Iloubnan.info

Par Nada Akl

Joi Ito, PDG de Creative Commons

Lors du forum 4site qui a eu lieu la semaine dernière, les investisseurs, les innovateurs et les entrepreneurs de la région se sont réunis pour discuter des nouvelles technologies et de l’innovation dans l’entrepreneuriat. Parmi les questions majeures qui se sont posées lors de ce rendez-vous : Une Silicon Wadi serait-elle possible dans la région? Question clé pour le Liban. Est-il possible que notre environnement puisse favoriser la création de la prochaine plate-forme technologique régionale? Mais d’ailleurs, quelle est l’importance de l’environnement dans ce domaine-là?

Quelle est l’importance réelle de l’environnement pour promouvoir l’esprit d’entreprise on line? La question était sur la table lors du forum 4site organisé à Beit el Tabib à Beyrouth les 17 et 18 Novembre en collaboration avec Global Entrepreneur Week. Est-ce qu’une Silicon Wadi Possible? Comment et Quand? A quels autres modèles devrions-nous penser pour la région WANA (Asie de l’Ouest / Afrique du Nord)? Hervé Cuviliez de de Kuv capital, et l’entrepreneur et investisseur en capital-risque japonais Joi Ito ont discuté de la question. Cuviliez insiste sur l’importance d’un environnement sain avec tout un écosystème d’incubateurs, de financeurs spécialisés dans le capital-risque et d’universités pour favoriser un lancement réussi. Il s’avère que Kuv capital réfléchit déjà à l’idée d’une Beirut Media City. Ne divulguant que peu d’informations sur le projet, Cuviliez explique que les investisseurs sont sur le point de conclure l’affaire de l’achat d’une localisation au nord de Beyrouth, destinée à devenir le nouveau pôle technologique de la région. Beirut Media City, en partenariat avec d’autres plates-formes technologiques en Europe ou dans le Golfe, permettrait aux professionnels d’un pays d’avoir également accès aux services et aux facilités des pays étrangers.

De son côté, Joi Ito, PDG de Creative Commons, souligne les avantages du Liban: représenter une économie sur une si petite surface géographique ne peut qu’inciter le pays à répondre aux besoins d’un public international. Selon lui, moins le gouvernement s’en mêle, mieux c’est. Prenant cela en considération, le fait que le secteur privé libanais ait montré qu’il pouvait rester opérationnel même sans gouvernement est un grand avantage. Il minimise l’importance de l’environnement puisque l’écosystème est de plus en plus virtuel. Toutefois, il avoue que les capitalistes à risque qui ne sont pas encore en harmonie avec les possibilités du web sont ceux qui se concentrent davantage sur l’environnement des entreprises. Donc la question d’attirer des capitaux au Liban demeure effectivement un problème. Pour illustrer la façon dont selon lui les choses doivent être envisagées, Joi Ito se souvient des jours où il était DJ : il raconte qu’une petite foule de gens décontractés attiraient un public toujours plus nombreux.

En bref, les conseils de Joi Ito pour les entrepreneurs ambitieux:

“Toujours participer aux communautés où vous êtes entrain de construire des systèmes, assister à des conférences, participer à des forums …”.

“Continuer aussi longtemps que possible sans argent à investir et attendre au moins 200.000 utilisateurs avant d’opter pour un commanditaire” (car selon lui le capitaliste à risque peut imposer une certaine direction à suivre qui peut entraver voire inhiber le cours d’un bon commencement).

Enfin, quant à savoir si le Liban peut favoriser un environnement idéal pour le financement ou non, pour lui, ça n’a même pas d’importance : “les légendes de commencement réussis sont toujours en rapport avec une ‘étincelle’, et pas avec des plans d’affaires alléchants ni le financement de l’incubateur”.

Finalement, on réfléchit à une amélioration globale et virtuelle de l’environnement, mais commencer par améliorer les principales infrastructures seraient sûrement profitables au développement des talents prometteurs du Liban : elles contribueraient peut-être à mettre un frein à la fuite des cerveaux et à attirer les investisseurs qui savent justement que le Liban a les cerveaux pour alimenter une plate-forme technologique en plein essor, comparable à la Silicon Valley aux États-Unis ou à Dubai Media City dans le Golfe. Et puis un petit coup de pouce à l’échelle locale pour des « success-stories » de renommée mondiale… voilà qui pourrait être une solution pour le pays.

Il tema delle città e della Rete mi è molto caro, basta rileggere gli ultimi post di quest’anno su Venezia (che si è dotata di un sistema Wi-Fi pubblico). La settimana scorsa per lavoro sono stato a Roma a seguire un evento organizzato da Telecom Italia, si trattava del primo di una serie di incontri destinati a aprire uno spazio di confronto sulla cultura digitale e l’innovazione che la banda larga può portare nel nostro paese.

