creativecommons unveiled their new licenses last night at a party they hosted in SF Soma’s district. It was a pretty glitzy affair with some big names (at least in the geek and legal-geek world)and a pretty clever presentation with a stark but potent speech by Lessig, a veido juxtaposition of Barlow and Valenti which was hilarious, a short technical roundup by Aaron Swartz and some music by DJ Spooky. Not a bad way to usher in these new licenses that I hope will take hold on the wider artistic community.

But if there is one thing that was a shame in the presentation was that the world of free and open source software (and especially their licenses) was never acknowledged as a key source of inspiration although it is on their website. Though it was not their role to pay tribute in any significant way to the FSF or the copyleft, Lessig had a rare opportunity to make a point about “the creative” in the commons by referring to the domain that is free and open source software. In many ways, it is the condition of possibility for projects like Creative Commons because it is a real “live” social example of alternative legal schemes already in use. It speaks to the fact that it can be done. Free and open source software production and licenses have served to inspire hundreds of others including the creative commons which is exactly what and how a commons is supposed to function. So not to acknowledge the “non-individual” (that is more social) sources of the cc during their opening event was a missed opportunity to highlight the very power of a commons.

But that is my only (small) rant and it is exciting to see such a project kick off. Their innovation in the world of alternative licenses is significant and from the looks of it, it seems like it is pretty easy to apply their licenses to one’s work.

It was also good to finally meet Chris Kelty an Anthropology professor at Rice University who does really great work on technology and society, including open source stuff, and I found out some important information: one my favorite cafe in SFAtlas Cafe has wireless where I am now blogging

So, some have seen my collection of hacker shirts. Here is my all time favorite shirt.Speaking of hackers, I have set up a site to add bibliographic references on hackers. Have any?
Add them here: here.

When I left for the ?field? to go to San Francisco, I never thought that life would feel that different for me there as it is here in Chicago. Now that I am back doing the student thing, I really see how being full-time in an academic environment is really its own unique social space. I am dumfounded by the fact that I can spend all day reading and writing and that everyone (Biella looks around the computer lab) is doing the same darn thing. Soon I will be back in SF shocked out of this idyllic state.

I have made attempts at going to Berkeley to use the facilities but I never feel like a student there. In part it is because I don?t really know many people there. But I think the timeless weather of the east bay, which is always nice, does not make it feel like school. Fall, which never hits the east bay, is here. The trees are brilliant. They are on the one had momentarily dying but at least they do so in style. The leaves are so very beautiful, with red, yellows, and oranges giving life to the gothic architecture of University of Chicago. I think I associate the change of seasons with the process of learning, as the change of seasons metaphorically is a good way to think about what us academics do. Basically, we take some stuff, raw material, and transform it into some different and finished process or thing that has a resemblance or relationship to that early stuff but in the end is different. The change of seasons really captures the beauty of transformation and how one can be in one place, yet be in an entirely distinct state over time. It reminds you that life moves along and in terms of doing academic work, that is a good thing : )

The fall represents the excitement of starting a new project, a new academic year. There is a vitality in the air that makes you want to go ahead and start something new but then winter comes along, and it can make for wonderful conditions for really focusing in on work as you don?t want to step outside in the cold freezing winds but it is also a good metaphor for the darker side of the creative process, where you feel completely stuck in some pit of despair where you question the very essence of what you are doing. Luckily or better said hopefully, you emerge out of this pit with a more clear sense of what you are doing, ready to deliver something final after months and months of hard work. Your birth comes just in time for the birth that is spring.

Funny thing about ?birth? is that yesterday I think I have come up with a gross but highly accurate (for me at least) metaphor for what it is like for me to write a paper. I have been working on a conference paper for the 4S Con (No h0mee, academic conferences are not CONS!!!) and it is the first academic paper that I have written in what feels like ages. It was a messy birth to say the least but you know, I think underneath all the blood and placenta lies an a-ok- baby? And yes, it is gross to think about writing papers in terms of giving birth but that is what the process usually feels like for me, not that I really know about the actual process of birth but I can project. Sometimes it is easy and the critter just pops out, while other times, it is a terribly messy birth but really the critter is fine. One just needs to clean up the gunk all of the paper. Then there are those disastrous births that require not just a C-Section to get the darn thing out (truly painful and requiting an excess of drugs like loads of caffeine) but perhaps also cosmetic surgery as there was some serious damage when you brought the critter into the world.

Speaking of blood and guts, I should go do some more placenta cleaning, opps, I mean editing.
(more…)

This is from Niels, giving some nice background on Dutch legal life:

“Our legal praxis cultivates an orientation towards the letter of the law in which everything is micro-managed (and expensively so)..”

