O HAIs & kthxbais: thoughts on my new job with Mozilla.

O HAIs & kthxbais: thoughts on my new job with Mozilla.

I'm extremely happy to announce I have accepted a new position with Mozilla as the European Drumbeat project producer. Unfortunately, I will be leaving both Socialsquare and Creative Commons. My new job will be leading projects that make the web better. Or, in the words of Mozilla: "lead projects that help people around the world to understand, participate and take control of their online lives". This is what I love doing, and i am both humbled, proud and eager to get started.

"Ok, so, I know Mozilla, but what is this Drumbeat thing?"
Friends and family were initially as confused as I was, when I first heard about Drumbeat. "Does it have something to do with Firefox?" most of them asked. Well: Drumbeat is related to Firefox, but it is not the same thing. Drumbeat is about taking the story and mission of Mozilla beyond code (the stuff that browsers and the web is made of) and reaching into the broader internet culture. It's about engaging new people in new ways.

So what is this really about?

For the critical reader - one of my first questions when I was interviewing in Paris was: "What's the real agenda here?" (meaning: this is too good to be true!). I'm trained as a journalist; and supposedly always looking for hidden agendas. So far there seems to be none. This is NOT about Mozilla or anyone else harvesting ideas from many to the benefit of a few. It's about keeping the web free and open, working together, and defining what the future of the web should be like. Mozilla has proven that large-scale collaboration can result in great, perhaps the greatest, results. The success of Firefox is both reassuring and an extremely tough act to follow. I don't know how to code. I donated a few bucks to help Firefox at the outset, and got my name in the Firefox 1.0 NYT ad in return. I've had a Spread Firefox banner on this blog; stickers on my laptop, submitted bugs when my browser crashed. But, with Firefox, even if I could not contribute directly writing brilliant lines of code, I always felt part of a mission, something bigger.  My ownership was proportionate to my contributions. This is how Drumbeat projects will be. And, importantly, Mozilla will provide seed funding (grants) to projects which are well-defined and ready for support. This is an ideal way to spend some of the money Mozilla has made from search royalties.

"What kind of projects will you be looking for? Could it be anything?"
So, while projects will be varied, all of them will include a strong element of people participating and lending their skills to activities that directly improve and protect the open nature of the internet. Some of the existing projects are related to the free culture advocacy and activism which has been a big part of my life for the past few years, others will be new and exciting territory. This could be arts, education, journalism, governance or, hopefully, something completely unexpected - if it helps the overarching goal of making the web better, stronger and more open, it's relevant.

Where, what, how?
I will be based in Paris, France, at Mozilla's European headquarters. About 25% of my time will be devoted to Web Made Movies, one of the first Drumbeat projects, headed by web documentary pioneer Brett Gaylor.  Web Made Movies will, if successful, spread a deeper understanding of how openness makes the internet the wonderful thing it is, develop new practices and tools based on HTML5 technologies. And it will create a networks of web-native filmmakers who want to push the envelope. But mainly over the next months, I'll be identifying and supporting projects with a clear idea and strong potential for user participation, and working to push them forward.  Since it's still early days, we will be focussing on bringing new people into the circle. So, if you're reading this and you have an idea, submit it here. At the end of the year at least one will be moving forward, will be funded, and will be getting a lot of attention and support from the Drumbeat team, from a great community of talented people, and from me in particular.  I will be blogging (less words, maybe some audio, lots of video) along the way; more details about that later.

So, I'm sad to be leaving my colleagues at Socialsquare and friends in Copenhagen behind, but confident that everyone who knows me understands why I have to do this. Keep in touch, and please help me make Drumbeat successful!

Min blog holder ferie. Er snart tilbage.

Mysteriet om Comedy Centrals blokering af Danmark breder sig

Mysteriet om Comedy Centrals blokering af Danmark breder sig

REMIX ude som fri download - læs den, køb den, fat det :)

REMIX ude som fri download - læs den, køb den, fat det :)

(via @lessig)

The Bloomsbury Academic Press version of REMIX is now Creative Commons licensed. You can download the book on the Bloomsbury Academic page.

Mike Masnick on how Reznor / NIN found the "secret" of music business in the future

Mike Masnick on how Reznor / NIN found the "secret" of music business in the future

Spredt fægtning om Pirate Bay dommen

Spredt fægtning om Pirate Bay dommen

(UPDATE: Det kommer ikke som nogen overraskelse at dommer Tomas Norström sidder i diverse interessegrupper med anklagerne. Man kan ikke have en dommer i denne slags sag der grundlæggende tror på "copyright maximalism" - og sagen bør gå om. Se denne kommentar, igen af Martin Von Haller Grønbæk. Jeg håber at få tid til at skrive et indlæg om hvorfor den danske sag også har haft alt for mange for tætte bånd - nu hvor kommer for højesteret.

