Front Seat at the Egyptian Revolution

Remember the fall of the Berlin Wall? Remember how we all saw it on television and wished we were there ripping a piece of the wall out ourselves?

The Information Age is here. At http://werebuild.eu/wiki/Egypt/Main_Page anyone with ham radio skills can help the Egyptian revolution. Personally, I think the turn of events is fantastic. Yes, the United States may get a government that is not friendly. That's what happens sometimes in a free and fair election. But like grown ups, we will have to deal with what we've got in front of us.

There is also need for people who can set up VPNs and who have other technical networking skills. You can be there. You can be a part of it. And the United States, through it's citizens, helped the freedom-loving people of Egypt. What do you believe in anyway, freedom for us alone, or freedom as a principle?

Twitter is Over Capacity - Could it be the World Cup?

I am trying to do some professional twittering and the service is over capacity. In a way, I think the World Cup and Twitter and both symptoms of the information revolution. The monopoly of data is broken. We can no longer have what we know and watch dictated by a small group of white, male editors. The freedom YouTube is that anybody with a small, cheap camera can publish a message internationally at no cost. And once that is done, there is no way to stop the message. And that is power.

That kind of power has always existed. The difference in the information revolution is that power has shifted downward to everybody in the world with access to the Internet and digital cameras. Granted, it's not everybody. Yet. But it will be, eventually.

The World Cup is finally getting some notice by Americans. I credit that to our increased connection to the rest of the world through the Internet. Twitter is overloaded with tweets, I'm guessing, from World Cup followers and fans. Twitter has enabled immediate information dissemination of the one event that interests most people in the world. There is no way to control that message.

Now President Obama has authorized a cut off switch for the Internet in the event of a cyber attack. I see where he's coming from. A well-aimed cyber attack would seriously hurt our economy. Remember, the aim of the 9-11 hijackers was to take out the American economy. It is American economic power that the terrorists target.

But what if there wasn't a terrorist attack? Or there was one and, out of fear, the Administration didn't open the Internet back up again? How would we keep our journalists honest? Who among us believes in the integrity of corporate journalism when The National Enquirer is a serious contender for a Pulitzer prize? Not me.

The Editor of Russian Newsweek Should Take His Clothes Off More Often

Hey, Mikhail Fishman looks pretty good without clothes. As editor of the Russian Newsweek, you normally wouldn't expect videos of yourself doing cocaine with hookers to be all over the Internet. But the critics of the current regime in Moscow are experiencing this all the time these days.

But maybe "hey I'm naked and on YouTube because I criticized the Russian President" should become a trend. Of course they are being set up. You'd expect that, seeing what's happening to the other guys, they'd be a little more careful. Alas, that is not to be.

The best inoculation for this is indifference. So what? He did a little recreational use of drugs and cavorted with hookers. Be more careful next time, Mikhail. Better yet, get a girlfriend.

I believe the Mikhail Fishman could really make something of this incident. He should go to popular magazines and offer to pose half-dressed for the cover. Maybe start a web site for his fans, or a Facebook page. The sky is the limit and we are allowed to define ourselves in the digital media age.

I guess the final roundup is that hookers and cocaine isn't that shocking anymore, not with the Vatican accused of covering up for child-molesting priests. And Mikhail Fishman still looks good without clothes.