text:
The 4 opens
The #dotcon can not be fixed, the #fashernistas who keep flocking to new "ethical'ish" ones are a problem not a solution.
The #4opens:
Are a simple way to judge the value of a "alt/grassroots" tech project.
Open data – is the basic part of a project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_data with out this open they cannot work.
Open source – as in "free software" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software this keeps development healthy by increasing interconnectedness and bringing in serendipity. The Open licences are the "lock" that keep the first two in place, what we have ain't perfect but they do expand the area of "trust" that a project needs to work, creative commons is a start here.
Open "industrial" standards – this is a little understand but core open, its what the open internet and WWW are built from. Here is an outline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard
Open process – this is the most "nebulous" part, examples of the work flow would be wikis and activity streams. Projects are built on linking trust networks so open process is the "glue" that binds the links together. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process
We need projects like the Media Fund as part of a #openweb echo-syteam
We need projects like the Media Fund as part of a #openweb echo-syteam. But they need to get a bit upto date to be relevant, currently they are years in the past in their thinking – this is a #fashernista problem that is made worst by funding agenda's being many more years in the past.
With the fast moving tech agenda in hand with the #geekproblem we have had more than 10 years of fuckups in this area. We cannot afford many more.
"The Media Fund What is the level of awareness among Facebook users that the platform is shifting ever more towards the favour of bigger corporations?
We need to get honest on this guys like the Media Fund used to run workshops on how to use Facebook for campaigning. While the alt media disintegrated left behind. Now the #openweb is getting close to disintegration while you have been talking about the problem of the mainstream media for the last few years. Yes #failbook was/is a problem especially when #fashernesta activists were pushing it as the solution.
The real current issue is now the openweb tools not year old news about #failbook
Please try to do the right thing
Why do alt/grassroots media fail
Stupid individualism and the visionOntv CJ video templates.
Our templates for video journalism are designed to simplify and empower normal people to make coherent video news pieces using the tools they already have. They are successful at this if people fallow the template's – it says this at the end of most of them. The issue that creates failure is a standard one for the possibility of an alternative "stupid individualism".
Our shared western society is based on a hegemonic false senses of individualism, were the reality is largely faceless bland conformity thinly covered by a surface of lifestyle fashion. This is the bases of consumer capitalism our "wealth" is built on. The current world view atomises any possibility of building an alternative and shows up as a block in most attempts to build one. The disparity of wealth on the surface and poverty of the underlying human condition (some more hippy types would call this "spirit") is striking to many thinking and feeling people.
Our templates boil down more than 30 years of experience of awarded wining fast turn around video journalism to a A4 cartoon sheet. The instructions are clear and complete, if you fallow these, after a few attempts you will likely have mastered the bases of audio visual story telling and from this point of basic mastery opens a whole world of creativity and real genuine "individualism" of the less stupid kind.
Over the last 10-20 years of teaching few actually get this far and we know this because we have trained thousands of citizen journalist over hundreds of workshops at both undercurrents and visionOntv. Why? I would put into view my old friend/foe "stupid individualism" as the explanation (though would admit the are technical challenges as well).
The impotence of the template is more in what it doesn't say. The is much more information in the omissions, this is how it fits on a A4 with pictures. It distils what does work and explains this. And leves out much that people do by default that dues not work.
Simply, people do not fallow the template, often they do not even pick them up and read them, they then go onto do what THEY think is video making, they do all the bits that the template purposely omits and very few of the bits in them, the result is almost always a dis empowering mess. This is the same outcome with all groups we work with.
We live in an individualist society, were we are all "empowered individuals". The problem is evident in that this is our empowerment is an almost all an illusion, we are all dis-empowered individuals with egos let lose on dispoling mode. We think we are empowered because everything around us that works is on bureaucratic auto pilot, we don't actually have to create anything original and lack the base skills to so when the rare option comes round.
Our templates are such a rear opportunity, if you can take your mind out of dispoleing mode and fallow the instructions – the first step and a rare hopeful sign for us as trainers is a budding CJ actually checking the steps on the paper template as they go though the filming.
This is a example of "stupid individualism" a block on many parts of building an alternative.
Some background http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_fetishism
Some questions came out of the last grassroots media gathering about OMN
Questions and draft answers
in terms of what I don't understand it is what do sites specifically have to do?
* At a basic level very little.
- output an RSS feed of their articles/videos/podcasts (most sites do this already)
- grab a sidebar embed code (or CMS plug-in) then configure it with interest tags
- modify/refine their tag embed as needed, if more involved re-tag content items
- there are more complex roles, running an aggregator, for instance. This is an open distributed global job.
* And what help does this network provide.
- publish once and appear on 100's of sites
- much higher viewing numbers by pushing content in front of interested audiences
- posts going "viral" outside of Failbook and Twitter
- co-operative categorisation of meta-data is a side affect of the OMN
- HUGE linking of alternative media
- HUGE redundant/distributed backup of all grassroots media OUTSIDE the transient corporate "cloud". Our history will be much better "archived" than the dotcoms.
- looking into the future: the grassroots builds and helps to define the "semantic web" - that is web03 in dotcom thinking.
- be part of the future not just a trailing edge transitory past.
* I recognise the plan is to open up the internet (i am still unsure what a portal is btw) so people aren't just going through facebook, google and twitter to find streams of information.
- The internet is inherently P2P. Each computer is the equal of every other. In theory your iphone is the same as far as the internet is concerned to the whole of google. it is core radically horizontal.
- This has been reshaped into a client- server internet were you are a small you – big them. This needs describing better.
* I gather from what is written that there is some sort of categorisation that is going on and mutual promotion in this plan for an open Media network and that some people's sites (the aggregators like ourselves) would key to that promotion and categorisation, but I can't really work out how that works, how the media provider benefits, what the media provider has to do, and what does the average punter get and what would it look for them.
- It's a folksonomy based on open tagging. The original publisher can tag their content, aggregators can re-tag content, end users with embeds/plugins can retag.
- this taging is synched across the OMN thus feed flows will update in (semi) real time.
- the embeds (plugins) and feeds tagging are based on boolean logic, thus you can have + and – and AND etc
- there is a social side to the project (the 4 opens). With tagging there is an etiqette - it's socially acceptable to add tags to re-direct flows rather than remove tags (though mis-tagging can of course be changed). This side needs talking about more.
* I am afraid it sounds like a really good plan, based on evidence and solutions to existing to problems, but it is too vague specifics for me to understand what it is.
- There is a huge hole in the technical knowledge of the media producers. There are social norms against the 4 opens. This project flows against mainstream geek culture.
* Everyone is going to ask
* what do I have to do? how does it help me?
- This is so obvious to me that maybe some one else needs to write this.
* What will it look like?
- on the surfice very little will change, but grassroots media will have the potential to surpass the dotcoms and failing traditional media much like the original indymedia project did in its early days when its page views matched the BBC on big days of action.
* how will it help others?
- Traditional media is practically dead as open media, and grassroots media is hopelessly individualistic, short lived and disconnected to replace this faild traditional media. The social media dotcoms are about social control for private profit – then socal control for political control.
The idealogical swing
In the 19th century we had a fight between the conservatives vs fundamentalist liberalism fighting/feeding inhuman industrial growth which lead to a human backlash in the 20th century of social democracy – that is a mediated democracy to push humanan growth (progressive liberalism). The late 20th century neo-libreal (fundamentalist liberals) pushed us back into a 19th century world view which has brought with it the balenceing ideas of conservatism of trump and brixet.
The idea is to do it different. Socialism and ecolagisam spring to mind. If we can bring the progressive liberals back it can open the space for these other world views. If conservatism takes over then we have the revaluation of "communism" as a balance as Neo-liberalism is a inhuman deadend that we should not be repeat.
The conservatives (trump) and the radicals are both pissing on liberals for good resions. Though it might turn out that a renewed progressive liberalism (Corben etc.) might be the best path. Pee in moderation can be a good fertiliser :)
For a view of neo-liberal dealing with a political created ecological disaster this podcast is a good direct reminder http://irishhistorypodcast.ie/podcast-directory/famine/
Building alt/grassroots media networks to challenge the traditional media
Our current groups doing alt/grassroots media are to limited in there idea of what media could/should be. The is either a naivety or a dishonesty to all the current grassroots/alt media. They act and think they can be "big media" with out controlling the distribution of there content in any real way. This is in no way unusual the mainstream media is continually making this very same mistake. All of them rely on the the #dotcons which nowadays is largely the Facebook algorithm for the there content distribution.
Our current grassroots/alt media have web sites so already have one foot in the openweb, but non of their sites prominently link in any meaningful way to each other. They do podcasts so anther foot in the open web, but all their effort for outreach is inside the #silos such as Apple itunes etc. it's hard to directly blame them, though we should and will, for this sorry state.
So why are we here? On the one hand we have the #fashernista embrace of the #dotcons which most of the current crew built there careers inside. On the other we have the suicidal embrace of #encryptionists complexity and parallel "standardisation" into a pointless/shrinking in to nothingness alt-tech ghetto were our alt-geeks are.
With these issues in mind I have been outreaching to these groups for the last year, and building real working openweb linking tech as part of the #OMN project. This currently is not been getting far past their naivety/self interest/career focused thinking. Fair anufe if that is as far as there imagination/aspiration goes, but this is a clear problem for working alt/progressive/left media that urgently needs to be addressed. I will keep outreaching, if you wont to help with this outreach get in touch.
They link to meany alt-media crews at the end of each story which is nice, but no links on front page yet.
They have no links on the front page to alt media crews. They used to have a linking page inside there site, now I cannot find it? If anyone can find links can they send me a URL please. They are looking like going backwords to a more tredtional 20th centery view of what media is?
They have no links on the front page to other alt-media crews and I cannot find any links inside their site. They have source links in there story's which is not much of a step. This is a clear a failer in alt/grassroots media turms.
Stalled roll out of OMN
How to move on with alt/grassroots media producers linking to each other? Currently the shamelessly do not do this, even though they have repeatedly stated they do over the last 5 years.
1) Keep private messaging them on steps they can take, this works to an extent, as asked them to add more tags to their posts and they "broke" the User Interface on the #OMN software we are using by adding lots more – which is a good problem to have :)
2) Publicly talk to them as a alt/grassroots media group in blog post and their social media – this currently has little affect.
3) Talk to them in public as producer groups – this has had a limited affect with some of the groups, will try this more.
4) Public talk to them as individual's, this will generally get a private response and little action just words so far.
5) Name them as groups who do not link/share in public, this might be needed for some of the groups.
6) Name them as individuals within the producer groups and push for linking directly to them in public, name and point to the individual that this is a clear #fail a last stage.
Its a shame that this escalation is needed - linking is a clear path to success on the web – the right-wing blogs/producers do this, its a blank faced #fail that the left/progressive do not now and generally never have.
"Make the world you wont to see" LINKING is a strong path to this.
Looking for helpful/happy people to crowed source the active conversation to make this happen.
Lets start with these groups.
The left - Stop the rot and start the composting.
Its not the people we should be angry at for the current Brixet/Trump mess, it is the small/tiny number of people who pushed neo-liberal polices through for the last 30 years, probably a few thousand.
