..." Which, I think, is a bad sign. This dream was probably partially triggered by my discussion with James Seng yesterday about identifier standards (which I will blog about later when I understand exactly what we talked about) and partially triggered by thoughts about CSS incompatibilities when trying to redesign my blog. (Which luckily Boris is handling for me right now.) The little chart I had in the dream reminded me of the CSS/browser support charts in the O'Reilly CSS Pocket Reference.
Anyway, isn't it great when we have standards that work and really ugly when we have bad standards or no standards at all? I'm not trying to take a political stand here, just observing and paying homage the the necessity of good standards.
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October 25, 2003
Photo with John C. Lilly
06:43 UTC » Joi's Diary - Search
When I mentioned on my post about ego-surfing Amazon that I wished I could see more context around where my name showed up in the books, Andy Baio pointed out in the comments that you could click on the page number and see the actual page. (Although RIO points out later that Amazon needs your credit card number before they let you do that.)
Anyway, I was looking at the various pages and found this picture taken by Philip Bailey of John C. Lilly with Barbara Lilly, Kazuo and me in The Scientist: A Metaphysical Autobiography by John Lilly. I'm sporting Anarchic Adjustment threads which were hip at the time and I was helping to distribute in Japan. If I remember correctly, they were having a conference about John C. Lilly's work in Tokyo. I remember lots of academics talking on and on about John Lilly and his work. When John was asked to make a comment at the end, he said, "you all know much more about me than I can remember so I don't have much to add. My forgetery is much bigger than my memory." I remember thinking that was very funny. John Lilly was a very smart and very funny man. I miss him.
It's kind of strange thinking about the path that this photo has taken. I remember Philip taking it, I think I remember seeing a print. Then it got published, printed, scanned, searched, downloaded and now blogged. I assume the copyright holder is Philip Bailey and I assume he doesn't mind me posting this.
PS: Philip, I can't seem to find your email address or your web page. If you see this, can you email me?
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October 24, 2003
Verisign's Doomsday Machine
15:08 UTC » Network Technology - Technology Controversy
Lauren Weinstein has a great mp3 Fact Squad Radio rant on the Versign Site Finder issue.
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What's New in Panther by Mark Pilgrim
Mark Pilgrim just posted a tour of Panther, the new Mac OS X release. I'm supposed to be getting in the office today so I'll be spending the weekend doing a fresh install and reading Mark's guide.
Update: Since Panther shipped today for many people, it appears that Mark's site is receiving a self-inflicted denial-of-service attack...
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Ego-surfing on Amazon search inside the book
13:01 UTC » Books - Joi's Diary - Search
You've all probably read by now, but Amazon has added a feature that allows you to search the full text of over 120,000 books. Totally amazing. Now tell the truth everyone (so I don't look totally vain), how many of you have ego-surfed Amazon already? I searched for "joichi ito" and "joi ito". I got 8 results for "joichi ito" and 1 for "joi ito". The weird thing is that other than Timothy Leary's book and John C. Lilly's book, I have never heard of any of the other books. Also, the few books that I do know I'm mentioned in did now show up. I wonder if they are scanning books that don't sell well first. ;-) I DID find out that I have the honor of being in a "For Dummies" book.
How can I NOT buy this book to find out what they said about me. Ack!Excerpt from page 170 of Digital Aboriginal. . . voice to the radicals. Japanese information pioneer and digital artist Joichi Ito tells a great story about the CIA." An operative told . . .
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Google considers online IPO auction
07:55 UTC » Business and the Economy - Search - Venture Capital
Holy cow. Does anyone have any more information on this?The Financial TimesGoogle considers online IPO auctionBy Richard Waters in San Francisco
Google is considering holding a massive online auction of shares early next year in an initial public offering that investment bankers predict could value the internet search-engine company at more than $15bn.
I wonder if it's going to be a Dutch Auction IPO?
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Welcome back Pete... We missed you
Welcome back Pete... We missed you.
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New Japanese book on blogging
A new Japanese book on blogging is about to come out called "Bloggers! Vol. 1" which you can pre-order on Amazon.co.jp. The action heros on the cover, especially the guy with the poopie thing on his head, are a bit weird, but the authors and the publisher, Shoeisha are reputable in Japan. (I hope the yellow guy with the poopie mark isn't supposed to be me...) I haven't seen the actual book yet, but I'll get a few extra copies to bring to ETech. ;-) There's a dialog between Howard Rheingold and me (I had totally forgotten about this. It was a taped dinner conversation...) , and an interview with "the developers of Movable Type". It looks like there's an article about Blosxom as well.
