Joi Ito's Web

Joi Ito's conversation with the living web.

ICANN NomCom announces new members including Susan Crawford to ICANN board »

Joichi Ito
Nov 05, 2005 - 15:20 UTC »

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The nomination committee (NomCom) of ICANN announced today they have chosen Njeri Rionge from Kenya for another term on the ICANN board and has added Susan Crawford to the board. I'm glad to be working with Njeri who I met on the ICANN board. Susan's one of the people who helped me understand ICANN in the before I joined the board and I'm psyched to be working with her. If you're interested in ICANN you've probably been following her blog, but if not, you should. It's one of my must read blogs.

The NomCom has also announced a number of other important ICANN positions today:

ccNSO Council - Slobodan Markovic (Serbia and Montenegro, Europe)
GNSO Council - Avri Doria (USA, North America), Sophia Bekele (Ethiopia, Africa)
Interim At Large Advisory Committee - Jacqueline Morris (Trinidad and Tobago, Latin America/Caribbean Islands), Alice Wanjira (Kenya, Africa), Siavash Shahshahani (Iran, Asia/Australia/Pacific)

The word "nomination" is a bit confusing. There is a process before they are officially board members, but for all practical purposes, they have been chosen. Congrats and thanks to the new members and to the NomCom who have been working VERY hard.

   
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Home Video Clip of Paris Police Shooting in Suburbs? »

Thomas Crampton
Nov 04, 2005 - 23:56 UTC »

By

Here's a home video clip a friend sent that claims to show Paris police shooting in the suburbs. Fairly strong stuff.

Disclaimer: I do not know anything further about the site or the clip.

   
23 Comments & 1 Trackback

Google + CC = Good »

Joichi Ito
Nov 04, 2005 - 22:23 UTC »

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Ccgoogle
Google has just launched a "Usage Rights" category in their advanced search. It uses Creative Commons license to allow users to search for works which either "allow some form of re-use" or "can be freely modified, adapted or built upon". This is a great step forward and will hopefully increase the adoption of Creative Commons (CC).

On the other hand, I don't see CC mentioned on the page and having only two choices is limiting, considering the various other licenses that people are likely to use. Yahoo advanced search already has two radio buttons instead allowing you to choose "Find content I can use for commercial purposes" or "Find content I can modify, adapt, or build upon". This actually allows three choices (depending on how you count) and they have a CC logo and a link to an explanation.

I realize it takes a lot for Google to add this and I appreciate all of the work that went into getting this done. Yahoo and Google are both probably testing this feature to some extent. It would be great if you could all spread the word, try to service and give feedback to Yahoo and now Google so they continue to integrate Creative Commons into their offerings.

In addition to Google and Yahoo, there are many other services that have begun integrating Creative Commons. See the web page for more info.

   
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Funeral in World of Warcraft »

Joichi Ito
Nov 04, 2005 - 06:08 UTC »

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20051102 03
photo from The Mirror
[004] Snowly of The World of Warcraft (Xinhua) A young girl nicknamed "Snowly" died last month after playing the online game "World of Warcraft" for several continuous days during the national day holiday. Several days before Snowly's death, the girl was said to be preparing for a relatively difficult part of the game (namely, to kill the Black Dragon Prince) and had very little rest. She told her friends that she felt very tired. A big online funeral was held for Snowly one week after her death (see photo from The Mirror).
With 4.5M users there are bound to be deaths in the World of Warcraft and gauging by the relationships I'm building with fellow gamers I can definitely see how an online funeral would be a very big deal. I often see players playing until they pass out, especially when they are questing in a group where their participation is required for the group to hold together as a team. (I've passed out a few times as well.) There is also a lot of pressure to catch up if you drop behind a group of friends in order to play your role in the quests.

However, I don't see this as a reason to bash these games. Clearly the addictive nature of these games are a risk from a productivity and health perspective, but I think that the sense of responsibility and teamwork that is built by the games exceeds this cost. I've seen a lot of coaching of young players by older players about behavior, responsibility, sharing and kindness that is crisp and makes a lot of sense in the game context, but might be lost in a conversation in the real world. Players typically stay up all night helping other players, not out of peer pressure, but out of a sense of teamwork and comradarie. The structure of the game and the rules make it very easy to measure the value of this teamwork and when a team isn't working. Most of the difficult quests require a very large group of people training and working together. It's hard to describe the sense of responsibility players gain to people who don't play, but I urge people not to discount it with playing.

I feel sorry for Snowly and everyone else whose lives are taken or ruined by games, but I think there is a social benefit. Like all new things, I think we will have to work on ways to support people who play to mitigate risks and manage addiction, but there is so much there that I hope news like this doesn't cause parents to prevent their kids from playing online games.

via Boris via Rebecca

   
36 Comments & 2 Trackbacks

If you can read this: You are rich. »

Thomas Crampton
Nov 03, 2005 - 00:07 UTC »

Posted by

Defining the poor is common (The World Bank's one dollar per day level, for example)

But who are the rich?

If you can read this posting, you are likely rich.

Anyone with a university education and an income at or above the lower-middle class level for an OECD country is rich, I would argue. Being rich is more about having time and freedom to make choices about your life than bagfulls of money.

