Finishing Off the Open Content / Web 2.0 Revolution

Posted 31 Aug 2014 at 12:03 UTC by shlomif Share This

An open letter (with its sources and other formats) from the hacker king of the open content / Web 2.0 revolution (~2000-2014) to all hackers / actions heroes and geeks / amateurs from the film creators world, the software development world and elsewhere, about officially concluding that revolution and starting the next one. In part it should be done by filming films, either indie
or more professional, of the “Summerschool at the NSA” (#SummerNSA) screenplay which proved to be the magnus opus of the hacker king of that revolution, and passing the baton to the new hacker queen.

Headers


  • Subject:
    Finishing off the Open content / Web 2.0 revolution



  • From:
    Shlomi
    Fish
    (a.k.a “Rindolf”), the
    hacker king of the Open
    content/Web 2.0 revolution (~2000-2014)



  • To::



    1. Summer
      Glau
      , Hollywood actress, known
      for her roles in Firefly, the Sarah Connor
      Chronicles
      ,
      xkcd
      and
      Summerschool
      at the NSA
      , and who I suspect
      wishes to become the new hacker queen.



    2. Sarah
      Michelle Gellar
      , Hollywood actress and
      producer,
      known for playing the
      fictional Buffy Summers,
      who was the hacker queen of the Web 1.0 revolution (~1997-2000),
      in the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS).
      Ms. Gellar was also the frontwoman of the show,
      and Hollywood’s Alpha female for that period.



    3. Chuck
      Norris
      , martial artist, actor, and filmmaker
      , the inspiration and subject of many satirical
      “facts” about him
      , which have become
      a very powerful weapon by their own right, and also inspired my
      NSA
      “facts”
      , and later and earlier
      humorous collections of facts..
      Furthermore, Mr. Norris appears to be the current
      Alpha male of Hollywood.



    4. Megan Fox,
      Hollywood actress, a very inspiring person, and
      someone whom I suspect wishes to become the
      next Hollywood Alpha female.



    5. Jennifer Lawrence,
      Hollywood actress, a very inspiring person,
      and the present Alpha female of Hollywood.
      Also provided a lot of inspiration for
      the multi-sectioned essay
      “Putting All The
      Cards On The Table (2013)”
      .



    6. General
      Keith B. Alexander
      , retired
      United States
      Army general, and former director
      of the National Security Agency (NSA).



    7. Joss
      Whedon
      , Hollywood filmmaker (writer,
      director, etc.) who is notable here as the creator
      of BtVS, and Firefly, and a potential back-up
      director for Summerschool at the NSA.





  • CC::



    1. Larry Wall,
      creator of the
      original “patch” program,
      the Usenet newsreader “rn”, the Perl programming
      language versions 1-to-6 and their “perl”
      implementations
      and the hacker
      king of the Open source/Usenet revolution
      (~1984-1997).



    2. Edward Snowden,
      former contractor for the CIA and the NSA, who
      is notable for foolishly, but gallantly,
      revealing a lot of internal claims of the NSA
      (= NSA “intel”) and becoming a media hero and
      an outcast. Mr. Snowden
      has thought he was under a constant threat for
      revealing what
      was likely mostly a product of delusional minds
      inside the NSA (or false/out-of-date data as
      intelligence data probably often goes).



    3. Randall Munroe,
      creator of the
      xkcd web-comics,
      which introduced me to Summer Glau, and
      provided a lot of inspiration and fodder
      both for “Summerschool at the NSA” and for
      other aspects of hackerism.
      He may wish to further collaborate with
      Glau on her journey as the new hacker monarch.



    4. All action heroes / hackers
      and
      geeks
      / amateurs
      of the world.





Producing “Summerschool at the NSA” (#SummerNSA)

Your assistance is required in producing the feature film
“Summerschool at the NSA” based on
my
original screenplay
. The screenplay is made available
under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-by) and its text
is original. I have designated my
recommendations
for some of the cast
, and the film should be capable
of being filmed mostly
or entirely in a film studio and at a relatively low cost.

Note however that I encourage any productions whatsoever of the
screenplay, including
by enthusiastic independent film makers, on
YouTube,
and including producing them as voiced animations.