Mi spiego in parole povere: provate a immaginare una città completamente connessa, con la banda larga in ogni quartiere, magari con una rete pubblica, con reti wi-fi e connessioni mobili facilissime, grazie a telefoni sempre più smart. Quante possibilità di interazione sociale, di fruizione di servizi, di creazione d’impresa ci riserva una città fatta così? Più di quelle a cui riusciamo a pensare ora, di sicuro.

Diventa quindi fondamentale che allo sviluppo dell’infrastruttura tecnologica si accompagni uno sviluppo della cultura digitale, della cultura di rete. Per mettere tutti (il più rapidamente possibile) in condizione di godere dell’enorme potenzialità della Rete e soprattutto di sfruttarlo creativamente.

A breve arriverà a Roma Joi Ito per parlare di Creative Commons a uno dei prossimi incontri di Capitale Digitale. Ho avuto la fortuna di seguire una conferenza di Joi Ito a Milano a Meet The Media Guru e vi assicuro che è imperdibile: qui la cronaca dell’evento milanese. Dopo Joi arriverà un altro ospite straordinario che non posso ancora comunicare. Quello che mi auguro è di veder crescere, non solo a questi incontri e non solo a Roma, la partecipazione delle persone e lo spazio lasciato loro da chi li organizza. Joi Ito e gli altri protagonisti sono dei fari che devono illuminare la nostra strada, ma la strada la dobbiamo percorrere noi.

QUANDO la nostra capitale e il nostro paese diventeranno digitali non è ancora dato saperlo. Gli investimenti pubblici non ci sono mai stati, le opere sono complesse, il cambiamento culturale è epocale. Viviamo probabilmente in una grandissima e millenaria transizione: sarebbe bello vederne il pieno compimento.

Qui sotto, per chiudere, Franco Bernabè (AD di Telecom Italia) intervistato durante Capitale Digitale da Alessio Jacona ci parla di “emancipazione delle periferie grazie allo sviluppo tecnologico”.

Segui Capitale Digitale su facebook

Segui Capitale Digitale su twitter

I would like to spend a few words in response to the blog post written by my friends at Meedan “Why Middle East social-web projects miss their target audience“.  You’ve touched one very weak point -maybe the weakest- concerning the state of the Arabic web: the language issue. The gap Arabic/English is there, and you’re right when you say that basically “when in Rome, do what the Romans do”. Anyway, the point is exactly here: what are the Romans (the Arabs) doing right now?

All the qualified training programmes -particularly in media field, but also in science, engineer, etc- all across the Arab world are.. in English! Go visit all the most important universities in the Arab world and you will see that the majority is offering courses and training in English. It’s not by chance that many foreigners that want to learn the Arabic language go to Syria. I had myself the privilege to experience both Syrian public university in Damascus -Faculty of Journalism- and the very qualified Syrian International Academy which gives the best and professional training in public relations and media related-issues..in Arabic (btw, thanks for the compliments about my Syrian Arabic, but it’s exactly for those reasons here above that I can speak, having learned it in a place where media training in Arabic is still strong).

It’s true,  social-web trainings such as the one we did with Royal Film Commission in Jordan would deserve to be done in Arabic, in order to include people from countries -like Iraq-where students are not so comfortable in English as they are in other countries like Lebanon or Jordan.  But I don’t think we missed our target audience. Joi Ito, the trainer and Creative Commons’ Ceo, speaks English and I don’t think a live translation would have been so effective as his words were, directly, to the students. There are “places” sometimes in human interaction where translation can’t go too much further, in order not to start to be literally “lost” in that translation.

We are thinking, next time, to offer a training in Arabic for Arabic speakers only, but it would be a different one. Arab trainers -or foreigners who speak enough good Arabic- should train the students, I personally don’t think translation can be effective in all the human interaction situations, and having even a live translation of such a workshop done by an English speaker would never be the same, cause something will be irreparably lost in translation.  Instead, we should maybe encourage Arabs and Arabic speakers to train in Arabic -despite of the difficulties of translating the web 2.0 into this beautiful language-  by tailoring the contents of the training itself directly for an Arabic-only speaking audience. Language has got a culture inside itself and, again, having followed journalism training in Arabic I think I can guess some of the nuances that will always be lost in translation.

Speaking about that, it’s very important to remind the work of organisations such as Social Media Exchange in Beirut and the Arab Digital Expression Foundation in Cairo that are putting lots of efforts in doing web 2.0 training directly in Arabic, with a different methodology and not only a different terminology due to the translation.

But, again, I guess the problem is bigger than it seems: how we can have more Arabs speaking Arabic and producing content in Arabic? How we can encourage this process? Is this only a matter of translation -or is it rather a matter of establishing the culture itself of training in Arabic, a culture that most of the Arab world itself lacks?

