Chris Gilbey, my business
partner at Perceptric, after 30 years in the music business continues to amaze
me with his anecdotal stories of how up and coming artists “made it”.
I have learnt a lot listening to Chris over the past few
years.
However, today I saw a new method of artist promotion.
This morning Twitter was fluttering about Demi Lovato as the
second most popular Twitter subject. (#demilovatolive)
Who is Demi Lovato and why should I care?
According to Chacha (yet another
Internet trivia responder), Demi Lovato is a teen actress and singer & is
mostly known for her role as Charlotte
on Disney Channel's "As the Bell Rings."
This is relevant because?
So far, Demi is almost invisible to the World outside Disney
fans and the P2P community. She is a virtual unknown. On the Emule network this
morning a Kademlia ED2K search revealed 160 music tracks from her album without
a single fake listed anywhere.
A TV special that she appeared in “camp rock 2.avi” appears
to be enjoying quite a bit of download attention with almost 500 peers advertising
its availability; as is the film clip file “CampRock – The Jonas brothers & Demi
Lovato - This is me 2.avi”.
As for her Telemovie the Princess Protection Program – here is
just the top four entries from the Kademlia listings- Snapshot taken at 2:00 AM Madrid Time.
It’s interesting that the Spanish version (Spain
is in the top three download countries) is out-doing the rest of the world.
With a new album due out 27th of July - we will
report back as her star climbs higher.
Perfect P2P Publicity fodder.
In other words, Demi, an actress and singer most famous for
her role in a Disney Channel program is so popular that a live streaming appearance
has the capability of attracting millions of Tweeters to the point of pushing
her topic to nearly the top of the Twitter top 10 chart.
How many Twittering's does it take to get to the top of the
Tweet List – well about the same number as would make NBC or ABC executives
turn green with envy in the USA.
Her
fan club has been started (lots of information on the linked page) and is
offering discount concert tour tickets to members.
We will be watching this lass and reporting on her rise
through the P2P networks.
We’re pretty sure the P2P community will drag her into Stardom.
In many cases they are not strictly duplicates. They may be
remixes, or alternative quality (128 kbps, 192, 320 etc).
Nevertheless, it is partly the nature of the smorgasboard of choices that makes P2P file Sharing such an attractive proposition for downloaders.
There is a remix for all tastes. Empire of the Sun is this weeks Remix King with 21 different remixes available although only 6 seem to have made into the Top 100; possibly due to Boom Boom Pows 10 versions.
Worthy of mention is the scoring that shows this week there
has been considerably less activity on P2P networks in Australia
than last week.
At least, in relation the Australian Chart hits.
Michael Jackson fans that dont have all of Michaels recordings have been busily downloading everything in sight.
That includes persons living in our favourite two Melbourne suburbs (which appear to account for a very large chunk of MJ fans in Australia this past week.)
This week the Thriller Video enjoyed a P2P Score of 187 million - in Australia.
So whilst it would appear that calls to action on Television (e.g.: ACDC Special Programme - Black Ice - on Channel 7 earlier this year) encouraged P2P immediate downloads, (we call this the supermarket checkout syndrome), there would appear to be momentous events that skew normal trends.
P2P Rank
Music Tracks
P2P Score
1
When Love Takes
Over - David Guetta (Feat Kelly Rowland) (Albin Myers Remix).mp3
764,506
2
Hush Hush Hush
Hush - The Pussycat Dolls(Remix Ver).mp3
593,019
3
When Love Takes
Over - David Guetta Feat Kelly Rowland (Laidback Luke Remix).mp3
494,877
4
Boom Boom Pow -
The Black Eyed Peas & Cinconze Dj - 2009 (Ultimix-Chartbusters
Remix).mp3
239,391
5
Leave The World
Behind Vs Show Me Love - Axwell Ingrosso Angello & Laidback Luke -(Laidback Luke Mashup)...