I also neither mind nor discourage any hacks and deviations from
the
original screenplay, up to and including featuring
Arnold
Schwarzenegger
sending Rihanna to
kick the NSA’a ass,
or Kermit
the Frog
doing the same with
Fluttershy.
(And you may consider both mutations as artistic challenges).

What I do not want is that nothing will get done, and that
there won’t be any film - by anyone - in the forseeable future.
So please get to it as soon as you can. I need you, and the world
needs you.

If you create something, please mark it with
the
hashtag of #SummerNSA.

I have written about some
profitable
business models
for creators of online culture, which
do not involve ad revenue which is small and has proven to be
ineffective. Absent from the post, is selling merchandise
(see the famous
“Merchandising” excerpt from Spaceballs), and putting
selected
Project Wonderful-like ads, which the web site owner pre-approved of and
are non-intrusive. Film makers and artists may wish to deploy
them either with “Summerschool at the NSA” or with different
cultural works.

Implications Of The “Summerschool At The NSA” Films

The open content / Web 2.0 revolution has proven to be a blazing
success and a source of decent or better income, esteem,
and publicity for many individuals, small companies,
large companies, and other organisations. While during the Web 1.0
era, information was hard to find, not reliable, and often hard
to contribute to (what Prof. Lawrence Lessig calls "read only"
vs. "read/write" in his book
Remix,
which I read and loved.), in the Web 2.0 era, one can
build upon information, which is often cited and reliable,
change it, enhance it, and perform
many remixes as well as
crossovers
and “mashups”
.

It is my belief that it was I, Shlomi Fish (“Rindolf”), who was
the
“Hacker
King”
(a.k.a “Warrior King/Queen/Monarch” / The
best-of-the-best-of-the-best / The Saladin / The Qoheleth / The
John Galt / etc.) of that revolution. To quote what Quark from
the Star Trek franchise said
about
the Grand
Nagus
, he/she: «has the greatest
business mind… always thinking ten,
sometimes twenty steps ahead of
everyone else.»
and the kind of person who has the same ideas as everyone else only five
years earlier
and thus is named a lunatic.

Nevertheless, my reign as Hacker Monarch has reached its end
with the writing of the screenplay, Summerschool at the NSA.
The latter mixed and matched Judaism (Tanakh, Talmud, and Israelism),
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the
xkcd
web comic, the “99 problems” meme, the old
“Publish or Perish” adage,
the deeds and words of
Saladin,
open source and open content, some
modern but not unthinkable technology,
love/romance/sex/relationships, pop culture, and humour, and
more into what
was essentially a realism,
Real
Person Fiction
, story. Furthermore, it featured
fictionalised versions of Sarah Michelle Gellar,
Summer Glau, and General Keith Alexander, who was the
director of the NSA at the time.
I also ended up seeing it as my modernisation of
Ayn
Rand’s Atlas Shrugged novel
, which was her
magnus opus as Hacker Monarch (while still building upon
it, referencing it, and going against some of it original premises).

Like Atlas Shrugged, “Summerschool at the NSA” was eventually
understood to be my magnus opus, and I passed the baton to
someone else, Summer Glau, and thus mostly concluded the
open content/Web 2.0 revolution with a mostly happy ending and
a blazing success.
Sic
transit gloria mundi
(STGM).

The formalities for concluding all that are:



  1. Directing/producing the feature film or films
    of “Summerschool at the NSA” in whatever format
    they shall be done.



  2. Ms. Glau and I meeting somewhere and me asking
    her these questions, which I'll give along with the
    answers I expect:



    1. Question:
      Are you afraid to die?

      Answer:
      There is no correct answer.



    2. Question:
      Are you afraid to live?

      Answer:
      Maybe I have in the past, but I no longer am.
      I will do and say what seems right and good,
      whether people like it or not (while still being
      careful and avoiding being arrogant).



    3. Question:
      Do you wish to become the Hacker Monarch,
      while being fully aware of the implications
      of this role, and taking full responsibility for
      it?

      Answer:
      Yes, I do.





  3. I will
    give
    her my blessed/cursed amulet of power
    ,
    a plain brown ten-sided die, that was given to me as
    a present by my friends at the time, and ask her to
    determine
    what to do with it next. I urge her not to throw it away or
    destroy
    it (by seeing if
    it
    blends
    or whatever), since despite its low
    cost and mundaneness, it is a fine piece of engineering.



