Blogging

Undoubtedly, one of the most rewarding parts of having a blog so far has been meeting other bloggers, finding that there really are quite a few people out there with similar viewpoints, interests, and concerns. It’s not that I’ve become addicted, that I spend my days in a cavern with my laptop surfing from site to site. But the truth is, it has been refreshing to get straight to someone’s deepest thoughts. Thoughts that often they wouldn’t even feel comfortable sharing with their best friends, but that just kinda flow in the anonymity of a blog. I’m not too sure about free blogging services (though I assume they exist), but I would recommend everyone and anyone to start a blog. There is no better way to democratize the media, to bring the world together. A blog is a place where a culture can be preserved and shared. And with how available the internet is becoming world-wide, what you write is potentially just as accessible as what is on CNN. Blogging could also revolutionize education and it should be embraced by all teachers.

I got an email from Thivai from Dialogic the other day telling me that he taught a writing class in Kentucky and that he convinced some of his students to start their own blogs. I think that is a great idea and, in fact, if I were a teacher (and if all my students had guaranteed access to the internet) I would make blogging and participation in an online forum mandatory requirements of the class. Not only would the students benefit from each other’s opinions (which are often not expressed in class - today’s teenager is much more confident behind the keyboard), but the entire world could learn from these students, could see how tomorrow’s leaders are thinking today. I am sure that these students would feel empowered by the ability to self-publish themselves to the entire world according to their own standards, not what their teachers tell them is gramatically correct. Furthermore, the internet (and more so in the future) allows for those who express themselves better with music, art, photography, and film rather than language to do just that. I have often come across an image, animation, or sound file that has had a much more profound impact than some lengthy essay.

I read in article in the conservative San Diego Union Tribune the other week saying that junior high and high school teachers across the county are horrified by how email and instant messaging is effecting the writing style of their students. I completely disagree - I am impressed by these creative young people who are cleverly reinventing their language. And it is not like this is anything new - professors and academics have been calling for a standardization of English for centuries now. That is, a language that does not change throughout time. (In which case we would be speaking Old English or Latin or the Germanic tongue that came before hand or even Gaelic). But language and dialects do change and what is beautiful about the free flowing prose of digital writing is that it is breaking convential paradigms of culture and class. Writing like a haughty philosophy professor and couching your arguments in allusions to complex theories will probably do you more harm than help because your audience will be very small. The internet is egalitarian by design and what is clear and sensible is usually what is popular. (That and sex.)

That is not to say that the world wide web has not, so far, been a tool (purposeful and otherwise) to propogate the Western cultural and media hegemony. Nearly all blogs, from Guadalajara, Mexico to Tunis, Tunisia are written in that same tongue in cheek irony that is a direct descendent of Western literature. Furthermore, English has emerged (as nearly all predicted) as the official language of the internet and the blogging community. Many bloggers living in non-English speaking countries say that they write in English to reach the largest internet audience. (this will hopefully change as time goes on)

A sign of how little interest and investment has been placed in social globalization, there are few translating tools available on the internet and nearly all of them are limited to translating between the same character sets. (the translator on this site is the best available for roman character languages and as anyone who has used it knows, there is much to be desired)

Blogging and Socialism

These however are all obstacles that can be overcome. Learning more about how the internet has developed and where it could possibly be going, has reinvigorated what used to be my deep pessimism about a world that does not allow for socialism. The internet, however, allows a space for socialism to prosper (as it allows a space for capitalism - companies like Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, and Macromedia). It also reevaluates the meaning of property.

For example, this blog is run on an internet application called Word Press. The forum is run on a program called phpBB. Both programs are absolutely free. They are developed by volunteers who want to make it easier for people to communicate with each other. There are places on their websites where you can leave donations (which I have not yet done, but plan to do in the future), but they do not press you to do so. And what is all the more impressive is that these two programs are amongst the best in what they can do because there are so many volunteers who have signed on to make them successful projects.

Furthermore, these two programs are written in a computer language called PHP which is open source and free to use. Meaning that, unlike languages created by Microsoft, for example, anyone can look at how the code is constructed and anyone can offer ideas about how to improve it. The code - the PHP - is then installed on an Apache-run server which is also open source. All of this is revolutionarily socialist and I am amazed that it doesn’t get more press outside of the computer and geek sectors of society.

Same socialist problems - and what will happen after we forget about energy?

Like the failed Communist states of the last century - an experiment that in hindsight seems to have lasted for such a short amount of time - free software and open source code presents itself with problems about work and reward. How to ensure that those who work the hardest aren’t rewarded the least? That is, how to provide a motivation for work and innovation. I saw clearly in Cuba that efforts to create a sociology of “feeling good” for doing work for your country is not quite sufficient and creates more hyper-patriotism and social divide than motivation. The result was an extremely run down and lethargic country with social equality that the United States has never come close to. Which is why Fidel has had to resort to authoritarianism in order to keep the socialist dream alive. How then to avoid this stifle of innovation in free software and open source projects? It’s the most important question - the one that will only be answered if such projects are able to succeed.

A couple of months ago I was in Austin Texas. It was about 7 am, the sky was silver, the wind chilly and I had just woken up in my car which was parked facing the sun in a hotel parking lot. I cruised over to a coffee shop for some morning espresso and fell into conversation with a guy in his early 50’s who worked in the computer department of UT Austin. It was a fast paced, espresso fueled conversation that covered everything from amino acids to Mexican geology to the short history of computer science. He left me emphasizing one point though that really stuck in my head. He asked me, his eyes focused intensely, “do you realize what a gigantic impact it will have on this world when there is no longer a shortage in energy, when mammoth amounts can be created for pennies a day?” And that was about it. He wished me a good day and I was off, thinking about what he said while on my way to Monterey, Mexico, a McDonalds ice cream cone in my hand.

And he’s right - when you start to think about interminable and free energy, everything else kind of pales in comparison. It forces a complete paradigm shift. What to do when electricity is free, when software is free, when our pace of development quickens beyond our pace of understanding? Will we finally take a look around and focus our attention on all that we have fucked up on the way?

It’s a question that for now is better left to science fiction writers, but I really don’t think it is so far away. And so in the mean time, while physicists and chemists play around in their labs, I am going to get over the insecurity of being seen as a computer geek, and try to help forge the path for open source software. More specifically, I want to bring open source software to where it is most needed right now and where it can be further developed - to developing countries.

That is where the V2V project is going towards right now: creating a network using open source software to keep migrants in touch with their home communities. Please leave any comments and/or suggestions by clicking on “comments” below.