183,944
6
When Love Takes
Over - David Guetta (Feat Kelly Rowland) (Electro Radio Edit).mp3
172,128
7
Single Ladies (Put
A Ring On It) - BeyoncÚ.mp3
160,417
8
Knock You Down -
Keri Hilson Feat Kanye West & Ne-Yo.mp3
138,372
9
Just Dance - Lady
Gaga (Deluxe Edition).mp3
137,839
10
Love Story -
Taylor Swift -.mp3
123,151
11
(04) Empire Of The
Sun - We Are The People--Mu G³ena.mp3
112,639
12
When Love Takes
Over - 01 David Guetta- (Feat Kelly Rowland).mp3
110,160
13
You Found Me -The
Fray.mp3
108,235
14
The Fear - Lilly
Allen -.mp3
102,464
15
Boom Boom Pow -
The Black Eyed Peas (526 kbps).mp3
80,853
16
Poker Face - Lady
Gaga.mp3
80,775
17
New Divide -
Linkin Park.mp3
74,991
18
Dead And Gone - T
I Feat Justin Timberlake.mp3
71,180
19
You Found Me - The
Fray.mp3
66,132
20
Jai Ho! (You Are
My Destiny) - A R Rahman & The Pussycat Dolls.mp3
I promised statistical revelations today about the possible
damage that file sharing was causing to physical record sales.
I regret that the magnitude of the outcome would dictate
that I confirm the results in more than one methodology, so for the moment, I’m
afraid, we shall all have to wait a little bit longer.
I am however quite interested in the apparent leading of
digital sales by P2P video clip downloads.
Here is the top fifty this week of Australian video clip downloads.
P2P Rank
Video Clip
P2P Score
1
New Divide - Linkin Park -
[2009] Xvid - 1000 x 424.avi
37,013,883
2
Guru Josh Project - Infinity
2008.avi
11,056,478
3
I Hate This Part - Pussycat
Dolls - 640 x 368.avi
10,784,972
4
When Love Takes Over - David
Guetta Feat Kelly Rowland -Promo - (Official
Clip) Promo - 320 x 240.avi
In the last decade I owned and managed various ISP’s and Co-Lo businesses; I
used to get a buzz out of sitting in front of the monitors and watching the MRTG graphs never peaking.
(MRTG Graph "borrowed" from Wikipedia)
Peaking was bad; peaking meant that customers were not
getting what they were paying for, Internet access. Or at best, some customers
were receiving a reduced level of service.
Not peaking was good. Not peaking meant that every customer was
a happy customer because they received their content with no packet loss (fast).
But in my day, we did not have it as bad as ISP’s do today.
In the late nineties most clients were connected via dial-up with only
corporations connected via bonded dial-up, ISDN, bonded ISDN or frame relay.
Ten years ago – you could put 100% of your traffic through a
squid cache and no one new any better.
In fact in 1997 with Andrew Chris, Stephen, Adrian and Rex
we built the worlds first Terabyte Squid Cache. We called it the Fridge. Then we
hung an entire country wide IX off the fridge and everyone told us we had a
kick-ass network.
Of course today with P2P, VOIP, demand built PHP database
pages, we would not get away with caching everything. (Which is why I feel sorry
for Optus. Their Satellite batteries do not get much of a charge during the
winter months so users in the bush get a raw deal after about 10:00 pm. In fact – just like batteries in cars
need swapping out every few years, so do batteries in satellites.
We may be getting a brand new NBN in a few years but before
that, unless someone at NASA feels like doing a grease and oil (battery
exchange) on three Geo Satellites over Australia,
the people in the Bush will be left with no connectivity.
However, I digress. We were discussing me watching MRTG
charts. There is something about owning/running a network that you built every
step of the way that the Telcos/RBOCs will never quite grok. You know every
point of failure, potential failure, chewing gum and shoelace repair location
in the whole network. It is yours. You created it. Therefore, when some little
kid comes along with Napster and tries to take it down by filling up all the MRTG
graphs, you start a battle of wits. It is you versus the kid. He wants to rape
your entire bandwidth and you have another 25,000 customers that do not really
want him too.
So you watch graphs, you reconfigure routers; you purchase
expensive $24,000 Alteon smart switches so that you can traffic shape the
little kid. However, he gets his mates in on the Napster thing. Suddenly there
is not just one leak in the dam; the whole network in multiple locations around
the country is holier than a set of fishnet stockings.
