Spoke yesterday with an unidentified wireless developer. It is a bleak picture out there in some ways, developing for wireless platforms is a major pain.
It seems to me that the equipment manufacturers need to have the courage or initiative to break control over their platforms away from the carriers. What seems to stop them is the retail power of the carriers. But I want to know more.
I’m off to Europe to speak at the All Hungary Internet conference — whose topic is “Users Seizing Power” or something like that.
I notice from the program that some friends will be there, like Andrew McLaughlin. Should be fun!
Another project I am working on is, roughtly, network neutrality in the wireless world.
Question is, are there carrier practices in the wireless world that would be unacceptable in the wired world?
A review of our book (”Who Controls the Internet“), by writer Kirerren McCarthy, that was both generous and thoughtful. While critical in parts, it got what the book was trying to get at
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“I finished it this morning. And my gut feeling is that this is a very important book. Not only does it cover a big hole in knowledge and understanding of the Internet, but it is also well written, easy to understand, concise, coherent and thoughtful. I strongly suspect it will be ones of those books that informs opinion and so has a lasting, global influence far beyond what you could expect from 226 pages of text. …
In my spare time, I am helping out a venture to distribute films independently. The target is Film Festival films that have trouble finding a distributor. There are a ton of great films that for one reason or another are impossible to get a hold of outside of actually going to a Film Festival.
The venture is called “The Film Annex,” and its a great idea.
Film Annex needs about 100 films to launch. The question is, what’s the best way to get yourself the non-exclusive distribution rights to 100 films people want to see? Talking to producers and programmers, obviously, but perhaps there are others.
Ongoing…
On Friday, launched Project Posner — in the course of an introduction of the real Richard Posner at Columbia law school.
Project Posner has all of Posner’s 2100+ opinions, fully and easily searchable. As I said Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing
“The law supposedly belongs to the people, but it can be surprisingly hard to find. American case reports — which are the real law of the nation — are hard to get at, and even when on the internet, rarely searchable. To get real access you generally need a Westlaw subscription which costs a small fortune. Wikilaw is a great effort to try and change this, but it is still primitive.”
Posner said that he was relieved that the “cat” search turned up more than “dogs.” I told him it was because he liked the phrase “cat’s paw.”
Thanks to Stuart Sierra who the heavy lifting.