Jordan Media Institute, the soon-to-be-open media training school in Jordan, is putting together one of the few available journalism curricula in Arabic. Syrian International Academy has been doing this for many years now. Al Jazeera does have a very high level training in the media field and in Arabic, of course. But what about all the other existing universities all across the Arab world?

If the Arabs themselves consider Arabic to be the proper language only for literature and poetry, while media and journalism should be left to English, no translation in the world would ever been able to fill any gap.

Because, as I’ve heard in a theatre play while in Damascus:  “Without Al Jazeera and  the foreigners  desperately trying to learn the language, nobody would ever speak Arabic in the Arab world“.

Sadly, it was supposed to be a comedy.

I am currently out in Amman, fourth day of the online media creativity workshop, the join effort between Royal Film Commission of Jordan and Creative Commons.

The students are great, very active and creative and I think everybody is enjoying the training. Joi (Ito), CEO of Creative Commons, is teaching the students how to use online tools to create stuff and promote it. He has been a great teacher, full of passion and energy -as usual!-. Since he is also a great photographer, he has put a lot of nice pics on his Flickr photostream. He also wrote a very nice post on his blog and I’d love to thank him too, for all the energy he put in this and also for the fun we all had in the past days. Thanks also to the students, the SAE people and the great staff of Royal Film Commission, Mohannad and Nada that made this possible and Mais who is our angel..

For who’s interested to follow live we set up a blog and Twitter tagged with#rfconlinemedia.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is over, but it looks like Amman is going to stay as the place to be for talking business and creativity for the next upcoming days.

Queen Rania Centre for Enterpreneurship (QRCE) is organising the Global Enterpreneurs’ Week (GEW), a full week of interesting talks and insights focused on how to foster creativity and innovation in business. The week -which will last until 21 may, programme can be found here:www.qrce.org/eweek – was inaugurated today by HRH Princess Summaya bint al Hasan who chairs the Princess Sumaya University of Technology in Amman.

Mohamed Khawaja, deputy director at QRCE, invited many interesting people to address opening speeches, among them Mohammad Khammas, CEO of Al Ahli Holding Group, a big Dubai holding who was also presenting a shared project with argentinians and south-africans about supporting young students interested in opening new businesses.

Joi Ito, Ceo of Creative Commons, was talking about innovation and its costs, which were dramatically lowered by the Internet. Basically the Internet is like an open free and very creative R&D department accessible to everybody, if we keep it open:)  Innovation without permission was basically the successfull model on which all Silicon Valley -and, more in general, the US model- is based but cant’ be exported like it is in other places.  Jordan, like as the other Arab countries, has to find its own path to innovation, maybe insisting on a couple of creative and bold local enterpreneurs to change the way to do business and then extend it locally and regionally.

Habib Haddad, Lebanese entrepreneur now based in the US, co-founder of Yamli.com and recently nominated at WEF as one of the Young Arab Leaders of Tomorrow, inaugurated the GEW with his keynote speech entitled “From idea to reality”, describing the creation of a start-up just like building the layers of an onion.

The GEW has a very interesting programme which underlines how Amman is quickly becoming an hot spot in the Arab world to discuss business and creativity issues. Jordan is very cleverly pushing on the greatest resource it has got: its population, made up by a majority of young people under 30 that have the energy and the creativity to innovate and set up new ideas and businesses.

Al Jazeera yesterday announced the world’s first repository of broadcast-quality video footage released under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license. Select Al Jazeera video footage – at this time, footage of the War in Gaza - will be available for free to be downloaded, shared, remixed, subtitled and eventually rebroadcasted by users and TV stations across the world with acknowledgement to Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera will release its exclusive Arabic and English coverage produced by the Network’s correspondents and crews in the Gaza Strip online at http://cc.aljazeera.net. The ongoing war and crisis in Gaza, together with the scarcity of news footage available, make the repository a key resource for anyone producing content about the current situation.

This is the first time that video footage produced by a news broadcaster is released under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license, which allows for both commercial and non-commercial use.

Mohamed Nanabhay, who headed New Media at Al Jazeera and launched the project, stated: “As one of the only international broadcasters in Gaza, our coverage of the war has been unsurpassed. The launch of Al Jazeera’s Creative Commons Repository means that our Gaza footage will be made available under the most permissive Creative Commons license (CC-BY). With the flexibility of the license, we expect to introduce our outstanding coverage to an even wider audience across the world. This means that news outlets, filmmakers and bloggers will be able to easily share, remix, and reuse our footage.”

