Even In A Digital Age People Like To Build Stuff -- Like Real, Physical, Stuff

from the tinker-away dept

Over the past few years, there's been a bit of a renaissance of the "DIY" culture towards building all sorts of "stuff." It's sometimes unfortunate when so much focus in the tech world is just on the latest in what's happening online, in that it ignores all sorts of other interesting things going on. The NY Times is noting a return to having even software and internet developers practice building physical things as well, in part just to get them to start thinking outside the (computer) box when thinking about how to design digital things. Think of it as cross-training for the digital developers mind.

Filed Under: design, diy, tangible, technology

When Laws Can't Keep Up With Technology: Future Lawsuits To Worry About

from the well,-it'll-keep-the-lawyers-busy dept

We were just talking about how copyright law has been unable to keep up with technology changes, but that's not the only law that rapidly changing technology is already impacting. As the pace of technology innovation continues to increase, things are only going to get even more troublesome -- leading to all sorts of legal conundrums to deal with. Parker Mason alerts us to a post at Science Fiction blog io9, which tries to predict five future lawsuits that are likely to come about as a result of certain technology advances. These involve questions about things from the liability of artificial intelligence to the privacy of your thoughts due to brain scanning. If you want one sure thing, it's that there will be no shortage of work for lawyers.

Filed Under: lawsuits, regulations, technology

Is BitTorrent Realizing That Its Advantage Is In Distribution Technology, Not DRM-Laden Stores?

from the hindsight dept

We were among those who were quite confused last year when BitTorrent (the company, not the underlying technology) decided that its business model would be to give in to counterproductive Hollywood whims and focus on setting up a DRM-protected downloadable movie store. After all, there was plenty of evidence that the market wasn't particularly interested in such things. BitTorrent's advantage had always been in the distribution part of the value chain, and yet here it was basically focusing on things like DRM and e-commerce, where its expertise was minimal, as its business model of choice.

Since then, BitTorrent (again, the company, not the technology) has been almost totally lacking from any discussion about downloadable movies.

So, it's hardly a surprise to hear that the company is laying off a bunch of employees, focusing mainly on its sales and marketing staff. This likely means one of two things: that its business is not doing particularly well, and senior management has decided to scapegoat sales and marketing under the false belief that a new team will somehow magically make things work, or that it's realized this was a bomb of a business model and is about to move in a totally different direction, that requires different skills on the sales and marketing side.

Filed Under: bittorrent, drm, movies, technology

Should The Next President Use A Computer?

from the series-of-tubes dept

Much has been made of John McCain's status as a self-proclaimed "computer illiterate." Juxtaposed with his rival, the Blackberry-wielding, iPod-listening Barack Obama, McCain's inexperience with all things digital have raised concerns that he is out of touch with normal Americans. Although McCain is reportedly attempting to use computers more often, a bigger question remains unsolved: should the President of the United States use a computer?

Lee Gomes at the Wall Street Journal seems to think the best policy is to "avoid computers." Among such significant insights as any computer should remain outside the Oval Office "since it wouldn't match the furniture," is a recommendation that the President be limited to 20 minutes of computer time "to keep up with the common folk" by reading blogs, playing Solitaire or watching YouTube. But, don't get carried away! "The severe time rationing is necessary because a computer, far from making you more productive, instead loads you down with things to do, and it's important for the machine to know who is boss."

It is slightly shocking that the WSJ would have you believe that computers are only good for keeping up-to-date on the latest cute cat videos (as long as you don't get bogged down in pop-ups -- which Gomes warns is how most computer users waste away their time). Of course the President should delegate menial tasks to staffers, but Gomes and others who think that technology is peripheral to the role of the Commander-in-Chief miss the point. Computer literacy isn't about "being in touch" with the "common folk," it is about understanding the foundation of the knowledge economy. The next administration will need to correctly address important policies with technology at their root, and if the leader doesn't understand the fundamental potential and differences of digital technology, the results will be much more catastrophic than wasting time deleting spam.

Filed Under: computers, presidents, technology

Politicians Embracing Technology To Actually Communicate With Constituents

from the warms-my-heart dept

There have been plenty of stories over the years about politicians (especially presidential candidates) embracing the internet. However, they're usually focused on bringing together communities of supporters, often for fundraising purposes. There hasn't been as much where it's really about the politician actually communicating directly with the people he or she represents. There was a period of time when politicians started using email, but most have since locked down the ability of people to contact them via email, limiting it to cumbersome forms. However, it appears that some politicians are figuring out ways to actually use technology effectively to directly communicate with the people they're supposed to represent.