The people rebelled, yes, they could have rebelled to the left or the right, they rebelled to the right as the right were more competent in the face of the lefts divisions and general uselessness. Be angry with these few and make friends with the majority who decide our future.
And the left stop this divided uselessness, we need a left reboot, keep it KISS currently few "ideas" on the left are worth much. A good first step for the left is for groups to link to each other and share media and events, work out KISS "liberal" diversity of tactics and co-operate.
Stop the rot and start the composting.
Looking at the tech and organising of UK alt/grassroots media
How meany sites link to anuther alt/grassroots media sits. from this list of 38 UK sites only 2 link to anuther site.
Many people find it hard to understand the underlining understandings that push projects based on flow and linking such as OMN and openweb. Here is a short list of activish projects.
Is a place for holding/hoarding closed data – this is used by the #dotcons to extract funding form "free users" when mainstream/alt silo projects finish, as 99.9% do, the data varnishes and is lost, and in this the effectiveness of any alt building is diminished. Silos do not use open licensing for content re-use. Just about every alt/grassroots media project is a silo. It's about capturing data. Its obvious that this is a unthought through issue of "churning"
Is an idea that you can be the big one, all the small fashionista websites aspire to be the big one and by doing this they are working to the logic of the #dotcon and working against the logic of the openweb. They are building a project to lock there users into their project. Portal and silo are overlapping (but different) ideas for building web projects. In the mainstream, Apple is a prime example of this working. In the alt/grassroots almost all alt/grassroots media projects are portals. It's about capturing users, just as silos are about capturing data. For a left wing group this looks much like "recreating the Soviet Union" the one party to rule the state.
Are for-profit data silos in the old days working as portals, more recently they are building out siloed networks as a pseudo networked portal. Its both sad and bad that many alt media projects unthinkingly aspire to be #dotcons
Is where ALL the value is on the open web. Without links content has NO VALUE. This is a obvious statement, its hard to understand the the lack of understanding around this simple thing.
Is a grassroots web standard that is still at the base of many of the dotcon world but is being pushed into the background of the openweb by building silos/portals in the grassroots/alt. RSS is like an open LINK with added data, thus adds value to the web. Its a powerful open tool that we still have. An API is like a geek control freak super power of RSS - the problem is in the complexity/control freak bit...
A subculture that is control/obscurity and more recently technical solutions to trust (wraparound right) this has always been a closing force on open projects. This helped to strangle the original successful alt/grassroots media projects and is pushing for the shrinking of the open web.
The unthinking desire for new/innovation/conformity. A wider subculture that churns the growth of alt/grassroots so little can grow beyond seedlings.
Are greedy dispoling of resources both human and money. The liberals that use bureaucratic funding to push out the geek/fashernista agendas over alt/grassroots projects. These are uneasy friends and clear (invisible) enemys.
Is both a technical thing of wires and frequency and an understanding of mutual aid and of "diversity of strategy". It's native to the openweb and should be at the base of any alt/grassroots media project. In the closed #dotcon the widespread use of A/B testing is a pail controlled shadow of this.
wikipedia is an example of this. It's basic stuff open source project stuff. LINK
Looking at the tech and organising of UK alt/grassroots media. Do sites link to other alt-media projects? Do they support/display openweb standards (RSS)
First DRAFT (please message me with corrections/info)
the canary
Has a RSS feed, regular updates, copyright group silo, it has no outside linking
UPDATE: site back online, no visible RSS but can find a hidden one. Its likely copyright and a silo.
(Their website is hacked/down so posted the #failbook link used to have RSS and regular updates. Anyone know what's happening? Update they hope the site is back online soon.)
Real Media
UPDATE: website back online copyright, no visible RSS feed but you can find ones. Its a a bit of an aggregater but has been suffering from poor spam control. Its pretty much a portal/silo – but could be more.
(They used to have an interesting website for the tec used, but it ended up being just a silo, they look like they are rebooting? Maybe a another silo? we shall see.)
Update they are rebooting as a linking site, lets hope its not a silo.
Has regular good content, RSS, they are a product of the #dotcon social media wave and good at it. Copyright/CC is not stated. The site is a silo with no outside linking
No RSS feed, starting to look a bit "old left" regular updates, no copyright/CC notice. A silo with no external links
The Bristol Cable - Bristol
No visible RSS feed, it kinda probably tries to obey the 4 opens maybe. It's a WP blog site in this it's a media silo with no external links.
Port Talbot Magnet
no visible RSS feed, it mostly fails the 4 opens due to copyright, data and organising. It's a WP blog site, in this it's a media silo with few if any external links.
New Internationalist - based in Oxford
Has RSS feeds, it kinda passes the 4 opens using a CC licence for its content. It links to the visionOntv project.
The Ferret - Scotland, based in Edinburgh
Looks like the old media transitioning to the new media. No visible RSS feed or copyright/CC notice. Is trying to be "open process" looks like a WP site.
Strike! - based in London
looks like a archive of a print mag? Has a RSS feed :)
Positive News - based in London
Dated looking site, hard to read, no RSS feed and a copyright notice. A silo.
Slaney Street - Birmingham
Did not load
Manchester Mule - Manchester
Has RSS feed but last article end of 2015 so not an active site. Probably for fills the 4 opens.
Co-operative News - based in Manchester
Nasty looking site and no RSS, copyrighted, its a silo
Ethical Consumer
No RSS, copyrightish, old looking site.
Marlborough News Online
no RSS, copyright
West Highland Free Press
no RSS, copyright, its a silo.
Star and Cresent - based in Portsmouth
No RSS, no copyright notice? Its a silo.
Morning Star - based in London
Has a RSS feed but its empty, copyright, silo.
Cambria Publishing Co-operative
publishes paper books?
Zed Books - London
paper books and online reading lists, no RSS I can see.
Sheffield Live!
copyright, has a RSS feed, looks bureaucratic open.
Blake House - based in London
no RSS, fashionable calling card website with out content, probably copyright?
Media Co-op
Calling card website with out content, no RSS, likely copyright.
Ignite Creative - based in Oxford
Calling card website with out content, no RSS, copyright.
Shedlight Productions - based in Southampton
calling card website with out content, no RSS, copyright.
Steel City Film and Media Co-op - based in Sheffield
its a #failbook page, maybe open?
Trafford Media & Communications - based in Manchester
(mostly a printer, but also do film production)
calling card, no site.
The Community Channel
The granddaddy of NGO media, no RSS feed, likely copyright silo.
Jammu Kashmir TV
it has content, silo?
Open Audio
Has a working RSS feed
Inform My Opinion
Has working RSS feed but it fails in my pod catcher, its a page on a #dotcon?
has RSS feed, copyright, silo?
AMP Worcs
calling card.
A Television
Half finished calling card site.
Hastings independent press
No RSS, no copyright/CC notice, a silo with no external links.
Copyright, no RSS feed, has some old school widgets which might show external links. Its a local news silo.
Has RSS feed and CC licence, no external links on front page, its a silo but better than most.
Has a RSS feed, its a silo but the is hope for it.
its a blog in the old school sense, has RSS
its a silo with no RSS and no external links
A lot of the original links came from https://www.facebook.com/jdaviescoates
Building a alt/grassrots media network
The OMN rollout is a 10 step process
Rollout a single node to link alt media and share content to 100 sites.
Rollout full social taging flows and start the offline backup, start to move away from the dotcons.
The openweb grows into the semantic web, the dotcons become history.
Time scale
* This could take a year with support and full on effort
* 2 years with interest and some geek commitment
* 5 years with active BLOCKING and geek's turning away and doing something "better".
* It will FAIL if the alt/grassroots groups don't links to each other and each tries/pushes to be the "one" ie if we strive for the same dotcon working in alt/grassroots media.
"Be the change you want to see"
FAQ - why use open websites
We need to get activist to actually use alternative net infrastructure.
Q. Its to complex to use this geek software.
A. So was Facebook when it started, almost nobody understood what twitter was for for ages – all new experiences are hard. Its actually ONLY a question of motivation then familiarisation through repartition.
Q. Activist internet site are ugly – if they just look nicer people might actually use them.
A. After bad UI is put to one side (and this can be an issue) the is a direct correlation between full user functionality and bad looking sites – you can make site look nicer by dis-empowering the user or by shaping and controlling there interactions – but freedom always looks messy just look at Facebook its one of the more messy sites out there – it overcomes this issue by good UI and familiarity – people get used to "functionality - ugliness" after they use the software every day.
Q. My activist site has no way for the "user" to be part of the site beyond limited commenting.
A. Yes activist sites are generally in the stone age of hierarchical control freakery, use sites that are web02 not web01 the actually are some projects out their. Complain to admins if the is no peer -to- peer production on an activist site, then actually use the peer production tools they set-up such as wikis and forums.
Q. Why not just use Facebook groups/ fashionable web2 site, every one is on there anyway.
A. This way leads to the death of the open internet/society LINK
Q. Can i trust activist sites with my privacy.
A. On corporate site's that most activist use, such as Facebook you can only hide from your friends not from your enermys. This is generally true for the open web in general and is something we need to understand. If you have a secret take the activist to the garden and whisper it in there ear, do not rely on any fig leafs of corporate privacy settings or promise of activist client server encryption LINK
History of the visionOntv project
The original project was offlinetv and was a online network to setup screenings to bring people together and cross fertilize different radical campaigning groups. I was pushing it as "open" rebooting of the failing undercurrents video activism project.
Before this I had been making a meager living doing screenings by fundraising vie the copyleft ruffcuts video CD project. With the transitioning from dialup to broadband internet speed the was a possibility to move the the distribution of screening quality video to the spreading peer2peer web.As you will continue to see thought my narration here my core thinking changes little.
The first dotcon (enclosures) boom had bust, the web was still a health open network through the "open" pioneers were being pushed out by more mainstream fahernisata people, these people were being snapped up by the next wave of dotcon funding so the clock was ticking on the next boom (and attempt as enclosing the web for control and profit).
Fashernisa´s were all over the open web, conferences, events, media. Geeks were developing open standards - each one unlinked/incompatible with the next it was a "fun" time for "open". This flowering of geek culture had its fashernista side, the were 100 applications for zipping files or FTP and no easy to use open tools - the geek problem.
P from undercurrents got involved to do the funding side, a lot of "brainstorming" was done. During this time we see a "splitting" of the project. It was obvious that streaming video - that is a technology for watching video real time without having a local copy was going to grow to dominate the next dotcon boom and the fashionistas were buying into this big time. This is a client server technology - from one to many - its old (traditional) media distribution. At the same time the was a subculture flowering or peer2peer technology being used for "free content" this was a "native" open web technology.
The "splitting" was around a miscommunication/misunderstanding of what was going to happen in the next 5 years. And "funding" pushed this in a bad way, it was easy to talk to funders about "online video" it was fahernista mainstream. Few had any thought to the "cost" of jumping on the #dotconS fahernista wave. And in time the rise of the #dotcons from the second boom that was rising for all to see.
The "brainstorming" lead to the project being renamed visionOntv - just for the funding and outreach - much easier to get funding. Why would anyone be interested in offlinetv and peer2peer technologies all the value was about "owning" online space. That is enclosing the commons was unthinkingly embraced as a good thing - a touch on controlfreekery.
This simple change was the first step to the project losing direction and failing.
Rebooting Alt/Grassroots Media
The OMN Beta is a subset of the full open project.
Its a just the linking part. A first step to the data soup and open per2per network.
A single node will facilitate existing alt/grassroots media projects to link to each other. This will hopefully, partly overcome the #geekproblem to brining in talented developers to roll the rest out in a open way.
If this is blocked and stalls (possibility) the is away the evil of "funding" but its a many edged tool that cuts in all to predicable ways.
The BETA will roll out
* Basic content flows by tag
Coming Soon
* Basic video player flow embed by tag
* Basic audio embed flow by tag
* Basic "blog/site/project list flow" by tag
* Basic "personal" grouping/flow by tag
Many of the existing radical alt/grassroots media sites (PGA hallmarks, #4opens) will be feed into the network (opt out) and all of the sites invited to become a active parts of the OMN by embedding sections/sidebars.
For the geeks http://omn.openworlds.info:8080
The OMN an easy project for everyone
The OMN an easy project for everyone
Producer groups have to put in minimal effort only puting a linking sidebar on their site and providing a RSS feed into the network.