Lawrence Lessig – founder of the Creative Commons organization and Professor of Law at Stanford University – stated: “Al Jazeera is teaching an important lesson about how free speech gets built and supported. By providing a free resource for the world, the network is encouraging wider debate, and a richer understanding.”

Joichi Ito – CEO of Creative Commons and a world-renowned technology  entrepreneur – added: “Video news footage is an essential part of modern journalism. Providing material under a Creative Commons license to allow commercial and amateur use is an enormous contribution to the global dialogue around important events. Al Jazeera has set the example and the standard that we hope others will follow.”

As a pioneer in news and media, Al Jazeera is always looking for ways to make its unique content accessible to audiences across the world and the launch of Al Jazeera’s Creative Commons Repository is another concrete step in this direction.

For details on downloading and accessing content from Al Jazeera’s Creative Commons Repository please go to http://cc.aljazeera.net or contact creativecommons@aljazeera.net.

日本語

Shockingly woke up today before the crack of noon.  Spent the morning composing my late nengajo, new year’s cards.  Ki-San showed up around noon to check in on me.  He informed me that my boss’s father had passed away, and invited me to his house for Soba noodles.

Had a furious session of packing, then headed over to the Kikuti household for Tamoy-San’s world class 食べ物.  Ki instructed me on the proper way to pay my respects, with an envelope filled with cash.

Road to heaven on the drive to Wakkanai.

Soon afterwards I hit the road headed North for Wakkanai.  Doesn’t make a lot of sense to drive North if your destination is South, but I am flying back from Tokyo to Wakkanai, so I wanted to leave my car there.

Bus to Sapporo.

Six hour bus ride later, I was in Sapporo.  Checked in at my hotel, and asked the incredibly kind owner the best way to get to Suskino – the epicenter of Sapporo nightlife.

In another brilliant case of Charlie planning, the owner informed me I was an hour away by foot from the only place I really wanted to go.  To top it off, he said only about 30% of the bars would be open Saturday night, as the Japanese like to take a few days off following New Years.

Excellent news considering I traveled all this way just for the nightlife and a chance to party with some young people.

Sapporo subway.

Undeterred, I took a quick shower and then boarded the subway.  My first destination, my favorite bar in Sapporo, Bagus, was closed.  Discouraged, but hard headed I continued on my evening and found a delightful Ramen shop, where I tasted spicy miso ramen for the first time.

Spicy miso ramen, delicious if you're wondering.

Met a charming fellow there named Dai, who took it upon himself to be my Suskino sensei.  The first club I wanted to go to was closed, but a bar I love nearby was open.  After a few glasses of Sapporo’s finest ale, we headed to another club.

We paid for two girls we met outside to get in, but they quickly vanished nonetheless.  I guess I’m not quite as charming as I imagine.  Dai soon left too, something to do with the late hour and being tired.  I stayed on and danced my heart out.  Considering I traveled six hours, I was not going to let a few pesky details get in the way of being of doing my first club visit in a month properly.

Headed to bed now with the goal of waking up in a few hours to view my first Japanese hockey game.  Upon arriving back at the hostel, I was delighted beyond all expression to discover Joi Ito had replied to my email request for an interview.

A photo of Chris in a babyhat for your enjoyment. Taken by Ayla.

Great present for Christmas?
A wonderful book by Joi Ito – Freesouls. A celebration of all the people who are willing to share. The book is beautifully designed and contains 296 Portraits by Joi Ito and essays by Howard Rheingold, Lawrence Liang, Cory Doctorow, Yochai Benkler, Isaac Mao and Marko Ahtisaari and a foreword by Lawrence Lessig.

A very limited release. Order here.

Ecco qualche interessante rilancio da alcuni siti e blog nostrani su questi temi sempre d’attualità. Intanto una puntuale riflessione di Joi Ito, da un’intervista curata da Nicola Bruno e apparsa su il manifesto di qualche giorno fa. “Global Voices è un progetto su cui ho scommesso da subito. Grazie alle collaborazioni avviate con grandi testate (Reuters, New York Times, etc), è riuscito a dare visibilità a Paesi dell’Africa e del Medio Oriente spesso oscurati in Occidente. Soprattutto in caso di eventi straordinari e catastrofi, il contributo del giornalismo dal basso diventa sempre più centrale. Non solo per la tempestività, ma anche perché riesce ad essere più neutrale rispetto ai media mainstream (che spesso possono essere manipolati per i fini più diversi). Tra le criticità, c’è però il limite del “fact-checking”, della verifica dei fatti e delle fonti che in settori come la politica e l’economia può essere problematico”. Ambito, quello del citizen journalism e di Global Voices, in cui svetta il ricorso a Twitter, tool al centro di uno studio curato dai laboratori di ricerca HP: “Social networks that matter: Twitter under the microscope”. Da cui si ricava, spiega Alessandra Carboni su VisionPost, che “nella realtà ogni utente interagisce veramente solo con pochi soggetti… gli utenti che pubblicano più messaggi sono quelli con la rete di amici veri più estesa”. Conclusione tutt’altro che nuova per chi bazzica davvero online, come ribadiva la recente indagine californiana Digital Youth Project. Si punta cioè a un uso della Rete finalizzato a intensificare rapporti quotidiani con persone che già si conoscono. Ovvero: “Il tempo del feticismo della rete è passato”, chiarisce il sociologo danese Adam Arvidsson, intervistato da Alessandro Delfanti ancora su VisionPost (e rilanciato su il manifesto), aggiungendo: “I media che troviamo sul web non sono altro che i media che sono entrati nella pratica quotidiana della nostra generazione, quindi usare Facebook non è poi diverso da usare il telefono”. Peccato che di queste fitte ragnatele sociali si parli (ancora?) poco e male sulle maggiori testate, e quindi restino spesso astruse per il grande pubblico italiano, ma a forza d’insistere forse si riuscirà a far breccia…no?

