digital

What, Me Worry?

Swedish universities have an old tradition of nailing the PhD thesis in the main university building. The act of nailing has both a formal and traditional element. The physical hammering a nail through the thesis is naturally a traditional element. But the formal part of the ceremony concerns making the thesis available for the general public three weeks before the thesis defence.


Photographer unknown ca. 1850

The thesis that is nailed to the notice board is naturally not intended to be read â?? or at least not read easily (imagine trying to read a thick book which has been nailed to the wall). Therefore the author provides copies to the university library. The idea is that the thesis will be defended publicly which naturally means that the public must have the opportunity to read and prepare their questions and criticism.

Before being able to nail a thick book to the wall â?? it has to be printed. The printer wants 1 day for making proofs and 5-8 workdays for printing. Between these days I need to check the proofs.

24th August â?? Files to printer
26-27th August â?? Check proofs
28th August â?? Printing begins
11th September â?? Nail the thesis (three weeks before defence)
2nd October â?? My defence

Nervous, me? No! Whatever gave you that idea? I just remember the wise words of Alfred E. Neuman: What, Me Worry?

For those of you who cannot wait and want the sneak preview. The most updated version is online here. This is the most current version will continue to be updated until its time to send it to the printer…

Posted on by mklang

Nostalgia

Today it’s nostalgia. We are going to see the new Asterix and the Vikings film/cartoon. Already from the trailer I can see that they have not slavishly followed the book but that doesn’t matter. The series by Uderzo and Goscinny of the adventures of the Gauls surrounded by Romans has been a central part of growing up. The Gauls have also appeared occaisionally in my lectures.

The adventures of Asterix appear in 33 main books (one of which is a compendium of short stories) and a complete set is a natural goal for the collector. Wikipedia has a lengthy background on the importance and popularity of the series.
Posted on by mklang

Glowing Review

I came across a glowing review on Amazon for Human Rights in the Digital Age (edited by Andrew Murray and myself). Getting a glowing review is a very nice feeling! So good that I naturally feel the need to reprint it here!

I read this book following Conor Gearty’s advice in his 2005 Hamlyn Lecture Series “Can Human Rights Survive?” that this book “should be required reading for all those interested in the future good health of our subject”. Although it drew on a wide variety of contributors, some better than others, overall I found the book filled a void in the current literature and for this reason alone it would be a must read. That aside though I found the contributions to be thought provoking and useful. Some of the better chapters come from Mathias Klang who discusses Cyber-activism and online civil disobedience, Douglas Vick who puts US and European views of free expression to the test and Andrew Murray who challenges the orthodox views that government should look after itself – at least when it comes to controlling the information flow about itself.

This is an excellent collection of essays and I simply echo Conor Gearty’s words – buy it if you are interested in the future good health of the discourse on human rights.

Posted on by mklang

End of an Era

Today marks the end of an era. Despite this there were no bands playing, no speeches from visiting dignitaries, no public announcements. I didnâ??t really expect any of these things but it was a sad affair when the whole office packed all their stuff into boxes. Today we had our last morning coffee at the old workplace.

The boxes were collected today and tomorrow we will be unpacking all our belongings in the new office. We have not moved far â?? only across the harbour entrance to Gothenburg. The new department is all wifi (for staff and students) and new furniture â?? despite this there is a pang of nostalgia for the old place which I have experienced, worked in and complained about for the last eight years.

Posted on by mklang

Powering the Flat Screen

The flat screen TV trend shows no sign of diminishing in either Sweden or the UK. According to this article in the Guardian Online a flat screen TV is sold every 15 seconds in the UK. The problem is that the flat screen plasma can use up to four times as much electricity as the old-style cathode-ray tube models.

If we connect this with our other home entertainment trends (set-top boxes, digital video recorders, DVD players etc) home consumption of electricity is on the rise.

Dr Joseph Reger, chief technology officer at Fujitsu Siemens Computers in Munich, Germany, said: ‘If all the [plasma] TVs were on at the same time, you would need something that produces 2.5 gigawatts. That can be done today with around two nuclear power stations.’

