The World is FlatThe World is Flat

G l k k / FlGelykmaker / Flattener #4:

UploadingH i thHarnessing the power

of communities

Definition uploading (p 95)“The newfound power of individuals and communities to send up,

t d d th i d t d id ft f fout, and around their own products and ideas, often for free, rather than passively downloading them from commercial enterprises or traditional hierarchies, is fundamentally p , yreshaping the flow of creativity, innovation, political mobilization and information gathering and dissemination. It is making each of these things a bottom up and globally side tomaking each of these things a bottom-up and globally side-to-side phenomenon, not exclusively a top-down one. … Uploading is, without doubt, becoming one of the most p g grevolutionary forms of collaboration in the flat world. More than ever, we can all now be producers, not just consumers.”

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New terminology & their definitions:Geeks: “nerds” who are intellectually absorbed by the new electronic worldGeeks: nerds who are intellectually absorbed by the new electronic world,

continually testing its boundaries & inventing new ways of using itBlogging: Geeks who are offering their own news & opinions on the web,

cutting out the middlemen of newspaperscutting out the middlemen of newspapersWikipedia: an electronic encyclopaedia created by a community of geeks

where everybody can upload info – its already bigger than the E l di B it iEncyclopaedia Britannica

Podcasting: when songs, videos, ideas, ideology (al Qaeda’s too) etc are offered (uploaded) and presented to the world cutting out traditional music t t lli b distores or controlling bodies

Web server: a software program that enables anyone to use his or her home or office computer to host a Web site on the WWW. It thus is a storage

f f

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space with which a Web browser interact and from which it extracts the info it needs

A major new trendA major new trend

• “Our communication infrastructure has taken only the first steps in this great shift from y p gaudience to participants, but that is where it will go in the next decade ” p 96will go in the next decade. p 96

• The top-down view is replaced by a bottom-upand especially side to side viewand especially side-to-side view

• revolution of collaboration: users become d jproducers, not just consumers

• massively emancipating move

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Three forms of uploading:Three forms of uploading:1. Community developed software movement2. Blogging / Podcasting 3. Wikipediap

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1 Community developed software = software y pdeveloped by multiple volunteers & self-organising groups. Characteristics: g g g pOpen-source & peer-reviewed (geeks scrutinize each other’s work)Source code is visible to all (it is not secret & patented, you can see & interact with the digital program that drives the system)Problems are immediately solved collectivelyProblems are immediately solved collectivelyEarly example is Apache.. A group of geeks in Berkeley who invented a web server with which to share their music. Their product was better than that of the giant IBM & IBM bought it!product was better than that of the giant IBM & IBM bought it!

two approachesintellectual commons communityfree software community

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1 Community developed software = software1 Community developed software = software developed by multiple volunteers & self-organising groups Characteristics:organising groups. Characteristics: In 1991 a student from Helsinki University, Linus Torvalds, posted his operating system to compete with that of Microsoft & invited all p g y pprogrammers to improve it and to keep it freely availableIt became as good or better that Microsoft and it is available all over the world freeover the world –free.

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2 Blogging & Podcasting: uploading news &2 Blogging & Podcasting: uploading news & commentary

A blog is your own personal virtual soapbox where you can give yourA blog is your own personal virtual soapbox where you can give your views or news to the world.. In this way major news events went public – scams are exposed etc. It’s open source inteligence

th i ( 117)gathering (. 117)Podcasting is the audio version of blogging… helped along by the iPod

audio player.p yYouTube is the video-sharing site.. From films

to short video-clips can be downloadedThis is a movement against media/information

hegemony

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other current uploading usesother current uploading uses

people like to upload the power of uploading is in community

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p p pusers want to have a voice

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active Facebook profiles in theactive Facebook profiles in the Stellenbosch network this morning

(2 2009)(27 February 2009)

In SA: 758,297

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local limitslocal limits

accessibility of technology

local relevance

bandwidth bottleneck

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