Education

When I was a teenager who put technology on a pedestal for reasons best described as self-preservation, Byte Magazine was a thick hobbyist magazine that had all manner of interesting articles for a curious young mind - things that stretched the mental blocks of what was possible. One of these articles described Apple's Hypertext, something that beckoned my inner autodidact in ways that cannot be described as anything other than an odd mixture of hope, relief, and anticipation. The thought of being able to click a word and find a tangent of information was very appealing. I often read my father's engineering texts much to his consternation, and spent more time trying to find things in the Appendices than actually moving forward.

So the hypertext idea was very appealing. A click, and I could find out what the heck the word meant. Who wouldn't like that? About 10 years after the article - maybe 15 - the Internet came along, and this whole HTML thing came with it. And it was 'Oh-So-Very-Close-But-Not-Quite'. When the Internet first started off, it seemed that one could get lost in tendrils of hyperlinks. Then came the frames in HTML, but frames were and continue to be remarkably less than genius. Search Engines came along and indexed all the monstrous amounts of information and misinformation available, with Google leading the charge on how important pages are based on an algorithm described as 'Page Rank'. People tried pop up windows for a while, but the minority of spammers destroyed the majority of usefulness in what, in terms of geology, could be best described as the amount of time a Tyrannosaurus Rex took to chew it's food. { Read more }

In an age where there are questions of who controls the internet and in a medium where we all have the potential to be journalists or guardians of knowledge in one form or another, there are real questions that bubble to the surface from time to time.

WikiPorn

For example, the latest issues of sexual material on the Wikipedia. One makes a valid point (though the others seem dubious):

Wikipedia should be banned on all public computers.

1. It has way too many dirty pornography materials and photos. Children can read articles about any kinds of pornography articles, actors, etc; and click on those pictures easily from any public computers. Parents can set password on their own TVs, but parents and schools can’t control what children want to read on wikipedia, because they just assumed that wikipedia is actually a “clean” encyclopedia. If those pictures can’t be shown in public, then they are not suitable for Children. Therefore, wikipedia should be banned from public school computers... { Read more }

In my morning reading, I came across the term peerocy which appears to be new. Given the context in Viacom Versus Google: Coming of Age of the "Viderate" Generation, I immediately thought 'Fair Use':

And just what did Judge Stanton opine? While he declined Viacom's request for YouTube's proprietary code, he ordered Google to provide Viacom with userIDs and IP addresses (for unregistered users) as well as three terabytes of video, so that the latter might ascertain if copyrighted videos enjoy the brunt of YouTube's traffic. The Judge's perspective, particularly his viewing any privacy concerns as merely "speculative," has already been met with hostility. Here's the ruling in its entirety.

While the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) has spoken to the legal consequences of the opinion (agreeing with Google that the decision violates the Bork-driven Video Privacy Act of 1988), Rasiej adopts a broader view. Responding to whether or not there's a zero-sum relationship between piracy and privacy, Rasiej won't take the bait. "One person's piracy," he counters, "is another's 'peerocy'" (referring to any peer-to-peer sharing where value is believed to be inherent in the sharing).

As Rasiej sees it, "as the technological revolution continues to advance, we're witnessing a massive clash of norms and behaviors that have yet to be established. The value of information, then, is open to debate and may be worth more in an open network, than in a protected one. People are discovering new ways of creating value by sharing as opposed to holding information back." Noting pragmatically that owners do what they can to preserve their business model Rasiej argues for innovation not only of new models, paradigms, and opportunities, but also recognition of competitive necessities.

The newly coined 'peerocy', it seems, recognizes an inherent value in Fair Use - though it does so as a play on 'piracy', a commonly accepted slang for copyright infringement. Despite the root, the fact that someone has recognized the inherent value in sharing in coining such a word demonstrates that at least one person has a clue when it comes to these things. { Read more }

As I mentioned before, I've been exploring agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago and have been trying, with some difficulty, to get the information to get started. In doing so, I admit that even the patient person I have become has become a bit frustrated by the entire thing. What do I mean? I live in San Fernando. There are offices in San Fernando. So, it makes sense that I should be able to do things in the offices located near where I live.

