David Weinberger

Talk about “civility” on the Internet always makes me a little nervous. For a bunch of reasons. First, I generally try to be civil, but I’d hate to see a Net that is always and only civil. Some rowdiness and rudeness is absolutely required. Second, civility as a word feels like it comes from a colonial mentality, as if there are the civil folks and then there are the savages. I’m not saying that’s what people mean when they use the term. It’s just what I sometimes hear. Third, civility is so culturally relative that demanding that someone be civil can actually mean, “Please play by our rules or you shall be removed from the premises!” Which is I guess what gives rise to my second reason. Fourth, civility seems to be more about the form of interaction, the rhetoric of the interchange. That’s fine. But given a preference, I’d be hectoring people about dignity, not civ... (more)

Getting YouTube’s “ban” on indie music wrong and right

YouTube is planning on banning indie music labels from their site? That can’t be right. Despite the headlines, it probably isn’t. After running a misleading article, the Guardian has published a good clarifier. As far as I can tell, the initial headlines left out a big FROM and IF clause: Indies will be blocked FROM the new Youtube subscription music-streaming service IF they don’t agree to the contract YouTube is offering. (The contract may be unfair, favor the majors, etc. but that’s still a big FROM and IF.) The Guardian article then usefully clarifies just how muddy the wate... (more)

From Berkman: Zeynep and Ethanz on the Web We Want

This week there were two out-of-the-park posts by Berkman folk: Ethan Zuckerman on advertising as the Net’s original sin, and Zeynep Tufecki on the power of the open Internet as demonstrated by coverage of the riots in Ferguson. Each provides a view on whether the Net is a failed promise. Each is brilliant and brilliantly written. Zeynep on Ferguson Zeynep, who has written with wisdom and insight on the role of social media in the Turkish protests (e.g., here and here), looks at how Twitter brought the Ferguson police riots onto the national agenda and how well Twitter “covered... (more)

[2b2k] The Despair of Knowledge

Jill Lepore has an excellent take-down in The New Yorker ofof Clay Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma. Yet I am unconvinced. I thought I was convinced when I read it. It’s a brilliantly done piece, examining Christensen’s evidence, questioning his methods, and drawing appropriate lessons, including wondering why we accepted the Innovator’s Dilemma for decades without critically examining it. (Christensen became so famous for it that his last name isn’t even flagged as a spelling error on my Mac.) I got de-convinced by a discussion on a mailing list I’m on that points to some... (more)

The social Web before social networks: a report from 2003

The Web was social before it had social networking software. It just hadn’t yet evolved a pervasive layer of software specifically designed to help us be social. In 2003 it was becoming clear that we needed?—?and were getting?—?a new class of application, unsurprisingly called “social software.” But what sort of sociality were we looking for? What sort could such software bestow? That was the theme of Clay Shirky’s 2003 keynote at the ETech conference, the most important gathering of Web developers of its time. Clay gave a brilliant talk,“A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy,” in which... (more)