Image by Melvinheng on Flickr, shared via a creative commons license.
This is not a post about the things that are wrong with our world. This is a post about how we make them right. Of course it is not exhaustive, and by no means is it intended to be a detailed and flawless solution, in fact it openly admits that fact, because that (you will see) it is the point.
This post is in reaction to many things, but particularly in reaction to the recent #3strikes debate, the actions of Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, and a recently circulated confirmed rumour that suggests the same minister may have his sights set on the leadership of the Labour party. This is not a party political post, and I do not intend to argue why one man’s leadership would be bad for Labour, instead I intend to suggest that what this man represents is an outdated vision of politics, a vision that is bad for our country, and bad for our democracy.
Our society (and although I will talk more generally, ‘our’ here refers to UK society) is governed. We have democratically elected governments who, on the whole, make decisions and enforce laws with the intention of bettering society. I do not believe that anyone gets involved in politics for any other reason but improving the society they live in. This is the desire of the BNP, just as much as it is the desire of mainstream parties, their vision of a ‘better’ society might be opposed to the majority, but that is why they are not in power. Largely speaking, the party in power is supposed to represent the majority vision of what a better society is, and then strive towards it.
I do not believe that is currently so. Leaving aside first past the post reform and candidate selection, we wholly and entirely do not currently live in a democracy. The power is very much not ‘with the people’.
The Story
When Labour came into power in 1997, it was to the tune of a wholly broken opposition. 18 years of Conservative government had systematically deconstructed all that was of society and replaced it with the ethics of individualism. This was very good for a few, and catastrophic for a many. The many had finally realised. Labour won with more than just promises to renew, however, they won with what was for the first time, politics as marketing. It wasn’t just slogans, it was shiny adverts, they weren’t just promoting the values of the party, they were selling the story of New Labour.
Something else very important happened in 1997. The death of Diana. Others have pointed out before me how this marked an important turning point, not in politics, but in the media. This was the media as story, news not as reporting events, but as representing emotions. The papers spoke as though they spoke for us as they ordered the Queen from Balmoral.
Labour was in power without a credible opposition, and suddenly the press felt powerful. They could move the Queen to action. And someone needed opposing. If it was ‘The Sun Wot Won It’, The Sun could also oppose it.
Story is a very hard thing to fight. It is much older than democracy, much older than society.
That was the beginning of the era of Spin. Labour had ridden into power on a narrative, and the mainstream media had assumed the role of opposition using the same. One proposed a story of a better society, the other claimed to represent the stories (wishes) of the people who lived in it.
You notice how neither of these groups are made up of ‘us’?
This is the politics that politicians such as Peter Mandelson, David Cameron and (yes, even) Boris Johnson represent. (Can you think of a better story than the bumbling fool made good?)
An Information Economy.
Spin is all about distribution. Spin is about controlling the narrative of politics; it is about packaging and marketing your version of events. Spin requires complete control of information.
Spin is not working. Our society has grown out of it. Our country has been made undemocratic because of it. Our politicians do not fear the people, they fear the press. The people do not trust their politicians because the press exposes the antiquated attitudes and secrecy within their ranks. However the Press only constructs an oppositional story, it does not deconstruct it. The press is also not run for anything but the benefit of sales. No matter how well standing the broadsheet, how ubiquitous the tabloid. The mainstream media choose their story, and then they spin their readers and politicians into it.
The internet opposes and undermines that.
We live in an information age. For better or worse that is something that must be accepted. There is a rival economy, and it consists of information, it is a world (democratically, one might say) built of a thousand individual narratives. No one claims to speak for others, if someone is championed, it is because one person had the words that echo with others’. In this context the politics of Peter Mandelson et al will not work. He is a clever man, and I hope clever enough to see that one voice, big business, Spin, the politics of ‘push’, are gone. This is the century of pull, this is the century that politics has to become mutual.
Wikipolitics.
Well, everything needs a title doesn’t it? (/a hashtag).
I have blogged before about how I don’t believe in apathy, but I do believe in disengagement. I believe that British politics is due a reformation. I believe that we can demand that. Are you bored of the tone of the Labour government? Do you really believe that a Tory one will be different? Are you looking for a protest vote? A voice? You will not currently find it at the ballots.
What is Wikipolitics?
It is a starting point. It takes the open-source ethic and applies it to government. I don’t propose that we edit policy documents. I do believe that parliament should be opened up, demystified, and the power taken back. How do we do this? We’ve already started, look at projects such as Louder, 38 degrees, look at the Trafigura backlash, the Iran election, the G20 protests.
