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Creator of “Beijing or Bust” documentary detained

The disappearance of film-maker Hao Wu has been brewing in the blog-o-sphere for a few weeks, with requests by some concerned individuals to minimize publicity while Hao’s family quietly communicated with his detainers. But Web-savvy sympathizers have quickly mobilized. Reuters reported two days ago on Hao Wu’s detention by Chinese police, and Reporters Sans Frontieres reported earlier on efforts by Hao’s sister to secure his release.

I simply know Hao as a former colleague from Excite@Home who was justifiably proud that his first documentary film was aired on PBS station KQED in December 2005. I hope for Hao’s speedy release.

Metamorphosis

Photo by The Jud

Fascinating to witness the Tom Cruise visit to Yahoo spin from an internal speaking engagement into a mass-media event through a chain of digital transformations from employee camera-phones to blogs to network television (see “Inside Edition” coverage using Yahoo employee-posted media). If nothing else, this rapid metamorphosis and associated public debate demonstrates the growing impact of user-generated content. Or, consider it a “Web 2.0” style buzz-marketing stunt. Either way, very impressive :-).

It’s Tom and Jerry
Originally uploaded by maidelba.

Referring to the men rather than the mice, caught this morning at URL’s Cafe on the Yahoo campus either debating the future of the Web, or just looking for some good cheese .

Thanks to the innovative social software application, Digg, I discovered this interesting post on how the prelingually deaf think since they’ve never been exposed to spoken language. The article notes that the gestural/visual nature of sign language makes it conceptually closer to written Chinese than English. DIGG readers may be naturally drawn to the article because of the implications for the cognitive and computer sciences…

read more | digg story

… this brings to mind a book I’m currently reading, Noam Chomsky’s “On Nature and Language”, as well as a favorite read from several years ago, John Searle’s “Mind, Language and Society”. With the Internet getting better at revealing so much worthy of my curiousity, I am humbled by the saying, “Life is short.”

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Yahoo HQ Sunnyvale
Originally uploaded by lyndon.

Well, after commenting back in November 2005 that three capable competitors may have a lock on the future of consumer software, here I am at one of them — Yahoo. My mission here is to help software remain free for end-users by improving Yahoo’s already formidable targeted advertising solutions.

I am among many old friends from the former ExciteAtHome, and I see from Y!360 that fellow OpenLaszlo proponent Marc Canter makes the rounds here as well.

Will all software really be free?

While taking a short break on the island of Kauai, I’ve reflected a bit on my experience within the software sector, and reached a dozen conclusions. At risk of stating the obvious to some, and positing absurdities to others, here they are:

1. The shrink-wrap desktop software and licensed enterprise server software markets are now mature, consolidating, and in decline.

 

• Open source platform software will power the overwhelming majority of Web applications.

 

 

• As Web 2.0 gains momentum, the most innovative and valuable applications will emerge on the Web rather than the desktop.

 

 

• Web applications with broad appeal are destined to be acquired by the major consumer portals, and offered as free services under the ad revenue model.

 

 

• As with Web 1.0, most aspiring creators of a new application category see acquisition by a major portal as the best-case business scenario.

 

 

• Advances in software development technology enable the above, with small teams or individual developers now able to rapidly develop and deploy substantial software applications with minimal funding.

 

 

• New categories of software are primarily works of creative authorship rather than ‘design and construction’.

 

 

• The ‘interactive’ results of programming gain audiences of application users, just as ‘narrative’ works of authorship gain readers or viewers.

 

 

• Web 1.0 proved that the ad media model can support some categories of Web information services. Web 2.0 hints that more advanced versions of the ad media model will sustain sophisticated software applications as well.

 

 

• As Web applications continue to evolve as ‘creative’ works, the major business opportunities involve service infrastructure. Businesses providing this infrastrucutre enable the creative programming teams to efficiently reach audiences and sustain a living from their efforts.

 

 

• The major Web portals will be the dominant ‘publishers’ of Web 2.0 applications.

 

 

• The distribution of economic rewards for creators will follow the ‘rock star’ pattern, with inordinate levels of compensation accruing to a relatively small number of programmers who attract the largest audiences.

 

 
The above trends stray from the original vision of Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Movement. Beginning in the late 1970’s, he observed that software code was a work of creative expression, and that intellectual property laws hindered the ability of software authors to advance their art, to the ultimate detriment of society. Stallman thus forcefully argued that software should be free, as in ‘liberty’, so that software authors could learn from each other.

Now, software is free as in ‘beer’, and much like works of creative authorship under the old media, it attracts audiences of value to advertisers. So, while the few may continue to advance free software in the name of liberty, the many will advance free software in the name of marketing.

The above leaves me with a few questions to ponder in the months and years ahead.

1. Will software follow older ‘narrative’ publishing industries in the sense that fee-supported works should be of generally higher quality than ad-supported equivalents?

2. Will new portals, or a new generation of software ‘publishers’, emerge that address the interests and needs of niche audiences? Or will a few existing portals dominant the entire sector for years to come?

3. What categories of software will be best supported by the different business model options?

Well, the sun is starting to emerge from the rain clouds here on the north shore of Kauai. It’s time to return to the beach.
lyndonwong

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Life is simply more fun with cohorts like Oliver Steele. His latest hack-in-all-seriousness is Expialidocio.us, a witty extension of the social bookmarking application del.icio.us, created in response to a blog post by Jon Udell. Oliver elaborates on this and a few other recent ‘short-form’ programming projects on the openlaszlo blog.

Interest in del.icio.us has surged since their recent acquisition by Yahoo. I find the bookmarking service quite useful, as it helps me to assemble a personalized library of online content, organized via labels (tags) of my choosing. Friends, colleagues, and in this increasingly open world, even complete strangers, can follow my interests via an RSS feed of my bookmarks.

Hao Wu’s “Beijing or Bust”

 KQED, the San Francisco PBS station, just finished broadcasting “Beijing or Bust”, a documentary on the experiences of American expatriates of Chinese descent living in present-day Beijing. It’s an intriguing vignette by first-time film-maker and former Excite@Home colleague Hao Wu. His interview subjects are intelligent and articulate observers of what is currently happening in China and of what is happening within themselves as they embrace it. I admire each of them for their ability to navigate this fascinating place and time.

Congratulations to Hao for a truly impressive maiden effort, and many thanks for insightfully conveying the adventure of present-day China to the American audience.