Open Data ..
has ..
recently ..
been..
all ..
over ..
the ..
blog ..
o ..
sphere!
Openness is a classic Us-and-Them issue. Big, nasty
Apple/MySpace/Flickr is trying to control what little
me/SingleStatus/Zoomr can do with my/our own stuff.
Open Data vs. Closed; Open Source vs. Proprietary; P2P vs. DRM;
privacy vs. surveillance. The battles between the freedom of
the pioneer, the individual and the minority against the rules
and stability of the establishment and the majority form the
endless shape of human history.
Us beating Them is Hollywood's favourite subject on-screen -
and ironically Them fighting Us Hollywood's favourite battle
off-screen.
As an Us-and-Them issue, with Us less powerful than Them, it's
also tempting to give up and to follow the crowd - to do what
we're told, to not ask for or sieze the privacy and open data
we feel entitled to.
However, at XTech 2006 recently, there was a set of talks on
the subject with a more positive approach.
...