These can be:
* Tag based content list "you might be interested in this"
* Tag based site link list "blog roll"
* Tag based video player embed "good films"
Optional: a site can add a badge to say its a member of the network.
What do they get out of it?
Google juice from the wide links back to their website and their content.
Clicks and content audience for all sites of the network rather than just their own.
More commenting from cross site conversations in their CMS comment system
On social media (the #dotcons)
They get a wider sharing of their content to work its way round the FB algorithm restrictions.
More "likes" on their #failbook pages to help boost the 3% organic reach.
Well a warm fashernista feeling of being part of something whole/bigger.
A geeky feeling of doing something real geeky.
We join together to push the "undercurrents" up and into the "mainstream".
Badging the OMN
Is based on the #4opens to get a badge a site has to embed at least one linking embed somewhere (relatively) prominent on their site to become a member of the network. The Badge will link to the OMN project page, maybe this could have a list of OMN sites, as well as hosting the basic project docs.
Gold – 4opens
Silver – 3opens
Bronze - 2opens
We need some one to design these "badges" its up to site owners if/were they use them.
The OMN is a project of the 4opens and the PGA hallmarks.
Alt-geek culture is broken - indymedia
An introduction to a "unspoken" problem. Everything is "pointless" in till you do something "that is not", if we keep repeating the pointless stuff were/when is the "that is not" going to happen?
An example of the geek problem can be found in the flowing and fading of radical alt/grassroots media at the peek of the #openweb
The basis of any new media is the technology it is transmitted/mediated by. In the case of newspapers this is the printing press, and for radio and TV it is access to the transmission spectrum. The open internet changed this "traditional" media which was based on a world of (vertical) analogue scarcity. As the accessing technology improved, it created a radically (horizontal) digital media space.
This was intently filled with (naive in a good sense) alt-media such as the Indymedia project (IMC). In this post I am looking at how this was killed off by internal geek/process dogmatism at the same time as its space was colonised by new/mainstream such as blogging and social media.
We are now coming full circle to where we started with closed client/server, algorithm-determined, gatekeeper, for-profit networks dominating media production and consumption. The corporate gate keeping venture capital driven (and invisible ideology) algorithm is the new printing press/broadcast spectrum that we started the century with.
What part did radical geeks play in this?
Let's look at the successful global indymedia project, which was based on open publishing and open process through a centralised server network. Before this the radical video project undercurrents, while not so open, was again based on a technical hub. They had the only free digital editing suite for production of grassroots video, thus anyone wanting to produces radical content was funnelled though this grassroots gatekeeper. With IMC, it was publishing to their hosted servers.
The indymedia network was setup in the very avant-gardist open model that was to dominate the internet for a time. Like undercurrents it succeeded because of its technical centralisation – the server was the ONLY place citizen journalist content could be published without hard technical knowledge. This monopoly was later lost to the growth of individualistic blogging platforms and later corporate social media. But what I want to argue here is that it died before this due to internal (process) pressures.
Indymedia was set up on the open, open, open, open, pseudonymous model.
* Open source (free software)
* Open publishing (post-publishing moderation)
* Open licence content (non commercial re-use)
* Open process (everything was organised on public e-mail lists, open meetings)
* Pseudo-anonymous (you didn't have to provide an e-mail address or a real name to publish)
Let's look as some of the pragmatism that allowed the project to take off:
* The project was initially pragmatic about open source as it used the closed realmedia (RM) video streaming codec and servers. But the core project was committed to the free software path where technically possible.
* Open publishing was the basis of the project, things could only be hidden (not removed) because they broke a broad public editorial guideline. Even then they were added to a background page so were still public. In this the publishing process was naïvely open.
* Open licence stayed with the project to the end.
* Open process was gradually abandoned, a clique formed then fought and split, this was the main reason the project ossified and could not adapt to keep its relevance in the changing world of blogs and social media.
* (Pseudo) anonymity was part of the abandonment of open process and led down many of the technical dead ends that finally killed the relevance of the project to most users.
Lets look at this final one in more depth
Firstly, it's important to realise that any attempt at anonymous publishing in a client server relationship even at its most restrictive and paranoid would produce pseudo anonymity. ie. you might be able to hide from your mates and your employer but you cannot hide from the "powers that be" if they are interested in subverting your server and its internet connection.
The internet is inherently naïvely open, its built that way, this is why it works. The recent Edward Snowdon leaks highlight this to the wider public view.
- the integrity of the ISP and hosting was always based on trusting a tiny anonymous minority of geeks
- the physical security of the server could never be guaranteed.
- as the project process closed the identity of these core geeks became tenuous/invisible.
In activism just as the man driving the white van repeatedly turned out to be the police/corporate spy, the invisible server admin is the obvious opening for the same role – am not saying this is what existed, rather just trying to highlight how you cannot build a network based on this closed client server infrastructure/culture that IMC became. Given the open nature of the internet, it became dangerous to push IMC as an anonymous project.
There were four fatal blocks:
- the repeated blocks and failure and delay of decentralisation of the servers to the regions.
- the blocks on aggregation, then the closed subculture aggregation that final happened as a parallel project
- the focusing on encrypted web hosting and self-signed certificates put a block on new non-technical users that proved termanaly offputting.
- the failed "security theater" of not login IP address locally on the server as a limited security fig leaf. They could simply be logged on the ISP/open web instead.
These, together with a shrinking of the core group, led to the project becoming irrelevant in the face of the growth of more openly accessible blogging and then social media.
Let's get positive and suggest some ways the IMC project could have flourished and still be a dominant grassroots project:
* The base level of the project should have actively decentralised as the technology matured to make this feasible. Every town needed its own DIY run server.
* Then regional aggregation using RSS (really simple syndication) would make this grassroots media presentable as outreach media.
* A national aggregation site could then have compete directly with the (then) declining traditional media outlets.
* Recognising that the IMC project was pseudo-anonymous at best, IMC could have built a parallel encrypted peer-to-peer gateway app/network to feed into this to provide true(ish) anonymity for publishers to this ongoing open media project.
* The decentralisation would have been a force to keep the process open by feeding though new people/energy – this would have naturally balanced the activist clique forming/closing in the centre.
* As blogging became popular and matured these could have been "ethically" aggregated into the network to build a truly federated global open media network such as http://openworlds.info is working to be.
* Social networking could have been added as an organic part of this flourishing federated network.
If this had happened, it's not too much to say that the internet would have been a different place to where it is now. The IMC project highlights some of the failures of activist/geek culture. If we are to (re)build the open web we need to learn from this and move on.
(find photo of indymedia Sheffield masked up photo)
This is sadly not a metaphor for an open media project
It should be obvious to people now that even the most paranoid centralised closed internet is only pseudo-anonymous at best. We need to learn how to live with "open" to build the world we want to see. And our geeks fighting for closed are actually a problem for us, just as much as "them".
User story for the OMN - Ana and her Cat Pixy
User story for the OMN - Ana and her Cat Pixy
Ana loves her cat Pixie and wants to create a blog with photos and life stories of her cat. All her friends are creating Tumblr accounts but her friend told her about Open Media Network and that she could reach a wider audience. She created a Wordpress site instead. To make her blog more interesting and dynamic she adds some #OMN side bars from catlovers.net using the tags "black and white" "cat" and "fun" so that she can receive new pictures and headlines from other similar websites everyday. Her feed is added back to the catlovers.net aggregator and thus linked to over up to 100 cat sites each time she posted a new story.
Were is value online
Its interesting to think for a moment about how widely posts on the #openweb and #failbook are seen. On #failbook an average post on my time line might be seen/read by 10 people and a dog, a good shared post a few hundred people. On my blog an average post would be a few hundred people and a good post 10,000's of people maybe more. its easy to forget that #failbook is a #dotcon in real terms not just in idealogical arguments. The value is on the #openweb - how have people forgotten this?
EC "Cos convenience and the software works"
Yep thats why am pushing the #OMN so the is a space to do something about this.
Where next for grassroots/alt-media?
It's common knowledge that grassroots media is well F**ed and that #failbook and #twitter are the problem not the solution. Where can we go from here? To reboot alt-media (and play a role in rebooting the open web) we need to create an affinity group to cross the geek/political divide that has demolished our once flowing/healthy alt-media networks.
For a moment let's look at broad-brush history, The 20th century alt-media was one of offline social movements, where modern (21st century) alt-media is a product of online social networks - the web. Take a moment to think about our years of failed encryption geek projects on the one hand, and, the constant churning of disappearing media silos on the other. The last 10 years have been a wasteland for both the geek and political.
The original internet/web suceeded because it was a stupidly open design, it had no built-in agenda to the network. Lets compare this "new" for a moment to the pre-internet, the old wired telephone networks had all the smarts at the exchanges and the phones were dumb, it was a centralised hierarchical network. Where the internet had the smarts at the ends, the computers, and the network itself was dumb – a horizontal network.
This turning on the head of 20th century thinking is important to move out of our current lon- running malaise in alt-media. Am arguing the divide between politicos and geeks is feeding a failed fixation on 20th century thinking in that they both want to build systems (both technical and social) where the smarts are at the centre. In contrast we know that in the 21st century it is more powerful to build "empty" networks that connect the smarts at the edges. The word "empty" here gets a lot of negative responses :) This is the touching of the core problem. Take a moment to re-read and think positive thoughts ;)
An "empty" network is a general-purpose network that connects general purpose computers to general purpose people and community. Yes, the tech we need, like the internet/open web has an agenda but it is not sectarian as #failbook and other #dotcoms are, as are our own much smaller alt-media silos. Instead its "open" and "simple" based on "industrial" standards and open working social ideals. This is obvious, but it needs saying, The "dumb net" is completely ignorant of what the user wants to do – just data in and data out. It's up to the user to decide what the data is. Only "universal languages", that is data standards, have flow. There is a ridiculous power for change in this obviousness.
It's not hard to re-boot to escape these 10 years of failure, actually it's simple. Though it's not going to happen without a good affinity group who cross the geek/political divide. Message me if you think you have the smarts, skills, tolerance and humility.
Draw a line in the sand
None of the current alt/grassroots media projects link to each other. Message them and ask why and refuse to support them till they do #thecanary #Reelnews #RealMedia #Novaramedia is basic KISS of lefty/radical/progressive thinking.
What's the solution?
The minimum outcome a prominent small sidebar box front screen linking to other alt/grassroots project on each active project. it's a KISS no brainer and a line in the sand for lefty/radical/grassroots.
This can be done manually or as part of a bigger network project such as OMN
OMN user storys - A Writers Blog
Tabs Blog
Tabs is a writer and journalist who in the past was published in major newspapers. She writes opinion pieces based on current news events.
She keeps her hand in by writing pieces for her blog. She then posts her blog on facebook. Some of her friends share her pieces. Her blog reaches between twenty to a hundred people, mainly her friends.
Tabs knows one of the developers of the Open Media Network. He adds her feed from her blog to the OMN so that when she publishes a new piece the sidebars of all the blogs that are interested in her work are alerted. All someone has to do is click on the link and they will be taken to her site so they can read the new blog post. At the same time her blog will be copied and stored on OMN servers, or noids, so that a backup is always available.
As time goes on more people sees Tabs blog on the sidebar on their blogs. Her viewing figures double over a couple of months. So she decides to reciprocate and adds a sidebar to her blog and links to some other blogs she likes.
She is now a part of the OMN. A number of prominent sites feature her blog and the number of people looking at her blog increase dramatically and keeps growing as the network expands.
Thanks JH