El 21 de noviembre publiqué una reseña del libro Almas libres (Free Souls) realizado por el empresario y fotógrafo Joi Ito, actual director general de Creative Commons, empresario, emprendedor, activista.

The End. Michael Lewis on the end of Wall Street as we know it.

Google is also tightening its belt: Google Gears Down for Tougher Times, see also here: Google Cost Cuts Take The Company Away From Its Engineers

Quite some short-term actions:

• A sense of urgency about diversifying the business, which means new priorities include display ads, mobile ads and enterprise software.
• Non-revenue generating products will starve if they’re not killed altogether. Project the company is just “fiddling with,” Schmidt told the WSJ will get “will get “naturally smaller as people get plucked off.”
• Reigning confusion. One Google  current operations manager told the Journal: “It’s not exactly clear where that bottom line is now. I don’t think they know that either.”
• Dispirited engineers. Google no longer belongs to the dreamy engineers and it’s going to make them feel bad. Quoth the Journal: “Some engineers complain they can no longer tap the employees and machines they need to develop their ideas. This is no small issue among elite programmers, many of whom joined the company for the chance to work on such projects, according to current and former employees.”
• Cramped quarters. Google will close offices in Dallas and Denver.
• Shutting off services. Search sandbox SearchMash, virtual world Lively and Google Page Creator will soon be gone. Google Audio Indexing and Google Notebook could follow.
• More grunt work. Google wants to “significantly” cut its 10,000 its contractor workforce and somebody has to pick up the slack.

possibly related: 10 Resources for Beginning Freelancers

I mentioned already twice reviews of Malcolm Caldwells Outliers. Garr has a look on Malcoms presentation style. Spend the time, it´s worthwile.

This is just fantastic. Queen Rania of Jordania in her acceptance speech explaining why she has launched her channel on Youtube, Letterman Style. Awesome. (via)

BTW, Joi has married today. Congratulations and all the best for you!

Honestly, I get a bit tired of all the “Green Computing” meme going around. And while I like basically the concept, I do not like the notion used in this particular context, but the new Lotus Domino attachment and object service (DAOS) looks quite interesting. (via and via).

Und noch ein paar Links in Deutsch:

Spreeblick mit ein paar Ergebnissen einer Studie über das politische Verhalten von Migrantengruppen im Internet: Migranten im Netz

Ein Interview mit Henning Kagermann im Handelsblatt: „Die Welt wird anders aussehen“

Do´s and dont´s auf der Weihnachtsfeier im Büro: Eine folgenschwere Party – aber das wisst ihr ja schon

Ich gehe auf die re:publica’09 vom 1.-3.April 2009 in Berlin. Das Thema: Shift happens

Ebbene sì: quel paio di occhi a mandorla dall’aria saggia che vedete nella foto sono proprio di Joichi Ito ( aka Joi Ito),venture capitalist nominato dal World Economic Forum come uno dei 100 economisti di domani, nonchè CEO di Creative Commons. Siamo alla Mediateca Santa Teresa, lo scorso venerdì e al suo fianco ci siamo noi, Vale e Fede – immancabile rappresentanza CreActive Four, oltre a Manu dietro all’obiettivo – insieme a Fabrizio Bellavista: nessun giochetto in Photoshop – lo dimostra la qualità assolutamente “artigianale” della foto

Un incontro a dir poco incredibile, in cui Joi ha mostrato, con una linearità disarmante, come si possa convivere tra tempo monocronico e policronico, come la rete sia in qualche modo destinata al successo poichè è aperta a tutti (anche ai giovani!), non necessita di grandi investimenti o permessi e dà a tutti la possibilità di mettersi in gioco ( non solo su World of Warcraft!).

