Piano notation, violin notation, guitar notation, and tablature for “A Gentle Rain” are available now from Scribd.

Piano Notation
Violin Notation
Guitar Notation
Tablature

Stavo mangiando un panino al tacchino e avevo già qualche difficoltà a gestire la salsa al cetriolo. Figuriamoci una conversazione con William Uricchio. Però lui è stato gentile. Ha capito la situazione, e si è impegnato ad animare la conversazione. Prendendo spunto dalla mia italianità esibita nel badge della conferenza The Futures of Entertainment e dal mio boffonchiare sul fatto che studio il fansubbing italiano, si mette a raccontarmi di Mike Bongiorno.

Il pirata della tv italiana (altro che Facchinetti)

Uricchio mi ricorda che l’importazione para-legale di contenuti americani non e’ cosa nuova nella tradizione italiana, e nemmeno tanto subculturale. Il piu’ generalista dei nostri autori infatti era solo un attento fruitori di formati stranieri che ha importato nella nostra televisione (senza averne molto diritto). Pace all’anima sua (di Mike Bongiorno) e di chi ancora crede che il sistema mediale si basi sui diritti di proprietà intellettuale e non sulla loro trasgressione, nonostante molte evidenze storiche (vedi Lessig, Free Culture).
E così il problema tacchino è risolto (quello dei diritti televisivi no, ma il problema della fame nel -mio- mondo è più importante, giusto?).

There are certainly a lot of wonderful things about Free Software and the corresponding Free Media forms, all together forming the bulk of Free Culture. I enjoy listening to songs on jamendo.com and I love to watch Open Movies like Big Buck Bunny. There may not be such an amount of choice as in places for non-free media, but since I have discovered jamendo I am listening to a much more diverse selection of music genres than before, just because “it’s right there”.

Recently when I reinstalled my Ubuntu Linux, I started to back up my media. I am both a minimalist and a free software idealist, so there were nearly no media files at all that were not released under a creative commons license or similar. What if my hard drive had crashed right then and all my data had been gone? I guess most users would not have liked that, but I would have barely cared. The internet is not only a wonderful place for collaboration and communication, but so much more for sharing. All my data was lying there in the internet on various sites, I just would have had to download it again. Everything – from my operating system over my favourite applications to my music was backed up for me without the need to do anything. Wow – that’s what I call comfort.

Fortunately, harddrive crashes occur very rarely, so for most people that may not be an issue. But a backup is not just about an insurance in case of losing a harddrive, it is about taking a load from you – the load to keep in mind how much data you have and in which places it rests. The less I need to keep track of my files the more I can focus on things I enjoy. The less I have to fear about my data the more I can experiment with new and unstable software. The less I own, the more I enjoy that which I own.

“Share more = worry less” is yet another thing I love about Free Culture.

Thank you so much for that.

Qui São Paulo, Brasile. Perché sono qua non é il tema di questo post, che piú che un post é semplicemente un annuncio. La mostra “S’él stë Design” si é conclusa degnamente con un giorno in anticipo perché dovevo ancora sbrigare circa un centinaio di cose in sospeso, ivi inclusa la preparazione per un mese di Brasile (gentilmente sponsorizzato dal mio datore di vita).

Sono stato soddisfatto sia della diffusione dell’evento (ne hanno parlato via web, via radio e via TV locale) che della partecipazione (neanche un centinaio in due settimane, ma si trattava di persone interessate all’argomento – nel 70% dei casi – con la quale ho potuto spendere il tempo necessario per spiegare i concetti utili a capire le intenzioni del progetto). Bisogna considerare che personalmente ho ridotto al minimo qualsiasi tipo di promozione che prevedesse impegno fisico e temporale: 100 cartoline stampate a colori + 10 locandine (A3 + A4) piazzate in soli due punti strategici della città e creazione di un “evento” via Facebook. Tutto qui. D’altronde…chi aveva altro tempo?

