The Zimmermann Note

I am a big Barack Obama supporter, however, one of the historic areas that Barack Obama was able to gather support and votes was by using social networking sites to gather support. As the Washington Post called him “Social Networking King” and other sites championed his cause, he was not only the first black person that will be nominated for a Presidential Primary he was able to build up support from the bottom-up. This is much different from convential organizations that are organized from the top down and describes the premise of this book.

Clay Shirkey’s argument is that we are in a communication revolution. With the advent of the internet, it is becoming much easier to form social groups to organize much better than we could years ago. It is becoming much cheaper to publish material for the entire world to see. For example, this blog, (outside of where it might be censored) is available everywhere in the world and is costing me very little in terms of distribution costs. It is a point in history, that Shirkey explains that we must all be aware of. If we go back through the history of time we realize that there have been those points that have allowed for a greater ability to communicate with each other.

What is different about this revolution is that it is the first time that industry is playing a lesser and lesser role in the ability to communicate and form groups.

If you think back 20 years ago it would have been difficult for a presidential campaign to organize like they could now. It would have to be from the top down, organizing in every city and state as there were not those mechanisms for groups to form on their own. Money would have to be spent organizing locations where they would speak and that information would have to distributed in such a fashion that would ultimately be very expensive to do so.

With tools such as Facebook, however, groups can form very cheaply and at no expense to the organization. Their support is more run by the group themselves rather than from the top which allows for very little guidance necessary.

We see this with tools like You Tube, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr and Twitter to name a few, some of the group forming tools available on the internet. We are also faced with a wide array of information that does not come from conventional sources. A blog for instance might post photos from Myanmar, to show how the government is withholding information or the London Terrorist Subway Bombing photos can be posted on Flickr at the moment of it happening, not just as a way to inform friends that an individual might be okay but to inform the public as well of the disaster as it is happening. Media is not just limited anymore to those corporations that have in the past accustomed to control it.

As successful as the Obama Campaign has been, one of the bigger attacks against the campaign was a video of the Rev. Wright that contained snippets of some of his sermons at the Trinity United Church of Christ. Seinfeld’s Michael Richards probably did not think that anyone would be pulling out their cellphone and video recording his racist hate filled speech at a couple of blacks in the audience. However, once that went to Youtube and was seen by millions, Richards became faced with a dilemma of his own.

Not only are social networks able to be formed but those networks can connect individuals with common interests. For example, the rise of Open Sourced Software became predominant once people had the ability to communicate freely. Where a topic like open source becomes so important is that it allows the users the ability to access the source code and manipulate and or create additions on their own. Wordpress (This blog too) for example is open sourced which means that there are hundreds of people working on applications in order for it to work with other applications. Where open sourced differs, is that failure is free. Like other open sourced software, there is no cost for Wordpress. Unlike business when there is a cost for any failure, there would be none for Wordpress as it is run by dedicated users that support the product. This is needed for innovation as we realize that not every idea is going to be successful. Industry on the other hand has a harder time dealing with failure.

Shirkey’s book should have not just interest within the tech circuit but read by anyone in any industry trying to get a grasp of the tools of the 21st Century.

Facebook Dilemma

Why does someone else need to know where I am going on Amazon, Overstock, etc. This is a great reason why I am not going to sign up for sites such as this, Myspace or anywhere else.

What if I was on Amazon purchasing something for my mother? Do I need the world or even my closest friends to have complete access to where I am going?

As much as it can be said for the writer’s guild strike, I will be curious to see just how much America will end up missing the writers. While a couple shows have some merit on television, for the most part it is something that can be readily avoided at all costs.

However, I think it can be stated that the Writers Guild strike is more than entertainment but information. The future of America is wrapped up in data, information systems and a way to distribute said data.

It is not the idea that these shows only exist on Television or the Movie Theatre, but on DVDs and the Internet as well. The Writer’s Guild’s argument is that they want a bigger piece of that pie.

However, I think that this idea is just a microcosm for the Information Age in general. As distribution methods change, those that are creating that data have to be mindful of all these aspects (see Radiohead). Radiohead realized that there are different distribution networks and instead of allowing Corporations dictate what their profits would be, they decided to do that on their own.

It doesn’t cost corporations as much to put into distribution the cost of a show, performance or album on the internet as much as it costs them to distribute those same elements in a CD, DVD or other medium. What corporations are complaining about is that they do not have numbers as far as profits are concerned with new media and claim they have been losing money. However, they fail to realize they still need to put money into that aspect of distribution, i.e. Technology and in the long term they will lower costs.

As horrifying or atrocious that we see in Myanmar, we are reminded that technology is finally making the right impact. Rather than follow our rock stars and movie stars, real pictures of the despair that is going on in this world as trumped the national news spotlight the last week or so.

The image has a way of conveying much more than words can ever portray and technology will be a constant reminder for any country, government or other entity that they are being watched.

The theme from ‘1984’ has in many respects shown a dualistic role where the public is just as wary at the government as it of the public. There are enough cases over the years of police brutality on tape, photos coming from the Iraq war (see Abu Garaib prison), and other assorted events that have made their way onto YouTube, Flickr or some other site.

We are seeing a changing of the guard where the public are the real police and it will become even more challenging in the years ahead where more and more video and photos are in the hands of Joe Nobody rather than a news organization.

What is interesting is that the Promotional Pundits at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX are following public interest rather than their own polls, that the real stories are not what they force feed us on a nightly basis but something else.

At the end of the day, we see very low approval ratings for our government as they are caught off-guard about what is expected and what the public wants.

I have not installed AppTap yet. For those that are curious that is the application that allows you to install other applications to your iPhone. AppTap is a 3rd Party application however in order to use it you need Tiger and since I am still running Panther and Leopard is going to be out next month it seems pointless to spend the money to upgrade. Plus, I can wait a month or so to make my iPhone sound like a lightsaber.

I never had a cell phone because I never saw the need really to own one. If you look at the iPhone as a Cell Phone then you are not understanding what it is. Its a mini computer that you can fit in your pocket and it just so happens that the Operating System of that computer in your pocket is the same one that is in the G5 and the iMac and the MacBook. So that means there are people developing programs and such for this and there are third party developers that will be creating programs as well.

Its great on the bus. It is fun to read the news on the way home from work.