You are left with no choice, all the Napster traffic has to
be routed via an alternative source. You buy a satellite feed and divert all
the P2P traffic straight out the dish on top of the roof to Pas-8.
Hah! That fixed his wagon and his little mates. They are now
Sprint’s problem. The other customers click on blissfully unaware that you just
single-handedly fought off the invading Mongol hordes to ensure that the MRTG
graph did not blip over 90 %
What is all this about?
There is no such thing as net neutrality.
Anybody who thinks there is should with 19 other people squeeze into one
9 metre square washroom with a single toilet bowl and tell them that this is the only
opportunity they will have for 72 hours to go to the toilet – and they only
have two minutes (for all 20) in which to do it in.
Cannot be done.
P2P is killing the networks in its current format.
It is killing the networks because the content industry
insists on flooding the net with fake files and DoS packets.
They consider that by making it harder for a P2P’er to
obtain a file, he/she will give up and go and buy the music/video. Ummm, no!
All that happens is a quantum addition to the amount of CRC
packet retries that occurs as various p2p clients reject the corrupted data and
re-ask for the part file again.
Sometimes the file (usually the wmv files boys and girls –
try not to download those ones – they are usually the fakes….) arrives and
requires connection to obtain a license – usually a virus – do not bother –
just download the next file in the list and if necessary the next one.
The harder the content industry makes it – the more
determined the individuals attempt at getting the file is. I know – I can see the repeat IP numbers going
after similar named files.
How to Get a Record to Number One.
But then again, this is not news to the content industry.
They learnt years ago that the way to make a record number one in the physical
vinyl world was to not print enough copies and let the record stores sell –out.
This would cause would be purchaser to do the pub-crawl of the record stores to
obtain the desired item. Record stores would be inundated with requests from
individuals for the record and consequently order up big. The following week,
with lots of stock, the sale people would be encouraged by the management to
push the “well stocked” labels.
So whilst I am not saying the Record Companies are devious
enough to repeat that modus operandi in the digital world, their actions do make
think.
Therefore, the problem is that the Internet is being filled
up with junk, denial of service attacks, virus masquerading as legitimate
content and thousands of little content industry bots invading your home
networks peeking and probing your service ports (which of course goes towards
your monthly bandwidth total – without your permission – some would call that
illegal trespass and theft).
The result of course is that the net is slowed down for
everyone.
Your computer is slowed down (by answering all the bot queries)
and the entire world looses billions (daily) in loss of productivity and
ecommerce.
I blogged the other day that someone should sue the industry
for the Denial of Service attacks on networks outside of the USA.
However, I also think that ISP’s should penalize P2P and
video/music streaming users on a pro-rata basis. i.e.: During peak load
periods, the heaviest down-loaders should pay the highest fees. Just like in
the Electricity and Gas, demand marketplace.
There you have it. I am a proponent of P2P, but also a pragmatist
when it comes to ensuring Service Level Quality for all users.
Sort of like the Smoking on the bus example, I gave a few
weeks ago. One smoker can ruin it for everyone.
Does that mean I think that P2P should be outlawed?
Hell no. I think P2P is the only chance the Internet has of
becoming very self-healing and independent of all negative growth regulatory
interference.
However, I do believe that some regulation has to be
inserted into the equation somewhere and if the ISP’s do not implement the
regulatory environment, they probably will not like the alternatives that I see
coming over the horizon.
Basically, I believe that Internet users want to be able to
get what they want, when they want it and I believe that there should be a
methodology developed for that eventuality to be possible without becoming a
criminal.
I believe that if the world could obtain content without having
to loose their anonymity or having to take out a second mortgage on the family
home, then the whole illegal file sharing debacle would disappear.
Therefore, I propose a voluntary set of P2P Commandments.
I am not a deity, so this is just a very rough beginning draft….
1.Thou shalt honour the net, only use P2P in a
responsible manner, and only file share for two hours per day.
2.Thou shalt not use non-P2P video or music
streaming services.
3.Thou shalt pay for at least one item you download
into the P2P conscience fund* – daily. Thou shalt pay what you can afford.