There was some buzz this evening (I'm guessing kicked off by a post by Robert Scoble about politicians embracing technology in DC) with people pointing out that a Texas congressman named John Culberson has his own Twitter account. If you look at it, it's pretty clear that it's Culberson himself who's using it -- and he's actually talking and listening to what people are saying to him. He's also using the mobile phone video streaming service Qik to shine some sunlight on what actually happens in Congress -- and even tried (but wasn't allowed) to do a video with the President from the Oval Office, but was stopped by the Secret Service. There's another congressman named Tim Ryan who is also on Twitter, though he's not following anyone else or talking with anyone else -- just communicating one way.

This evening, Culberson also hosted a "Virtual Town Hall" meeting on his own website. Apparently he's been hosting town hall meetings via a phone system which dials a bunch of constituents in his district and lets them ask him questions -- but he expanded it tonight to the internet using Ustream, broadcast video and allowing text chat too. Watching the video, you see quite clearly that it's just him talking directly to people. There's no one "screening" the calls or limiting who is saying what to him -- and he's not shying away from questions at all. Whether or not you agree with him politically (and there's plenty I disagree with him on), it's fascinating to see an elected official in DC actually embracing technology to communicate directly with people in a way that isn't just him broadcasting a message to people. It's also impressive to see politicians using technology to communicate with (not to) people, rather than hide from them (or just to squeeze money out of them). Hopefully other politicians will start to do the same thing.

Filed Under: communication, congress, john culberson, politicians, technology
Companies: qik, twitter, ustream

Technology To Rescue You From... Technology?

from the the-cause-and-the-solution-to-all-our-problems dept

There's a great Homer Simpson quote in an old episode: "Here's to alcohol: the cause of, and answer to, all of life's problems." Perhaps the same thing can be said for technology. Just last week we were writing about people having to force themselves to get away from technology for a day, and then the NY Times pops up with an article about how various technology companies are all working on plans to create technologies that help us better get away from overwhelming technology. It's no secret that you can get sucked in, so it's nice to see tech companies recognizing that now that they've enabled the massive fire hose of information flow to exist, the next priority might be to find an appropriate filter for it.

Filed Under: filters, information overload, technology

There's Stupidity Somewhere Here, But It's Not Coming From Google...

from the provocative-titles dept

Matt Asay writes about Nick Carr's article in the July issue of The Atlantic, "Is Google making us stupid?" I'm not so sure that you can make such a generalization, but something certainly seems to be messing with Nick Carr's reasoning ability. With such a provocative title, I was expecting a little more evidence with a lot less storytelling and speculation -- but I was seriously disappointed.

There are some valid concerns nested in there, but the tone is attention-seeking and hyperbolic. More importantly, Carr seems to be jumping to the wrong conclusions, as appears to be typical. In the article, Carr writes:

[S]cholars examined computer logs documenting the behavior of visitors to two popular research sites, one operated by the British Library and one by a U.K. educational consortium, that provide access to journal articles, e-books, and other sources of written information. They found that people using the sites exhibited "a form of skimming activity," hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they'd already visited. They typically read no more than two pages of an article or book before they would "bounce" out to another site. Sometimes they'd save a long article, but there's no evidence that they ever went back and actually read it.

I'm sorry, but how is this "chilling" (as Radar Online claims)? Carr doesn't explain why skimming is problematic, aside from worrying that we're becoming "mere decoders of information," like computers. Did paper cause people to become mere transmitters of information? We aren't deprived of our ability to reflect or think deeply by using Google's search engine or by skimming through blog posts.

I don't understand why this is even considered a problem. I skim a ton of stuff online and often make quick judgments as to whether or not its worth my time. There's a lot of crap in the long tail. But there are also a lot of worthwhile things. Skimming is human filtering, it's a necessary and useful part of processing the vast amount of information available online. I'm not going to read everything I find on the web. Most articles I will scan quickly, but there are many other things that I read in detail and at length.

What's wrong with skimming?

And then there's Matt's attack on Twitter:

Speaking of Twitter, am I the only one who views it as further evidence of a soundbite culture that struggles even to think beyond 140-character blips?

