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((((((((((((((((( WEBREFERENCE UPDATE NEWSLETTER ))))))))))))))))) September 14, 2000
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https://www.webreference.com https://www.webreference.com/new/ https://www.webreference.com/new/submit.html New this week on WebReference.com and the Web:
1. OPEN PUBLISHING: Submit Your Article Today! 2. FEATURED ARTICLE: Scholars Discuss Open Code Benefits 3. NET NEWS: * Mac OS X Beta Hits the Streets * Reports of Windows Me Bugs Already Rolling In * Barnesandnoble.com Gets a Big Head * Computer Keyboard Filth Exposed * 2000 Summer Olympics Coverage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. OPEN PUBLISHING: Submit Your Article Today!
Every Thursday the Update features a new article contributed by our readers through our Open Publishing Initiative. We encourage you to submit your own article ideas. Your words could be here!
https://www.webreference.com/new/submit.html
This week, our own Andrew King reports from the recent John Seely Brown Symposium on Technology and Society, held at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus. The topic of the day was Open Code, and these scholars had an mouthful to say in its defense.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2. FEATURED ARTICLE: Scholars Discuss Open Code Benefits
>Technology Rulings Too Hasty, Open Code Rules
Fans of free software and music found some allies this weekend who said if lawmakers don't understand technology they shouldn't try and regulate it.
Leading constitutional cyber-lawyer Lawrence Lessig led the discussion this past weekend on the future of IP rights and open code on the Net, launching the first John Seely Brown Symposium on Technology and Society here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sponsored by the University of Michigan's School of Information and Dr. Brown, himself a U-M graduate, the symposium is the first of five annual lectures by internationally known scholars on the implications of technological advancement for societies.
Lessig, author of "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace," said judges and legislators are making too many decisions too soon about certain technologies before they fully comprehend their long term effects on society. "The plea is that people have enough humility to understand that their first intuitions about technology aren't always correct," he said. Lessig cited a recent court decision against MP3.com as a reason to worry.
>Open Code's Implications
On Saturday, three speakers discussed "The Implications of Open Source Software": John Seely Brown, U-M alum, chief scientist at Xerox, director of PARC, and author of "The Social Life of Information," Michael D. Cohen, Professor of Information at the U-M and author of "Harnessing Complexity," and Lawrence Lessig, famed Harvard Law professor, special master to the Microsoft trial, and author of "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace." The roundtable was well-attended, with a standing room only crowd at Ann Arbor's Michigan Union. Here are some highlights:
Lessig started off the discussion with a tribute to Richard
Stallman, who preached the gospel of open code and its values: the
importance of architecture, universal access, and facilitating
sharing. Lessig called Stallman our "modern Moses" who succumbed
to carpal tunnel syndrome. The torch was then taken up by Linus
Torvalds of Linux fame. "In free software, there is an implied
philosophical difference between sharable social services and
controlled ones," Lessig said. Lessig gave a little history saying
"The whole world of science is an open code movement. The
university doesn't compile itself and only make itself available
to those who compile it."
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"Poems and songs exist in the commons - they are not controlled.
Culture and science both are open source projects. However the
history of the last 100 years are dominated by control and
copyright - controlled by structures of control. To the extent
that code is closed, that too is not something we have a right to
use and access." This lack of access is the threat of closed
code.
Lessig stressed that "Balance is important in each of these
contexts. There is a cultural code space in the public domain where
people have the right to share ideas and systems. Open code also
makes transparent the structure that controls people's lives.
Cyberspace will be defined by software and hardware. To the extent
that code is closed, it is a sequence of rules that govern your
life.
Think about AOL, a closed system. What is being collected?
There's no good way to answer that, the rules are secret and
hidden. Important values are implied by open code, that's not
the world we live in real space. Doors are not locked, we hope.
https://www.webreference.com/new/991230.html#book
"In the digital world there's not necessarily a link to taking
physical property. In the commons, with cultural resources, you
can take a song or poem and I still have it. Economists called
these 'non-rivalrous goods,' which have weird economic properties.
What rules do we make that create the greatest sharing and
productivity but maintain the wide distribution of the original
copyright holder? We need the ability to control the creation of
structure to compensate people for what they do, without giving
them control."
Michael Cohen, Professor of Information at the U-M, then spoke.