Inoltre ho partecipato attivamente all’incontro sulle tematiche ambientali che si é svolto a Firenze il 5 e il 6 Novembre intitolato “Less is Next – Dal cucchiaio alla realtá” dove ho potuto parlare del mio ultimo progetto di tesi – E-kit 2.0 – per la prima volta in pubblico. Oltre a questo ho avuto l’onore e il piacere di vedere pubblicato un ricco assortimento di immagini e testi esplicativi del progetto che é stato incluso nella pubblicazione cartacea (libro) che raccoglie gli interventi dell’anno precedente, a cura dell’organizzatrice – nonché grafica – Silvia Grilli. Questa serie di lieti eventi ha potuto far sí ch’io potessi finalmente aprire al pubblico il sito ufficiale dell’Erasmus Kit, rendendolo disponibile e fruibile a chiunque in forma del tutto libera e gratuita.

Il sito é raggiungibile all’indirizzo erasmuskit.weebly.com ed é ancora in fase beta, ovvero sperimentale. Questo vuol dire che, oltre a non essere ancora del tutto completo, sarà possibile in futuro apportare alcune sostanziali modifiche. Il sito é in doppia lingua, anche se la lingua ufficiale rimane l’inglese. Considerato che sto lavorando da solo non mi é possibile né pensare a una piattaforma più cool, magari piena di java fighetti, né inserire piú lingue. Per sviluppare in modo piú professionale il tutto avrei bisogno di una buona dose d’aiuto di altri volontari che sposano la mia causa, ovviamente a titolo gratutito, visto che il progetto prevede l’assoluto uso di servizi Open Source e si colloca apertamente nel ramo della Free Culture, ovvero aggratis e per la gloria. Già.

Detto questo, bisogna comunicare anche che sto lavorando a un sito indipendente dedicato al progetto S.p.A., il quale – oltre ad essere vivo, vegeto e assolutamente in corso – ha composto ben l’80% della mostra di cui sopra. Ho aggiunto qualche oggetto in piú alla collezione, per cui si é reso necessario sviluppare uno spazio apposito che possa essere ampliato tranquillamente senza invadere piú di tanto questo blog. D’altro canto questa era giá la mia intenzione fin dagli esordi di S.p.A. su questo blog

Preparatevi dunque!

Per il resto in questo periodo mi é difficile scrivere, visto che sto continuando a lavorare a distanza alternando la visita alla cittá che ancora non conosco bene. Tuttavia ho in cantiere almeno una decina di post piuttosto succosi e curiosi…figuratevi se non ci sono contrasti bizzarri a São Paulo tra immigrazione e melting pot culturale, produzione nazionale di prodotti normalmente importati nel resto del mondo, forte contrasto economico tra i livelli sociali, ambiente tropicale, latrine a cielo aperto e una politica ambientale all’avanguardia…insomma, me la sto studiando un po’. Piú avanti verrá l’ora di scrivere qualche riga a proposito. Per ora metto in pratica il consiglio di vita che mi ha dato ieri il mio gentile e anziano amico, Seu Odin:

“Vale más um minuto na vida do que a vida num minuto…”

Il tutto per ricordarmi di andare con calma, senza fretta.

Finally, the Jamendo Upload Saga is over and the The Shifting Language is now available.  It’s been a long struggle.

It first began with my inability to upload tracks to Jamendo.  The tracks never even reached the encoding stage.  After having uploading problems elsewhere, and learning about a bug in flash for linux, I decided to install wine so that I could run flash for windows in linux.  Using flash for windows, I was able to upload tracks but they froze on the encoding stage and were rejected by the server.  I then emailed Jamendo about this problem.  I didn’t catch the response from Jamendo for a few days because Yahoo mistakenly threw the email from Jamendo in the spam folder.  Jamendo asked me to send them one of the files that had been rejected the server so they could examine it.  I sent a response with the file attached but never heard back.  After more than a month went by, I emailed them to ask if they had received the file.  They told me they had never received it and asked me to resend the file.  I attached the file to an email and sent it.  After more than a week went by with no response, I emailed them again to ask if they had received the file.  They told me that, once again, they never received it and asked me to send it one more time.  This time, however, rather than attaching the file to my email, I uploaded it to zShare and sent them the link to the file.  This time I got a prompt response telling me that they had received the file and determined the problem to be a low sample rate (8k), that the file needed to have a sample rate of 44.1 k.  I looked at audacity’s default settings and, indeed, the sample rate was 8k.  I then spent the next few days re-recording the tracks at 44.1 k.  Finally, using flash for windows, I uploaded the tracks successfully and finalized the album.  Just this morning, I received an email from Jamendo telling me that the album was no longer awaiting moderation and was now publicly available.  Finally.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Looking back on the previous year I realized that the travel world has changed me.

