Outdated copyright

In response to the Steven Colbert / Lawrence Lessig interview on the same topic:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/215454/january-08-2009/lawrence-lessig.

Very short and simple, copyright law is not out of date. The original artist of a piece should have ownership of their work. Fair Use, however, covers the majority of the remixing issues. A quick overview of Fair Use states that anyone can use any other work in part as long as the original intent of the original work is not lessened by the use. One tricky point, though, is that the new work cannot compete with the old work without permission. This would be considered infringement, as the competition could feasibly lessen the original work's monetary value or detract from sales and profits of the original work in some way.

This last point is the one that should be addressed. There must be some way that the law could be expanded to include non-monetary remixing of works. The key here is that the remix of the work would be non-monetary. The remixing artist, nor anyone else, could not make profit from the original work. In this case, the remixed work would be no different than what fan fiction is to the worlds of screen and print.

In fan fiction, new artists use the characters and/or settings of existing works to create new adventures or scenarios. While this is currently an acknowledged form of copyright infringement, fanfic writers are rarely litigated against as their works are rarely used for profit. Instead, they're looked as publicity, as new readers may stumble across these first and then pick up the original work. They're used as community builders, as more and more writers or contributers create more works, bringing in more fans and creating a greater following.

Remixing should be allowed, but only under certain limitations. Original artists should retain their copyright and their ability to turn a profit from their work, they're the ones that put the time and effort into creating the original work, after all. But a fan should be able to pay homage to their favorite artist by retelling the artist's story, be it audio, video (much more difficult, really), or literary through their own eyes, as long as they're not making money from it. Should a profit be turned, perhaps a royalty system could be devised, and then only with the original artist's permission.

Generation F

The talking points today are taken from this blog:

http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2009/03/24/the-facebook-generation-vs-the-fortune-500/.

Take a look at the link above, it contains a list of the 12 intrinsic values that are embodied in online communities today. Note how they shadow the perceived values of the IRL (in real life) world. These 12 values can be found on any chat board, forum or other online collaboration out there. Combined, they create a natural selection process that pushes these communities forward.

These communities are, for the most part, self moderated. Some users contribute more, others less, some are there only to "troll", or mock and debase the community. The latter are quite often run out by the former.

Of all of the points the author brings up, number 11 struck me the hardest:

"11. Intrinsic rewards matter most.

The web is a testament to the power of intrinsic rewards. Think of all the articles contributed to Wikipedia, all the open source software created, all the advice freely given—add up the hours of volunteer time and it’s obvious that human beings will give generously of themselves when they’re given the chance to contribute to something they actually care about. Money’s great, but so is recognition and the joy of accomplishment."

For those frequenting this blog, you've probably already come across our post titled OpenSource Media and read out views on society and the Marxist model. To clarify, this is the original intent of Marxism, not the perverted form that became the Communism that we know today. List point 11 immediately made me think of this. It's a great analogy, really. Here we have a community that allows the people to contribute what they can when they can toward the betterment of the community at large, and the people are happy to do so because they believe in the community, can see how their efforts make a difference, and enjoy what they're doing because of it.

The other point that really grabbed was number three:

"3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.

In any Web forum there are some individuals who command more respect and attention than others—and have more influence as a consequence. Critically, though, these individuals haven’t been appointed by some superior authority. Instead, their clout reflects the freely given approbation of their peers. On the Web, authority trickles up, not down."

Or the window goes the "good old boys" model. Here we have a true democratic community. The leaders are chosen by consensus on their merits, not because of how much advertising they can afford or how many political favors they can garner. And the more any value community member contributes the more clout they receive.

If both of these points could be combined in the real world, we'd see a much different social structure. The real world, however, isn't ready for this. Online communities work well because they are opt-in, opt-out deals. The real world is not. Life moves on around us, and we all have a role to play in it. These concepts will eventually make their way into society, but not until they've been adapted to compensate for the OIOO issues, and then only when society has reached a point that they can handle such a change.