We now live in a world where we construct our own media consumption, where we pull together, build our own stories. Politics and the mainstream media are clinging on to old methods of distribution and delivery.
Whilst still acknowledging that at least 2/3 of the world does not have access to the internet (the UK figure is something like 30%, with a further 7-8% only having narrowband access – source) and those who do are likely to be from more affluent, developed backgrounds, we also need to be aware that instant publishing and access to our own media channels is incredibly empowering.
We also need to pull ourselves out of the luxury of political disempowerment. It is our responsibility to be involved in politics. If it is not one with which we wish to be involved, then we need to change it.
Reformation, Reclamation.
We need to tell our parties: “Arm your backbenchers with Flips, with Audioboo, with simple wordpress websites. Open up. Work in real-time. And don’t be afraid. We know you are, we know you are worried that you will be criticised, pulled apart, but please remember that although it has not been so before, that is what we mean by democracy. That is the open-source ethic. Let us participate”.
This worked for Obama, he brought the US the highest election turnout in a century. But then he stopped. And that where it’s gone wrong. That’s when Murdoch took back over.
The mainstream media has characterised us as a pack of baying wolves. The politicians have been characterised as lying snakes and fat cats. 2/3 people believe they cannot affect decision making. Trafigura, Jan Moir, proves we can. How about we take that to the rest of politics? How about we build our own wiki-guide to how we want to be engaged with, how we want to ask questions of the policy makers, of the parties? How about we offer a route that bypasses the mainstream media – taking honest debate and mobile video on the campaign trail, introducing them to the modern realities outside the political bubble, having a conversation, rather than being delivered a speech. You may argue that there’s no point in participating in a broken system, but how else are people to know how to fix it?
Because this is important. As it currently stands it would take as many years to get women equal representation, as it would a snail to crawl the length of the Great Wall of China. As it currently stands we are bickering and buying our way to climate disaster. As it currently stands we live lifestyles of excess and complete unsustainability. And for all our excess, are we happy? Or are we to some degree living the lives and values that are sold to us – other peoples’ stories?
We are facing a hyper-connected, global village era, politics cannot continue to be its own island.
This is not a manifesto, it is a call to arms. And this is where I stop, because this is a story, too. It’s a story about us, but it’s still my version. We need to write an ending together. How can we open up the political process? What do we want to know? Do we think there should be more experts involved in policy making? Do we want to see cabinet meetings taking questions from Twitter? What tools can we offer? Comment. Engage. This is up to all of us. What can we build? (We have the technology). Go.
– Hannah Nicklin is a brightly coloured and basically nocturnal playwright, blogger, academic and geek. She normally lives over at hannahnicklin.com, and is @hannahnicklin on Twitter.
Of course I’m going to write a post about the iPad – isn’t it obligatory if you’re a blogger?
The fundamental here is what people are used to. As Guitartim says, if you grow up used to everything being available electronically then I can imagine the idea of actually ‘buying a book’ (in the physical sense) would seem odd.
Andy 10:01 pm on February 1, 2010 Permalink |
yes. spot on steve. i have been wondering what all the fuss is about. it is literally just a massive ipod touch. throw osx on there and we’d be getting somewhere but no, for now it is seemingly pointless – perhaps a gateway to something interesting, apple’s marketing has really done the business again.
Mike 10:16 pm on February 1, 2010 Permalink |
I’ll be getting one: for my mum. She’s a consumer – wants to see pictures (Flickr), show pictures, send emails, browse the web, check the diary, but is daunted by the family iMac in case she “breaks something”. So for her this would be pretty sweet I reckon.
Steve 10:19 pm on February 1, 2010 Permalink |
I think you’ve hit on it there, Mike – it’s great as a device for people who want limitations – who are scared of the big web, for techphobic mums, grannies, people recovering in hospital from two broken arms… Though for them, the absence of a camera is a real pisser – that’s prime Skype demographic…
So the slogan: “the iPad, for your mum. if she’s scared of the web”
Mike 10:24 pm on February 1, 2010 Permalink |
Clearly your mum is NOT scared of the interweb.
jim 10:53 pm on February 1, 2010 Permalink |
I think it could be a boon for content producers as an interface extension. I played a gig this weekend where I was standing on the stage above and behind the keyboard player, who was running his synth software off his MacbookPro. At one point, he had a graphical representation of a B3 organ on the screen – drawbars and everything. What if it was running on an iPad and he could use the touchscreen to adjust parameters realtime, in addition to whatever controls he has programmed on his Midi controller?