After decades of showing up 1 hour before my flight (and that’s for international flights, mind you) now I end up showing up so early – I have 2 hours at the gate.

I credit that to ElAl.

A good friend of mine showed up 2+ hours before his flight to Madrid and made it to check in with plenty of time to spare. Unfortunately for him, the flight was overbooked. Rather than bump a happy bumpee, they dug up the fine print and informed my friend that he did not show up on time. Don’t worry – the story has a happy ending.

For ElAl. Not for my friend, who was shipped to Barcelona and had to find his own way to Madrid. Cost – 1/2 day of vacation and at least $500. So, now I get there 3 hours before the flight. I am a changed man.

Second big change was reported in the New York Times.

Not about me, personally, but about the average traveller is ditching the web and booking flights through their travel agent. For the first time, I called a travel agent and had them do all the work. Changed flights ten times, paid later, speak to a human – it was all new for me and quite refreshing. (Kind of like my 8 year old kid discovering the VCR – you just put the tape in and press play. What a great idea! No menu! No scratched disk! No Estonian subtitles! – Just play the movie.) I actually had a good travel agent honest enough to tell me if I could get it cheaper online. But, I must admit that I still enjoy using the Western Union hold from time to time in online bookings.

And of course, if you need to decide where to do your Hannukah shopping on Long Island – at Roosevelt Field Mall or at Smithhaven Mall – you need the web. Or for conditions at Mt Baldy Ski Resort. If you just like reading blogs – try this travel blog and this vacation blog.

I guess this is a good place to introduce my readers to Josh Herst – blogger and Web entrepreneur, founder of TripHub. For our Canadian readers – check out this post with a rabbi’s experiences in the Canadian tundra (that’s a bit north of Hampstead, eh?).

• Restaurants Blog
• Shopping Blog
• Lloyd Center Mall Portland
• Pearlridge Shopping Center
• Potomac Mills Outlet Mall

Bij toeval ontdekte ik iets moois op een forum over auteursrecht. En nadat ik dit pareltje deelde met Facebookvrienden kregen ook anderen glinsterende oogjes. Het is de internetfilm Sita Sings the Blues. Gemaakt door de Amerikaanse Nina Paley, na het lezen van het Indiase sprookje de Ramayana.

De Ramayana is een van de twee grote legendes van India. En Nina Paley heeft er een Indiaas-Amerikaanse animatiefilm van gemaakt die zowel uniek als innovatief is. De eerste indruk op het beeldscherm zal meteen doen denken aan gestileerd bloemetjesbehang uit een meisjeskamer. In tweedimensionale vormen, gebaseerd op cirkels, zien we extreem eenvoudige personages in bonte kleuren, die de prille kijker zullen verbazen. Want onze eerste indruk is dat zulke abstracte schepselen niet kunnen boeien door de onveranderlijk portretten en gebrek aan motorische dynamiek. Sinds Sneeuwwitje (Disney, 1937) zijn we immers verwend met fraaie bewegingen en meeslepende emoties in gezichtsuitdrukkingen. Nog steeds wedijveren de animatiestudio’s met elkaar om hun personages zo dicht mogelijk bij de realiteit te brengen. Bij Sita is dat heel anders: de beeldtaal is nogal statisch en symbolisch. Een huilende Sita is bijna dezelfde als een gelukkige Sita, maar dan met pruilmondje en tranen die vanuit haar ogen in een perfecte boog wegschieten. Maar wie deze film de eerste minuten het voordeel van de twijfel geeft, komt terecht in een verrassend speels verhaal met meerdere lagen en dimensies. Het is op momenten zo verfrissend dat je er spontaan gelukkig van wordt. En ik vraag me soms af waarom er niet al honderden van deze films bestaan, zo krachtig en werkzaam kan eenvoud zijn. Paley (van wie je denkt dat je haar kent uit de groentewinkel) heeft onder meer gebruik gemaakt van drie vertellers, die als Aziatische schaduwgoden kibbelen over de juistheid van de historie. En in weer een heel andere tekenstijl heeft ze ook een bijna autobiografisch verhaal van een mislukte liefde in de film verwerkt. Van scene naar scene houdt ze de kijkers in de greep en maakt er een prachtig geheel van. De muziek is van uitzonderlijke klasse en het heeft Paley dan ook de grootste moeite gekost om de muziekrechten te regelen. Want met haar eigen genereuze weggeven van haar creativiteit – de film is geheel gratis door iedereen te bekijken op het web – zijn de auteursrechthebbenden van de prachtige muziek van Annette Hanshaw het niet eens. En daarom probeert Paley nu het tekort via donaties te verwerven. Dat lukt haar inmiddels moeiteloos en maakt het de miljoenen kijkers ook mogelijk om hun waardering uit te drukken in een gift. Ook in die zin is het een heel eigentijdse vorm van distributie en vergoeding. Neem er gerust een avond de tijd voor om dit prachtige verhaal te bekijken en klik ook eens op de vele achtergronden bij Sita sings the Blues.