The Long Tail

This concept is essentially about moving from the mainstream to the obscure. In today's marketplace of limited shelf space, retailers are only able to provide what they consider to be the hottest best selling items at any given time. This leaves a huge segment of the merchandising field un- or under-exposed. The long tail is the combating force. Think iTunes: iTunes is completely digital. As such, they have unlimited shelf space for their product, digital music. They can offer the new release hits from major artists, but they can also provide access to unpublished, out-of-production music from decades ago, or from up and coming artists that would otherwise have been pushed aside. The same is true for Amazon and books and many other businesses out there.

The long tail works on a process of recommendation and desire. If a person happens to like such-and-such, they may also like this-over-here. By referring this way, people move down the tail from the high-selling popular to the long-lost and obscure. Alternatively, if someone is looking for a product that they can't find in stores because it's too old or too obscure, the long tail services can provide access.

This is a great direction for the modern marketplace. First, it's convenient. These services provide access in a moment to more products than a physical store could in a year. Also in this selection, and especially with music services, one can choose á la carte selections from otherwise bulky titles. Second, it's fast. You don't need to browse shelves. You type in your search and the system will find what you're looking for, and likely make suggestions of other items that you may like but would have otherwise overlooked. Third, it's portable. Most (all?) of these services are online, making it possible to carry the stores with you anywhere. This harkens back to point one, convenience, but takes it a step further. There's no longer a need to go physically to a store. You can shop from the bus, the office, home, or the beach and have the items sent to your location of choice.

Podcast

Parceled out internet radio. Gotta love it! Following the theme of the week, I'm taking the convenience angle on this one. How can one not enjoy the ability to carry their favorite radio programs with them in their pocket, re-listening to their favorite episodes at the push of a button? And this is to say nothing of the open market that this provides! Anyone can join this revolution. In that aspect, the podcast generation has tapped into the free airwaves the same way that the original free press flooded the market with literature.

Podcasting allows users to create programs centered around their interests. This outlet has the added effect of inundating the boards with loads of well produced free media that would have otherwise been overlooked for monetary or other reasons. This is perhaps the greatest aspect of the podcast invention. And anyone can do this. You only need a spare minute and some free software like Audacity. Even a microphone is optional if you have a good set of speakers (they are, of course, nothing more than a microphone in reverse, really). Of course, one should have a little creativity and personality, but those are totally optional.

Quiche Florentine Tutorial

This week's blog, or vlog, I should say, is a video tutorial that I made about making a souflé style quiche florentine. Please enjoy! The clip was a little bit long, so it had to be split into two parts. The second is linked in the first's description.

The HTML rambling video blog

This is my attempt at video blogging, or vlogging. The process wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, but, then, I took a page from the You Suck at Photoshop vlog series and chose to do this tutorial-style without me on screen. This is the first time that I've used the CamStudio screen recording software. I found it very easy to use once I got it set up. The only tricky part was defining the custom keys so that I could start and end recording with keystrokes, and this is an entirely optional step. Below, you'll find the wonderful ramblings of the first tutorial that I've ever created. It doesn't go into a whole lot of detail, but it does cover the very basics of creating and styling a web page for those interested. Please forgive the audio sync, it seems that the screen capture lags a little bit behind the audio feed, so some things don't quite match up.

Presentations

After viewing this video clip from Ted.com (http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/92), a few simple and general rules regarding presentations sprang to mind: Humor = Interest, and energy begets energy (in other words, make the audience feel involved).

The first rule applies to most presentations. Laughter, and by extention humor, is almost a universal language. If a presenter can make his audience laugh, then he's broken that proverbial ice. This allows the viewers to feel involved, opens them up to the information that follows, and makes the presentation much more enjoyable. There are, of course, times that this is difficult or inappropriate. A somber funeral may be a case of the latter, though I've seen enough eulogies artfully employ humor to lighten the mood to say that it is not always the case. A dry report of statistical facts may be an example of the former, though the Ted.com presentation certainly proves that humor may be employed if the venue is right.

The second rule, energy begets energy, simply means that it behooves the presenter to try to make the audience feel involved. Not only does this bypass the boredom that sitting through a lecture can cause, it also actsw to open the audience up to actively listening to the presentation rather than zoning out and "doldrumming" it.

A presentation that effectively and appropriately incorporates these techniques will almost always be more effective at imparting its point to the masses. By engaging the audience, audiences will retain more information, making the experience more successful for both the watchers and the speakers.