E nel riprendere la metafora dell’ensemble, usata da Joi per raffigurare proprio lo spazio sonoro in cui si immergono i giocatori di World of Warcraft, ecco un’ensemble di chi, come noi, venerdì c’era e ha deciso di condividere in rete contenuti ed emozioni di una serata assolutamente indimenticabile.

Post di Alberto D’Ottavi

Friendfeeding di Marco Massarotto

Post di Cirdan il Timoniere

Articolo di Elvira Pollina per Affaritaliani.it

Intervista video di Nova24

Foto su Flickr

Ieri, 28 novembre, alla Mediateca di Santa Teresa a Milano si è tenuto, nell’ambito del ciclo di conferenze Meet the Media Guru, l’incontro con il pubblico di Joichi (Joi) Ito, alla quale ho assistito via Mogulus.
E’ molto difficile riassumere in poche righe un monologo di due ore e mezza. Provo allora ad isolare alcuni punti toccati da Joi Ito e che mi spingono a riflessioni un po’ particolari e sulle quali vorrei sentire la vostra.

Il diritto d’autore
Di fatto il diritto d’autore non è più esercitabile. Per sua natura qualsiasi cosa riproducibile, sia essa una canzone, una foto, un video può essere diffusa in Rete e non solo. Le politiche di difesa di questo diritto rendono alcuni beni ancora più costosi e portano di fatto a una sorta di escalation tra chi produce e chi utilizza illegalmente tali beni.
Le aziende del settore non hanno solo questo problema. Il paradigma open source ha dimostrato che è possibile produrre software di qualità a prezzi irrisori, grazie alla sforzo di persone che, pur non essendo pagate per il loro lavoro, riescono a profondere professionalità in prodotti di alto livello.
Bisogna allora a trovare altre strade, e qualcuno ci riesce. L’ultimo caso è quello del complesso Nine Inch Nails, che hanno messo in Rete, scaricabile gratuitamente, il loro ultimo album. Il loro guadagno, di ben 1,5 milioni di dollari, è arrivato non dall’originalità della loro musica ma dal merchandising.

Qui arriva la mia domanda: in un futuro oramai abbastanza prossimo, di cosa vivranno cantanti, scrittori, fotografi, registi? La mia risposta: di ciò che non è riproducibile: i concerti live e le magliette per i cantanti, le conferenze per gli scrittori, le mostre per i fotografi. O qualunque partecipazione personale che sia tornaconto per altri, ad esempio aziende che invitano presenze illustri per scopi pubblicitari.
In breve, la reputazione sarà l’unico bene sul quale si potrà guadagnare.
Bello, bellissimo: ma coloro che vivono attorno a queste persone? Che ne sarà degli attori, dei dipendenti di case editrici, di aziende musicali, ecc.?
Certamente, si guadagnerà ancora sulla produzione, i bulloni e i mattoni serviranno ancora, magari prodotti non da operai ma da macchine (come in parte già avviene già ora). Avremo solo artigiani del pensiero? A queste riflessioni, mentre ascoltavo Ito, se ne è aggiunta un’altra. Ho pensato a un mestiere che il Web 2.0 e 3.0 non cambieranno. Tante braccia serviranno ancora per la guerra.

Il videogioco
Il videogioco distingue noi dalle generazione che ci ha seguito. Quelli più o meno della mia età sono passati da Pong a giochi più sofisticati. Ma queste simulazioni, nelle nuove generazioni, hanno un ruolo preponderante. Rispetto al passato, il videogioco sviluppa, oltre ai riflessi, le facoltà motorie e intellettive, quanto e più della vita normale, dato che ormai il videogioco si gioca in Rete e diventa MMORPG . Secondo Ito si è arrivati ancora oltre: Il videogioco diviene veicolo di valori , sicuramente quelli della community, della partecipazione in generale. La domandona è: verso che cosa?

Il tempo
I nuovi apparati tecnologici ci portano ad una modalità di fruizione always on, sempre connessi, e con caratteristiche di persistenza. Stare in Rete diverrà come respirare. La nostra concezione del tempo, quella occidentale, quella scandita dai tempi del lavoro e del riposo, nasce nel medioevo con i monasteri. Questo ha portato a una separazione dal pensiero orientale. Si sta per arrivare a una riunificazione. Dal tempo monocronico si torna, in tutto il mondo, al tempo policronico. Quello che conta non è cioè il momento nel quale compi una certa azione, ma il contesto. Non è più necessario comunicare al nostro prossimo: “Ci vediamo alle dieci”. Con le nuove tecnologie, attraverso le quali saremo tutti connessi, ci si dirà: “Io sto andando là”, e la porzione della community interessata si incontrerà rendendo l’orologio un orpello inutile. Sta già succedendo anche a noi, basti pensare al concetto di Twitter come sincronizzatore di community.