text:
Transport crawlers are used for the transport of large, heavy subassemblies of any kind, but also of complete opencast mining equipment, head or tail stations of conveyor systems or semi-mobile crushing plants. Transport crawlers can be used for all heavy transport tasks according to their specified payload. The Takraf series for transport crawlers ranges in payload from 250 to 1200 tons, including a gradeability of up to 20%.
Pressebüro Gebhardt-Seele, Munich, Germany 089 500 315-0 www.gebhardt-seele.de
For related equipment reviews, articles, and news, visit our Material Handling & Transportation Equipment Zone
Click here for information about International Powder & Bulk Solids Conference & Exhibition

subset: commoncrawl


text:
PHILADELPHIA — With Cole Hamels fighting off flu-like symptoms, Roberto Hernandez Sunday fought off windy conditions, some potential rust and the Washington Nationals.
In an emergency start while Hamels recovered, his first since April 25, Hernandez pitched 7 1-3 innings, striking out and walking three as the Phillies prevailed, 1-0, before 37,490 at Citizens Bank Park.
"He has a live ball," Ryne Sandberg said. "He has some movement with his all his pitches. He retired 12 out of the last 13 hitters, which was impressive. He got into a groove in establishing the strike zone and using all of his pitches."
The Phils scored all they would need off two-time All-Star Gio Gonzalez in the first inning when Chase Utley delivered Jimmy Rollins with a one-out single to center.
Winning for the fourth time in six games, the Phils took the weekend series, 2-1, improving to 15-14 and moving to within 1˝ games of the first-place Braves in the National League East.
Hernandez improved to 2-1, throwing 61 of his 104 pitches for strikes, even though he'd only been told he was starting a day earlier, when Hamels reported ill.
"It's not that big a deal," Hernandez said. "You have to do what you have to do. No big deal."
Jonathan Papelbon registered his ninth save with a one-hit ninth after Mike Adams and Antonio Bastardo provided eighth-inning assistance.
"I think overall, we've showed improvement in many areas," Sandberg said. "Starting pitching is our strong suit right now. Guys are going seven innings, into the eighth inning with our starting pitching. That's been very good. We've been able to utilize the bullpen in more situational roles. Papelbon's on a roll. We've improved defensively behind the pitching. I see the balance of our lineup, with different guys on different days getting the job done."
Hernandez took the 1-0 lead into the eighth, when Denard Span led off with a ground single through the hole and into right, then trotted to second on a sacrifice bunt from Kevin Frandsen.
Mike Adams replaced Hernandez and made Jayson Werth tap to first, Span reaching third. Sandberg called for Antonio Bastardo, who walked left-handed-hitting Adam LaRoche but caught Anthony Rendon looking.
The Phillies threatened in the eighth when Jayson Nix led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Tony Gwynn Jr. Nix went to third when Ben Revere grounded to pitcher Jerry Blevins, and Nationals manager Matt Williams ordered Rollins walked.
The left-handed Blevins struck out Utley to deny Papelbon any additional cushion.
Overall, Phillies pitchers allowed five hits, something of an achievement in wind conditions that made outfield play difficult.
"The wind was blowing across to right field and everything that came out was just pulling that way," Revere said. "But sometimes it would go to right then back to center."
With one out in the first, Rollins tripled into the left-center gap and scored when Utley rolled a single through the middle. The inning ended when Marlon Byrd blooped to second baseman Anthony Rendon in shallow right. By then committed to running, Utley was easily doubled up at first.
Revere laced a one-out triple down the line and into the right field corner in the third, and Williams yanked the infield in, even in the 1-0 game. The Phillies could not capitalize, as Rollins struck out and Utley was retired on a foul pop down the third base line.
Frandsen ran Washington out of a potential first-inning rally. After drawing a one-out walk, the former Phillie tried to hustle to third when a crisp Werth ground ball bounced off the glove of Nix at third and into shallow left for what was ruled a hit. John Mayberry's throw caught Frandsen by plenty.
LaRoche followed with a walk, but Hernandez escaped when Rendon grounded to third. Hernandez settled, allowing just two more hits before Span's eighth-inning single.
The Phillies will bring a two-game winning streak into a Monday night (7:05) visit from the Toronto Blue Jays. Kyle Kendrick (0-2, 3.52 ERA) will oppose former Phil J.A. Happ (0-0, 4.15).
Hamels (0-2, 6.75) reported his illness Saturday but was in the Phillies' clubhouse Sunday morning. He is scheduled to pitch Tuesday against the Jays' Drew Hutchison (1-2, 3.82).
As for Hernandez, he did enough to maintain his place in the Phillies' starting-pitching plans.
"Yeah I'm happy because my team won," he said. "It was a great win for my team and me, too."