Dedicated control units for audio and video production can be really expensive. iPad + the right software plugged into my Final Cut Studio system at work could potentially expand my system’s usability and flexibility by leaps and bounds, at (hopefully) much less expense than dedicated control units… There’s already software like this available for the iPhone…
But as a general computing/entertainment device? No thanks. It’s not even 720p resolution, it doesn’t look like I can plug it into my TV to stream video to a bigger screen (something I do almost daily with my laptop and Hulu), no flash support (sorry Apple, but if you don’t support flash, you don’t have a complete internet experience), and I don’t want to read a book by having to stare at a light source.
So yeah, I definitely don’t see it as a primary computing or communication device (at least not right now), but it could become a great hardware extension for content producers, if Apple will let the software come out…
ponor 11:08 pm on February 1, 2010 Permalink |
Yes, agree, me too, spot on as usual Steve. “…Everything about it says “walled garden”: do it our way, use our platform, our software…” = Sorry, but that’s just useless . If this is the future I don’t want it.
Steve 11:11 pm on February 1, 2010 Permalink |
Hi Jim… so you think the iPad could be, or touch screen could be? Cos at the moment, all the development needs to go through the App Store’s SDK, which seems to me like a really clumsy way to enable software development. Surely open standards, available on all touch screen devices would be better for us as users?
I agree that touch interfaces for music application will be so awesome – the idea of the Kaoss pad as a plug in rather than a hardware thing is so so awesome. Especially if we had pressure sensitivity as well – the 3rd touch axis – could be all kinds of fun. But if you’ve got that without a keyboard, you’ll need a stand for it, and you won’t be able to type commands, and there’s no support for additional peripherals unless the software to power them goes through the app store. We end up with an insane situation like we have with the iPhone where I can use an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard with a Nokia N-series phone, but NOT with the iPhone or iPod touch! And the people with the know-how can’t just write the software to make it happen, because Apple don’t want them to, even though the software available for jailbroken iPhones shows that it’s pretty easy to do…
So YAY for touch interfaces, BOO for crappy development strategies.
jim 12:01 am on February 2, 2010 Permalink |
Yeah, I guess mainly touch screen… I don’t know quite how to explain it, but touch screen plus a little of that extra functionality/usability mojo that I think I see in the iPad that I don’t necessarily see in other devices. I mean, we could have audio or video control software developed for the wacom pen tablets, but as far as I know, there’s not much available to do with wacom tablets beyond graphical work.
And Apple’s closed system probably will be a bit of a hinderance, but there is audio control software available for the iPhone already. I’ve seen guys control MoogerFoogers with their iPhones, and there’s apparently Protools control software out there, too. So I don’t know that things are completely hopeless in that regard…
…and I was thinking the same thing about a virtual Kaoss pad…
Steve 12:57 am on February 2, 2010 Permalink |
I love some of the iPhone apps that I’ve seen for MIDI control – really cool ideas… maybe Apple should just’ve made a bluetooth big display for the iPhone… my ideal set up would actually be a phone as the ‘brain’ to a bigger set up, powering a screen and keyboard… that way I can take the ‘brain’ anywhere, and hook it up wherever I go. Replace the screen with a projector, and we’re really in business.
I’m sure people will do lots of cool things with the iPad. There’ll be loads of cool apps, and much merriment will be had. These things are never black and white, good/bad, angel/demon scenarios. Apple aren’t stupid. They aren’t about to release something that’s completely useless! And as I said, they’re welcome to release whatever they want – if they described this as ‘a badass MIDI controller that you can read your email on, and if you’re really persistent, type short emails back’ then I’d be thinking it was an awesome realisation of that description
tim from Radio Clash 1:42 am on February 2, 2010 Permalink |
Yes – if an iPad DJ app Pacemaker-style existed I’d give it a try then.
I’d srsly doubt it’d have the oomph and storage without removable cards or somethign would still restrict it to the Air ‘poser’ category (I call it the iToy)…yes my partner has an Air (as well as a MacBook Pro, the previous Mac Book, a Touch, several iPods) and I’ve had to play with it and it freezes like crazy. SLOW. I’d guess the iPad would either be similar or very restricted – hence no multitasking…
Doubt video or audio DJ/VJ apps would appear then.