One of the main reasons why the Netherlands have developed a time/space based differentiation of dealing with the law is that if we didn’t, the whole country would come to a grinding halt. We do have our microlaws – try building a house in the Netherlands. The legal system here is a classical one, implemented by Napoleon when he conquered europe. The general idea behind it is that the law provides a more or less durable set of norms, thus compensating for the volatility of everyday politics, and that the government has to offer ‘legal certainty’ when interfering in society. This means the law is usually a hindrance – it stops people from realizing their ‘grand idea of the week’. This differs greatly from the northern american idea of legal engineering, eg *using* the law to get your grand idea of the week into realization, instead of working around it. In the end, there is hardly such a thing as legal certainty in dutch daily life – it only exists among lawyers and in some courtrooms. Also, the last 5 years several laws have become much broader, allowing for specific implementation – but this depends on the people who influence it. The law on universities(1997) allows them much more organizational freedom, yet the proposed planning laws take a very centralistic stance, and deny the ‘praxis’ -the way spatial development takes place. This creates a very confusing situation, in which people do not understand the laws, and have rely on ‘experts’ to do the finetuning. You will understand that such a separation between the group who *are the experts* and the people who actually have to deal with the consequences does not create a large basis for legitimacy. “Gedogen”, as described in the very nice article you linked to is an “official” practise in only a few situations. Much more common is a very pragmatic way of dealing with situations, in which people try to reason with each other to get things done.

(/some background
Posted by Niels

This is a funny piece on the different types of bloggers out there. They forgot of course the anthropology blogger, not very common these days but I hear a growing trend.

Yes, it is I who has been a bad bad blogger (BBB). I mean, LORD! I have to walk like at least 10 minutes to this Internet cafe and somehow the harsh lighting and the strange atmosphere (a sort of passive aggressive desperation as everyone gets online in NOT-thier-natural-online-habitat, or is that just me projecting my own sentiments) is jut not conducive to the Blogging Muse (BM) that resides deep deep in my inner soul. Seriously, more than anything, I like to write late at night or early in the morning when I am not around a computer these days. I go to the Internet cafe with my BEST Intentions (BI) but I nearly always fail. I still can’t believe that anyone reads this thing anymore but I have found some comments which have put my linking abilities to shame so here is the correct link for http://get.a.clue.de/ProgStone/. Thanks Rabble. And since I am on the topic, Simon recommended this too: tao-of-programming which I have seen before but never read. Oh, it is on Kragen’s site, he is a friend from SF (In the words of Yoda, “HMMMMMMM. small small geek world, it is).

And Niels posted a nice summary of our bike trip so anyone interested in biking in the Netherlands please do read his very good summary. Niels, Mark-Jan, and I hope to go on one more bike ride tomorrow which should be nice given that it is not supposed to rain here, what a MIRACLE.

This last weekend was, like I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, was going to be a true goulash and the hilarious thing is that I ate actually ate homemade delicious Dutch goulash, at Wilmer’s farm house up north in Beiden. He is really the whole reason that I came to the Netherlands in the first place as he wrote me a long while back and in our email exchange he let me know that there were MANY Debian Devlopers (MDD) in the Netherlands. And was he SO right. Thus, it was funny that I had goulash at his house and that it was one of my more unusual and fun interviews I have ever had. I will have to write more about it at a later time but really, when you go out to herd cows into the milking barn with Ruby, the border collie, as your “interview break” (IB), you are in for an Interview Treat (IT). And if you use more than one interface for chatting, damn it, consolidate NOW and check out Wilmer’s wonderful Bitlbee which is not just a fine program but is just, well, a RAD name too..

And I found out about some other cool Linux stuff in the Nethelands too while at the Debian key signing dinner in Utrecht on Saturday. Rubin and Freek, yes, Freek (what a GREAT name, I though of naming my first born /bin freek coleman –> now that is a freeeeky name) started a very cool seeming Linux/Unix store called Vt100 in Da Haag. If you are a geek in the vicinty, what can I say, GOOOOOOO! And if you are a geek in visitation here, GOOOOOOOOO. Rubin is hilarious and he is very willing to make bets with you (which he will LOSE) about the imagery in what is now currently my favorite cartoon Fokke and Sukke which is not just a cartoon-experience for me but an interactive one. It is in Dutch which alas, I have NOT picked up here : ( and so, I need the fine help of my friends to decipher the cartoon of these two feathered friends who are obnoxious, gross, and irressistably cute and funny. If you know Dutch, read it and it might even be worth learning Dutch to JUST to read it.

Well, there are some Yummy Tid-Bits (YTB) to keep you waiting for some future posts when I am in the comfort of my home, punching away at the keyboard that I have come to love. I will be back more or less next Tuesday.

Well, I don’t think that I am any longer really a BBB as it seems like the BM has payed me a visit in this internet cafe despite the fact that I need to strech my neck to frikken see the screen (if there is one thing I have learned as an anthropologist, is that the world is not made for shrimps like me). And I will have more to write as I will continue to see more Debian folks as there are really MDD here and I might even have to take one more IB and hope to have even an IT (Wiggy, it is up to you to one up Wilmer’s IB) and if that is the case, I will have a YTP for you all again!!!!

Wow, I CANT WAIT till tomorrow, it is a
National talk like a pirate day. How knarly yard and rad, yarrrrr, is that?

More on pirates later, I promise.. My weekend has been all about pirates and booty and adventures!

So, when building a web site, a Christain might ask: wwjd?? And here is the
answer.

I just don’t know what else to say but this is so very very strange. Please, please whatever you do, DON’T bathe with this man. You will actually feel dirtier, not cleaner.