Chris Brauer Media Project [BLOG]

IDEAS FROM POP CULTURE TO POLITICS, TECHNOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, BUSINESS, MEDIA, SPORT, AND LIFE

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Drupal Open Source Case Study

I am in the midst of developing a community around a 'NetModern' approach to life. More on that later. But for now just a few observations on the software I'm using to develop the collaborative community (blog, events, newsfeeds, etc).

The emergence of Drupal.org as an open source platform for WWW development is a case study for the benefits of open source ideas.

To say that founder Dries Buytaert is humble about the seed he planted is an understatement to rival saying Mozart could compose. From his basic home page to his consistent disregard for opportunities to personally capitalize on his idea, the Belgian authored the PHP-based platform with the open source frontier in mind. And all he wants for Christmas is a new desktop. Maybe one of the millions of Drupal users can oblige. I know I'll be sending him a card this year.

The software is supported for free by an army of English, Russian, Hungarian, Italian, more Italian, and Japanese developers. The code is rewritten three times a day as bugs are eradicated by sophisticated automated workflows and colaborative development environments.

Support for users who adopt the system is supported by users themselves as the community seeks to solve problems that impact (or could potentially impact) them all. Most issues are resolved within 24 hours. The open architecture allows modules to be developed, limited only by the creativity of the developers.

Numerous communities have implemented Drupal on a massive scale (see the seeds of the Howard Dean web mobilization that changed electoral planning irrevocably) and most recently Bluffton Today, the best implementation of citizen journalism on the web, used Drupal to power its community.

The Open Source movement is in the process of shifting space and no industry or pursuit will be immune. It reflects a social ethic where economic gain is only a single element in a broader lifestyle. It makes self evident the benefits of working together to mutual gain.

Labels:

READ MORE / FULL STORY || CB || Email Story || [ 0 ] ||

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Virtual Puff of Smoke on the Grassy knoll

Lawmakers in Texas appear content to allow development of a "real-time, online, hunting and shooting experience" to continue. If you haven't heard about this project, buckle your seatbelts.

On John Underwood's southwest Texas ranch PCs are lined up on the dusty sunbaked ground, aiming and firing .22 rifles at the whim of a home user, manipulating a computer mouse anywhere in the world. Users of live-shot.com can take part in target practice and soon hunt real animals from home.

Watching this demo (Windows Media .wmv) cannot help but stir up the thoughts on the implications of this technology and a possible new era of real-life video gaming. Control physical devices in the real world through a virtual interface for points and status. Artists like Stelarc have been working for a long time exploring human machine interfaces, demonstrating for example how a human can be controlled over the Internet when mounted in robotic apparatus.

But the simplicity of integrating basically anything into the emerging ICT network means ideas like live-shot can emerge. Funnily Underwood was inspired to create the website when watching another application of this technology -- webcams set up in the wild to allow website users to take photos of passing animals.

"We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that.' A light bulb went off in my head," he told Reuters News Agency.

Issues like this get the best out of the blogging community where opinions range from horror to applause. But I guess the real point is that such things are possible, and humanity has a habit of constantly filling our buckets of possibility. Underwood has responded to critics by emphasizing the hunting access this provides to the disabled although he is open to anyone using his system. A bill is making its way through the Texas state assembly to ban hunting by remote control.

It's not likely to exclusively remain the moral or ethical domain of politicians and policy makers to gauge responsibility in the internetworked world. As civilization adjusts to the presence and possibilities of interacting, providing services and facilitating communities in emerging human/computer networks, we will be challenged to address every application. One can imagine a kind of virtual The Most Dangerous Game, where the answer to the latest who shot JR? or JFK? at least according to the conspiracy theorists ... is a Dell 5100 or iMac.

Labels:

READ MORE / FULL STORY || CB || Email Story || [ 0 ] ||

Friday, April 08, 2005

Brilliant Ideas: Citizen Journalism


Brilliant ideas change the space in which they operate. The newspaper business is quite literally being turned upside down as we speak by a whopper of an idea. The launch of Bluffton Today on April Fool's Day heralds the arrival of citizen journalism to a community of 15,000 in South Carolina, USA. But the impact space is both greater and more abstract than one of the great golfing destinations of the American southwest. Here's what makes citizen journalism so brilliant:

In some ways it is incredible that it has taken so long to arrive at this concept in newspapers - written by the readers. Anyone who is getting some of their content these days from blogs knows the inherent value of a variety of voices speaking from a variety of knowledge spaces. The unique feature of this site is that they are generating an actual newspaper from the postings, offering alternatives on both sides of the digital divide. The possibilities are endless.