The discussion in Sweden is changing slowly but the main thrust of the energy policy has been to close nuclear reactors for safety reasons and fossil fuel based producers for environmental reasons. As a reaction Sweden is buying more energy from other countries. In particular from low-cost Eastern European countries. Which means that either we move the polution out of sight or we attempt to place the nuclear risks in countries which may not be able to afford to be too particular.

As usual someone else is paying the initial price of our consumption. Eventually the bad news will reach our shores.

Posted on by mklang

Book Mooch

I am particularly fond of ideas where old ideas can be supported by new technology. If you add to this ideas which include books then I am sold. An example of this is Book Crossings whose idea was to share books with strangers by leaving them in public spaces a clear notice of the Book Crossing idea.

The Book Mooch is another of these great ideas.

Itâ??s a community for exchanging used books. It lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want. It is many other features but in its simplest forms the idea is:

Give & receive: Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you’ve read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish.

(via Boing Boing)

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Che Guevara Mashup

On 5th of March 1960 Alberto “Korda” Gutierrez took two pictures of Che Guevara. In 1967 the Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli received two copies of the famous print at no cost.

Che by Korda

Feltrinelli started making posters from the prints with the notice â??Copyright Feltrinelliâ?? down in the corner. The image was on itâ??s way to become an international icon â?? it has been transformed, transplanted, transmitted and transfigured all over the world.

Korda never received a penny. For one reason only – Cuba had not signed the Berne Convention. Fidel Castro described the protection of intellectual property as imperialistic “bullshit”. Does this mean that Korda’s work is in the public domain? Probably not – but it is in a serious grey area.
Today I saw a new chapter in the Korda print. Paul Frank have made their fame (at least in my opinion – but then again this is not a fashion blog) from their cartoon monkey

The Paul Frank monkey is a cultural icon. So is Korda’s Che image. Paul Frank have now playfully (?), respectfully (?), irreverently (?) created a mashup of these two icons into this inevitable (?) conclusion…

When Che t-shirts became popular again (after the fall of the Soviet Union) I remember hearing a few mumblings from people that “young people” were adopting the icons of the revolution without any knowledge about the content, struggle or ideologi – the past had in fact become a trademark belonging to no one. I tried then to argue for the role of the cultural icon – but some still stuck to their guns and argued that the young were adopting symbols without knowledge and the manufacturers were profiteering on the ideology of the revolution.

From Korda to Paul Frank…evolution?…regression? You decide…

Posted on by mklang

Serendipity

Serendipity is making fortunate discoveries by accident. It is also one of those words that both sounds good and denotes a good thing.

While looking for the bibliographic data on Lawrence Rosenâ??s book â??Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Lawâ?? (itâ??s the best on FOSS licensing and it’s also online here), I came across another Lawrence Rosen and his new book â??Law as Cultureâ??. The title was enough â?? I bought it.

Now that I have the book I read the front flap of the dust jacket:

Law is integral to culture, and culture to law. Often considered a distinctive domain with strange rules and stranger language, law is actually a part of a cultureâ??s way of expressing its sense of the order of things.

Rosen is a legal anthropologist and he presents a nice intro to the area of law and culture. All this is good stuff and I am looking forward to reading the rest. How did this book end up in my library and on my â??must readâ?? list? A case of mixed identity, two authors with the same name, an interest in software licensingâ?¦

Serendipity isnâ??t it great?

Posted on by mklang

Michael of Rhodes

It sounds like a fictional mystery â?? just look at the ingredients: a lost manuscript about an ancient mariner sailing the Mediterranean (and beyond), fighting naval battles and piratesâ?¦

At the age of 16, Michael of Rhodes signed onto a Venetian galley in 1401 as a common oarsman. Over the next four decades he sailed on dozens of voyages, either in the war galleys of the Venetian navy, or in the commercial galleys of the merchant fleet. He rose in the ranks, attaining a number of different offices, including the highest rank a non-noble could have in Venetian service. In 1434, Michael sat down to write out the manuscript for which he is remembered. The Michael of Rhodes manuscript was lost for 400 years until it resurfaced in 1966 and again in 2000.

Today selected pages of the beautiful work are available online along with maps and illustrations. It’s not all there and it’s not CC licensed (or similar) but it’s a great site.
(via BibliOdyssey)

Posted on by mklang