  4. I will declare Summer Glau as the presiding hacker queen,
    and step down from my role, and become a hacker king
    emeritus.



One implication of all this is that we shall finally and
almost completely unite these worlds:



  1. The Academia.



  2. The software industry / open source / Internet /
    World-wide-web workers.



  3. The “content”/culture creators, both the content industry
    (e.g: Hollywood, the MPAA, the RIAA, and many smaller
    local franchises around the world)
    and many hobbyists, amateur, independent and/or unsigned
    artists and content producers.



This is despite the fact that some of these worlds appeared to
be at a constant dispute with each other. This merging of
these worlds is similar to
the
merger
of the AT&T UNIX/BSD
worlds and those of the early PDP-10-based
ARPA-NET
and NSFnet hackers that happened at the early 80s, and that
in turn led to the open source / Usenet revolution.

There will likely be a lot of time to reflect upon my history
and achievements during my reign as hacker monarch of the world, but
I think
the future is more important than the past. I have a lot of
potential advice we can use to continue to battle the remaining
man-made
problems (e.g: bloodshed, suicides, deaths due to arrogance
and carelessness, possible present and future environmental
problems, unnecessary red tape and regulations, unnecessary
hatred, antagonism and distrust, and vandalism)
and some questions for further inquiry.
However, it's now also
up to the new generation of activists of the upcoming post-open
content / post-Web-2.0 revolution
(whose nature is yet to be discerned) to build upon the work
of the activists and action heroes of the open content revolution,
and take the world even more forward.

So let me just give some pieces of advice to Ms. (Summer) Glau,
which are mostly relevant to other people as well.

Advice To The Upcoming Hacker Monarch


  1. Don’t
    be too arrogant and/or careless
    - I don’t
    want you to get killed prematurely, and it seems God
    punishes
    more people for that rather than for being bad.

    Note that Hubris in moderation is still very
    important as almost all ancient and modern technology
    (from fire, through Aristotle’s Logic and science, through
    the Lever, through modern architecture, through automobiles
    and air and space travel, to computer and computer networks,
    to this very essay and very word) are product of mankind
    wishing to defy "gravity" and show his environment
    that he is not bound by its rules.

    Furthermore, courage and spite is required as a way to
    avoid the “fear of living”: never fear what some
    other people think or do not think about you. Furthermore,
    accept criticism and even encourage people to prove
    you wrong or even offend you. Like the mightiest Klingon
    warriors say when they were proven wrong: “What a great
    day it was for me to die! Thank you for this excellent
    battle.”.



  2. Don’t feel superior. Even if you are the hacker monarch,
    everyone else is or can be the most powerful man on Earth,
    and the Messiah. Even the smallest and most fragile
    inanimate object, serves an important purpose in God’s
    (= The King of the Kings of the Kings) world.

    You can never travel the path or survive alone. You need
    each and everyone and everything out there.



  3. Be Yourself: remember
    that whatever you do or whoever you are some people
    will always complain. Please
    all→Please none
    . Aim for perfection
    in imperfection. Remember that
    You’re awesome.



  4. Take a good care of yourself. Have a lot of
    “Wine,
    Women & Song”
    : Good food and drinks (that
    taste good and are what you desire at the moment);
    Good company - of any sex ; and clean, creative,
    enlightening, fun - however amateuristic or of
    apparent low quality.

    While it’s OK to be busy for short periods of time,
    don’t become a wage slave who doesn’t eat and drink
    well, doesn’t socialise, and doesn’t have time to enjoy
    themselves.



  5. Seize
    the day! (= “Carpe diem”)

    Don’t wait for a special ocassion to enjoy yourself or
    contribute to the world - or usually both.
    Every day is the
    unbirthday
    of your friends, your fans, everybody, and of you,
    and it’s a good day to
    remind
    them that you love them
    .

    Every day can be the
    best
    day of your life
    so far.



  6. Don’t be pseudo-Utilitarian:
    if you made one person a little happier, then what you did
    was a blazing success. “He who saved one man, has
    essentially saved the world entire.”.