text:
SPRING CITY — Borough and East Vincent senior citizens now have a space in the library just for them.
The Spring City Public Library just opened its senior space and programming, "Thresholds...to Lifelong Learning."
Because of a $4,000 Library Services Technology Act grant awarded last fall, the library now has a corner space including furniture (chairs and a coffee table), books, audiobooks, DVDs, technology and programming for the older adults in the community who are baby boomers or empty nesters.
A grand opening was held last Sunday and was attended by residents, State Rep. Tim Hennessey (R-26), Chester County Commissioner Ryan Costello and Mayor Michael Weiss. Bill Brunner from the Spring-Ford Area Historical Society presented a program, "Then and Now: Spring City and Royersford." Attendees packed into the children's section of the library and also sat in chairs right outside the section since there is no meeting space.
SCPL Acting Library Director Cathy Stout said although the first part of the grant is for materials, the library staff is responsible for providing materials and senior programs for the next two years.
The senior population is what inspired the special space in the library.
"The fact that 25 percent of the library's service area population is 55 (and older) was a big inspiration," said Cathy Stout, acting library director. " Commonwealth Libraries made the opportunity for the (Library Services and Technology Act) funding available and provided grant application workshops to assist interested libraries in the process."
Stout said the offer of the senior space is in line with the library's strategic plan.
"Spring City has no designated community center," she said. "We are hoping that offering a comfortable and welcoming seating area will help our older residents think of the library as a 'destination' or 'third place' in their lives. Being a community gathering place is one of our library's goals in our strategic plan...that and being a place for lifelong learning. Building a new facility will help us to come closer to achieving those goals.
The library will be continuing the Thresholds space and programs throughout the construction of the new library, Stout said.
SCPL's first program was held on May 22. The program was a book discussion group about "Prime Time" by Jane Fonda.
According to a press release, the library also purchased more nonfiction books that would be of interest to the 55+ residents including retirement planning, relief for caregivers and other topics.
In addition, before receiving the grant, the library purchased a large font keyboard for seniors to use.


text:
Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:40 pm
I laid it out for the person and the way they
end up coming back with what they know
and remember.
Mon Oct 09, 2006 4:13 pm
Sun Oct 15, 2006 3:01 am
londonflash wrote:I've already said there's film from both concerts, according to a couple of collector chaps I've spoken to. Just can't remember the exact details for the Pheonix film...but there is film from that show of Elvis.
Sun Oct 15, 2006 7:42 am
Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:40 am
Me wrote:I would question her reliability
after she said she saw him approximately
a year later and he was heavy and out of
shape. Does she know what out of shape
looks like???
Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:44 pm
Mon Oct 16, 2006 4:04 pm
Mon Oct 16, 2006 5:33 pm
Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:10 pm
Mon Oct 16, 2006 9:43 pm
londonflash wrote:Nice work, PEP.
Unfortunately, that's all I can remember from what I was told.
Pheonix filmed, at least in part (quite a portion), but the quality isn't fantastic. Of course, that may be becasue the collector had film that wasn't early generation. Like I said, there may not be any sound.
Hi londonflash, not sure if I'm understanding you correctly are you saying, your contact does have Phoenix footage where one sees Elvis on stage, but it's not the best quality, yet it is MGM film ...not 8mm footage, and you personally haven't seen it, only what you have been told, is that correct?
Boston, much better. Test film for MGM. Possibly just one camera like the Buffalo show filmed early April. That begs the question, why film the Buffalo concert in that way too? Extra practice? A mate who's seen the Boston film told me it was brilliant. Once again, film quality not tremendous (and remember Elvis was wearing black). Thing is, there seems to be no record of the gig being filmed in MGM's paperwork.
Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:54 am
londonflash wrote:Possibly just one camera like the Buffalo show filmed early April.
Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:01 am
drjohncarpenter wrote:londonflash wrote:Possibly just one camera like the Buffalo show filmed early April.
Buffalo on April 5 was videotaped, not filmed.
Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:37 am
Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:13 am
Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:20 am
londonflash wrote:Hi PEP,
This guy isn't a contact, just someone I spoke to via pms about this a couple of years ago when a similiar post apeared on here.
Yes, Elvis is seen on stage in the Pheonix film, and it's defintiely MGM film.
No, I've never seen it, but this chap can be believed.
Well, lets hope what you say is true, meaning the fellow who PM you was telling you the truth....
Are you able to describe some other things about this fellow without giving him away as to why you might believe him?
What sort of collector is he?
Are you still in contact?
How did the contact start?
Why you?
Doc - or anyone else - what's the difference between film and videotape? Cameras etc is not really something I know much about.
Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:05 pm
Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:20 pm
Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:35 pm
Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:29 pm
Wed Oct 18, 2006 12:08 am
This footage screams to be released, but I'm affraid we can forget about 2007. Because it's just damn near!
Wed Oct 18, 2006 2:43 am
drjohncarpenter wrote:Apparently a bit of the April 5 Buffalo videotape is seen in "This Is Elvis" -- during the karate montage set to the song "Kung-Fu Fighting." It may also have been used in EOT. The entire tape would certainly make for a nice 80 minute "bonus" on a DVD release, wouldn't it?
Absolutely !
Doc, I'm was not trying to suggest we as fans wouldn't be
happy with what we would see....if shown to us....
It sometimes can be a technical issue with the people involved
depending on whether or not they are anal about this type of
material being released....because of the quality difference
involved....between 3/4 inch magnetic tape verses 16 mm
On its own merit personally I wouldn't see a problem an nor
would too many people...however there sometimes
can be a problem for the powers that be, for them
in an artistic sense....and possibly in a technical way....
Their problem, not ours...
Still technology is so advance now these days, improvements
could be made if needed...to satisfy...I would like to
think so anyway....
BTW, if you're going to improve the back cover of LSP-4445 ...
... why not flip the reverse-image in the lower right hand corner ("4. Stranger In The Crowd") as well?
Wed Oct 18, 2006 7:07 am
Wed Oct 18, 2006 10:54 am
drjohncarpenter wrote:Good work! Which 1970 show is the center pic from?
Wed Oct 18, 2006 8:20 pm
It is listed as Portland Oregon, November 11 1970 Memorial Coliseum.
Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:52 pm
midnightx wrote:It is listed as Portland Oregon, November 11 1970 Memorial Coliseum.
Great show. Does anyone know of BMG has a soundboard of it? Does Sessions III list it as a possible board? Don't have the book handy at the moment....
Hosted by ElviCities


text:
Officially, it's Manatee Awareness Month in the state of Florida. Governor Rick Scott recently signed the proclamation, thereby continuing a vital time-honored tradition undertaken by Florida's governors to officially proclaim November as Manatee Awareness Month.
A primary purpose of this designation is to heighten public awareness about the importance of protecting Florida's official marine mammal, which the proclamation states, is "a distinctive and valuable beloved natural resource," and further declares "manatees face the risk of extinction due to human related threats including the loss of warm water winter habitat."
Patrick Rose, Executive Director of Save the Manatee Club, is grateful to Governor Scott for supporting the need to safeguard the well being of Florida's endangered manatees.
"Save the Manatee Club's mission is to protect manatees and their habitat for future generations," says Rose. "To accomplish this, we work closely with federal, state, and local governments, as well as with the public at the grass roots level, and support policies based on the best scientific data available."
The Club offers a variety of ways for the public to be directly involved with manatee protection. Free public awareness waterway signage, banners, boat decals, and educational posters are produced by the Club. The bright yellow waterproof banner which boldly cautions, "Please Slow: Manatees Below," can assist in warning boaters to slow down for manatees who may be present. Shoreline property signs and matching boat decals are also available. Both feature the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's hotline number (1-888-404-3922) for reporting sick and injured manatees. Boater and diver awareness posters are also available to dive shops, marinas, businesses, visitor centers, classrooms and libraries. Family-friendly 2-foot by 3-foot outdoor signs are produced by the Club and distributed to state, municipal, and county parks; marinas; and other sites where human/manatee interactions can be a problem.
Requests for the free banners, signs, decals, and posters can be sent via e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com or by calling toll free at 1-800-432-JOIN (5646).
"Manatee Awareness Month helps to save manatee lives," says Rose. "We must continue to expand efforts to raise awareness about the presence of manatees in our waters and to reach more people, in Florida and outside the state, about how to help prevent manatee injuries and deaths. Our behavior has a direct impact on the manatee's survival, and the public's ongoing participation in manatee conservation is essential for the welfare and protection of the species."
For more information on endangered manatees, the Adopt-A-Manatee program, or to sign up for the Club's free e-newsletter, visit the Club's website at www.savethemanatee.org.