4.Thou shalt immediately report illegal content to
the authorities as soon as you are aware of it. Dial 1-800-Dob-in-a-Pedo
It is a short list. However, I am sure that readers could
suggest additional commandments.
*No – there is no conscience fund, which I am aware of – but
someone should start one.
When Love Takes
Over - David Guetta Feat Kelly Rowland (Laidback Luke Remix).mp3
2811843
2
Hush Hush; Hush
Hush - The Pussycat Dolls(Remix Ver).mp3
1666368
3
We Made You -
Eminem.mp3
570688
4
Jai Ho! (You Are
My Destiny) - A R Rahman & The Pussycat Dolls.mp3
366291
5
Knock You Down -
Keri Hilson Feat Kanye West & Ne-Yo.mp3
354703
6
- David Guetta
Feat Kelly Rowland - When Love Takes Over 2009(2).mp3
269649
7
Bonkers - Dizzee
Rascal Feat Armand Van Helden.mp3
262319
8
The Climb - Miley
Cyrus.mp3
253340
9
Know Your Enemy -
Green Day.mp3
243580
10
Waking Up In
Vegas - Katy Perry.mp3
190536
So far the Aussie Top ten (mind you that’s all states) –
creams Simon and Garfunkel.
So we thought about checking out video clips and…….
P2P
Ranking
File
Name
P2P Score
Paul Simon and
Garfunkel - the concert in Central Park.avi
57,894,031
The Video Top 50 by P2P Score
P2P
Ranking
File
Name
P2P Score
1
When Love Takes
Over - David Guetta Feat Kelly Rowland - Promo - (Official Clip)
Promo.avi
54,331,731
Makes you think doesn’t it.
A couple of yesterday’s musicians appear to do it better for
the P2P crowd than the current crop of up and coming wannabes (Not that the
wannabes are not already be – it’s just that according to P2P, Paul and Art would
appear to have more “be”.)
How does this reflect on Paul and Art – well probably through
higher gate receipts.
Chris and I have been looking at P2P activitiy since August 2004.
However it is only since December last year that we started searching out and comparing statistics against record sales - specifically comparing deep catalogue with current new releases.
Our theory was that P2P encouraged additional sales as a form of marketing; albeit unrecognised by the Music Industry.
We have started to have some reservations about the clearcut nature of our findings.
Music Downloading may hurt physical Record Sales.
However, appears to be lead by Music Video Downloads which
would appear to boost digital record sales.
Maxwell Smart fans will remember the cone of silence.
That horrendous piece of elliptical cone shaped perspex that
descended from the ceiling to foil the bugging attempts of KAOS.
As Max, the Chief and spies and persons with secrets to hide
have discovered worldwide, sometimes, containment (cone of silence) doesn’t work
very well.
At other times, it worked fine.
Magicians use the distraction of “watch this hand” whilst
they use their other hand to effect the stunt.
P2P is a little like the cone of silence, at first it didn’t
work so well, now it works extremely well.
A few months ago, Chris and I were chatting to some people
about the future of P2P.
I stated that by April 2009, the flow of P2P users would start
disappearing fast beneath a cover of I2P.
This morning I was searching for MD5 handlers and came
across a new meme.
As always, I thought I would share it with a few million
people.
I have identified over twenty “legitimate” big-name software
projects that utilize the beneficial structure of P2P as integral to their
operating capabilities.
Here I do not refer to illegal file sharing – I refer to
file handling.
Think online software licensing distribution e.g.: Microsoft
Word on an online server with automatic utilisation of same available globally
without having to download the program or install it on your computer.
The software resides on the net and authorized users may use
it for a fee.
Now combine that with the potential of distributing the
software amongst several hundred people based on a restrictive hop count algorithm and localized MAC address authority index.
i.e.:Several people
in company “A” have 25% of the code. Several persons in Company “B” located in
the same building have another 25% of the code; with the rest of the code
allocated to Company “C” also in the same building.
When a user from Company “A” needs to run a spell-check, the
spell-check component is loaded from Company “C” and not from Microsoft’s
servers in Redmond.