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I've been redirected by Google
I just did a search on "Joi Ito" and got this as the first link. In fact, all the links on the page had a redirection component in the result links. Normally, Google gives the link to the website directly. Looks like they may now be starting to track clickthroughs. I repeated the search on a few other keywords, and I didn't find it again, so I guess it is one of those Google experiments.Hey! Stop that!
Reading the comments on Rajesh's blog, it appears that Google does this regularly. I hope it's not personal, and I hope it doesn't have anything to do with Homeland Security. ;-p
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Difficult choices for American youths
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October 23, 2003
Governor Domoto's visit
16:20 UTC » Japanese Culture - Joi's Diary
 Governor Domoto greeting some of my neighbors |
Domoto-san loved the house. She explored every little bit and said it was perfect. The neighbors explained that they had all contributed their best pine trees to the house and that the house was very important to the community. I promised everyone that we would fix the place up (No one has lived here for over a year and it needs a lot of work.), and I promised to invite Domoto-san back when we have it all done. Pressure... Pressure...
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Broadcast Flag Bad
11:11 UTC » Consumer Electronics - Intellectual Property - Network Technology - Technology Controversy - US Policy and Politics
Cory and the EFF have been leading the charge to stop the broadcast flag proposal. Lessig chimes in. The broadcast flag is a bad thing which is anti-end-to-end. Fight for the Stupid Network!
If this entry is cryptic to you, you need to learn more about the broadcast flag and why it is bad. Click on the links.
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Rubbing shoulders with Timothy Leary
The piece says he rubs shoulders with Timothy Leary . Ooops. Did I read that correctly? Leary died in 1996 and if he's rubbing shoulders at all it's with the fishes.Actually, Tim lives on in cyberspace and I rub shoulders with him there. ;-)
UPDATE: Metroactive article about Tim living on in cyberspace. Thanks for the link Bill!
PS: Special thanks to Chris and everyone at leary.com for keeping Tim and his site alive.
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October 22, 2003
i'm a node
Wired just ran an article casting me as "The Tokyo Node". Clay is "The Tech Node" and Linda Stone is "The Valley Node". I'd say that's pretty good company. It says we secretly run the world. It's not true. Really.
A few clarifications... I didn't "head" the "Blueprint for Japan 2020" this year but was just a rather big node in a team and I wouldn't call Creative Commons a "digital archive and copyleft think tank". Also, it was Tony Kobayashi who took me to the Trilateral Commission Annual Meeting to repeat my Davos Japan dinner rant later that year although Idei-san invited me to the Sony Open Forum to rant on.
Anyway... details details... Thanks for the nice write-up Jeff.
UPDATE: I was first mentioned in Wired in an article in Wired 1.03 about MUDs in 1993 by Howard Rheingold.
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Arnold goes "Chichin Pwee Pwee"
14:01 UTC » Humor - Japanese Culture - US Policy and Politics
The entry on Bopuc's blog about Japander.com reminded me of my blog entry about my favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger commercials in Japan for energy drinks. This is also relevant to the entry about Lost in Translation since Bill Murray's role is probably what Arnold had to go through. Anyway, definitely worth a look if you haven't seen these commercials already. They're great.
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The dialog about Beate's treatment in Atlanta continues
10:02 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - US Policy and Politics
My original blog entry about Trevor's fiance Beate's treatment when trying to enter the US is starting to sink into my archives, but the dialog continues. Both Beate and Tervor have commented. Trevor's brother Dan has a blog. Dan Gillmor's blog and the British Expats blog also have extensive comments.
Both in my blog and Dan Gillmor's blog, people have made sort of insensitive comments about the couple before the couple commented. Important lesson: People you think about in third person can read blogs and have a voice. "They" are real people. I think it's great that we're able to have such an open dialog about stuff like this with the people who were actually involved. I know many people at the embassies read blogs. What do you folks think? You should chime in. ;-)
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Socialtext Workplace v 1.0
09:31 UTC » Social Software - Wiki
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October 21, 2003
Governor Domoto's going to drop by - must clean house
17:13 UTC » Japanese Culture - Joi's Diary
I emailed Governor Domoto yesterday to let her know I moved in and became a Chiba resident. She emailed me back and said she was going to be in the neighborhood and would drop by our new house the day after tomorrow. Yikes! Nothing like a little pressure to unpack and clean up the house. I wonder what the protocol is with the neighborhood. This is like some kind of Japanese protocol adventure game...