Ci sarebbero tante altre cose da dire ma mi fermo qui. Aspetto i vostri commenti e vi indico qualche link di approfondimento.

@ Coldplay e Nine Inch Nails gratuiti su Internet
@ In Cina videogame patriottici contro la perdita dei valori
@ Monocronico e policronico
@ Il blog di Joi Ito

Almas libres (Free Souls) es, un libro de fotografías, más bien de retratos, una colección de ensayos, como se cuenta en su sitio, una celebración de toda la gente deseosa de compartir. Se trata de un nuevo libro realizado por el empresario y fotógrafo Joi Ito, actual director general de Creative Commons, empresario, emprendedor, activista.

El libro ofrece cientos de magníficos retratos de muchos de los líderes en la tecnología y las industrias creativas, líderes de opinión hoy alzados contra el imperativo de la apropiación cultural. El libro también incluye interesante ensayos escritos por pesos pesados de porte de Howard Rheingold, Lawrence Liang, Yochai Benkler, Cory Doctorow e Isaac Mao. Con un prólogo realizado por Lawrence Lessig y una entrevista especial con Joi Ito, FREESOULS marca un nuevo paso importante en la publicación de la cultura libre, todos los retratos del libro están disponibles para su libre reutilización. El libro debería ser de especial interés para los fotógrafos digitales, estudiosos de Internet y entusiastas y teóricos de la cultura libre. Otro ejemplo más que rinde tributo a la revolución de las personas, quienes nos hemos apropiado de la cultura, la que nunca nos debió ser exiliada sopretexto de la comercialización.

Ensayos

Last week, President-elect Obama appointed Kevin Werbach, assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton, and Susan Crawford, who teaches communications and Internet law at the University of Michigan, to co-chair his FCC transition team. In preparation for his incoming administration, the two, both seasoned Net Neutrality advocates, will be tasked with providing information on U.S. government Internet and telecom policies, along with advising on budgetary and personnel matters.

This is clearly good news for Net advocates, and as it happens, it could also be good news for online gamers. The Wharton professor is a hardcore World of Warcraft player, a member of two guilds:

“One of them,” he wrote on his blog in 2006, “was started by my friend and inveterate tech connector, Joi Ito…The other guild is very different — it’s composed primarily of academics and other thinkers who study and write about virtual worlds.”

Werbach’s involvement in WoW is worth noting as it raises the possibility that in the coming months, he and Crawford will craft strategic policy positions relevant to online games and worlds, including broadband usage, content regulation, etc. Along with Ito and like-minded academics, Werbach sees both as important to the future of work and technology:

“What [Warcraft] does,” he continued in that post, “is provide an incentive for people to develop new software and ideas for collaborative production. Many of those ideas will translate to other group activities, including those within the business world. I think MMOGs will be, at a minimum, a significant testbed for these new technologies, because users see a direct benefit and are willing to experiment with new things.”

Unsurprisingly, this perspective extends to virtual worlds like Second Life, which has been an important component in Werbach’s Supernova technology conference. On her own blog, Professor Crawford, a board member at ICANN, also counts herself “a huge fan of Second Life” for the way it lets users retain IP rights to their content (though she confesses to difficulty when it comes to moving her SL avatar around.)

What all this means for specific FCC policies Crawford and Werbach may recommend is too early to tell, of course, but one thing is clear: For perhaps the first time, FCC policies will be drafted by a team who clearly understand the potential of online worlds in a fundamental, and first-hand, way.

Photo of Werbach by Joi Ito, from his Flickr stream.

I was reading Will Richardson’s article Get. Off. Paper. where he talks about people’s dependence on paper, and the reluctance to let go of owning information in hard copy. I’ve also just read what Joi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons, has to say about sharing photos of ourselves. It’s made me reflect on the nature of owning and sharing information, and how that has changed dramatically in the last few years.

When I was at school and university, information was power. If you wanted to be successful and get good marks, you needed information.

I remember how scarce information was. I had to work hard to get it, and I had to work hard to get it before others did, or get it from places others wouldn’t know about.

Sound strange? Think about it. An assignment is set, and the class goes to the library, but there are only a few books about the single subject that needs researching. Once I was jumped from behind by another student who clawed me until I dropped the book she wanted. Sound unbelievable? Believe it; it’s true. That experience shocked me and I’m not about to forget it. I’ve wondered since then, how important is this information, that someone would behave in such a manner? Admittedly, this is extreme behaviour, but think about this. In those days, my assignments were based on the location of content. If I owned that content, I would regurgitate it and present it attractively. Would I be in a hurry to share this information? Well, that would mean that someone else would have the same information as me. Why would I share it? Did we ever do anything with that information? Analyse it, evaluate it, modify it, create from it? No. That information was what my mark was based on.

