Archives for April 2008
Facebook needs a salary field
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We really seem to be moving towards a more personally transparent world and, as long as it’s voluntary, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. I know I certainly share salary information with peers in my professional circles. As an economist quoted in the article points out, how else are you going to determine the market price for your talent? “Robert H. Frank, an economics professor at Cornell, said that an open flow of information is deemed crucial by young professionals who think of themselves as free agents, not company men.”
Finding out that someone with a similar job is making more money than me isn’t embarrassing, it’s a godsend. It tells me my skills are valued and that I’m in demand. It can also highlight options. I know lawyers who graduated with me who are making close to double my salary, but are in the office twice as much as I am. Knowing this is valuable information for both of us.
New podcast: How soldiers eat on the front lines
There’s a new episode of the Crispy on the Outside podcast up and it’s a very special one. We interviewed Capt. Kevin Adams, a good friend of mine who is an Army JAG officer stationed in Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. If you know me, then you probably know Kevin, too.
We talked about what soldiers in the Army eat. This is a fascinating episode that you don’t want to miss. He tell us about the base’s dining facilities that offer less-than-comforting comfort foods, MREs, and the many fast food options available. Notable among these is a the trailer inside of which is a detailed replica of a real Starbucks. Kevin goes in to detail about the foods the Army provides for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and also the rules of eating and staying in shape.
Also up today is the new episode of In Conversation. Cord and I talked about cleaning house, zen and meditation, Wordpress and blogging, Facebook and Twitter spam (check out twerpscan.com), Cord’s super-secret conference and intimate groups, InConversationCon 2011, RSS and Yahoo! Pipes, Grand Theft Auto 4, and publish then filter.
New orphan works bills introduced
Yesterday bills were introduced in the House (PDF) and the Senate (PDF) addressing the orphan works copyright issue about which I’ve written many times before. Alex Curtis has a great write-up of the bills over at the Public Knowledge blog.
An orphan work is a work under copyright the owner of which cannot be located so that a potential re-user cannot ask for permission to use or license the work. If you can’t find the owner, even after an exhaustive search, and use a work anyway, you risk the possibility that the owner will later come forward, sue you, and claim statutory damages up to $150,000 per infringing use.
Both bills are largely based on the Copyright Office’s recommendations and not the unworkable Lessig proposal that had been previously introduced as the Public Domain Enhancement Act by Rep. Zoe Lofgren. The bills limit the remedies available to a copyright owner if an infringing party can show that they diligently searched for the owner before they used the work. (What constitutes a diligent search is specifically defined, which should address the concerns about the Smith bill expressed by visual and stock artists.)
Rather than statutory damages, the owner would simply be owed the reasonable compensation for the infringing use—that is, what the infringer would have paid for the use if they had been able to negotiate. I think this is a fine solution because it gives all copyright holders an incentive to keep their registrations current and their works marked to the best of their abilities (i.e. what old-time formalities used to accomplish). I’m also happy to see that injunction is also limited.
Like the Smith bill, both of these new bills direct the Copyright Office to complete a study and produce a report on copyright small claims. There are many instances of copyright infringement that are too small to be litigated in federal district court—like a website that uses my copyrighted photo they got off flickr. Professional photographers and other visual artists face this all the time and there should be a way to address their concerns. One idea is to create a copyright small claims court and it’s something I’d love to research and contribute to a Copyright Office proceeding. So if Congress has been thinking about this for a few years, what’s stopping the Copyright Office from taking on the project sua sponte?
Anyhow, stay tuned as these bills wind their way through committee and the IP maximalists are engaged.
Declan McCullagh reports that “FBI Director Robert Mueller told a House of Representatives committee that Internet service providers should be required to keep records of users’ activities for two years.” Not only is this a giant unfunded mandate that deputizes private companies, but it’s incredibly intrusive. How is this different from the Postal Service opening, photocopying, and archiving your mail before delivering it?
