[svlug] OOXML ISO vote irregularities

[Christian Einfeldt]

hi

On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 8:04 PM, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:

>
> What seems to have gotten David Hummel's attention, though -- and I
> concur -- is that this incessant pushing of Digg, Inc.'s social-networking
> business model long ago got old, and is, IMVAO, slightly creepy.  (But,
> hey, if you can arrange for me to receive a stock dividend every time you
> push their services, I'm definitely willing to change my mind.  ;->  )
>
> Reminds me, somehow, of Hari Kunzru's recent _New Yorker_ short story:
>
> http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2008/03/10/080310fi_fiction_kunzru
>
>
That was an interesting and pithy story.  For those who don't have time to
read it, I will summarize.  Stop reading now if you don't want a spoiler.
It is about some type of designer of clothes or other fashion whose self
identity becomes subsumed by being part of the most current trends.  He
experiences a crisis and throws out all of his worldly possessions when his
picture is snapped at a cool party by a marketing rep posing as a "genuine"
trend-setting party-goer.  The picture is used as a promotion for vodka.

Realizing he had been used for marketing, the designer feels as if he had
only been exploited as a conduit for information for some corporation's
enrichment.

So Rick makes a good point here, as have several of the other people who
have asked for direct links and wondered about the wisdom of me or anyone
posting such links to this list.  Hari Kunzru's story is well-cited here by
Rick as an example of what happens when social networking runs its course to
its logical conclusion.  In Kunzru's story, the characters are nothing more
than chic Amway distributors, fobbing new trends off on each other and
getting paid to do so.  The corporations, undoubtedly, are trying to use a
new medium (social networking) for a very old purpose:  selling lipstick and
lipstick culture.

So I am sympathetic to Rick's message.  The thing that I admire about the
people on this list is that many of you have spent long, lonely hours
acquiring deep knowledge about some of the most challenging and interesting
problems in computing.  By contrast, much of what passes on Digg is nothing
more than drivel, and there is a clear analogy on Digg for the shallow pawns
in Kunzru's story who add nothing or little to a conversation that is
probably not worth having.  From the article, here is a description of the
world as the narrator saw it in the depth of his crisis:

"I went into a department store, dazzled by chrome and glass and brushed
steel. It was a palace of mirrors, zombie heaven. Girls at the makeup
counter, dressed like slutty pharmacists. Rich men with ski tans fingering
cashmere sweaters."

That is a life that is not worth living, and likewise, much of the stuff on
Digg is just trash, and many of the people on Digg are not worth talking to,
because they are mere pawns pursuing the latest trends.

But there are other people on Digg to whom I can relate.  Before I met
Holden Aust, who introduced me to Free Software, I was a Windows user who
was very worried about viruses.  I did not understand computers at all, and
I often felt taken advantage of by people who did understand computers and
who viewed me as a profit center, a gullible client to just bill and bill
and bill.

Holden was different, and most of the people on this list are different.
Holden was willing to help me out, but he expected me to do work and to
learn.  As with all the people that Holden helps, he was willing to point me
in the right direction, and answer a few questions, but after that, it was
up to me to do my share to solve my own problems, and to get better and
better at solving increasingly difficult problems.  Holden gave me a much
greater level of control over my computing experience, and he helped me gain
a greater measure of independence.

Many of the people who read Digg know very little about computers, and I
view Digg as an opportunity to reach beyond the rarified world of people who
know what /etc/hosts is and how to edit it and why you might want to do so.
I believe that we need to reach out to these people for our own good,
because they vote (or not) and their activities can affect our freedom in
cyberspace.  By helping them understand that they have a choice in
computing, we stand a greater chance of avoid legal problems like software
patents and the DMCA.

Digg is a way to reach out to people who need to know that they have a
choice.  I knew nothing about Free Software, and I would probably still be
struggling with XP today if Holden had not taken the time to tell me that I
had options.

I don't want to be seen as an Amway distributor or a fashion designer caught
in a trend-setter's hell.  But I do think that we on this list should think
about if and how we want to reach out to the voters who could shape our
political future.  Digg is one way to reach these people.  I believe that,
in balance, it is worth it to have a few Digg submission requests on this
list, because it is a way for us to bring our point of view before people
who might be wondering what these stories are all about.

In particular, the OOXML ISO story is rather arcane.  I submitted that Digg
link to this list because i thought that front page exposure might cause a
few more uninformed people to at least ask what was going on.  And, in fact,
the story did make Digg's front page, and at least one newbie did post a
question to that thread asking for an summary as to what was going on, and
why he / she should care.  That newbie's question, in turn, led to a lengthy
discussion, and the newbie posted a thank you for the explanation.

Digg is an opportunity for us to reach newbies, and I think we should
occasionally exercise that option.  On the other hand, I am sensitive to the
comments that people have posted on this issue.  I am very willing to hear
more opinions on this issue.

At any rate, for the short term, I will probably not post any more digg
links to this list for a while, because I want to be seen as cooperative.

Below I am posting some passages from Kunzru's story that sum up the story:

---------------

And yet . . . Over the next few days, I started to notice something odd.
Every time I met a friend, he or she would immediately make a
recommendation, urge me to try something new.

All my friends seemed to be dropping snippets of advertising copy into their
conversation, short messages from their sponsors. They were constantly
stating preferences for particular brands, dishing out free samples.

I found parties increasingly traumatic: the bombardment of messages, the
pitches coming at me from every side.

People seemed to zone in and out of existence. Sometimes they were fully
present, animated by something original and real

"What do you do for cash? If a girl doesn't want a straight job, she has to
monetize her social network."

"He wanted to make us into—into early adopters."

That night, I put the rest of my stuff out. All of it—clothes, books and
records, furniture, even the cans of food from my kitchen cupboards.
Everything I owned. By the following afternoon, it was all gone.

Now I realized that what I thought had been an expression of my innermost
humanity was nothing but a cloud of life-style signals, available to anyone
at the click of a mouse. How had this happened?

I went into a department store, dazzled by chrome and glass and brushed
steel. It was a palace of mirrors, zombie heaven. Girls at the makeup
counter, dressed like slutty pharmacists. Rich men with ski tans fingering
cashmere sweaters.

I had gone there to kill him, to make him into nothing for having made me
into nothing.

What was I? A sorting device. A filter. A human bivalve, culture accreting
in me like a mercury deposit.
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