aleks krotoski
intro’d to Aleks while watching her film..the virtual revolution (2010, 58:59) via thought maybe site:
http://thoughtmaybe.com/the-virtual-revolution/
what about the other 80% (that aren’t yet using web) – Tim
6 min – in this film – explore how the dream of leveling is playing out for the web.. overturning/challenging notions of ownership/value/expertise business models.. and how the equality promised by the web clashes with human nature – our innate desire to profit and control…
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Einar Kvaran – a quiet revolutionary – wikipedia contributor – truth coming up from below
11 min – san fran in 60s – libertarianism – mix of left and right.. rejected state control, legal system, and censorship, while recognizing importance of free will
13 min – 1985 – the well – took liberatarianism online – (howard) – Stewart Brand – legal study of lsd. well gave many people first sense of cyberspace – what we were working under – was the assumption that the revolution was already started and we didn’t have to do anything.. great sense of curiosity.. poking and proding – an anything goes attitude – one well member took this attitude.. cyberspace’s profit:
16 min – John Perry Barlow – of greatful dead – internet – challenge to traditional authority.. by setting info free – it would set us all free. you don’t have to control people if you can control their beliefs. you can control what they can know.. the rest is a simple matter. he helped start the electronic frontier foundation.. declaration of the independence of cyberspace
your legal concepts of property.. don’t belong to us.. may it be more humane and fair – his manifesto
19 min – alter political landscape – Ory Okollah, kenya civil rights.. harness power of crowd, 2008 violence following elections – Ory pulled together – ushahidi – allowing ordinary people to report attacks.. put pressure on authorities
22 min – web vs internet – web is links, info, web pages, sent to us over infrastructure of the internet. email born in 1965 – common standards allowed files to be transferred – but had to get to info by phoning up. before websites.. you were walled into small corners of cyberspace.
23 min – write a common language to link data stored on computers around the planet. Tim – i invented the web just because i needed it really. cern – geneva – 1954 – 12 countries begin collaborating on a project. Tim begins working there in 1980… all these different people working for different companies, different computers.. so documentation in all diff systems.. you have to bring it up from one and write on back of envelope.. type it in.. et al.
1989 – submitted a paper – info management – a proposal… his boss writes.. vague but exiting.. he let Tim do the project in his spare time. at cern 1991 – first website goes online
26 min – started off in a very small way (cute way he described a more dramatic way)
he assigned documents a unique address.. url.. in a language.. html.. that could link to any other computer anywhere…
Stephen Fry – seemed an extraordinary development
Gates – the dream that everybody wanted to be connected – goes way way back – about everybody wanting to share info
29 min – web more than an empowering tool… resists authority.. no need for permission.. no govt/controlling authority with rules/regulations – a tech solution built at cern that meshed the hippie dream
30 min – the most important thing – you could do it on any machine with out asking anyone permission
31 min – one more piece – it was given away for free.. Tim has turned his back on any kind of profit.. the www worked because he opened it up.. he should be daily thanked from everybody – Stephen..
Charles – Tim created this set of tools…. i’m not sure what to do with it.. let’s see what you can do with it..
32 min – a different model – saw the web as a way to buy and sell.. 1975 – pink floyd, jaws, vietnam just finished.. bill gates arrives in albuquerque nm
33 min – Bob Finch – rockets.. altair 8800 – home computer – Gates: had to have millions of these common machines in order for it to make any sense…
Gates saw the potential to make money from this
Wozniak – copied software – Gates sends email.. claiming had pirated.. 20 yrs later..
bill gates – biggest business opportunity of the century..
Douglas Rushkoff – had nothing to do with money. when business came onto internet – object was to monetize it..
1995 – war is full on – microsoft.. risk of web becoming a branded microsoft experience.
legal battle not just about microsoft.. it was about 2 competing view about the web Charles: 1) home for sharing – embedded in geek hippie culture 2) gates/microsoft.. wait a minute .. how do you pay the mortgage
38 min – with internet explorer populized the web.. people started to figure out what web could do..
story begins with shawn fanning – napster – just first of many to discover the web could destroy business models..
music piracy gone global – allowing thousands of people to break the law together for the first time.. lar ulrich – metalica – then i should get plumbing for free
2001 – napster shut down.. other services simply took its place
42 min – may take decades till we get to the ending point – wozniak
user generated content.. (the verbiage)
one of biggest distributors – youtube – chad hurley – i don’t think it’s healthy for a few people to have control of creation and distribution of content..
lee siegel – you can shatter old hierarchies.. but new ones rise up..
is the web democratizing creativity..?
arianna huffington – one of biggest cheerleaders for democratized the web – yet – it increasingly resembles an old fashioned newspaper..
instead of everyone having an equal say – editors filtering..
webs pioneers wished it would open up to millions, instead people like arianna are the new gatekeepers
50 min – 90% blogs now dormant.. believed space w/o rules/regulation would be more equal.. seems to me the opposite is happening.. lack of regulation means those with most resources can shout the loudest…
51 min – showing the tiny elite ie: facebook, google, amazon, … internet perfect reflection of leaning to the elite
52 min – concerns i have is that there is some central control – Tim
does this mean the web’s leveling days are over?
most ambitious leveling dream of all – Jimmy Wales – easy to get quality when you have more people participating.. rather than paying too much attention to their credentials
yet increasingly it has to be policed..
Jimmy – crazy because used to be we were too free.. now we are too policing..
do you think it’s human nature for elites and hierarchies to emerge… Jimmy – i don’t even like the terms that you’re asking the question… when we talk about elites and hierarchies.. we think top down structures…
then explaining networked individualism ness.. zoom dance ness
56 min – question for me – is the web inherently unequal because it models us
brand – someone’s got to be in charge
web will take on contour of culture.. good and bad
tim – i think it will be very wrong to assume if you connect a country it will become equal
have it’s idealistic beginnings become relegated to history..? i don’t think so.. i think it’s endlessly re inventing itself.. a space of perpetual innovation. no one can stop it.. but we do need to take care of it.
huge responsibility.
huge opportunity.
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find/follow Alex:
her site:
Aleksandra Krystyna Theresa “Aleks” Krotoski (born 22 October 1974) is a Polish-American broadcaster and journalist, currently based in the UK, who writes about technology and interactivity. She presents The Guardian podcast Tech Weekly and contributes to guardian.co.uk. She formerly wrote a print column for The Guardian’s now defunct Technology section. The daughter of an eminent Polish-American scientist who determined the true mechanism of malarial relapse, Aleks was raised in America, emigrated to Scotland to finish her degree in Psychology and then become a TV presenter/reporter.
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be you. 