Dream On !

Volunteers Needed - A message from Angelo on behalf of World Wide Help -

In response to the Java Quake of 27th May, 2006, we have set up the Java Quake Help Wiki (http://javaquake.worldwidehelp.info) and since it was set up, in the past 24 hours we are coordinating disaster relief operations with major aid agencies and teams on the ground. There’s also a team working with us in setting up sms relay communications into affected areas based on the previous relief efforts in the region.

The wiki has the basic design and structure in place but we URGENTLY NEED online volunteers to help us out with the wiki in terms of the following tasks:

1. Move relevant content from tsunamihelp (tsunamihelp.info and quakehelp.asiaquake.org)
2. Scrape info from the blogs covering the quake on technorati
3 Post translations from helpjogja.net blog to the wiki (via Andy Carvin’s link: toggletext.com)
4. Remove irrelevant info
5. Add static info on the main page
6. Spread the word out about the wiki

…….etc.

We have been and are in touch with ICRC-Geneva, TSF and IFRC and are receiving important information such as assessments directly from them which shows that they recognize our relief efforts on the blog and wiki. Additionally, we are being provided with 24/7 info updates from aid workers and their teams in the field and are also blogging at World Wide Help ( blog.worldwidehelp.info). We been requested by a couple of NGOs to coordinate and communicate with them in publishing their situational reps on the wiki and blog.

Any help from all of you for the organization and management of content on the wiki is most appreciated. If you’re interested in lending a hand please head over to the wiki or drop us a line to javaquake@worldwidehelp.info”

Some more links.
At Global Voices Online on a special Indonesia earthquake blog, flow of aid to Indonesia, volcanic activity and links to situation reports from various relief agencies.

[Via J Jarvis] Richard Charkin, head of Macmillan publishers has shared these statistics.
On average across the world people spend 6.5 hours a week reading. The most of amount time spent reading is in India (10.7 hours), the least Korea (3.1 hours). UK is very near the bottom at 5.3 hours, Germany and USA a little higher at 5.7 hours.

The Chinese listen to radio less than any other nation (2.1 hours a week), Argentina the most (20.8 hours).

On average people now spend more time on the Internet for leisure (not work) than reading - 8.9 vs 6.5 hours. Mexico uses the Intenet for leisure least (6.3 hours) and Taiwan the most (12.6 hours).

Internet use reduces the time people have for reading by around 20%.

40% of Europeans do not read books.

More people use the Internet for leisure than read books in the developed world.

And people wonder why publishers are spending so much time and effort on digital development.

First of all, it is great to know that we Indians are spending maximum in devouring books. Literacy rate of India is seeing a steady rise over the last decade or so.

The most connected country in the world that is Korea is spending least time reading books. Now there lies the juice. Does this mean that internet is going to kill the books as we know. Has it become an outmoded means of communicating information.

Well Jeff Jarvis thinks so. He has pointed out many problems with the books.

• They are frozen in time without the means of being updated and corrected.
• They have no link to related knowledge, debates, and sources.
• They create, at best, a one-way relationship with a reader.
• They try to teach readers but don’t teach authors.
• They tend to be too damned long because they have to be long enough to be books.
• They are expensive to produce.
• They depend on scarce shelf space.
• They depend on blockbuster economics.
• They can’t afford to serve the real mass of niches.
• They are subject to gatekeepers’ whims.
• They aren’t searchable.
• They aren’t linkable.
• They have no metadata.
• They carry no conversation.
• They are thrown out when there’s no space for them anymore.

In the end - We need to kill the book to save books.

I couldn't agree more.

PS: It is a great opportunity for the entrepreneurs.

Nick Carr and Jaron Lanier say that rise of digital collectivism is nothing less than a resurgence of the idea that the collective is all-wise. They argue that this is different from meritocracy where the best gets awarded. Nick is of the opinion that the peer produced goods will be mediocre. But as these average goods are available for free that undermines the economic incentives for creating something that is better than mediocre.

Nick points out that markets are good at setting prices for commodities as markets filter out individual biases. There are things where markets are not good like writing books, encyclopedia entries or editing newspapers or magazines. Let me try to expain Nick’s argument by an example – It says that Wikipedia is a mediocre product as compared to Britannica encyclopedia or any other encyclopedia. Now that there is a free mediocre product i.e. Wikipedia in the market people will not buy Britannica anymore. The sales of Britannica will drop and Britannica will take its encyclopedia product off from the market. So, how Britannica should survive in the wake of wikepedia? If Wikipedia is mediocre then I think there is an opportunity for Britannica to tap in. People are always ready to pay premium for the best knowledge. I really don’t think that this behavior will change in future also. The knowledge worker viz consultant, lawyer, doctor faces this competition daily but does he feel threatened from a consultant who is providing his services free of cost. No. Because the costly consultant knows that the cost is not the differentiator but the specialized knowledge that he is having. And that is going to attract the client.

If Britannica thinks that they have a superior product than Wikipedia, they shouldn’t fret. In fact they should see wikipedia as its free version. Let me give you some real life example. Couple of my friends got hooked to wikipedia. They were spending tones of time reading articles on it and they ended up buying Britannica and Microsoft Encarta. I asked them why they have bought two encyclopedias – They said Encarta got lots of multimedia content and Britannica got lots of wonderful long articles. And now they have best of both the worlds. Now if they want to check on a particular thing they first saw it on Wikipedia and then on the regular encyclopedia. Society overall has benefited by having a wikipedia. It gives people a choice and people are smart enough to figure out what is good for them.

Let us have a look at newspapers and magazines. Will Ohmynews or NowPublic will replace NYT or BBC well I don’t think so. Citizen journalism will perform an important role in our society and they give a refreshing new choice to the people. The established media houses because of certain restrictions, generally don’t report things in full. This could be because they are related to one political party or because of the nationalist agenda. Citizen journalists don’t have any such prejudices and give unbiased view of the situation. And it is great to have this alternative available. Similar reasons can be given for consumer generated videos and pictures. We cannot compare the pictures present in Flickr by the ones that get published in National Geographic. But people would like to see both. No video on YouTube can be compared to any oscar winning movie.

Jaron Lanier argues that American Idol can’t give you a John Lennon. I am not sure of American Idol but the singers who won in Indian Idol are signed by big music houses. In fact some of the singers who won in other popular singing competitions got nominated as best playback singers in Filmfare awards (Indian Oscars). Shows like Indian idols give such a great platform to the budding stars and motivates millions of other people too. And this also puts pressure on the existing established singers to give their best. As a result, the society gets benefited.

In the end, I will say that connected production or peer production or whatever you want to call it is a great boon to the society. It challenges the authority of the existing established players who have to come with more innovative ways to survive and sustain. People are going to buy / favor / consume the product which is the best.

Peer production has just raised the bar.