Hmmm... PoliticsTV. This is pretty cool.

It's also smart for the proprietary shops (Advocacy inc, Blue State) to get into the media game. That gives them something to transition to as the actual building and maintaining of web systems inexorably moves towards open source solutions.

On the other hand, I'd like to give them a whuppin' on the media tip too -- Goddammit, we'll whup 'em. We'll whup 'em all from hell to breakfast -- but that might have to wait a bit.

The scene needs more XX chromosones pairs, but it's pure and right and true and honest and real to the fucking fullest. People are really trying to Do The Right Thing out here, and they (we) believe one can still do This and also Win. An affront to every cynical lesson you've been "learned" by jaded teachers, so take that to heart.

We're going to connect the world, you motherfuckers. And don't think you can stop us.

--

Contra that aggressive tone, the morning finds me still kind of optimistic and not at all hung-over, which I had sort of expected to be. I wonder if this sort of can-do spirit, verging on the giddy, is what the real pulse of the dot-com scene was like.

I can see how under these conditions it might be possible to squeeze out more investment than you'd really know what to do with (or deserve), but there's also a recognition here that money can complecate a project, that the volunteeristic nature of Drupal Core is part of what makes it so terrifically effective.

But it's not a pious thing, not like a bunch of folk-singers. People here are perfectly willing to go electric, or whatever. There are some implicit values that we're all chasing. Even if people have a hard time putting their finger on exactly what these all are and what they mean and stuff, one of them is clearly Massive and Total Popularity.

This is a human endeavor that revolves around community, and everyone knows it. Drupal is for the people.

Check the image over on yr right. They're runing a paid blogad campaign, but I jacked the gif and put it up myself at no charge.

This is a petition worth signing. The backing org is Free Press, which is bonafide. Network Neutrality is an important issue. I believe that the right of citizens to freely move data online will a defining issue of the 21st Century. A whole lot of things hinge on that.

Sign it.

I was thinking about the little flap with Google censoring its search results last night, and I wanted to clarify things.

I don't know that it's "evil" of Google to block searches for "democracy." It's not ideal, but the net result of having a good search tool is still probably positive. There's something of a moral issue at stake, but it's hardly black and white. If the choice is Google minus "democracy" searches or no Google at all, you can make a case that the compromise is a net positive.

However, I think there's a harder moral line for this sort of thing:

Reporters Without Borders said Yahoo's Hong Kong arm helped China link Shi Tao's e-mail account and computer to a message containing the information.

The media watchdog accused Yahoo of becoming a "police informant" in order to further its business ambitions.

A Yahoo spokeswoman said it had to operate within each country's laws.

When you sell out someone for sending an email and that person goes to prison for 10 years, you've crossed the line from trying to provide as good a service to the Oppressed as the Oppressor will let you, and become a part of the Oppressor's system itself. Pretty simple really.