Pioneer in the field, the Database of Virtual Art (DVA) has been
documenting the rapidly evolving digital installation art for more than
a decade. Cooperating with known media artists, researchers and
institutions as members allows the DVA to develop into the collective
project in the field. There have been a number of online archives
supported over the years, but almost all no longer have funding and have
either disappeared or exist in a frozen condition.

The DVA is beginning a renewed phase of further development with
existing and new members. Based on the *concept of expanded
documentation* it epitomizes a collective, *facebook-like* project
dedicated to media art. 500 artists selected from over 5000 applicants
offer the best selection of thousands of high quality artworks. Besides
the artists, more than 300 theorists and mediaarthistorians are
contributors. The DVA is a scholarly project and from the beginning a
university-based endeavor.

NEW FEATURES of the DVA :::
::: Optimized upload system allowing contributors to add, revise, &
cross-link information in a clear online procedure.
::: Artists can easily upload videos, as well as work descriptions,
digital documents, technical data, institutions and bios.
::: This rich online resource has a systematic thesaurus built from
various international keyword systems.
::: Any contributor from the field can submit to the news-ticker.
www.virtualart.at
Inviting a new wave of contributions to use the enhanced and improved
interface.
:::::::  Database of Virtual Art  :::::  ADVISORY BOARD  ::::::
Roy ASCOTT, Beryl GRAHAM, Erkki HUHTAMO, Jorge LA FERLA, Gunalan
NADARAJAN, Christiane PAUL, Martin ROTH, Steve WILSON
http://www.virtualart.at/about/advisory-board.html

Notation for “Dancer” is now available from Scribd in pdf format.

Piano Notation

Piano notation, flute notation, bass notation, bass tablature, and drum tablature for “Moments of Elation” are available now from Scribd.

Piano Notation
Flute Notation
Bass Notation
Bass Tablature
Drum Tablature

Nochmal kurz erinnert: Montag, 16.11, Ubuntu Installparty im Linken Zentrum

Spannendes Thema beim Elektrischen Reporter: Es geht um Geräte die nach dem Kauf nicht vollständig unter deiner Kontrolle stehen:

Das iPhone ist längst nicht das einzige digitale Gerät, bei dem der Hersteller sich Kontrollfunktionen einräumt – auch nach dem Verkauf, auch aus der Ferne. Besitzer von Amazons E-Book-Lesegerät “Kindle” erlebten, wie ihnen die Firma ein elektronisches Buch aus dem Speicher löschte, obwohl sie es ganz legal erworben hatten. Die Nutzer glauben also nur, sie hätten die komplette Verfügungsgewalt über ihre Geräte oder den den darauf laufenden Programmen und gespeicherten Inhalten. In Wirklichkeit bestimmen die Hersteller, was sie damit machen dürfen und was nicht.

