Copyright Law

I read a great article recently regarding the ongoing debate concerning music sharing and copyright law. Orson Scott Card’s article MP3s Are Not the Devil is a must read for anyone interesting in this issue. What makes this article valuable to the debate is not his largely pro-sharing view point but the long standing copyright issues he includes that are not currently part of the debate. If we are going to redefine copyright law and what it means in our society then we should also look at why we have copyright laws, who they are suppose to protect and how the currently law is fulfilling those needs. We need to look at the whole picture, not just how we can keep the current model. Copyright laws were created for a purpose and we need to find a way to fulfill that purpose in the context of our current technological society.

Internet Safety

Since it inception the Internet has been both a wonderful and dangerous place. And due to it wide spread use, Internet Safety has rightfully become a major issue. But I think we deceive yourselves when we think that the Internet is more dangerous then our physical communities. People have not become more malicious with the advent of the Internet. And just as we wouldn’t let children wonder into local bars or leave our credit card numbers lying in public places we need to take appropriate precautions with regards to the Internet. It is no more dangerous, it just requires a different knowledge base. I have been contributing to an online resource that aims to provide this knowledge base. The Internet Safety Wiki is becoming a wonderful resource and could use the help of all concerned individuals.

'Free Software'

An interesting confusion abounds in much of the general population's conception about the word free in 'free software'. It has even been a misunderstanding of mine. The word free has little to no connection to price or cost but it has more to do with the freedom of use and distribution. Those concerned and connected with this movement have little or not objection to software engineers making their living selling software. And while there is a strong philosophic deference between these two connotations of the word 'free', the economic reality of 'free software' generates and will maintain this confusion. 'Free software' will always cost nothing to the end user and therefore will be perceived as being free. So, it seems ironic then to me that a man so concerned with the strict use of terminology, as Richard Stallman, would demand use of words that will forever distract people from his philosophic ideals.

The World is Flat

During the last week I have been reading Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat. While reading this book I could not help but agree with Friedman. The evidence he cites and the experiences that he relates jive with what I see and encounter in the world around me. Globalization is happening and it is happening now. However, while Friedman does an excellent job of explaining the forces that have created the twenty-first century and their effects on the global economy, I feel he left some of the more important questions unanswered.

We should ask: “Is a flat world really a better world?” When North America and Europe passed through the Industrial Revolution the thought was that this economic structure would be better. Certainly, the millions of people who flocked to the urban centers thought that their lives would improve. For the aggregate better or worse, those economic changes had their consequences. In reality not much changed. Now this question is largely academic. Globalization will happen; it has already started and stopping it would absolutely be the wrong decision. This leads to what I consider the most important question.

How can we, as players in this new economic structure, influence this radical change such that it is for the better? When the paradigm is shifting is when the paradigm can be influenced. Too long have we lived in a world where 20 percent of the population own 80 percent of the wealth. We may have the chance to change that. It is not good enough to simply include people from more countries into that proverbial ‘20 percent’. It will truly be sad that if at end of this transition we can only say, “The more things change the more they really stay the same.”

Video-Sharing Web-Sites

The economic structure of the internet is often convoluted and hard to understand. But it is nice to see that it still works the same as it does in any other sector in spite of this. CNNmoney did a nice piece on the current state of video-sharing web-sites. Due largely to the success of the phenomenon YouTube.com there are now around 450 similar competitors. But according to this article, their time might be running out, they simple can’t remake their overhead. This is good news for consumers and investors alike. This virtual marketplace call the Internet is showing signs of maturing. Much of what caused the major clap in internet stock at the turn of the millennium was our inability to evaluate the value of these companies. But we are now starting to see normal economic principles have their effect, only best will survive. If only the same could be said about the content on these sites.

True Equality

When considering and discussing gender roles and gender gaps it is wise to tread lightly and carefully. With this issue it is easy to be misunderstood. So in expressing some thoughts and ideas which really transcend but do touch these issues I hope I can be understood. In a publication for The Computing Research Association Ron Wyden, a senator from Oregon, expressed his disappointment in the academic community for not complying more fully with the spirit of the law know as Title IX. He felt that government grants and other programs discouraged and hindered women from entering and succeeding in fields typically dominated by men. While I agree fully that woman are just as adept and capable as men in these and any other field, I have to disagree with this notion that we need to baby-sit these programs. When we force equal treatment we lose the opportunity for true equality. When we are compelled we loose the chance to change our attitudes and nature. We need to be fairer and give equal opportunities to all but we never will if we simple resorted to forcing ourselves to do so.

The Cuckoo’s Egg

The conclusion that Cliff Stoll ends his account in The Cuckoo’s Egg with was different then I had anticipated. Throughout the book, the author goes in to great detail describing his extended encounters with a German hacker trying to steal government secrets. However, the moral of his story was not about the importance of using strong passwords or the need to develop better encryption algorithms. No, he concludes by stating why these attacks were so repulsive. He concludes with the observation that this transcendental computer network was more then hardware—it was the front for a community of users. A community built on trust and cooperation that was being violated by this hacker.