How does it all work ????
Routing is per MAC address cluster [<65,000] and not IP
number. Code modules are identified via hash files including encrypted
permission keys. Permission keys are recognised based on the level of license
paid for.
This is not the forum for discussion of the additional
operational details, just assume for a moment that it works. What are the
benefits.
Several, firstly, companies don’t have to upgrade thousands
of licences any more. They just pay per user for the components used for the
time they are active.
Secondly, because the software is shared at a local level,
only new logons need to register with Redmond
for activation purposes with the rest of the transaction takingplace within the same building or ISP.
Therefore internet bandwidth is saved increasing browsing
and data transfer capabilities for everyone else.
Microsoft ensures that everyone has the latest version of
the software without companies needing to stay on top of the upgrade loop.
What are the Disadvantages?
Microsoft and its affiliates learn about a companies operational
modus operandi.
(I didn’t say this was a good idea, just that it was
technically feasible now).
What are the Evolutionary Results?
File sharing – now made possible at a MAC address level goes
through the roof as an option in MS-Word.
(Fictional composite imagery compiled for article.)
How is this happening ?
Several different ways but XML appears to be the winning
strategy at the moment; and of course, only one person per 65,000 addresses
needs to be visible to the outside world.
This would appear to suggest that the file sharing game is
over.
The Score Board as we see it:
Visible P2P Software %
Content Industry Interdiction %
Government Legislation %
Invisible P2P%
Total File Sharing
%
1998
100
0
0
100
1999
90
10
0
100
2000
85
13
2
100
2001
80
17
3
100
2002
90
5
4
1
100
2003
90
3
5
2
100
2004
90
3
2
5
100
2005
75
10
5
10
100
2006
70
12
3
15
100
2007
65
8
2
25
100
2008
45
4
8
43
100
2009
33
3
10
54
100
2010
23
1
1
75
100
It would seem from our own internal data collection efforts
that the Score appears to be in favour of P2P software with file sharing as the
major motivating factor.
Yes, we will still see the industry thrashing about in it’s legalistic
death throws but then as it adopts the new emerging business models, P2P will
become just another ….
And the Governments? Well, they will get back to doing the
important things for their voters, like ensuring housing is available,
encouraging local manufacturing and learning that ignoring Hollywood
is not such a bad thing after all.
References:
LUA
A Simulation Study of the Proactive Server Roaming for
Mitigating Denial of Service Attacks
Chatree Sangpachatanaruk et al, 2003
Least Cost Ad-Hoc Routing,Khoo, DiBono, Koltai July 1997
Bogons and Bogon Filtering with Bogon
Route Servers
Presentation, Dave Deitrich, NANOG-33 Meeting, Feb 2005
We have mentioned independent film producers before.
However, very few have publicly experimented with File
sharing and then shared the results.
Today, I found the accidental exception from November 2007.
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Eric D. Wilkinson and I am the producer of a small
independent film called “Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth” (our
review).
I am sending you this email after realizing that our website has had
nearly 23,000 hits in the last 12 days, much of it coming from your website. In
addition, our trailer, both on the www.manfromearth.com
site and other sites like YouTube, MySpace and AOL has been watched nearly
20,000 times AND what’s most impressive is our ranking on IMDb went from being
the 11,235th most popular movie, to the 5th most popular movie in 2 weeks (we
are also the #1 independent film on IMDb & the #1 science fiction film on
IMDb). How did this all happen? Two words: Torrent / File Sharing sites (well,
four words and a slash).
More specifically, RLSLOG.net. Our
independent movie had next to no advertising budget and very little going
for it until somebody ripped one of the DVD screeners and put the movie
online for all to download. After that happened, people were watching it
and started posting mostly all positive reviews on IMDb, Amazon and other
places. Most of the feedback from everyone who has downloaded “The Man From
Earth” has been overwhelmingly positive. People like our movie and are
talking about it, all thanks to piracy on the net!
Am I upset… surprisingly no. Thanks to everyone who has downloaded this
torrrent and watched the film, our awareness level is through the roof. For
that I say, “THANK YOU”!