Kritiker warnen deshalb vor einer digitalen Entmündigung der Verbraucher. Und manche befürchten das verheerende Ende der kreativen Computer-Tüftel-Kultur, wenn Basteleien nur noch mit dem Segen des Herstellers möglich sind.

Link:
http://www.elektrischer-reporter.de/elr/video/180/
Direktdownload:
http://www.blinkenfilme.de/elr/018/ELR_018.mp4

Cello notation, guitar notation, violin notation, and tablature for “Leaves in the Wind” are now available in PDF format from Scribd.

Cello Notation
Guitar Notation
Violin Notation
Tablature

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

It looks like someone in the free gaming community will be orchestrating my music. See this thread at Open Game Art.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Hej guys jeg har kigget på nogle ting og forsøgt at arbejde lidt videre med det jeg fandt, men det behøver selvfølgelig ikke lige være det her vi vælger. Det mest for at få gang i nogle tanker og begynde at arbejde med de skal lave. Glæder mig til at hører hvad i har fundet på! hygge Astrid Hvad jeg har kigget på

www.goodcopybadcopy.net

 Free culture (bogen) http://www.free-culture.cc/freeculture.pdf (3/11/2009)

 Umiddelbare spørgsmål der popper op i mit hoved når jeg går igennem de to ting:

Skal copyright ændres så den ikke begrænser den kunstneriske frihed og uddannelse?

Kan man finde et kompromis mellem de to parter? Hvad var copyrightens oprindelige formål?

 Ideen bag er copyright i konflikt med demokratiske principper? (rig, fattig, personlig frihed)

 hvad er argumenter for delvis fri copyright?

 Skal man bare ændre copyrighten i forhold til gammelt materiale der ikke ”sælges” mere?

 Kan der findes en billigere hvorved man kan finaciere copyrighten?(All you can eat modellen, Den franske model)

Er det et spørgsmål om tilgænglighed? Er musikinddustriens dårlige image skyld i misbruget? All you can eat modellen? Den franske model?

Målgruppe/metode

 Jeg tænker at vi måske kun skulle fokuserer på vores egne medstuderende som målgrupppe. Det er ikke noget jeg mener bare fordi de er forholdsvis let tilgængelige som målgruppe. Det jeg tænker er at hvis man kigger på vores uddannelse, så er det en kreativ digital uddannelse, og dermed tænker jeg så at det ikke er helt utænkeligt at de fleste af os efter endt uddannelse kunne ende ude i job der både har med de digitale teknologier(fildeling, blog, websites osv.) og kreative produktioner (musik, video, remiks, design osv.) at gøre. Altså kommer mange dmd’ere nok til at arbejde ”ved fronten” i forhold til den konflikt der foregår omkring copyrighten.

Den anden ting er at inde for dmd’ere finde man nok mange unge som netop både har interesse for kreative produktioner og nyskabelsen inden for de forskellige genre, men også i høj grad det tekniske kunden der skal til for at anvende de mange nye muligheder har bragt, det være sig rimisks, fildeling eller noget tredje. Altså tænker jeg at dmd studerende på den måde er en relevant gruppe at beskæftige sig med og derved også snævre det ind. Så det jeg tænker er at det man kunne gøre for at undersøge dmd målgruppen var at lave et survey og få så mange som muligt til at besvarer det. Problemformuleringstanker Det som umiddelbart slår mig som et godt sted at bide fat i er det med hvordan copyrighten kunne ændres til et muligt kompromis mellem parterne (copyright indehavere/kunstnere og forbrugerne/dmdstuderende). Her vælger jeg at specificere indehaveren som kunstneren for, igen, at snævre problemet lidt ind. De virkelig store copyright indehavere som f.eks. disney og warner brothers er meget fastlåste i deres holdninger om copyright fordi at de har så mange penge i klemme og fordi firmaer af den størrelse primært har profiten som fokus. Hvorimod man for de fleste enkeltstående kunstneres vedkommende er tale om primært to motivationer A) At dele sin kunst med et publikum B) ”earning an honest days living” på det de brænder for.

