ARTS & FARCES internet

Dan Kohn is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, but don’t let that stop you from reading his excellent essay, “Content is a pure public good.”

His point is that digitally distributed content is what economists call a nonexcludable (no one can stop its flow), non-rival (we can all use it without anyone else having to give it up) good. Digital content, then, is what economists call a pure public good, like National Public Radio or a lighthouse. As a result, the current economic model used by all content distributors is dying a painful death.

Something has completely escaped today’s terrorists. The world will always need an “America”—a country in which citizens not only believe in, but in reality must have, an opportunity to control their destinies. “America” has come to represent a place in which oppressed citizens of the world will always seek refuge. And the current war on terrorism and America has given me an even deeper appreciation for some parts of America’s past—and glimmers of hope for things to come.

Walking past the old Works Progress Administration retaining wall that supports the sports fields in our neighborhood’s Groveland Elementary School, has reminded me for years of the spirit of our nation’s call-to-arms in a different era; a spirit of unity, purpose and new directions—and most of all—citizens working to serve the greatest number. I admit I am often wistful for the spirit of that time; for I sometimes wonder if that spirit is as durable and as beautiful as that old, hand crafted, stone wall.

I have known more than one baby-boomer of the 1950’s to be somewhat jealous of the salutations witnessed among members of the World War 11 generation when two former servicemen met for the first time, “Where did you serve?” It proffered not only introductions to another person’s past, but was a gateway of interest to each other’s battles. From there, their comradeship could go most anywhere. Now imagine every citizen of this country having just such a form of introduction immediately available to each and every other citizen: “Where did you serve?”

“Where did you serve?” It reflects a different attitude among our citizenry than “Where did you go to school?” Each reflects a very different kind of education, and neither should demean the other.

Walt Mossberg has come around to recognize that the greatest threats to our privacy come from corporations, not government. Welcome Walt, seriously.

That said, developments in Congress last week don’t bode well.

In a 96 - 1 vote, the Senate passed the Uniting and Strengthening America (USA) Act without Senator Russ Fiengold’s (D-WI) amendments that would ensure privacy safeguards by limiting roving wiretaps to the phone use of the target named in the investigation; preserve the privacy of “sensitive” documents such as medical records by making investigators convince a judge that access is necessary; prohibiting the use of “secret searches”; and limit the monitoring activities of administrators of computers owned by universities, libraries, and corporations.

The neatest part of a web piece that gets relatively widespread notice is the reconnecting that results.

I don’t much like the concept of blogrolling or exchanging links. There’ something about it that seems a little cheap, a bit less than honest, and a tad sleazy. I send heads-up emails to other writers when I publish something that I think they’ll find interesting, but I never ask for or offer to exchange links. So this is going to read like blogrolling, but it’s not. I link for two reasons: it either clarifies, illustrates, or develops my topic or it interests me.

Mark Bernstein knows more about hypertext than just about anyone other than Ted Nelson, and his work has always interested me. What’s better is that he’s a programmer and understands what kind of tools writers need to hone their craft. Probably because he’s a pretty dang good writer his own self.

Bernstein’s company, Eastgate Systems, makes the Storyspace hypertext tool for writers and publishes hypertext works—serious hypertext, not the crap we’re doing here. Eastgate’s next effort is code-named Ceres, a hypertext note-taking and weblog environment Bernstein describes as “Agenda meets Storyspace meets Blogger, with a few plot twists along the way.” If you’re serious about non-linear media, check it out.

Dave Winer was quick to take me to task for leaving the small commercial developers out of the pickin’ cotton for Bill piece. He even drew us a picture a month ago. His point is that media coverage about the software industry invariably break down to Microsoft v. open source. What about the little guys, like Dave’s company, UserLand?

Well, he’s right, of course. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about small software developers. I use a lot of their software. I’d be dead in the water without Dantz Retrospect, Opera, SmartFTP, and a bunch of others. Even after nearly two years of using Windows, I still miss a lot of great software on the Mac, most specifically BBEdit.

Great software comes from small developers. Programs I live in every day—Photoshop, Visio, FrameMaker, and Microsoft Word—all came from small developers initially. In fact, I’d venture that all really great software came from small teams or individuals. Remember ThinkTank and MORE? Those were Winer products. How about FactFinder and the original FileMaker? How about WriteNow?