Intrusion

Is it just me, or are Google’s ads becoming even more intrusive. How does that work, why am I getting shit loads of ads from Wix, udemey, Monday project management, Arsenal sponsored trading software and for phone games! Why are they interrupting stuff made by other people when I have paid for half the infrastructure? Is there another podcast, vlogging plaform?

Oi Google, you can loose eyeballs by posting too much ad-shite! …

Provocation

So much Brexit/Lexit shite in my time line and I have to cook a Xmas lunch and begin my submission to #LewishamDemocracy review. But I have to react …

Someone has circulated the Sqwawkbox Lexit piece on a forum/group that I read, and I feel I need to say:

  1. Leaving the EU would be a bad thing economically partly because of the tougher immigration policy and I think we know who’d get the smelly end of the stick, you might think it can’t get worse but you’re wrong.
  2. Leaving the EU would diminish our rights because we can no longer go to the European Court to enforce our workers, consumer, privacy, civil & environmental rights.
  3. Remaining in the EU would not stop Labour’s 2017 manifesto, not on macro-economic policy, monetary policy nor on industrial policy because of our opt-outs.
  4. The rest of the Lexit case is triangulation.(“We’ll lose seats in the North (of England).”, it’s the same argument that led to our shameful “Control Immigration” mug.)
  5. There are some Labour members/supporters who oppose a 2nd vote out of loyalty to the Leader; arguing for remain, giving good advice, is not disloyal and the majority of the Party, and its voters want to remain. Some Labour remainers may want a different leader, I don’t.
  6. The remainer’s fear is that the Party’s policy will be/has been captured and set by advisers with no mandate and that their i.e. remainer’s views will be for some reason ignored. This would be both anti-democratic and disastrous for the Left.
  7. Don’t get into a list of those you don’t like who support remain, you’ll lose; my list of undeniable shits and criminals supporting Brexit is longer. Play the ball, not the player.

I have always argued that once those who want to leave have negotiated their best deal, we should ask if that is what is wanted. I am told that it has to be a referendum, I’d take a vote in Parliament because we have already had a General Election since the referendum.

ooOOOoo …

Charging for Content? Why?

For proselytising organisations, there is a conflict of motives in getting their stuff out there and read, viewed or heard by those interested in what they have to say and either covering their costs or making money by charging for the content. Religious organisations, self-help organisations and political parties should prefer to make the material available, whereas private sector press organisations like Sky will prefer to maximise income.

Obviously, once the content has been digitised, the cost to duplicate is zero.[1]

Some self-help organisations are confused as to what their priority is, to spread the message or generate income.

[1]The cost to create is not zero, neither is the cost to consume even if the price is free. …

Politics as a Platform. Not!

In an article on Open Democracy, entitled “Digital parties on the rise: a mass politics for the era of platforms”, Paulo Gerbaudo writes of the growth of Politics as a Platform based on ideas from his new book Digital Parties: Political Organisation and Online Democracy The article’s subtitle is, “The old party system appears in serious distress, faced with challengers using digital technology as a means to achieve the utopian goal of a more democratic society”. There’s more below/overleaf … …

Reinforcing Monopoly

Hereby are two stories about how software acts as a barrier to entry to a market and reinforces the monopoly power of its provider.

The first is shown by the fact that industrial content are getting cold feet over the EU copyright directive as the service providers have switched to supporting Article 13 since they already have the so-called “upload filters”. Only the big boys will be able to remain in the game of hosting user authored content. As predicted, the new regulations will inhibit both startups and SMEs.

The second story is closer to home. The UK have decided to mandate age verification functionality for porn sites. Who do you think is going to build that? Alec Muffet and the Open Rights Group have been tracking this and even if you think it’s a good idea, they way it’s being done is disastrous. The BBFC is the regulator and this is a massive piece of scope creep, it looks like they will licence a third party to act as the software provider and again the favourites to win this business is an interested party. Alec’s latest blog post is on Medium and is critical of the regulator’s stance and IT Security expertise and he previously wrote about the competitive dynamics and opportunities created by the new laws. Muffet is also concerned about the profiling use of such a database of porn users. It’s almost back to the days of the Roman Empire where monopolies were licensed. …