Right? Wrong.

The Ministry of Agriculture

Understandably, I first went to the Ministry of Agriculture here in San Fernando, as pictured at top left. It's conveniently located near the San Fernando Wharf, probably for fishermen, as few if any people do agriculture of note in San Fernando. Still, they should have information that someone like myself would need - in this case, aquaculture. I also needed to get a new copy of my farmer's license, since somewhere in the shuffle of my life it disappeared (I have the photocopy as well as a picture of it). { Read more }

I've been quiet about the OLPC shifting to Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, other than a response to 'Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi'. The reason is very simple: I just haven't had the time to read up on it. Today, I made some time - the OLPC, formerly known as the $100 Laptop, isn't really high on my priority list because I think that I believe it is a meme that should be fed to the fish. No, I'm not against the use of technology in the classroom or anywhere else - but what I am really for is appropriate use of technology.

Pliable Sugar

The Sugar Interface originally developed for the OLPC is moving right along, despite Microsoft's gaining of marketing traction on the neon green machine. And I think that the Sugar interface is very interesting and perhaps even important - to me it isn't so much about an interface, but rather an open source approach to researching interface issues. What we all know by now, or should, is that the whole mouse/keyboard interface is less than appropriate for humans. Or, more plainly, it sucks. We can do better, and it makes sense that working with children who are not influenced as much by present interfaces would help. The worry, though, is that children are quite pliable and may not guide the interface as much as Sugar may guide them... something that bears some scrutiny. { Read more }

When a friend sent me a link to the blog entry, Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi, I expected a continuation of the OLPC Meme that would not die. I was in for a bit of a surprise, and even as I was getting ready to go about some business that allows me to get into sunlight I found it necessary to pause and write this answering entry.

Frankly, the whole issue of the OLPC is more a matter of marketing than actual headway - it's sort of like discussing which politician is best to become President when the acid test is putting them into the Institution of the Presidency itself - not whether they can charm the underwear off of an easily manipulated media. The reality that most see is what the media presents. The actual reality, the one that is real, is the one that the media shades be it consciously or not. When the New York Times writes an apology for poor coverage which may have swayed opinion on the invasion of Iraq, there should be little doubt of the power of media swing to do things, good or bad, for the wrong reasons. A course is not charted by one point. A course is charted by many, and the direction is guided by reasons.

Back to the subject at hand. I agree with Ivan on some things he wrote: { Read more }

I regret that I didn't immediately write about my trip to Port of Spain where I attended my first Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) meeting. Because it was also about World Press Freedom, it was an instant lure for me.

While the meeting didn't go as anticipated, I did get to listen to a bit of what was said between people, as in this conversation.

Most of us were late for whatever reason, but once a small group coagulated a lot of things were discussed that I found interesting. Everyone but myself, it seemed, was used to dealing with the brick and mortar institutions of media in Trinidad and Tobago. Because of that, the discussion centered around those issues. While out of my depth, I found it interesting to get to see an exposed underbelly of traditional media in Trinidad and Tobago. It seemed to me that the issues were rather normal for any bureaucracy, and that one of the thrusts of the MATT would have to be dealing with some of those issues. The topic of web media is difficult to ignore, perhaps more so with myself in the room, but it was not the focus. This appealed to me. Understanding the problems others have with their profession is always interesting to me - while it may not apply to me, ever, it is always good to get a feel for the ground when discussing things with others. { Read more }

My abstract for the Prato 2008: ICTs for Social Inclusion: What is the Reality? has been accepted - so I'm trying to get everything together to head to Prato, Italy for October 27th through 31st. I'm hoping I can spend a little extra time exploring Europe, but that has a lot to do with finances and scheduling - both of which are on an upswing but are a bit unpredictable at this point.

My paper, Inclusion in Synthetic Worlds, will deal with inclusion issues in (you guessed it) synthetic/virtual worlds that affect participation and determine how the worlds themselves are used. The abstract, which was accepted: { Read more }