See Posting on Collective Intelligence

Labels: ,

READ MORE / FULL STORY || CB || Email Story || [ 0 ] ||

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Meet Arsene Wenger and the famous Arsenal

"That was not a football score, it was a hockey score ... in training I often play matches of three against three and when the score reaches 5-4, I send the players back to the dressing room, because they are not defending properly." - Jose Mourinho on Arsenal 5, Spurs 4 before the expiry of the Invincibles.

OK. So maybe it's not the most controversial thing the Portuguese manager has had to say during his short, fantastically successful but turbulent reign as Chelsea chief. And maybe it's too early to pronounce the death of the Invincible Arsenal squad that went 49 games without defeat led by that great professor of footballing economics Arsene Wenger. And don't even get me started on the potential FA Cup final clash to come in the early May Cardiff sunshine (optimistic??) against those fiercest of 21st-century-rivals Manchester United. Wo Mama!

One guesses that Mr Mourinho's intention with this particular shot-across-the-bow early in the 2004-05 Premiership race was to underline the importance of good defending, but he was preaching to the choir. Three out of the last four Premiership champions have featured the stingiest goals against including the last two years when Arsenal and Man U took the title. Chelsea looks set to continue this trend in 2005.

My Arsenal wish list for the remainder of the season is quite simple really. If all/some/none of these wishes come true I shall remain an ardent fan. They'll just make it easier.

  • Finish second in the league
  • Beat Manchester United in the FA Cup Final
  • Destroy Tottenham at Highbury on a Monday evening under the lights
  • Beat Chelsea away at Stamford Bridge

One day at Stansted Airport seven years ago ...

I was buying my ticket for Paris when I turned to find Arsene Wenger standing at my side, dressed in his suit, and looking every bit the professor. Arsenal had just been knocked out of the Champions League again and he was heading to France for a few days. Unable to resist I requested a photo (blurry beyond recognition when developed) and we spoke briefly about the team's fortunes that year. We headed in different directions but met again in the waiting lounge as the flight was delayed. We spoke for about half an hour on everything from websites to Canadian maple syrup and of course the mighty, mighty Arsenal. He was every bit the gentleman you see on television, respectful of his colleagues and players, and obviously interested in a fans' perspective, the way a chef likes the chance to sit down with a customer to discuss a meal. We split up again getting on the plane, disembarking in Paris, and going through the vagaries of European Union customs. Before catching a train into the city I hopped into the loo at Charles de Gaulle only to have the manager of the greatest football team in the world walk in and occupy the urinal beside me. If you guessed that Arsene Wenger walked in then you correctly identified the greatest football team in the world :-). So this was the way it was going to be. He was going to follow me around until I gave him a few footballing secrets. So I reached into my treasure troff of knowledge and brought a real gem: "I don't think you should ever take Thierry Henry off the field!" Ever since that day you'll find a healthy Thierry Henry on the pitch for Arsenal. Coincidence?

As Wenger walked away from me I shouted after him, for a moment perhaps slipping into akind of crazy fandom I had not felt since watching Guy Lafleur, the great Montreal Canadians ice hockey player, as a starry eyed nine year old: "We respect you! Thank you!"

"Make way for this man. He deserves our respect!"

The crowd parted and there were a few wry French smiles passing by, a few looks of recognition but mainly just enjoyment at watching another crazy foreigner. Wenger turned back once (It is Love! :-) and I gave him a wave. He had taken my advice. It seemed everything was going to be all right and Voilà the mighty Arsenal go on a seven year domestic rampage that cumulated in the Invincible undefeated season of 2003/04 playing a silky smooth but gritty style of entertainment football. The ball always on the ground, little give-and-gos raising the patrons from their seats. And of course the best player in the world playing on my recommendation If you guessed Thierry Henry then you correctly identified the best player in the world :-).

So Jose Mourinho and his Chelsea machine can mock the bulging scorelines that result from a team continuing to play the flowing style of the mighty Arsenal, despite leaking at the back. While Mourinho sends his players back to the dressing room for scoring to much, early Wenger was said to hold the whistle between his teeth during practices, blowing hard each time the ball rose above shoulder height. "On the ground," he would repeat, as mantra. And Alex Ferguson has got more than his fair share of issues to deal with so he isn't paying much attention to us or his rivalry with Wenger at the moment.