Cuba’s precipitous slow opening
Certainly not anything about which to get your hopes up, but since Raul Castro took over the reins in Cuba, there have been definite signs of opening on the island. The Sopranos announcement (below) really hit it home for me. Here’s the movement I’ve been observing over the past few weeks:- March 18 - Farmers allowed to buy their own supplies: “Agricultural sources said Cuba would soon open stores for farmers to buy tools, herbicides, boots and other supplies for the first time since the state took control of the country’s shops in the 1960s.”
- March 29 - Cuba allows more cellphones: “Cuba announced Friday that it would allow ordinary citizens to purchase cellphones, which up until now have been set aside for Communist Party elite or those with connections.”
- April 1 - Cuba Ends ‘No Cubans Allowed’ Hotel Policy: “President Raúl Castro’s new government will begin allowing Cubans to stay at hotels that were previously set aside for foreign tourists, the latest in a string of moves liberalizing internal restrictions on Cubans. In other changes, Cubans will be able to rent cars and buy cellphones, computers, microwaves and DVD players. However, with state salaries of about $20 a month, most Cubans will not be able to afford them.”
- April 5 - Cuba giving land to private farmers: “The government is preparing for a “massive distribution of land,” Orlando Lugo, president of Cuba’s national farming association, said last week. Private farmers have begun receiving land for the cash crops of coffee and tobacco, and will soon be able to lease state land for other crops.”
- April 11 - Cuba: Wage Limits Removed: “Cuba is revamping the state wage system to create more incentive by allowing workers to earn as much as they can[.]”
- April 12 - Cuba to Allow Thousands to Own Homes: “Thousands of Cubans will be able to get title to state-owned homes under regulations published Friday, a step that could lay the groundwork for broader housing reform.”
- April 21 - Sopranos and Grey’s Anatomy to be Broadcast: Tony Soprano is headed to Cuba because the go-ahead has been given for broadcasts of the prize-winning drama “The Sopranos” to begin on state-run television on Tuesday evenings, Reuters reported, citing the Communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde. And on Thursday nights, “Grey’s Anatomy,” about the lives of doctors working in a hospital, will be broadcast.
I knew that Raul Castro has always been a fan of the Chinese model, but these are relatively radical reforms coming as quickly as they are. In one sense this is good news for Cubans who will have a little bit more freedom and hopefully prosperity, but on the other hand it reduces the chance that there will be any democratic transition. I can see Raul opening enough to make the island into an authoritarian capitalist system without engaging in any real political reform.
Those seeking to free the Jefferson 1 should take note: The NYT today has an article about a “silent rave” that took place Friday in Union Square in NYC: “More than a thousand people, most of them young, gathered for a dance party without audible music, known as a silent rave.” No one was arrested. The story also goes into the pedigree of such flash mobs.
Of followers and following
Continuing the saga of my Twitter obsession, today I’ll talk about following and followers. How many people should you follow, and should you care if anyone follows you?There seems to be a debate over which is more valuable. Jason Calacanis is giving away a MacBook Air to a follower once he has the most followers on all of Twitter. He often couched this as a competition with Robert Scoble, although Scoble encouraged his followers to follow Calacanis since Scoble argues that the power of Twitter lies in the number of people you follow and not the reverse. To me it’s not an either/or proposition.
The value in having lots of followers is in the crowdsourcing effect. As Calacanis has figured out, you have yourself an instant focus group on which you can bounce ideas. You can also make lazytweet requests or ask for advice. And of course, you can promote your latest content. For these uses to work, you need more than a few followers, so getting a fair share is useful.
On the flip side, the Twitter you see depends completely on who you follow. Lots of folks will sign up for Twitter, follow just the one or two friends who convinced them to join, and give up the pursuit as boring and pointless. To get the most out of Twitter you need to follow a good number of people. You don’t have to know them, you just have to find them interesting. I follow a bunch of journalists, bloggers, authors, technologists, and musicians that I don’t know personally, but their tweets make Twitter useful. Plus when I respond to them, they often write back, which is pretty neat.
Now, I don’t care for the fire hose approach that Scoble takes. He follows everyone that follows him and then some, and that’s over 21,000 now. Too much noise to signal for me. Anytime someone follows me I check out their feed and see if it’s interesting to me. Often it’s not—just very personal anecdotes from someone I don’t know. That’s a fine use for Twitter, just not for me, so I won’t follow. But if there are interesting bits I’ll follow them for a while and see how it goes.