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October 20, 2003
Mapping the space
10:43 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Network Technology - Software
I was noodling around trying to organize "the space" in my head and put this picture together. The x axis is the "context". IE low context is stuff like CD's and books which don't change, are worth approximately the same amount to most people and don't have much timing or personal context. The far right is very personal, very timing sensitive, high context information such as information about your current "state". Then there is everything in between. The top layer is the type of content sorted by how much context they involve. The next layer is how they are aggregated and syndicated. Below that are substrates that are currently segmented vertically, but could be unified horizontally with open standards. Anyway, just a first path. Thoughts and feedback appreciated.
UPDATE: Changed color to red and edited the examples to be brand agnostic.
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October 19, 2003
Cops to crack down on illegal foreigners in Tokyo
11:12 UTC » Japanese Policy - Japanese Politics - Privacy
This is all part of Governor Ishihara's ethnic cleansing of Tokyo thing. He's blaming all of the horrible crimes on "foreigners" and using that to ramp up police force and will probably lead to increased intrusions of privacy.The Japan Time'REGAINING PUBLIC SAFETY' - Cops to sniff out illegal foreigners in TokyoBy HIROSHI MATSUBARA, Staff writer
Immigration authorities, police and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Friday they will take joint action to halve the number of foreigners without visas in the capital within five years.
The Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau, the bureau's Tokyo branch, the metropolitan government and the Metropolitan Police Department issued a joint statement saying they would cooperate more closely toward this goal.
They believe that half of the estimated 250,000 undocumented foreigners in Japan live or work in Tokyo.
"An increasing number of visaless foreigners engage in serious crimes, and it is pointed out that the problem is closely linked to organized crime by foreigners," Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa asserted during Friday's news conference.
I do know that there have been increased activity of foreign organized crime groups in Japan, but his talking about "criminal DNA" in foreigners is horrible and will just help justify people in looking away when heavy handed police tactics are used on foreigners in Japan. Bad bad bad...
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Loic talks about starting companies
10:40 UTC » Leadership and Entrepreneurship
Loic, a French entrepreneur blogger writes about his experience starting companies. Good stuff. I totally agree with the importance of execution over ideas. That's why, although I find my "competition" reads my blog, it's better if people know what I'm doing as long as I'm moving fast enough. ;-)
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October 17, 2003
New neighborhood
18:36 UTC » Japanese Culture - Joi's Diary
Yesterday Mizuka and I went to visit our new neighbors bearing simple gifts. Our house is in the center of the village and was owned by the head family of the village until they had financial trouble and had to sell to our previous owners. Almost all of my neighbors are spin-off families of the same household. It's quite a small, tight community. It appears that we have have to join the community. This means semi-annual drinking feasts with the neighbors, help with funerals and weddings and a lot of socializing. Since all of the neighbors have the same last name, they are all called by their role in the community or their job. Everyone seems to know what everyone else is doing and there really isn't any privacy. On the other hand, everyone seems to look out for each other and are always available to help. No one locks their doors and there are eyes everywhere.
One of the women we met was the widow of the man who built our house and cried when she talked about how much effort was made by him and the community in building our house. There seems to be a great deal of history that we're stepping into and Mizuka and I have to be very sensitive not to screw up our entry into this community.
It's quite a shift from the anonymous existence one leads in Tokyo, but it feels like a microcosm of the rather closed community culture of Japan. Comfortable if you conform, but quite difficult if you don't...
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October 16, 2003
Policy on comment spam
12:02 UTC » Blogging about Blogging
Everyone has been very supportive in helping me deal with the comment spam issue. Thanks everyone.
We've installed MT-Blacklist plug in for now. I'm generally against blacklist type filters, but it looks like the best solution for now. I will wait for MT Pro to deal with it in a more elegant way.
I thought my troubles were over when I got two comments just now with "interesting..." and "page-rank?" on my last two post. The links were to a casino site. These comments were probably not machine scripted like the other comment spam, but they added no value to the comments and the casino site URL made me feel that they had posted the comments for the purpose of trying to steal page rank on Google. I have a feeling some bloggers also post comments on my blog just to get links to their sites.
My current policy on this issue is, if you post something on my blog that clearly adds no value to the conversation and if your URL is a gambling site, a porn site, a pharmaceutical site or some other obviously spam friendly commerce site, I will delete the post and add you to the blacklist. I will discourage bloggers to post opinion-less or off-topic posts just to get links. I continue to encourage people to post their opinions whether they are supportive or critical and of course I will not delete critical commen