text:
Mall name:
1 Curtner Ave, San Jose, California - CA 95125
Phone number to Plant Shopping Center mall
602 778 6062
Hours (mall)
Please call to Platn shopping Center for shopping hours.
Driving directions
Other stores in Plant Shopping Center:
Looking for another location of T-Mobile store?
Go to T-Mobile store locator to see all T-Mobile stores


text:
Bailey Marie Thompson and Jeremy Ryan Somero of Beach Plum Road in Montauk were married on Sept. 14 at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in that hamlet. The Rev. Mike Rieder officiated. A reception catered by the Harvest restaurant followed at Montauk County Park.
The bride, who will keep her name, is a daughter of Deborah Thompson of Montauk and the late Larry Thompson. A massage therapist at the Deborah Thompson Day Spa, she graduated from Colby Sawyer College in 2003 and from the Finger Lakes School of Massage in 2007.
Mr. Somero is the son of Deborah Somero of Coco Beach, Fla., and the late Peter Somero. He graduated from Seminole Community College in 1999 and is a service manager at Uihlein's Marina in Montauk. The two were introduced by Marilyn Behan, who works with Mr. Somero.
The bride was attended by her mother and her sister, Brittany Thompson, also of Montauk, who was the maid of honor.
The bride's mother wore a custom-made dress that she designed herself. The bride wore a dress by Allure Bridal and the bridesmaids wore dresses from Jordan's Fashion.
Mr. Somero was attended by his mother. His sister, Jyll St. Cyr, was his best woman.
Music at the ceremony was performed by Jane Hastay on organ, with Ashley Reilly and Ms. Thompson's uncle, David Schminke II, as vocalists.
The newlyweds have not yet taken a wedding trip, but have their sights set on Peru this winter.


text:
by Mike Masnick
Tue, Dec 18th 2007 2:09am
Filed Under:
economics, marketplace, virtual goods
live gamer
I've seen a few company lately trying to build marketplaces around the idea of selling virtual goods, and the latest one, Live Gamer, gets a big writeup in the Wall Street Journal over its plans to build a marketplace for virtual goods and characters from online worlds. This is hardly a new idea, as there's been significant trade in these types of goods either on company approved sites or more informally through sites like eBay. However, it seems quite dangerous to base an entire business on this concept. The economics of virtual goods gets screwed up very easily once you realize that there are no truly limited resources within virtual goods. Sooner or later people figure out how to copy virtual goods, just like they've learned to copy music and movies -- and suddenly the idea of charging directly for those goods becomes a lot more difficult. It's just basic economics. The VC firms betting on this new concept seem to believe that the company (or the various gaming companies) will somehow be able to hold off this economic reality, but that seems incredibly risky. The entire market is based on an economic model based on false scarcity, and that seems quite dangerous. It may work temporarily, but there's a big reality called "infinite supply" that's likely to make any such model come crashing down eventually.
If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...
- Killing The Golden Goose (Again); How The Copyright Stranglehold Dooms Spotify
- The Same FCC That Ignored Science To Kill Net Neutrality Has Created An 'Office Of Economics & Analysis'
- The Free Market Argument For Net Neutrality
- Techdirt Podcast Episode 131: Is The Economy More Important Than Democracy?
- Are Robot Scalpers Ripping You Off? Do We Need Government To Stop It?
Reader Comments
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Kevin, 18 Dec 2007 @ 3:25am
AgreedAs someone who has played a number of virtual world games, the only thing that is for certain is that the virtual economy eventually crashes because:
a. Someone discovers a bug that allows to to clone/dupe items/resources in game and sell them for money.
b. Because there is no scarcity, over time the "markets" become flooded to the point where even the items/resources that were supposed to be the most "rare" are common.
Not to mention that in most cases, the game companies are quite adamant in their ToS that the company owns all of the data in the game, not the players.
dorpus, 18 Dec 2007 @ 4:12am
Economics of IrrationalityBut then, why do people spend hundreds of dollars on handbags that look exactly the same as $5 handbags at Walmart? $300 on sunglasses that look exactly like $10 ones? Seriously, I was at a xmas party last week, and my gf's $5 handbag was on the same table as a prep bitch's handbag, which she had told everybody cost a fortune. In the dim room, they looked exactly the same. People pay to buy status symbols.
Derek (profile), 18 Dec 2007 @ 5:44am
Re: Economics of IrrationalityIt is not the same. With digital goods, you get a 100% perfect replica. The handbag may look the same in a well lit room, but it is not the same. If you offered your GF the choice between a real bag and a fake one, the cost being the same, which one would she choose? Probably the real one because she knows it's better quality, maybe comes with a warranty, etc...
Gunnar, 18 Dec 2007 @ 4:41amWell, as far as the handbag goes, it means that either you're a guy who can't tell handbags apart (like me) or the prep's handbag is old enough that somebody made a knock-off.
But the fashion industry is driven by knockoffs, because Wal-Mart selling a bag that looks like a Prada one forces Prada to come up with a new bag.
And I've rarely found cheap sunglasses that look decent. And the knockoff Oakleys I bought in New York while in high school lasted about two weeks before the paint started to peel. The lenses scratched easily too. Knockoff quality is usually suspect. Those sunglasses usually come with a warranty.
You usually get what you pay for, and everything that costs money looks irrational to people who don't care about it.
Elohssa, 18 Dec 2007 @ 5:23am
Re:The inverse being that some things are irrational, and yet some people still care about them, and pay.
Wolfger, 18 Dec 2007 @ 5:29am
Re:You bought lousy knockoff Oakleys ;-) My $10 knock-offs lasted a good year before the "paint" started to peel off. But it's all good. I'm harsh on sunglasses... they rarely live for a year regardless of price paid for them. Or I lose them.
dorpus, 18 Dec 2007 @ 7:17am
Re:To the contrary, my gf has spent a lot of money on designer brands before -- but they turned out to be made of the same shoddy material as the Wal-mart goods, and fell apart in two weeks. While designer brands spend a lot of money on advertising an upscale image, the reality is that they are made in the exact same factory in China, with only a different logo glued on.
p.s. Wal-mart goods are hit or miss, some have lasted a long time.
Just Me, 18 Dec 2007 @ 5:56am
Virtual GoodsI think the biggest risk involved in such a thing is the volatility in the gamer space to begin with. Sure you can make a lot of money today trading WoW gear/gold/toons etc but how long will that fan base be there?
You will constantly have to be jumping from game to game - like the gamers themselves - as the next big thing becomes popular.
This seems fine fo the eBayers of the world but to a company that seems like it might cause a lot of overhead having to re-hash your business every 6 months.
WoW aside; how long does a "virtual economy" stay strong?
Not nearly as many people play Diablo2 or Ultima Online as they used to - are they still popular enough to be profitable?
Just seems like a whole lot of risk there.
One thing I must give props for is Blizzard's efforts to keep their economy in check. A lot of the things in the game have a cost associated in an effort to keep inflation down.
So far it's been quite successful.
not the virtual goods, 18 Dec 2007 @ 6:03am
You are buying time/effortI am a recovering game addict (4 years of EverCrack and 3 of World of Warcraft) so I know a little bit how these virtual goods markets work.
You aren't really paying for the virtual good, rather you are paying for the time/effort it took to acquire the good. Everything in these games is accessible to everyone willing to put the time into obtaining them. Play long enough, gather enough like minded folks to play along with you and you can get any item in these games.
So what you really buying in the virtual market is labor hours and that isn't an infinite good.
I'm wondering how these guys intend to get around the game makers EULA. Nearly all of them restrict or forbid trading of goods/money outside the context of the game.
Anonymous Coward, 18 Dec 2007 @ 7:19amMike your are correct but the ppl trying to sell virtual goods usually count on some sort of branding.
now the key here is to be able to differentiate your "original product" which is obviously not a piece of cake
Brad, 18 Dec 2007 @ 8:59amYou know what this whole thing comes down to? Whatever you're selling is only worth what somebody will pay you for it. This is why classic cars get sold on Barrett-Jackson for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes even millions, even though the cars cost less than $5000 when they were new. The cars honestly are not worth that much, but people seem to love putting a price on things like being respected or envied for having a cool car or a rare car, and so on.
This translates over to virtual online goods too. As long as people desire things, they will pay money for them, regardless of whether they actually have anything tangible to show for their expenditures. This is because people are stupid and, being stupid, buy things that offer no long-term benefit, but instead please them for but a moment's time.
Numpsi, 18 Dec 2007 @ 9:26amHere is my humble opinion on the matter and I might be completely wrong:
A agree with one post above, one of the most important things you buy is the time you save by not being forced to run around and kill stupid and boring monsters. You cant imagine how bad it is to run around and kill hundreds of them just to earn enough money to get the next cool item.
Additionally, I just do not see how items are going to lose their rarity. Game comanies keep a close eye on the money and item supply of the worlds they create. Its almost like managing a real economy and they use damn sophistictaed statistic and game-balancing software (monte carlo simulation anyone?). If they discover that people are suddenly able to copy items for free and within seconds they will try to fix that and ban those wo created them and take the items away from those who obviously took them (of course they cant catch all). And this has already been done in MMOGs (eg. Asherons Call).
But honestly, to catch the "evildoers" is the least of their problems. If copying ever happens, you can see the games going down. What is there to do in 95% of the available MMOGs if you are not able to be better than someone else by looking cooler and getting rarer items than him? Dont you think there is a reason why people come back even if they have reached the maximum level of their characters (a hint: it has to do with being unique and possessing things few other people possess) other than just meeting friends online? Of course you can log on and chat and run around like a fool with your friends. But what are you talking about if not the newest loot (=items dropped by monsters) or new armor introduced into the world?
The biggest risks for new virtual item trading platforms I see are:
1. unclear legislation (China took the lead in favor of virtual marketplaces by deciding that items belong to the players)
2. Ebay abandoning their policy of banning item trading and entering the market
3. Game companies opening their own marketplaces to generate aditional revenues (already done in China)
4. Game companies coming up with a system that "really" hinders item trading and selling outside the game - no idea how they will ever do that flawlessly (they did this a little by adding "honor points" to WOW which you need to get certain items, so buying gold online and then just buying the items doesnt work for all of them anymore).
Please feel free to instill some knowledge into my head ;).
Colg, 18 Dec 2007 @ 9:50am"Not the virtual goods" is at least partially correct.
While the Items do represent time and effort the thrust of the article seems to be that Virtual Characters and items can be copied:
"there are no truly limited resources within virtual goods."
Second life not withstanding, I have only seen Item duping occur in one game in the past 10 years. SWG followed with a mass banning and corrected the security flaw. At the time there was a lot of talk about how the economy's on the servers in question were ruined, but they corrected themselves in relatively short order.
while The goods in question are only numbers stored on a hard drive somewhere, the deciding factor is the control the gaming company has over the environment. To draw a real life parallel:
Diamonds are not rare geologically speaking, yet they are the most concentrated form of wealth on the planet. Why?
1. The diamond cartels have control of the supply.
2. The very successful advertising campaign that created a demand.
I think the biggest obstacle a company that buys and sells virtual goods and characters faces is the stigma associated with having purchased them. Core gamers tend to view these types of businesses and their customers with contempt often to the point that those that are perceived to be farmers (those that play only to obtain items and virtual currency to sell) and their customers are often ostracized.
Numpsi, 18 Dec 2007 @ 10:12am@colg:
concerning the "farming" perception you mentioned, I think thats one of the good things about marketplaces (I speak about marketplaces I mean P2P marketplaces where players sell to players like on Ebay). Those transparent (and up to 30% cheaper, cause they dont have to pay the farmers) places to buy gold and items might be accepted easily and benefit both parties of the transaction.
A girl who buys designer bags and plays games, 18 Dec 2007 @ 10:48am
You can always tellThere is an easy way to tell the girl with the knock off bag vs. the real one: Look at the rest of what she is wearing. Is she wearing a cheesy Forever 21 outfit? Is her jewelry from Claires? Fake bag. (granted guys usually don't care about the fake vs. real bag debate, but handbags are bought for other women not for men)
THE POINT: You can also tell a fake with players who buy virtual goods online. Play against, or with, them for 30 seconds and tell me you can't spot the fake.
There will always be wannabes and a market catering to them. Doesn't mean this particular business model will succeed, but there is a market there.
Niner, 18 Dec 2007 @ 10:56am
Risks of Virtual GoodsFrom a first-hand experience: I worked for a company that allowed members to create and sell virtual goods. There were a handful of developers who were responsible for a majority of the items in the catalog. So much so, that when one of them decided to drastically lower their prices the whole economy nearly fell apart.
Imagine if Ford decided to start selling all of their cars at 50% off. That would tend to alter customer's idea of the value of cars in general. Other car makers would have no choice but to lower their prices as well. A similar thing happened in this case, only the other developers could not lower their prices unless they wanted to violate the TOS. This developer was able to lower her prices by taking advantage of a bug in the system that wasn't caught until those items had been selling at huge discounts for a few days.
The company I worked for had to make a tough decision. On the one hand, they had to honor their commitment to keeping the economy running fairly so smaller developers could also participate. On the other hand, this developer contributed a huge amount of revenue to the company via a 'tax' for every item of theirs that sold. That developer went so far as to threaten to pull all of their items from the catalog which would've crippled the economy even worse. To go back to the car maker analogy: Imagine if Ford made all of the frames that other manufactuers used to build their cars but then they decided to stop making frames.
So, faced with this tough decision the company attempted to appease both sides which left no one happy. The developer felt that it wasn't her fault there was a bug in the system that allowed her to lower her prices so she shouldn't have been punished. The other, smaller developers felt that the company had given this developer a slap on the wrist for what amounted to lost revenue on their part.
In the end, a lot of the best developers stopped creating virtual goods for this company while the one big developer who broke the rules continued to prosper - minus her biggest competition.
what about the games terms of service?most online games have clauses in their TOS that preclude ebaying of items and accounts. what happens when devs start using your market place to find accounts to ban?
nothing says "stay the hell away from our market" like a high profile mass banning.
Numpsi, 18 Dec 2007 @ 12:03pmI dont know how easy it is to get to the corresponding game account if you only know his marketplace alias. This might only be a problem if you sell a specific character but its quite a pain to check all the character descriptions and match them with characters stored in the game database.
Technofear (profile), 19 Dec 2007 @ 12:00am
Most game companies do not advertise the exploits. Many ban accounts even mentioning them.
WOW had a gold dupe bug.
Turbine's games have all suffered from a dupe bugs, (search utube for examples).
Point being that there was no (real) money in creating these items, compared to the time and cost.
Will this new site create the incentive to hack these games?
What kind of effect will that have on the players?