Will Richardson talks about a paperless society. What I remember most about university, was the time I spent photocopying chapers in the library. Not complete chapters, of course, just the legal percentage of what was permissable. I focussed on collecting bags full of coins so that I would be able to photocopy pages from all the books I’d found that were even remotely relevant to my topics of study. I needed those copies, I felt empowered with all that paper, all that information that I may need during my research. When I was finished, I kept that paper. I couldn’t bring myself to throw it out. I might need it. I think I still have it.

It’s a relief but also kind of strange to be functioning now in the potentially almost paperless world. I turn to people for my links to information, and I share freely, as well as receive in abundance.  My networks are not mean. They are made of people who are smart, connected, varied, informed, interesting and willing to share ideas and knowledge. I’m happy that I’m still learning so that I can turn my back on the old ways.

Today I attended an informal blog meeting with Kris Hoet, Joi Ito, Tom Crampton, Dave Sifry, Nico Luma and Bob Stumpel called the Blogger Meetup at SIME08.

The main discussion was about making money from blogging which I don’t at the time but I did get a free entrance to the event. Also the future of blogging, tips, networking …

What I like most was Joi Ito who talked about internet and democaratization, as you can understand I’m a great fan of liberal views … see an old favourite of mine.

I also like to try out a new blogg style, of writing drafts …

Just added a link with translations of my blogs.

Dopo un’assurda disavventura in Sri Lanka: motore del trabiccolo che ci trasportava dalle montagne all’areporto di Colombo fuso e fumante, e quindi relativo pseudo autostop con in mente l’immagine anni ‘80 di due turisti sfigati che si sentivano canzonare con un “No Alpitour, ahiahiahi!”.

Finalmente areoporto, tralascio lacrime di commiato, e passo un paio d’ore a ringraziare gli Stati Uniti, le catene, l’America, il consumismo, per aver trovato un Coffee Bean in cui usare wifi, rischio di perdere il volo presa come sono dall’astinenza web e finalmente Delhi.

Per ora non ho visto molto, solo la periferia dell’areoporto che mi ricorda il centro direzionale un po’ piu’ polveroso, so solo che gli indiani (e mi avevano avvisata!) hanno un modo di essere galanti abbastanza invadente ma sono fascinosissimi con i loro turbanti e gli occhi nerissimi.

So che devo essere preparata ad affrontare la poverta’, e ad accettare l’enorme differenza con le persone benestanti. Per adesso non ho visto nulla, stasera ho lavorato sull’incontro che abbiamo a Milano con Joi Ito il 27 novembre. Reti diventa sempre piu’ international, e penso che senza scambi culturali valiamo la meta’.

Joi Ito’s lecture has just finished couple of hours ago here in Talal Abu Ghazaleh Business Forum, Amman, Jordan. Joi’s speech was as usual full of insights, very much focused on innovation as the primary engine for economy and business to move forward. And Creative Commons was described as “an open source for content”, the tool which could speed up the innovation by allowing people to share ideas legally and safely in order to progress -culturally, scientifically, economically and humanly speaking- thru sharing.

(Joi speaking in Amman, the King of Jordan’s pic behind him)

 This is a concept which would be key to develop in the Arab world, too. Some people in this Region do think that since copyright is not such a big constraint as it is in the US or EU Creative Commons may not be needed as a tool. Many people raised their hands to ask this question today in Amman. As Joi explained very clearly and wisely, since the world becomes more globalised and more connected, also the legal framework come to be similar. Btw, this is also happening in the Gulf, where many countries have absorbed the WTO rules on intellectual property. And since all the audiovisual media in the Arab world are originated in the Gulf, this is very much likely to reach the Maghreb and Mashreq very soon.

(Audience in the Talal Abu Ghazaleh Business Forum)

Jordan will be the first Arab country to have a CC license 3.0 ported hopefully in the very next months.

As Ziad Maraqa, one of the CC leads in Jordan, has underlined today, they had to face lots of big issues when translating the licences into Arabic and adapting to Jordanian copyright law. One of the most discussed change today was the translation of the word Creative Commons itself into Arabic, which many bloggers don’t see appropriate (see the discussion in the public forum). But, as Joi Ito underlined, the translation of the name Creative Commons is the most controversial issue in every jurisdiction according to the final users of the license:) Many other key topics as the use of the licenses in audiovisual media or in education have been discussed.

From left to right, Shadi Murtada from Abu Ghazaleh Company, Joi Ito, Ziad Maraqa CC Jordan lead.

The discussion with the audience was very lively and showed a great deal of interest. A good start for CC in the Arab region. Mabrouk!