Arsenal fans, and you know who you are. Trust in the professor, the svengali of smooth, he of the furrowed brow, the man in the magic hat! Caveat: Except 4 goalkeepers. Wenger continues to bring the most entertaining brand of football to the English Premiership, competitive with any club in the world. Well I guess the goalkeepers have been entertaining as well, in a way. Look for a revitalized Arsenal squad to storm the gates again in 2005/06. Wenger is chomping at the bit.

For your latest Arsenal news visit:

Arseblog - A comprehensive and current account from true Arsenal fan(s)

Arseweb - A classic with a great archive

Arsenal Football Club - Not as strong on content as the others as censorship prevades but great location for ticket and official club information. Also check out fan columnist Frank Stubbs.

Sporting Life - Latest headlines and scores to keep up to date

Labels:

READ MORE / FULL STORY || CB || Email Story || [ 0 ] ||

The Death of Discretion?

Recent articles in The Economist and Artificial Intelligence in Medicine got me thinking about the transformational potential of intelligent information systems on acts of discretion.

In The Economist, a segment entitled "AI am the law" explores the impact of "smart software" in use in Australia that predicts whether clients have winnable cases in court and assesses applicants likelihood of receiving legal aid. In tests to date the software simulations are accurate 98% of the time in predicting the actual outcomes.

"What the systems still lack is the ability to exercise discretion, and that is not likely to change for the foreseeable future," the author muses.

But these tasks seem ripe for automation, or machine migration. Why send someone through the cost and effort of an application process or court proceedings if the outcomes are so predictable as can be mapped beforehand for reference. The assumption is that the discretion previously used by the gatekeepers to legal aid and court dates was frivolous and surplus. All they were really doing was exercising their right to either pass someone into the process or exclude them. So the starting line for machines in the legal advice industry just got one step closer to the claimants. The discretionary task of passing people on to the next step is gone. Could this herald a threat to all human professions with a corresponding shrinkage in the definitions of when discretion is a necessary element of a decision process.

Sitting in a Holborn Street cafe with Milverton Wallace (if ever there was a man who needed a blog), one of the superstars of the British digerati, he shook his head mightily: "You're talking about any professional activity. Perhaps. Anything without discretion."

But is there a danger that as discretion becomes less prevalent, hunted wherever it lies by thirsty software entrepreneurs and business process re-engineering exercises, that it could face virtual extinction, no pun intended. A good management consultant can process map anything: "Tell me about what you do and how you do it?". The question frames the instrumental terms. Break it down for me baby! I'll draw the charts. Later the charts feed into tables that feed into objects and algorithms whirl. Poof! We found out that we can automate what you do. Surprised?

Lawyers are undoubtedly caught off-guard by the technological developments in their industry, susceptible to early adoption by virtue of the structured syntax and tasks that constitute the majority of their professional activity. These are very early days in the intelligent legal systems game, as it is for virtually every industry, so it is difficult to predict where the discretion line will be drawn in the sand. Anyone for a computer judge?

Regardless we are all familiar with that feeling we get when our fate seems to hang in the hands of another. When for that moment in time it seems as if all hangs on the outcome of the decision. Most can recite experiences with a subjectively villainous or empathetic policeman, parking attendant, secretary, customer, or other. "He really did me a favour!" or "I was like, why is he screwing me?" That's the smoking gun, or at least the puff of smoke that comes with discretion. And life is richer with some of it in play.

Think of the golfer who decides to play the aggressive shot from the bunker even though he knows he is 98% likely to either top or pluck the ball. Or the shopper who, rattled with indecision, decides to buy both pairs of shoes.

More seriously think of the value of "the ability or power to decide responsibly" or the "freedom to act or judge on one's own", both dictionary definitions of discretion. How will decisions on where to use systems that implicitly have no discretion be made? How will we know if conservation services are needed due to the imminent extinction of discretion in professional life. Surely no one is immune. How easy would it be to create the perfect CEO by developing working models from studying all of the decisions of previous successful CEOs? Like Deep Blue beat Kasparov so one day will CEO SIMULATOR X wag a virtual finger menacingly at a reticent Donald Trump: "Your numbers stink. You're fired!"

See this Media Project post for an Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Labels:

READ MORE / FULL STORY || CB || Email Story || [ 0 ] ||