Umiddelbart har jeg disse udkast til fordan en problemformulering lunne lyde:

 Hvad kunne få unge dmd studerende til at ændre adfærd i forhold til copyrighted material?

Hvordan kunne man ændre copyright loven så dmdstuderende blev mere villige til at betale for copyrigted materiale?

problemstillinger/dispotition

Her kommer der et par problemstillinger jeg tænkte at vi kunne have med og lidt dispotition

 Indledning

 Metode (skal eventuelt flyttes til efter)

Hvori består konflikten om copyright? (argumenter for og imod)

Hvilke mulige løsninger findes der?

Hvilken løsning synes de DMD studerende er bedst? (indragelse af survey)

Konklusion!

I created an account at ccMixter only to find out they don’t accept copyleft licensing.  They accept noncommercial but not copyleft– it’s odd.  So much for that.  For now, midi files of the album can be grabbed from zShare.  Note: since the drums in “Moments of Elation” are mostly not midi sounds– they’re mostly made up of the drum sounds that come with LMMS– they are not included in the package, and only the melodic instruments are present in the MoE midi file.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

This video is just brilliant, it’s great to see ORG’s campaign against Labour’s absurd “three strikes” proposal picking up steam.

When I was more involved with the free culture movement I wrote my Masters thesis on a Lockean argument against Lily Allen’s view of copyright. The thing I love about the video is that it doesn’t just argue on the economics, as this brilliant essay on Liberal Conspiracy does quite effectively. No, he plays with – and demonstrates – the claim that culture should be something we all enjoy consuming, producing, sharing and learning from. He bought Lily Allen’s CD for his mum, which she loves, but that shouldn’t be the end of the story.

Not only do I believe broadband internet access to be a human right, demonstrated (albeit limitedly) most recently by Finland, but I also believe that access to internet enabled computer technology, in the home, to be a human right. And not just a human right, but access, in both cases, should be liberated from cost.

The following are extracts from the 2005 Geneva World Summit on the Information Society Declaration of Principles outcome document entitled, Building the Information Society: a global challenge in the new Millennium:

24. The ability for all to access and contribute information, ideas and knowledge is essential in an inclusive Information Society.

25. The sharing and strengthening of global knowledge for development can be enhanced by
removing barriers to equitable access to information for economic, social, political, health, cultural, educational, and scientific activities and by facilitating access to public domain information, including by universal design and the use of assistive technologies.

28. We strive to promote universal access with equal opportunities for all to scientific knowledge and the creation and dissemination of scientific and technical information, including open access initiatives for scientific publishing.

The Declaration of Principles is available here:
http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/md/03/wsis/doc/S03-WSIS-DOC-0004!!PDF-E.pdf

The following is an extract from a document entitled Can the Internet be a Human Right? By Michael L. Best:

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights does imply some symmetry in information rights when it states that everyone has the right to “hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers” (Best’s italics). To receive and impart—that sounds like a symmetrical claim of information rights.

Can the Internet be a Human Right? is available here:
http://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/volumes/2004/best-2004.pdf

The following is an extract from the Libre Society Manifesto, which states a:

“wish to defend the idea of a creative sphere of concepts and ideas that are free from ownership.”

The Libre Society Manifesto is available here:
http://www.libresociety.org/

In tandem, we must also free the tools required to access the “creative sphere”.

There must me FREE ACCESS TO THE INTERNET and FREE ACCESS FOR ALL within the framework of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

PRobinson

It’s been a long time since I read tech wiz Aaron Swart’z Raw Thoughts blog.  I mean no disrespect by the title. I met him at a Free Culture Conference at American University when he was something like 16 at the time and already an internationally renowned contributor in the tech world.

He recently posted the contents of his FBI file, which as of September 2008, listed him as a targeted threat. Why? Well, he was part of a collaborative effort to develop a program that enabled unrestricted access to a library-owned search database. By removing the cost of searching, it provided unregulated access to information. While this promotes the principals of free culture,** it was a powerful blow to Capitalism! Well…. at least according to the FBI. No Empires actually fell as a result.

You can read the FBI report here (these are critical tax dollars at work!), including the follow-up notes on Swartz’s electronic whereabouts. Who knows, I might have to request my own some day after writing this. Uh oh!!