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Since 2004, a local Nepali community group, an American volunteer tourism NGO and an Anglo-Nepali architectural/engineering firm have been working together to restore the Chhairo Gompa, an historic Buddhist monastery located along the ancient salt trading route in the Lower Mustang region of Nepal's Himalayas.
At an altitude of 2,680 metres, the Chhairo Gompa sits in a juniper grove on the eastern bank of the Kali Gandaki River near the tiny village of Chhairo. For at least 300 years through the middle of the 20th century, Chhairo Gompa flourished, serving as a monastic centre for Buddhist learning and art as well as the religious centre for the local ethnic Thakali community. Local belief holds that Chhairo Gompa, also known as Sanga Choling, was established in the 8th Century by the Tibetan Lama Sangye, but its origins are uncertain. Its existence in the early 1800s is confirmed by royal edicts issued by Bhimsen Thapa, Prime Minister of Nepal from 1806 to 1837.


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Lynn Heale, Membership Co-ordinator of the Quinte Branch OGS tells us of a meeting which will take place (today) on Saturday January 19th at 1 p.m. It will be the Crouse-Wanamaker Lecture, honouring the founders of Quinte Branch.
This year, they will proudly present Historian & Author Gerry Boyce.
Mr. Boyce will speak on his project to update his book Historic Hastings published in 1967. "A lot has happened in the 45 years since Historic Hastings was published." This new book will highlight events of the past four decades and will be a companion volume to the original publication. Historic Hastings is scheduled to be reprinted with an updated index.
Mr. Boyce, who lives in Belleville and spent more than three decades in the education field, was instrumental in establishing several local museums and the Hastings County Historical Society.
The meeting will take place at the Quinte West City Hall Library, 7 Creswell Drive, Trenton, Ontario.
For more information, go to www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canqbogs


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The recent promotion of a Luzerne County employee cost the county government $13,000, according to a contract obtained this week by The Citizens' Voice, a Times-Shamrock newspaper.
The contract shows that during a search for heads of human services, budget and financial services, and operational services - as well as an information technology director - county Manager Robert Lawton hired Springsted Inc., a national advising firm, to recruit candidates.
The contact calls for the firm to be paid $13,000 for each candidate hired, with the exception of the IT services director, which would result in a $5,000 payment. Adding in up to $13,800 in out-of-pocket expenses, the county could pay up to $57,800 in fees to hire the four employees, according to the contract.
Under the terms of the contract, the county will pay Springsted $13,000 for confirming Lawton's nomination of Brian Swetz as the head of the budget and financial services division last month. Swetz is a Swoyersville native who has worked for the county as a senior accountant since last March.
"It kind of bothers me a little bit that you do a national search, you pay $13,000 to find somebody who's already in your office," Council Chairman Rick Morelli said, noting that the county's human resources representative has recruiting experience. "In tough times, you've got to take advantage of the resources you have, and I'm not sure if this was a good management decision, to be frank."
Council did not vote on the contract. County solicitor David Pedri said Lawton was not required to get permission because the charter requires council approval only when a contract would result in payment of more than $25,000 in a future year that does not yet have a budget.
The contract was approved in 2013 and there was already a budget in place, he said.
Still, Vice Chairman Edd Brominski said the manager should have brought the matter to council.
"I think this should have been presented to us to look at," Brominski said. "We have a human resources department to begin with, with a guy that gets $55,000 a year to do that work."
Lawton did not return a message seeking comment Wednesday. When he nominated Swetz last month, Lawton said his decision had nothing to do with where he is from.
"He's not here because he is the best candidate Luzerne County has to offer," Lawton said last month. "He is here because he is the best candidate from a nationwide search."
On Jan. 28, council approved Swetz to head the finance department and another Pennsylvania native, David Schwille, of Leeper, as the county's first head of human services.
Morelli said the operational services division still does not have a permanent head.
County officials are also still seeking an IT services director. During testimony before council's Administrative Committee on Tuesday night, Lawton said the recruitment process has been difficult.
"It's not going well and I wish it was," Lawton said. "Salaries are an issue. Working conditions are an issue. Not everybody wants to take on the challenges of working in Luzerne County, but we continue to advertise."
He told the committee that candidate suggestions should be sent to the county website, where they would be routed to the outside recruiter.