What you guys have done here is nothing short of amazing. In the future,
I will not complain about file sharing. YOU HAVE HELPED PUT THIS LITTLE MOVIE
ON THE MAP!!!! When I make my next picture, I just may upload the movie on the
net myself!
So there it is, one lone brave voice who is not scared into
submission, coming forward and telling the truth about how his movie became a
success.
And here it is for all of you that missed the Foxtel rendition.
Enterprises want things to change. They want more sales, more profits, less overhead, market domination (by us, not them). A lot of things that require change.
But a lot of people want things to remain exactly as they are too. They want all that stuff, but they don’t realize one critical point. You can only change the exterior stuff if you change the interior stuff first.
And if you change in the wrong way, you actually create the exact opposite to what you set out to do.
Now all that may be as clear to you as the nose on your face, but do you live life that way. Think about it in the context of the music industry and some of the things that we repetitively go on about in the writings on this blog.
The music industry is constantly striving for more sales – regardless of whether you have a record company, a music publishing company, or you are selling merchandise – or swag as they call it in the trade. Nothing wrong with that – it is all part of that rich tapestry that we call capitalism.
So along comes the whole concept of file sharing and what you get is entirely predictable – you get a giant push back from the record companies and publishing companies. They see file sharing as the ultimate evil. Their music is going to be passed from hand to hand to hand with no transaction fee. And then they look at who gets to benefit and what do they see? ISP’s.
It is really quite natural that the music business sees ISP’s as people who deriving huge benefit from their intellectual property.
So they spend a huge amount of money on lawyers to look for ways to use the law against the downloaders. They try suing them and then start to realize that in doing that they are creating lots of column inches for newspapers. At first that seems like a good thing, because the music business loves to get stories in the papers – it helps sell their music. Then they realize that the stories that resonate most in the eyes of the public are the ones that make the music business appear to be a bunch of thieving bastards. That didn’t work. What next?
Next they try hiring a bunch of geeks to write code that goes onto the CD’s that they sell, that stop CD’s being ripped. Unfortunately it turns out that the geeks they hired weren’t so cool after all and the CD’s that were manufactured put malware onto the consumers’ computers. More bad press, and worse still, now some bright attorneys general think that the music companies should be sued. Even more bad press.
In the meantime the music companies, along with a bunch of other businesses that rely on selling bits of shiny plastic with zeroes and ones on them where you buy the plastic but not the zeroes and ones, have gotten a win through the introduction of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This gives the music companies the absolute knowledge that no one can mess with their IP because they have the law on their side.
So then the music companies figure out that they should go after the ISP’s. But the ISP’s aren’t too keen on this idea as you can imagine. So they push back. And they have the benefit of understanding what they do better than the music companies understand.
The problem here is that the music companies wanted to remain in their comfort zone. They thought – and continue to think – that because they appear to have a moral right, seen from their perspective, their will should prevail.
It won’t. Not if they keep doing things the way that they have, anyway.
They need to think like salesmen instead of thinking like academics.
Wait a minute… hard-bitten, cigar chewing music honchos thinking like academics!?
Well, maybe not wittingly thinking that way, but thinking that way nonetheless.
It is actually a mindset.
It is a way of thinking that I have encountered in almost every company or enterprise, large and small that I have worked with in the last 30 odd years. And without criticising academia too harshly, they often get into this mindset when they are faced with having to deal with engagement with the commercial world…
When faced with having to change their ways in order to deal with the commercial world, there is a strong tendency to pull down the shutters and start writing another grant application.
And who can blame them? If you can do something successfully more than once, it probably means that you have a talent for it, so why not keep repeating it ad nauseam….?
Which is what the music companies did too.
There really wouldn’t be too much of a problem with this approach if it were not for one thing that changes everything. Digital.
The concept and the reality of digital is such a massive disruptor it is incredible. It doesn’t just enable nice orderly progressive change. It creates jagged huge tectonic shifts in everything it touches.
And it is touching absolutely everything.
We all know it has touched music and entertainment – first with the advent of the CD and DVD and then, as noted above, with file compression making it cost effective to shift data across networks, as, at the same time, Moore’s Law made storage of content orders of magnitude less expensive, all at the same time.
