The recently elected Labor government in our blessed country is proceeding relentlessly in their quest to implement an isp-level net filter with trials soon to be conducted in Tasmania. Once again common sense goes out the window and we have a government ramming a solution down our throats that only the sectional religious interests actually want. But I’m not too worried. Why? Because the government is setting itself up for an immense embarrasment. And it’s forcing out into the open something that the rest of the country has been happy to keep under the rug. And what is this something? Well, it turns out - shock horror - a lot of us really, really like porn.
I just wanted to say that the response from Anonymous to my post on their movement has been fantastic. Their ability to address the criticism contianed in the article and respond positively to it gives their movement credibility and I believe - strength. I wish them the very best for their day of protest on the 10th of Feb - and urge all to join in on the legitimate peaceful protests.
What should we make of this war on Scientology being conducted by the enigmatic internet group - Anonymous? (I hesitate to label them as anything beyond a ‘group’ since they themselves seem to try to resist various kinds of labels (such as hackers)) For those who don’t know, this group has popped up […]
Dmitry Davidov is an internet marketer and adsense guru (although he probably doesn’t agree with that label) that has achieved the dream of self-sufficiency by making money on the internet. In this interview I ask him about the means by which he has achieved his success and the kind of lifestyle this affords him. We also explore in depth some of the philosophic and ethical issues that concern the science of marketing. This is a must read for anyone looking to earn a living on the internet. As anyone who reads this blog might know, I don’t see eye to eye with Dmitry on many things (which makes for a great interview), but his answers are thoughtful, well considered, and insightful. My thanks to Dmitry for the time taken to give me this interview.
Dorris Lessing is the latest of a growing list of notable people who have spoken out against the internet, claiming in short that it makes us stupid. Another prominent example is the author Andrew Keen who argues first that user generated content (along with copyright infringement and the like) is undermining the business models that enable the production of quality content - content that is vetted by professionals. On the other side you have people like Lawrence Lessig who argues in defence of the cult of the amateur and the democratisation of content production. It’s interesting that the internet has produced such divergent interpretations of its contribution. Either it will liberate us from the elite culture makers, or it will doom us to a swill of endless mediocrity where we can’t tell fact from fiction. Either it will be the birth of a new democratic consciousness, or the end of consciousness itself. I’m not going to take a side in this particular debate. It is an old debate as I will point out in greater detail below. However, there is a manner in which the internet may provide for a genuine raising of consciousness, one which is continually overlooked by the pundits. It’s nature is not what you’d expect - and it certainly doesn’t rely on a wholesome belief in the goodness of the average human being.
A while back I wrote about the brave new revenue sharing world that is fast approaching. I argued that in order to infiltrate word of mouth distribution channels, companies would begin to share revenue with their services. I predicted that the result would be the total commodification of our social lives and I painted nightmare scenarios where we were paid to influence our friends, colleagues and loved ones for the sake of a share in the profit. I want now to explore the possible effects of this change on our day to day lives. To what extent will our private, social lives become an extension of a capitalistic process that begins with a marketing decision made by the board members of a corporation, or the political advisors to a demagogue? To what extent was this always the case? And what would be the danger to society were this to become the case? Might we lose something vital that protects society - that allows it to adapt in response to change?
The reason for the censoring is apparently security related, with many criticising microsoft for choosing to prevent user behaviour as opposed to just fixing the root problem. You’ll notice how in the post it’s mentioned how it never used to be the case that you would receive an error message at all, but that at least now you do.
We are on the cusp of a new era of soulless, vacuous consumerism. A new breed of yuppie idiot - The iPhoney - has hit the streets. They’ve been waiting all their lives for that one piece of electronic gadgetry to fill that vast spiritual void. With the release of the iPhone that day has finally come. Now they can strap that status symbol straight to their chest and wear it with pride. But it even gets better than this: To reward its loyal horde of semi-professional zombies, Apple has shipped a second version of the phone, named after its beloved demographic: The iPhoney!
In a two part post I put forward the thesis that competitive social instincts allow marketers to gain the influence that they do over our cultural forms of life. I argued that rather than influencing us directly, marketing messages are reinforced by peer group behaviour. I saw an example on youtube today that was so deliciously to the point that I had to share it.
The BBC is reporting on the AACS reaction to the HD DVD Digg revolt. It’s a pretty entertaining read. It is claiming that it will pursue legal and technical means to stop the spread of the HD DVD processing key. Well he better get cracking - currently the numbers on google show 1.4 million pages contain the code - as per the following screenshot.