These ideas of community reminded me of a lecture given by Robert Putnam at BYU a few years back. Robert Putnam is famous for his controversial book Bowling Alone which details his study on the decline of Social Capital, and his forum lecture touched on the same subject. In his book and during his lecture he contended that the United States has undergone a unique breakdown in civic, social, and political life. Additionally, he felt that this breakdown has caused negative ripples in our cultural pond.

Now, if Cliff Stoll could feel that a fringe network of University and Governmental computers was sufficiently developed to constitute a community worth protecting, then he and anyone that agrees with him would have to consider the social networks of today to be even more fully developed. Then, is Robert Putnam wrong? Has he only witnessed a shift, not a decline, in Social capital? Or is he still right because these social replacements are insufficient to take the place of more traditional forms? Can the clans of World of WarCraft sufficiently replace bowling leagues?

Dreamspark

Microsoft announced Tuesday the launch of a new student software giveaway program called Dreamspark. Here is an article form the Washington Post article covering this new program. The new program mostly differs from their other similar programs like MSDN academic alliance in student scope. Dreamspark is available to all students regardless of the major being pursued. What caught my interest in the article were a few snippets injected by the journalist about Microsoft’s motive. It made me wonder if a company like Microsoft could do anything without their motives being criticized? I’m not making a judgment, just asking a question. If they did something truly benevolent would anyone ever know, or would we always assume that there is some hidden agenda? And is it even worth them trying? Have we created an environment where it is not even worth being benevolent?

Church History

This semester I am taking a class covering Family History. As I have started to delve into this never-ending project, I have been interested to see an internet phenomenon that I am starting to notice more and more throughout the entire internet. The internet is making us lazy. Just because you look up look up some names and you copy & paste them in to PAF doesn't mean you have done any work. In the few databases that I have looked at there has been a lot of duplication. Even these duplicated records have done a poor job of replication. Still, I guess it is a small price to pay for the power and ease-of-use that the internet affords us.

Efficiency

Reading some articles recently about the use of technology in the Church has prompted me to ponder what effect technology is having on the Church and the Gospel. The Gospel itself is timeless; its relevance extends through eternity. Technology should not change what we teach and what we practice. We teach and practice the same gospel Jesus taught two thousand years ago even if we read scriptures in Sunday school off a PowerPoint presentation. So if the gospel stays unchanged by technology, what effect is it having on the Church as we continue to embrace it?

The great benefit of technology in the Church is the ability for each Church member to be more efficient in the work they do. We know that there is an overabundance of work to be done in the Kingdom of God and with technology each member is able to get more done. For example, the Church is developing a new Genealogy index and hopefully releasing it this year. In the past, a great deal of effort has been repeated and therefore wasted. The new index will allow patrons to connect themselves to the work already done so that there are not multiple versions of the same person because there were multiple submissions. This is only one example, but technology is allowing us to do more work with less effort.

American English

I have often wondered who defined American English rhetoric and how they did it. Having read William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White’s little book titled The Elements of Style I am beginning to see how it is done. Language has fluid nature and is constantly in a state of evolution. We are constantly transforming our language in our quest to better transfer information by creating new words, dropping words from our vocabulary and even changing the mean of previously defined words. With the number users reaching upward to 250 million it would seem impossible for such a large group to come to an agreement on how to use this product. We don’t of course but through the influence of style guides like The Elements of Style we are able to stay on the same page enough to understand one anther.

A MPAA retraction

Unable or unwilling to hide their mistake any longer, the MPAA released a statement Tuesday correcting a three-year-old study concerning piracy on college campuses. The years of silence should cause people to question the biased nature of the MPAA's studies. While they are not more susceptible then any other group or person, they are biased. Therefore, studies paid for by the MPAA are inherently going to carry that bias. An independent study is needed and should be conducted if lawmakers, university presidents and other concerned parties want a clear and accurate picture of the economic effect of piracy. A study not bought and paid for by 'the home team'.

Innovation

In the brevity of a history class or a history book, I often get caught up in the misconception of the world having been in a constant state of change. In one lecture or a few pages, the causes and effects of centuries can be outlined and appear to be happening almost at once, when in reality the difference from one past generation to the previous one was small as was the difference to the next. Ever steady, history made its mark. However, this misconception is becoming a reality in modern history because of Technological Innovation.

In his article Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change, Neil Postman takes a deep look at the nature Technological Innovation. He discusses how these ‘enhancements’ have changed the human experience in deep and irrevocable ways. But beyond the effects of the innovation itself, how are we as a culture affected as these society-changing events become increasingly frequent? How will our culture develop if we never have a chance to mature—to take in where we are and where we have been—before we are changed by the newest innovations? Can we stand the neck-breaking acceleration of change without becoming disjointed?