It has hit the food industry, making genetically modified crops possible and relentless in their incursion into our diets. Genetic modification couldn’t take place without digital technology making it possible to map and then split and splice genes.
It is gradually wrapping itself around every industry and every industry is going to find that it faces the kind of challenges that were first felt in the music business. All business likes to control the space it occupies. And the tendency of business, when it perceives a threat, just like people and nations, is to stand their ground and then to fight back.
But digital is not something that you can fight using the weapons that most managers think of when trying to keep control of their space.
The big lesson that every business should start taking from what has happened to the music business is that P2P is a ghost. It can’t be held. It permeates everything.
P2P is a small subset of the asymmetric modality of life that we have entered.
I wrote a year of so ago about the Chinese Colonels who wrote a book on asymmetric warfare and how they discussed, back in about 1998, the concept of an economic war with the US in where economic damage would be able to be done by attacking computer networks and significant infrastructure. That of course happened.
On the other side of this coin is the concept of asymmetric business models. These are the business models that shift the transaction of information to the edge of the network, where all value is actually in the information rather than in the commodity itself.
Think about it. In a world where GM foods are an inconvenient truth where is the value in the food supply? It is in the information as to where it was grown and by whom using what means. That information is going to remain at or near the edge of the network.
In a world where energy is no longer something that we can take for granted how can asymmetric distribution of the energy resource based on information about the energy, be valued? My thoughts on this are only embryonic, but my sense is that if we are going to move to a world in which solar and other alternative energies are fed into the grid they will need to be certified and tracked and that can happen primarily by thinking about their value in informational terms rather than just as electrons moving along some copper.
This stuff has enormous connotations for the way we exist. Businesses and enterprises – along with academia – have a massive need to start thinking in entirely unconventional ways. As do governments. And governments themselves will need to reconstruct themselves in a totally new way. There will need to be a move away from centralized power and decision making. There will almost certainly need to be a further layer of government rather than one less. I would see community co-operative government being the way to go, with local trade being driven partially by the adoption of simple barter systems based on local information exchanges which primarily function to keep financial energy circulating through local economies as much as possible.
These ideas will emerge from all parts of the world over the next few years and will create a totally new kind of wealth for the people that participate in them. Countries as we know them, will radically change, and those areas of the world that are able to develop and incorporate asymmetric, P2P thinking into the way that they operate will become the leaders.
Not the light on the hill, but many lights on many hills.
A few weeks ago I wrote about Twitters lack of character space
being it’s biggest drawback for the medium to be a serious political critique
or voter feedback tool.
sherinodonya:
If someone in your group gets killed, do not give the body to hospitals.
Document the killing, Hide them for their families. #Iranelection
45 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see
them.
Twitter as well as being apparently a capable reporting
media appears to be sufficient to disseminate emotion, tactics advice and
rhetoric.
In fact the perfect disruptive insurgency tool.
Compared to a twitter feed – traditional newsrooms
throughout the world in both broadcasting mediums and the print-press are
becoming irrelevant. With the exception that to actually link on all the links
in a twitter feed you need about 80 analysts speed-reading to know what is relevant
and what is counter insurgency political doublespeak from the government.
So – the role of the popular press will be reduced to
editorial focus depending on the political leanings of the analyst readers and
the show/paper producer.
I see a huge opportunity for a news aggregation service to
turn Twitter feeds into a useable news information product.
According to Wikipedia a perceptron is a type of artificial neural network.
Ergo a “Perceptric” is a person who creates or uses a neural network.
The Perceptric Blog is where business partners in Perceptric Pty Limited, Chris Gilbey and Tom Koltai post thoughts, ideas, and links to stimulate thought and accelerate the transfer of ideas with a particular focus on P2P.
Perceptric Thinkers are available to consult on the impact of disruptive technology. If your business is not disrupting someone else, it is probably being disrupted by others.
The Perceptric mission is to help companies and people exceed their expectations.
We try to help people redefine the ecosystem that they operate in, and understand the impact that digital technology is having - that they have not yet considered.
