Michael Boyle's weblog
Like many, I’m pretty skeptical about big network led efforts to bring their TV and other content online, but still kind of optimistic. So it was with interest that I read John Battelle’s post Hulu Is Up at Searchblog. His conclusion? “This is a big step.”
A response, in three screen captures:
I just caught up with Scoble’s interview with Six Apart over at PodTech.net. It’s a good piece, though if you’ve been involved in blogging in the corporate environment there’s not much new. What was new was the focus the Six Apart gang is putting on getting MT into all of the mashups that are coming into vogue. I think they’re really well positioned to take that a long way.
I just hope that Six Apart doesn’t lose its core constituency first – like me, for instance. Shipping MT4 without an easily extendable library of ready-made templates – and without even providing complete instructions at how to build your own – was a huge mistake.
I forgot to mention it last week, but at this month’s YULBlog First Wednesday there was a crew from montreal.tv doing a piece on the monthly event. Here’s the piece. I think it might have been the first time I have been recorded speaking French for a TV or radio piece! (Note to self: don’t back away from the mike in future).
Lawrence Lessig reports that Illinois Senate candidate Jack Ryan has someone following and videotaping his opponent around the clock. Prof Lessig suggests that Ryan doesn’t understand the digital age; I would suggest that he understands it all too well.
: Game Over: The End of Video Game Wars.
When I was in undergrad I published my first and only paper in a journal. It wasn’t actually much of a paper, and I never followed up on the subject very seriously, but it resonates a bit now.
The paper was about the rise of trade unionism in the First World War in Germany and the UK. The story is often forgotten, but it’s important. The British Union movement staunchly resisted the war effort, and in particular resisted giving in blindly to the government’s demands due to “wartime considerations”. They fought tooth and nail for concessions in working hours, in pay rates, and most importantly for recognition by the state.
Britain still won the war (with lots of help from others of course), and not in spite of the Unions, because the criticisms they brought to the table improved the conditions of people in general, which led to greater success and support in general for the war effort.
There’s a lesson in this for us, today. Important parts of societies can be critical of their government and strive for improvement while not dooming the whole effort. Societies can be improved during crisis periods, and such improvement doesn’t always mean blindly following along, necessarily.
The price of freedom, it is said, is eternal vigilance. That applies equally, always, inwards as well as outwards. The external foe is not the only threat.