Every so often I’ll prune who I follow. Usually I’ll notice someone’s just not as interesting to me as I thought or maybe they’ve become too self-promotional (moderation is key in this area). But I’m constantly trying out new people that I discover. Everyone’s view of Twitter is different, and the idea for me is to get just the right balance of interesting people and people I know and care about.
Interesting bit: I’ve found that I consistently have about 30 percent more followers than folks I follow. Pretty neat, but I’m not going to follow more folks for the sake of getting more followers. I’m happy with my zen balance and I hope you’ll find yours, too. So, if you haven’t already, go out and hit some follow buttons!
New episode of In Conversation is up: Nerds in space.
Join me and the TLF gang for Alcohol Liberation Front 5 on Monday, April 21, at 5:30 at the
“A 60-foot phallus created by vandals on the grassy slopes beneath the Idaho governor’s mansion has been fig-leafed over by work crews on their second try,” the Idaho Statesman reports. “The grassy graffiti appeared in July after someone applied extra-strength weed killer. Officials said at the time it was too late in the growing season to attempt to remove the image.” (Via Political Wire)
Prof. Philip Parker has developed computer algorithms that collect publicly available information on a given subject, turn them into books that are then printed on demand or delivered digitally. “Mr. Parker has generated more than 200,000 books, as an advanced search on Amazon.com under his publishing company shows, making him, in his own words, “the most published author in the history of the planet.” And he makes money doing it.”
Scoble on the friend divide
For folks who just signed up for Twitter and tell me they stil don’t get it, Scoble has a good answer:The friend divide means that people who have no friends on these services have poor experiences and aren’t getting any interesting information or apps or photos or music, etc. People who have tons of friends have HUGELY different experiences on these services. I’ll demonstrate those differences in a video soon.
So true. Once you’re on, the first thing you need to do is start following some interesting people. You don’t have to know them to enjoy their musings. I recommend @hotdogsladies and @jdickerson.
Via Glenn Fleishman, here is the Wikipedia Talk page for Danah Boyd, which I will henceforth use as an example of all that’s right and wrong with Wikipedia.
Twitter + meatspace
Twitter is incredibly amazing and I will not relent in talking about it ad nauseam. Yesterday I was one of those caught in the American Airlines kerfuffle and treated to their classy service. I found myself bored at LAX’s Gate 44, which seems to be in an undisclosed location, because I can’t describe to you how to get there; I think I was blindfolded part of the way there. So to amuse myself I nudged everyone I knew on Twitter. I got back some neat replies from lots of folks who don’t Twitter often. The coolest one, though, I got a few minutes after I had landed.It turns out my friend John, who lives in San Francisco and who I haven’t seen in a while, was in the air when I nudged and had just landed as well. “Just landed at IAD. Maybe I’ll run into @jerrybrito in the Star Wars-esque people mover,” he said. Holy crap! He didn’t even know where I was traveling, yet there he was. Sure enough, we met up a few minutes later at baggage claim. He had come in on another flight. Totally serendipitous and totally wonderful.
In other news, Flickr now does video.
Photos from my continuing Vegas adventure are up on flickr.
NYT: “To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. [However, we will publish a story about death by blogging anyway.]”
Friggin brilliant. Obama Organizing Fellows.
Via Gruber: Get Helvetica Off Our Money.
Merlin Mann on Time and Attention
I won’t say Merlin Mann is a personal hero, ’cause, what’s a hero? Sometimes, there’s a man. And I’m talkin’ about Merlin here - Merlin from San Francisco. Sometimes, there’s a man, well, he’s the man for his time and place. Well, I lost my train of thought here. But… aw, hell. I’ve done introduced it enough.Please watch this if you have $50 to spare.
Recently on twitter.com/jerrybrito
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This is the personal site of Jerry Brito, a lawyer and writer in Washington, D.C. He’s an academic researcher and the creator of Unclutterer and several other blogs. More »
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