  7. Never deny that you are
    the hacker queen: proudly admit it. Too many hacker
    monarchs did not acknowledge their own self-worth. Don’t
    repeat the mistake of Larry Wall and of me, and play
    “The Invisible” who is arguably the worse kind of hacker
    monarch.



  8. Be a
    hacker / action hero: bend the rules, violate them,
    surprise people, defy social norms, dogma, inertia,
    prejudice, enthropy and gravity, all in order to earn
    your victory and - be happy and proud doing that.



  9. Be an alpha female (= see “Wesley Snipes” in this essay by
    Eric Sink
    )
    or a beta female (= “Denzel Washington”) or a little bit
    of both, but don’t be a Gamma↔Omega female.



  10. Get an active online presence. See
    my
    plan for that and the comments I got
    .
    One further note is to avoid
    Shaike
    Ophir’s “The English Teacher”
    ’s definition of
    monologue as “One person talking to himself”, which
    I noticed many celebrities succumb to. The more
    you reply and interact with the people who reply to your
    online posts and comments, or otherwise interact with
    them, and collaborate (engaging in a true dialogue), then
    the fewer redundant answers will be given, and the better
    quality the discussion will be.



  11. Be honest and enlightened and constantly stay honest and
    enlightened. Honesty and enlightenment are processes and
    one must constantly be committed to become more and
    more honest and enlightened, or else they immediately
    became dishonest, cynical and stagnate.



  12. Practice the basics of the philosophy of Saladin,
    a very noble man, a strategical genius, and one of the
    most notable hacker kings in history.



  13. If you’re in a dilemma or run into some trouble, remember
    that I and possibly other hacker monarchs emeriti (such
    as Larry Wall) and your other friends who are hackers
    and geeks, are always there for you and can give you
    a fresh perspective on the situation.

    ( An independent person is not someone who does everything
    on their own using feudalism taken to extreme. As long
    as he or she takes full responsibility for the outcome
    of their actions, they can ask or even pay for help or
    advice. )



  14. Finally, remember - Sic transit gloria mundi! You will
    most probably not be the hacker monarch forever, because
    one day you too will create your magnus opus, and a
    younger (at least in spirit), more awesome, action hero
    will displace you as hacker monarch, because they want
    it more badly than you. And they can be
    a man or a woman or a group, fact or fiction, animal,
    vegatable, or mineral, etc. And then you too
    will become the Hacker monarch emerita and actually
    feel relieved about all that.



Have a lot of fun, stay smashing and awesome, and hack on!

Hail, Saladin! Hackers of the world, unite!

References and Further Reading


  1. “The
    Eternal Jew”
    - an early attempt at codifying
    “Rindolfism”, which is my personal, one man, dynamic
    philosophy.



  2. “Putting all the Cards on the Table (2013)” - a
    multi-sectioned
    essay, that was written in March 2013, a short time before
    I wrote Summerschool at the NSA, and which was inspired a
    lot by Silver Linings Playbook, Jennifer Lawrence, and the
    fact that she won the Academy for it (at age 22).



  3. Summary for “Putting
    more cards on the table (2014)”

    - points for an essay that is an update/ammendement to the
    previous one.



  4. “Saladin
    Style”
    - a short, irresponsible essay about
    Saladin’s innovative and inspiring strategy and philosophy,
    that still has direct implications today.



  5. My
    works of fiction, humour and action heroism

    and my
    essays



  6. About
    “Rindolf” and “Rindolfism”
    - a page
    about my nickname and personal philosophy and my hopes
    and expectations for the future of me, Summer Glau, and
    everyone else.



  7. My
    Twitter feed
    , where I posted many thoughts and
    insights about “#SummerNSA” and other things. I have
    some other presence
    on social media sites.



Licence

This work is copyright by Shlomi Fish
and licensed under the
Creative
Commons Attribution licence version 3.0
(or any later
version). See my
interpretation of it
.

New Advogato Features

New HTML Parser: The long-awaited libxml2 based HTML parser code is live. It needs further work but already handles most markup better than the original parser.

Keep up with the latest Advogato features by reading the Advogato status blog.

If you're a C programmer with some spare time, take a look at the mod_virgule project page and help us with one of the tasks on the ToDo list!

X
Share this page