commentary

Net Community

In yesterday's Good Morning Silicon Valley, by John Paczkowski:

That's always been the problem with Net community: people

Want to know why social software is doomed? Digg Corrupted: Editor's Playground, not User-Driven Website, Suspicious Digging, Digg Censors Stories That Offend Sponsors, Digg Corrupted and Digging Fraud.

I disagree.

Stepford Employees

Stifling Job Hunting in the U.S.A.

According to an article posted today at CNNMoney.com, "Federal regulations kick in today that will make Internet job hunting more complicated."

More complicated? It's a lot worse than "more complicated". As near as I can tell, the federal government wants to increase the unemployment numbers and effectively stifle successful job hunting, at least in the tech industry (where I am). They claim to be setting guidelines "meant to standardize how employers track data on the diversity of their job-applicant pool". Instead, I think some of the unintended consequences will be that employers will start seeing an increase in Stepford resumes, each one eerily "perfect" and identical to the others.

Take Back Your Time Day

Friday, October 24, is Take Back Your Time Day (US).

The first annual TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY falls on October 24, 2003 . Why? If you lived in Western Europe, you’d be done working for the year! On average, Americans work nearly nine full weeks (350 hours) LONGER per year than our peers over there do. In fact, Americans work more hours per year than their counterparts in any industrialized country – including Japan and China. It’s not fair – nor is it good for our health, our relationships, our productivity or the environment.

[c.f. Conversation Cafe events]

Michigan governor Jennifer M. Granholm has issued an official proclamation declaring Oct. 24 Take Back Your Time Day. On September 8, 2003, the US Senate passed Resolution 210 by unanimous consent declaring October National Work and Family Month. Encourage your local city councils, etc. to support the Senate by endorsing Take Back Your Time Day. Find a Conversation Cafe meeting near you and discuss the issues of overwork. Take tomorrow off!

At least take a minute (if you have one to spare :-) to go to www.timeday.org to learn more.

Arrant, Unprofessional Nonsense

Now that the tide has turned, and SCO is facing the dissolution of its legal position, claiming to "enforce its intellectual property rights" while actually massively infringing the rights of others, the company and its lawyers have jettisoned even the appearance of legal responsibility.

Read Eben Moglen's nicely put essay, SCO Scuttles Sense, Claiming GPL Invalidity