**Still not sure what the free culture movement is? See Antitrust for a Hollywood interpretation.

En esta época de cambios constantes es difícil predecir el camino de los medios de comunicación. Los mass media se han transformado más en una década que en más de cuarenta años, ¿cómo predecir su futuro?

The Future of Media, obra de Casaleggio Associati, una empresa italiana especializada en internet, se ha atrevido a predecir el futuro de los medios para los próximos 50 años. El vídeo presenta conceptos muy interesantes. Así, me gustaría destacar el apunte sobre la figura del prosumer, el productor de información además de consumidor. También habla de cómo la información estática se transforma y alimenta el flujo de información, así como que la experiencia será la nueva realidad.

Una de sus predicciones es que los medios convencionales desaparecerán, así como los derechos de autor. Me gustaría hacer hincapié en esta cuestión. Internet nos ha dado muchas cosas, pero también ha propiciado la desaparición de otras tantas, un ejemplo sería el significado de derecho de autor. No me considero una gran experta en este tema, por eso os recomiendo que, si os interesa, leáis el libro de Lawrence Lessing, “Free Culture”.

Primero es esencial definir el término cultura libre, ¿qué es?. Yo diría que es algo así como una visión de la cultura movida por un movimiento social basado en la absoluta libertad de distribución y modificación de cualquier trabajo u obra creativa. Aquí se presenta la base del éxito de portales como Wikipedia o Flickr, por ejemplo. Este movimiento social propiciará la aparición de la Creative Commons. Una organización no gubernamental encargada del desarrollo de planes de ayuda para la reducción de las barreras legales de la creatividad, mediante una nueva legislación y nuevas tecnologías. Porque, ¿dónde están las murallas de los derechos de autor, la piratería, la propiedad intelectual y el copyright?

This weekend I am attending the wedding of my friends Martin Varshavsky and Nina Wiegand. (They did a civil wedding in Hawaii a little while ago; this is the more traditional Jewish wedding.)  I wanted to get a gift, but first of all, Martin is a very successful entrepreneur who obviously can have any ordinary thing that he wants.  And on top of that, the wedding website suggested that gifts were not necessary.

Well, I just can’t stand to go to a wedding without a gift so I thought really really hard.  What would Martin want and appreciate, that I might be able to get?

And suddenly I realized it.  Martin has been bugging me to help him figure out a way for his Educar charity to distribute Wikipedia (in Spanish) to schools without Internet connections.   The problem is that there has not been a simple offline reader on a DVD in Spanish (or, really, most other languages).

There has been a lot of good work to get a cut-down version of Wikipedia onto the OLPC, but this is a different and in many ways not as difficult project. Some people are very interested in working on the concept of offline editing, but for me, that’s secondary for now.  What we need is a version of Wikipedia that is downloadable as an ISO, burnable to a DVD (all the articles of Spanish Wikipedia fits on a DVD pretty easily), with a decent (doesn’t have to be perfect) search and display functionality, using all free software so there are no obstacles to further distribution and modification.

So, this blog post is my wedding gift.  I’m putting some effort into pulling together the people who are working on this… and finding some new friends to help us get this done!

I’m looking for more volunteers to help with the effort.  SJ (a fellow board member at the Wikimedia Foundation) is helping coordinate various people, and we’re launching a new mailing list to get this effort some energy.  If you want to help please let me know in the comments, or just email me!

The work we do on this will not just be about Spanish, of course!  Many languages will benefit.  But I’m starting with Spanish as a gift to my friends Martin and Nina.  Mozel tov, Martin and Nina!

Flute notation, guitar notation, and tablature for “Sunshade” are now available in PDF format from Scribd. I guess I’ll save the LilyPond and Tux Guitar files for the Internet Archive.

Flute Notation
Guitar Notation
Tablature

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

I now have music notation– of the guitar, violin and cello parts– for “Leaves in the Wind” in both LilyPond and PDF formats and have tablature for the guitar part in TuxGuitar and PDF formats as well.  One step closer to releasing my full lossless audio + goodies package.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.