Joi's latest posting may suggest a way to measure wealth through a Technorati rating!

What is the best metric to define someone as rich?

   
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Falling below the fold »

Joichi Ito
Nov 02, 2005 - 04:11 UTC »

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My Technorati ranking has become #104 and I've officially fallen off the Technorati top 100. Powerlaw, schmowerlaw. If you don't blog often or maintain a stream of interesting content your ranking will quickly drop. Even at a lower level of output, my ranking has gone from my previous 40's and 50's to below 100. Obviously blogs that continue to be interesting like Boing Boing keep the #1 position, but the amount of churn at the lower levels is encouraging. Although I didn't conduct this experiment on purpose, it's interesting data. On the other hand, it would be interesting to see how much sheer number of posts vs interesting posts can increase rank and traffic. More posts means more pages to view as well a higher likelihood that someone will link to you.

   
16 Comments & 2 Trackbacks

SoftGnome »

Joichi Ito
Nov 02, 2005 - 02:23 UTC »

Categories:

Gnome News is Good News
SoftGnome is out of the bag

Our latest PhoneGnome add-on, SoftGnome, is now available for testing by PhoneGnome owners.

SoftGnome let’s PhoneGnome owners take their home phone service with them wherever they go (wherever there is an Internet connection).

I've been waiting for this for awhile. This will let me mess around with my PhoneGnome a bit more. David's been focused on getting the easy to use part of it working first, for geeks SoftGnome is an important piece.

Disclosure: I'm an investor and advisor.

   
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buttons galore »

Joichi Ito
Nov 02, 2005 - 01:35 UTC »

Categories:

Lessig Blog
buttons galore
becomeacommoner.png fundraiserbutton.png supportthecommons.png becomeacommoner.png fundraiserbutton.png supportthecommons.png becomeacommoner.png fundraiserbutton.png supportthecommons.png becomeacommoner.png fundraiserbutton.png supportthecommons.png becomeacommoner.png fundraiserbutton.png supportthecommons.png becomeacommoner.png fundraiserbutton.png supportthecommons.png becomeacommoner.png fundraiserbutton.png supportthecommons.png becomeacommoner.png fundraiserbutton.png supportthecommons.png

So some smart folks suggested we start passing out buttons for the CC fundraising campaign. We like smart folks (or at least some smart folks), and so we did. Go here to get a button. Please. Pretty please. Or whatever form of please will get you to go.

So please... support Creative Commons. As a wise old man once told me... "Never beg... unless it helps."
   
3 Comments & Trackback

Diseases of the Rich »

Thomas Crampton
Oct 29, 2005 - 01:08 UTC »

Posted by

My minor hand operation this week highlighted to me how journalism/blogging are literally manual labor.

Also, my ability to tell many people about this injury reminds me of how repetitive strain injury/carpal tunnel syndrome only became something of broad public concern when the chattering classes (ie: white collar workers, including journalists) were hit due to their typing on computer keyboards.

Throughout the industrial revolution, however, the same problem had afflicted manual laborers who could not bring their problem to a wider audience. (Lately there seem to be fewer complaints about it here at the International Herald Tribune, perhaps because there is a greater understanding of ergonomics.)

Must be many examples of diseases that only became well known when they also became diseases of the rich. Any interesting ones?

   
19 Comments & 2 Trackbacks

CPSR's 2005 Membership Meeting and Norbert Wiener Award Reception for Douglas Engelbart »

Joichi Ito
Oct 28, 2005 - 07:08 UTC »

Categories:

I'm in Palo Alto now for the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) board meeting. We are having a membership meeting as well as a award reception for Doug Engelbart this weekend. If you're in the area and are CPSR member please join us. If you're not a member, join now!

CSPR
2005 CPSR Annual Meeting & Norbert Wiener Award Reception

Saturday, October 29

All Saints Episcopal Church
555 Waverley Street (between University and Hamilton)
Palo Alto, CA, USA

Membership Meeting

11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.- 5:30 p.m.

The Meeting is an opportunity for members to meet with the Board and a newly formed Advisory Council, face-to-face, for an extended discussion focusing intensively on the state of CPSR and a Strategic Plan. The Board wants members to be involved in planning our future direction and prospects. By the way, at a Members' Meeting, The CPSR ByLaws state that, "Ten percent (10%) of the members shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business at a meeting of the members." We will announce special steps to facilitate that conversation. For now, please save the date.

To join CPSR, renew your lapsed membership in CPSR, or register to attend as a current member in good standing, use http:cpsr.org/membershipForm

Norbert Wiener Award Reception for Douglas Engelbart

5:30 p.m.- 7:00 p.m.
Cafe Fino, 544 Emerson, Palo Alto, CA

CPSR is awarding its 2005 award for professional and social responsibility in computing to Douglas Engelbart for being a pioneer of human-computer interface technology, inventor of the mouse, and social-impact visionary. Find out more.

The public is invited to register to attend, using http:cpsr.org/membershipForm.

Read about the Wiener Award, Past Winners, Douglas Engelbart, and Norbert Wiener.

   
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