"Openness - open code is a thing that instructs us when viewed
from different angles. Wallace Stevens wrote about Thirteen Ways
of Looking at a Blackbird, we'll give you three:
1) Inspectability of regulation
2) Consequences of imposing these regulations
3) Appreciation of the commons
For the last two, generally, we have become like the world,
characterizations of ourselves. There are deep political issues
about our Constitution. The open source movement promotes a lot
of thinking. It allows peripheral participation, quintessential
learning, and fosters communities.
What are the conditions of success for open software? Various
aspects of communities are seen to be important. Communities need:
1) A common language of acting/patches - which allows them (read
programmers) to orient each other to facilitate communications
2) Dispute resolution - there has to be a way of standardizing
3) Social acceptance and rejection
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To succeed at openness you need community, open code creates a
community. A nice kind of virtual circle. Open code has some
other characteristics:
1) The sufficiency of eyeballs principle - when a lot of people
look at something it's much easier to fix problems.
2) The ability to test in a uniform way - most successful projects
have depended on the informal monopoly of Intel. The wide
availability of this standardized environment makes
decentralization of testing possible.
3) Criteria for performance are easy, if it's faster, smaller, and
doesn't crash my system it's better. For the user interface,
however, defining better becomes more difficult."
Dr. Cohen said he has studied other fields like architecture, and
found that architects "design open work spaces to foster
collaboration. Something as simple as lowering partitions in
cubicles can foster better collaboration. Throughout history
there's been an alternation between open and close design. A
tension between learning and control."
John Seely Brown spoke last - "Larry is interested in how to
balance physical and digital commons. The tragedy of the overuse
of the comments is the physical commons. You need a balance
between structure and spontaneity."
The floor was then opened for questions from the audience, and a
live discussion ensued. It was quite an opportunity to hear these
scholars discuss the issues involved in Open Source software, and
I hope you enjoyed this summary. The gist seems to be don't move
too fast with legislation, as we're still in the Net's infancy.
Also, we need to strike a balance between complete openness of
code, and the rights of copyright holders. A delicate balance
indeed.
For more details on this event see:
Andrew B. King
Managing Editor, WebReference.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. NET NEWS: Mac OS X Beta Hits the Streets, Reports of Windows
Me Bugs Already Rolling In, Barnesandnoble.com Gets a
Big Head, Computer Keyboard Filth Exposed. 2000 Summer
Olympics Coverage
>Mac OS X Beta Hits the Streets
Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the Mac OS X public beta Wednesday
during his keynote presentation at Apple Expo Paris. According to
Apple, the new product offers true memory protection, preemptive
multi-tasking and symmetric multiprocessing when running on Power
Mac G4, the company's new dual processor.
https://www.internetnews.com/wd-news/article/0,,10_459251,00.html
InternetNews.com, 000913
>Reports of Windows Me Bugs Already Rolling In
It's Windows Me day, as Microsoft launches its newest member of
the Windows OS family. Along with all hype, comes some bad news.
A bug hunter has announced he has discovered a vulnerability that
allows attackers to crash or reboot a Windows Me computer.
https://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-2770983.html
CNet.com, 000913
>Barnesandnoble.com Gets a Big Head
Barnesandnoble.com scoops up Fatbrain.com in a $64 million deal,
hoping together, the pair of e-booksellers can survive the dot-com
carnage besieging the online retail sector.
https://www.internetstockreport.com/dealtracker/article/0,1785,3871_459971,00.html
InternetStockReport.com, 000914
>Computer Keyboard Filth Exposed
Research conducted on behalf of AOL UK shows that computer
keyboards are accumulating up to two grams of dirt every month.
Find out everything you didn't want to know about computer users'
disgusting habits.
https://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_921000/921923.stm
BBC.co.uk, 000913
>2000 Summer Olympics Coverage
Yahoo has in-depth coverage of Sydney's summer games, which open
Friday. Let the games begin.
https://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/Sports/2000_Sydney_Summer_Olympics/
https://www.olympics.com - Official Olympics Web site
Yahoo.com, 000914
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***********************************************************adv.***
That's it for this week, see you next time.
Andrew King
Managing Editor, WebReference.com
[email protected]
Eric Cook
Assistant Editor, WebReference.com
[email protected]
Catherine Levy
Assistant Editor, WebReference.com
[email protected]
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