Det her startede egentlig som en kommentar til Martin Von Haller Grønbæks seneste blogpost, en analyse af Pirate Bay Dommen. Da jeg de sidste par dage har savnet informeret analyse og kommentar - og ikke kunne medvirke i DR2 udland i fredags - har jeg valgt at gen-poste min kommentar her. Den bærer præg af at jeg ikke har haft tid til at læse dommens ordlyd, og ikke er inde i detaljerne. Men here goes:

Jeg skimter en politisk slagside i dommen, fordi det i sidste ende er et spørgsmål om holdning - fremfor facts - der afgør den skade, Pirate Bay har påført industrien. Man kunne argumentere for at den rent faktisk har hjulpet dem - gratis reklame osv; alle ved jo at fildeling er vigtigt for kunstnere, der vil slå igennem idag - og ingen har påvist at fildeling entydigt skader selv has-beens der lever af rettigheder. Man kunne også mene at Pirate Bay har tvunget industrien til at nytænke - ellers sad vi med en Ghostbusters XXII på VHS til samlet leje på 98 kroner når man kom en halv time for sent til Blockbuster den dag idag.. Pirate Bay har aldrig diskrimineret eller forsøgt at pådutte brugeren en bestemt type af indhold, eller indirekte gjort det gennem begrænset udbud. De har blot indekseret det, brugerne ønskede at dele.
Så, for mig er det en dom FOR establishment og IMOD “det nye” - og det er et eller andet sted en politisk gestus som kan få konsekvenser ifht vækstlaget. Jeg havde ikke ventet en så hård strafudmåling, og det bekymrer mig at en flok nørder som har drevet gæk med Hollywood og iøvrigt udviklet et usædvanligt effektivt distributionsnetværk med himmelskrigende kommercielt og public service-mæssigt potentiale (jvf. NRKs brug af samme platform) ifælge dommeren bør stoppes et år i fængsel. Hvem hjælper det?
Som en af de medvirkende i Good Copy Bad Copy (goodcopybadcopy.net) - MAYO AYILARAN fra Copyright Society of Nigeria - udtrykker det:
“If I convict a pirate, the pirate will not put money in my pocket. He will still continue to spend my mone that I pay the government as tax. The government will have to feed hi, the government will have to clothe him, and take care of him while in prison. (…) Copyright is not about stopping people from using your work, but getting them to use your work legally and giving you money for what they’ve done with your work”.

Og så vil jeg lige kommentere på Piratpartiet. Hvis du læser deres politiske program vil du opdage at se ikke vil afskaffe ophavsretten, men blot vil begrænse omfanget: http://www.piratpartiet.se/politik/upphovsratt

“Stora delar av underhållningsbranschen som den ser ut idag bygger på upphovsrättens bestämmelser om ensamrätt att utnyttja verket kommersiellt. Vi vill bevara den ensamrätten när det gäller kommersiell användning.

Men dagens skyddstid - livstid plus 70 år - är absurd. Ingen investerare gör någonsin kalkyler med så lång återbetalningstid. Ingen kan påstå att den i praktiken nästan oändliga skyddstiden är nödvändig för att locka kapital till underhållningsbranschen. Däremot leder den till många negativa konsekvenser för dem som vill bevara eller bygga vidare på klassiska verk. Därför vill vi korta skyddstiden till en nivå som är rimlig ur både samhällets och investerarens synvinkel.”

Så kan man diskutere hvor længe et værk bør være beskyttet for at balancere mellem incitament og almenvellet, eller hvordan man definerer "kommerciel". Men Piratpartiet lyder her næsten mere Lessig-agtige end du gør

Jeg kender efterhånden parterne i denne debat godt, og selvom jeg godt ved at denne forestilling endnu ikke er slut, må det siges at industrien tog dette stik med de beskidte kneb, der skulle til. Nu må vi så se om Pirate Bay kan returnere. Og hvor det efterlader "os". Min norske Creative Commons kollega Gisle vurderer at dommen rent faktisk kan sætte en stopper for mere dystopiske tiltag, fordi den viser at man ad rettens vej "kan" gøre noget ved tjenester som Pirate Bay. Lad os nu se.