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BOSTON – The Bruins traded tonight for a player that has been plying his trade for an Ontario-based NHL team for years.
Unfortunately for most Bruins fans, though, Tomas Kaberle did not stay behind when Toronto left TD Garden after its 4-3 win over Boston. Instead, a couple hours after the game ended general manager Peter Chiarelli announced he acquired center Chris Kelly from Ottawa for the Bruins' own second-round draft pick.
"He's smart. He knows where to go. He's a good skater. He fills lanes; that speaks to his hockey sense," said Chiarelli about the new acquisition that figures to plug in between some combination of Blake Wheeler, Michael Ryder and Tyler Seguin on Boston's third line. "He's always been one of the first PK guys, and one of the things I've noticed too, at least when I was in Ottawa, all the top lines wanted him as a linemate. He's a dependable guy on a line and he can make plays. So there's always kind of an inner argument as to moving him up when things aren't going right."
The way the Bruins' lineup varies in effectiveness from night to night, week to week, we'll probably see Kelly skating in a half dozen places between now and the end of the regular season. Chiarelli said Kelly could also play on the wing. But, of course, he doesn't play on defense – the area most folks wants to see upgraded between now and the Feb. 28 trade deadline.
If Chiarelli doesn't take the last few games dating back to the 6-3 win over Dallas as a referendum on his team's D corps' inability to win three or more rounds of playoffs, then the Stanley Cup drought is guaranteed to extend to 39 years.
It's one thing to have a tough time moving the puck against Detroit and containing the Red Wings' super-skilled forwards. But when Toronto's diminutive forwards are spinning Boston blueliners like dreidels, it's time to wonder if the right ingredients are on the Bruins' back line. When you have two rookies in your top six and your $1.875 million second-year defenseman is pushed to the press box, you're obviously in flux and grasping for the right combination – not preparing for a run to the Cup.
To hear Chiarelli tell it tonight, however, we shouldn't expect the next great defenseman to ride in on white skates and take a ton of heat off Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg.
"Are you saying 'am I going to hit a grand slam in the next deal if I can do a next deal?'" he replied to one reporter's questions. "I don't think so. I think it'll be a good deal. There are good players out there and I hope I can get it done."
So not only aren't the Bruins going to swing a blockbuster, Chiarelli's not even 100 percent certain he'll get his man. He admitted there were nine defensemen up on his board this morning. I'd have to believe that one of them will finally find his way to Boston. Without going crazy, you can probably bet the list includes Chris Phillips, Kaberle, Zach Bogosian and other names that have been rumored and not been mentioned.
"I think really it's a solid defenseman, that can log some minutes and there's some out there like that – solid two-way defensemen. There's other defensemen also, different type of defensemen," Chiarelli said. "It's hard to find a match as far as a team that's willing to trade just for futures. There's different routes to get to that defenseman, but there's some decent options."
If the different routes involve trading something other than picks or prospects and actually parting with a player, you'd have to hope that's not going to stop Chiarelli. As I've detailed in past columns, the tradeables far outnumber the untouchables on this team that's on the cusp of falling back into the bottom half of the Eastern Conference's top eight. As constructed, this Bruins team has second-round ouster written all over it – and that's only if Tim Thomas can survive much longer with some of the scoring chances he's had to dive and flail at the last couple weeks.
Even if they add one of the "available" defensemen, the Bruins still might not be a championship-caliber team. They might even need two reinforcements back there. And up front, they certainly can't rely on some combination of Ryder, Nathan Horton, Blake Wheeler, David Krejci and Seguin to get hot at the right times. But it's obvious Chiarelli doesn't see this as an all-in proposition. Even with the Kelly trade, he still has four picks in the first three rounds of this June's draft. He has prospects that are coveted and have even gained a little NHL experience. He has some young roster players that might fit in elsewhere. Yet by the sound of it, there isn't much inclination to value a parade this spring any more than one in 2014.
Kelly made my list of trade targets in the aftermath of the decision to shut down Marc Savard. I have no problem with the Bruins adding him to bring some grit and experience, and get Seguin back out on the wing. The Bruins' track record with bottom six forwards is solid in recent years, with the additions of Shawn Thornton, Gregory Campbell, Steve Begin and Stephane Yelle over the years.
As for their defense corps, Chiarelli has to deliver something greater than just a "solid" player. Maybe it's two "solid players." But he has to do something dynamic. And as I've said before, that mean going after someone who's not available right now – either because he's on a team that's not a seller or is a cornerstone piece of a club. Chiarelli has the assets to make a team make a player "available."
This is not time to fine-tune. This is a time to re-define. And solid just isn't going to cut it.


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A big Aaaaaawww this morning to salute the 2 mousequeteers Clawedius and Purrcival!
You are more than cute but it looks as if you are two very entrepreneurial young gents as well.
I am so glad you and your mom got rescued and had the chance to grow up in beautiful Oregon to become happy and healthy.
And you pay it back by bringing a smile on your family's faces every day.
Congratulations to Clawed and Purrcy, our cutest little brown Kittens of the Day :D


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New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has stepped up preparations for the general elections with a panel to explore pre-poll alliances meeting Friday and another on coordination issues likely to meet Saturday.
Keen to return to power with the third edition of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, the general agreement in the party is that it needs to have healthy alliances with friends and allies while reaching out to different sections of society, said party sources.
The issue of alliances was discussed at the introspection-cum-strategy session 'Chintan Shivir' in Jaipur Jan 18-20 where party chief Sonia Gandhi urged the workers to respect allies but not at the expense of rejuvenating the Congress and expressed concern at the party's eroding traditional support base.
The Congress's Jaipur Declaration called on all secular forces to unite in its ideological battle against divisive forces.
The states where the Congress is looking for alliances in the run-up to the next Lok Sabha elections scheduled in 2014 are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and some northeastern states.
The Congress has been out of power in major states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for decades, while it broke up its alliance with the Trinamool Congress at the centre and in West Bengal last year.
Among the 12-odd states where the Congress rules, only Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Assam are major. In Maharashtra, it is in an uneasy coalition with the Nationalist Congress Party.
Rahul Gandhi, who met All India Congress Committee office-bearers last week to obtain feedback on how to strengthen the organisation, will take the exercise further with a meeting of state unit chiefs and state legislative party leaders Feb 15.
He is expected to make changes in the organisation to ready a team which will have a mix of youth and experience for the 2014 polls.
Party sources said the panels on alliances and coordination have just started meeting and would have many more sessions in the future.
Among those who will assist Rahul Gandhi in the poll coordination panel are leaders Digvijaya Singh, Janardan Dwivedi, Madhusudan Mistry, Ahmed Patel and Jairam Ramesh.
Other members of the pre-poll alliances sub-group are M. Veerappa Moily, Mukul Wasnik, Suresh Pachauri, Jitendra Singh and Mohan Prakash.
Both the groups were formed days after the Congress conclave ('Samvad Baithak') in Surjakund near here Nov 9 last year.
Updated Date: Feb 09, 2013 09:41 AM


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HIGH1 RESORT, South Korea (June 1) – A record number of U.S. World Cup events are on tap as the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced its 2013 World Cup ski and snowboarding event schedule. Seven experienced American resorts will play host to 33 World Cup competitions in alpine, freeskiing, freestyle and snowboarding. Many of the events will kickoff the initial phases of international qualifying for the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games and will set the stage for U.S. Olympic Team selection in the following 2013-14 season, including integration of new Olympic events in freeskiing and snowboarding into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association's Sprint U.S. Grand Prix.
QUOTESBill Marolt, President and CEO, U.S. Ski and Snowboard AssociationOur U.S. resorts will play a key role in the lead up to the Sochi Olympic Winter Games in 2014 with strong World Cup events that will form the basis for our team selection.
Luke Bodensteiner, Executive Vice President, Athletics, U.S. Ski and Snowboard AssociationThe additional sanctioning of Sprint U.S. Grand Prix halfpipe and slopestyle events as World Cups brings the Olympic qualifying process to established events in the sport that are among the most highly recognized in the world.
2012-13 U.S. WORLD CUP SCHEDULEALPINENov. 24-25 – Nature Valley Aspen Winternational, Aspen, CO, women's giant slalom, slalomNov. 30-Dec. 2 – Audi Birds of Prey, Beaver Creek, CO, men's downhill, super G, giant slalom
FREESKIINGDec. 5-8 – Visa U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix, Copper Mountain, CO, halfpipeDec. 13 – Audi FIS Skicross World Cup, Telluride, CO, skicrossJan. 10-13 – Visa U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix, Park City, UT, halfpipe
FREESTYLEJan. 17-19 – Lake Placid Freestyle Cup, Lake Placid, NY, moguls, aerials, aerialsJan. 31-Feb. 3 – Visa Freestyle International, Deer Valley Resort, Park City, UT, moguls, dual moguls, aerials
SNOWBOARDINGDec. 5-8 – Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix, Copper Mountain, CO, halfpipeDec. 14-15 – U.S. Snowboardcross Cup, Telluride, CO, snowboardcrossJan. 10-13 – Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix, Park City, UT, halfpipe
COMPLETE FIS WORLD CUP CALENDARSAlpine MenAlpine WomenFreeskiingFreestyleSnowboardingCross CountryNordic combinedSki Jumping


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Everton recorded a net loss of £9.1million for the 2011-12 season, the publication of the club's annual results has revealed.
The loss was an increase of £3.7million from the £5.4million net loss made the season before, while turnover was down slightly from £82million to £80.5million.
Everton's poor start to last season played its part in contributing to a fall in gate receipts and season ticket sales while the Toffees were picked for fewer live TV games. However, the Goodison Park side are confident the current financial year will bring better news, with season ticket sales up 6.4% and the club pushing for a top-four spot in the Barclays Premier League.
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