Come on! It's a medium! What about the famous quote? "I've written you a long letter because I haven't had time to write a short one." (paraphrased - usually attributed to Mark Twain, but it appears it may be Blaise Pascal). It's harder to be concise. Regardless, Twitter is a medium, it's micro-blogging. Just because you make use of a different medium doesn't mean that it controls your thinking or prevents you from using other mediums. Did telegrams make people stupid? I use the Internet to update my Facebook status and to write 2500 word emails to stay in touch with close friends.

Twitter doesn't make people stupid.

Nor does Google or Wikipedia or anything else. People are just stupid irrespective of technology. Myself included. I don't do stupid things because of technology, I do stupid things because sometimes I do stupid things. We may see stupidity manifested in different ways on different mediums, but I have a hard time believing that the medium is to blame.

Filed Under: nick carr, stupidity, technology
Companies: google, twitter

EMI Hires Another Techie Into Senior Management; Co-Founder Of Second Life Joins The Team

from the stepping-in-the-right-direction dept

Normally, I tend to think of big media companies hiring a "Chief Digital Officer" as being severely misguided. That's because thinking "digitally" isn't a separate job function or a separate department these days. It should permeate across the business -- and assigning it to one exec pretty much guarantees that the rest of the company now thinks that it isn't their problem to think about how new technologies impact their business strategy. However, record label EMI is making some news lately, and has now hired Second Life co-founder Cory Ondrejka to be its VP of digital strategy. Combined with the fact that EMI also recently hired Google's former CIO Doug Merrill, it makes you wonder if the company really is taking the importance of technology seriously in establishing its business strategy. It remains to be seen if the company really is taking the time to understand these concepts across its business, or if it's pigeonholing "the tech guys" into limited roles. No matter what, it's worth watching to see if a major record label really can evolve and adapt to the changing market.

Filed Under: cory ondrejka, douglas merritt, record labels, technology
Companies: emi, second life

Old Gas Stations Charging By The Half Gallon

from the not-quite-the-bargain-you-thought dept

At the beginning of May, we mentioned that a bunch of gas stations were discovering that their older pumps couldn't handle prices over $4. They ticked up to $3.99 9/10 / gallon and that was it. For now, it appears that some regulators are allowing such gas stations to start selling gas by the half gallon -- or, rather charging half-price and doubling it at the register. They're only allowed to do this if they can show that they've ordered new parts that will handle up to $9.99 -- though, of course the folks who make such parts are running out of them quickly as a bunch of stations are rushing to upgrade. Any bets on how long until we'll be writing about the gas stations running into problems when the price of gas reaches $10/gallon? What's scary is that even at the half price ($2.03/half gallon), it wasn't that long ago when that seemed really high for a full gallon.

Filed Under: gas pumps, technology

Copyright Battles Are About Controlling New Technologies

from the seems-like-it dept

Copyright guru William Patry has a really interesting post remembering Harvey Schein, the man who oversaw the American launch of the Betamax VCR as head of Sony's American division. That was, of course, the product that produced the famous Sony decision upholding the legality of the VCR and its "record" button. The Betamax precedent is widely seen as a foundation of the modern consumer electronics industry because it gives manufacturers confidence that they can build useful media tools without worrying about liability should their customers use the tools to infringe copyright.

Patry mentions an aspect of the case that I hadn't realized before: MCA/Universal, the lead plaintiff, wasn't just worried that the VCR owners would tape shows rather than watching re-runs. It was also planning to release a laser disc technology called Disco Vision. MCA/Universal apparently worried that a successful Betamax VCR would have undercut the market for laser discs. Schein is quoted as saying "I don't think it was accidental that the company that took the lead in fighting the videocassette held all the patents on the videosdisc."

This will sound eerily familiar to anyone familiar with more recent copyright controversies. For more than three decades, Hollywood and the recording industry have consistently tried to use copyright law to stop any technology they didn't control. In 1992, the music industry persuaded Congress to mandate cumbersome DRM for digital audio formats, stunting the development of that technology. In 1998, the music industry unsuccessfully tried to sue the MP3 player out of existence. Also in 1998, at the behest of the copyright lobby Congress enacted the DMCA, which gave content creators unprecedented control over the design of technological devices. Hollywood has used the DMCA to effectively outlaw set-top boxes that act as DVD jukeboxes.

Of course, in every one of these cases, the copyright lobby's arguments have focused on the threat of "piracy." But when they've won, the practical result has been to give content creators the power to control the evolution of media devices. And when Hollywood and the record labels control technological progress, the results aren't pretty.

Filed Under: betamax, control, copyright, harvey schein, technology, vcr, william patry