Steve 11:41 pm on February 1, 2010 Permalink |
…of course, everything here can be undone by them fixing it in later versions. Then we ‘re just back to Apple’s standard screwed up modus operandi of releasing half-arsed Beta hardware and letting the early adopters soak up their development costs… grrr
tim from Radio Clash 1:31 am on February 2, 2010 Permalink |
The biggest sin I find is Apple markets their stuff as for ‘creatives’ – now yes if you have a high-end MacBook pro and the high-end salary to affordit, that’s true (although the whole ‘Mac for Video’ has been eroded severely recently by better PC and Avid systems – also Adobe Flash CS4 on a Mac has ALWAYS run like a dog, web design/dev on a Mac isn’t fun, I do it regularly) – but the Sony ‘you don’t need that’ mindset has been copied by Apple recently removing Firewire and now USB…it does seem like a dumbing down of the computer usage, which is weird since the old-school Apple freaks used to be as mad as the PC or Unix lot for diving in and hacking stuff around…so Apple catered for that. It does seem like they are targeting the Argos/Curry’s mass market aspirational set, rather than the hobbyists of old.
And yes when Apple muscled in on podcasts with iTunes that’s when they were doomed – well the indie ones were since they are all about ‘premium’ pro broadcast content, and this whole idea of creativity and the little man having a voice is actually wrong, if you look at what they DO rather than what they SAY – like the featured podcasts etc, who was allowed onto iTunes, etc.
Less Ghandi as per one of their ads, more Mussolini…
That’s not to say Apple is useless, I’ve had many iPods since the iRivers and other devices were more crap than Apple’s – although don’t get me started on iTunes, it is a simple product which can actually do a lot and it seems they are adding stuff to it rather than taking stuff away…weird how they seem to be doing the opposite in the other divisions?
John Worthington 1:36 am on February 2, 2010 Permalink |
First, I realize that your wouldn’t be a proper blogger without weighing in on a device you haven’t seen in person or played with. That said, i wouldn’t get too wrapped around the axel until Apple ships the thing snd we get to touch and feel it.
You’re really complaining about the lack of a camera? Doesn’t every cell phone you own have a camera?
From what I’ve read, the onscreen keyboard is no worse than what I’m used to on my iPhone and I manage to send a large number of emails and tweets from there. According to reports, the iPad will work with the Apple bluetooth keyboard as well as the keyboard dock. But most of the time I don’t have to carry one when i don’t need it.
The audio in solution will likely get address through the dock connector as it has been for the iPod Touch. Likewise quality audio out. Granted USB would have been nice. But getting all of the drivers to run properly is a chore. Even on a Mac.
The iPhone SDK isn’t bad, so I don’t see that as a huge limitation on programming the thing. And it’s open in the sense that I can compile and run any piece of software I want on it for $99US.yrs., Not as good as free, but I used to spend far more than that on development tools. Yes, I have to use the App Store to sell things, which means I need Apple’s blessing. But selling software anywhere but your own site requires someone’s blessing. The same is true for other media. Just look at the recent Amazon Macmillian kerfluffle. After looking at some of the stuff that Google is doing with HTML 5, that’s a brilliant solution as well. The Google Voice app really does feel like an app, not a web page.
As a developer, musician, and artist, multitouch excites me in much the same way a graphic display and a mouse did in 1984. I think it’ll be huge. Will the iPad be perfect. I doubt it. But it’s an important step. And they could wait forever to get something perfect. I’d rather pay a little now and get started. I have some big plans for it as a controller. But I’m reserving judgement until I get my hands on one.
Steve 1:58 am on February 2, 2010 Permalink |
John,
Thanks very much for the perspective – my comments are of course based on the keynote, which is unlikely to be underselling it, as this video shows –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZS8HqOGTbA
I hope you’re right – I don’t ever want things to be ‘not as good as they could be’ – the bluetooth keyboard would be nice (would be nicer on the iPod Touch, especially if Apple made a foldable keyboard – mini laptop!)
But I’m still completely unconvinced by the potential of this device to repair that break in the producer/consumer divide – as I said, by far my biggest complaint about it. It breaks that in a way that Netbooks don’t, that even, as you point out, mobile phones don’t! (I wonder if, like the iPhone keyboard, I’ll still be about 40% faster typing using predictive text on a number pad – even on my N97 which has a QWERTY keyboard, I use the number pad on screen to type… T9 is possibly the coolest development in typing interfaces in decades
)
Anyway, like I say, I’m glad to hear that from a developer perspective (or at least, your perspective as a developer) it look’s like it’ll work… Would’ve been nice to be able to dual boot it with the Window touch OS, or some future Linux touch version (is there one yet?)… Maybe the jailbroken version will kick ass, and the hackers will save the day again
Darren 12:14 pm on February 2, 2010 Permalink |
We had a discussion about the iPad at the last Northamptonshire Geek Meet… and as you can imagine, the room (pub lounge) was divided. Interestingly enough, no-one put forward your argument that the iPad breaks the content creator/consumer relationship… although we did have a few ‘what’s the point of it?’ so I guess that’s in the same ball park.
I like the idea of the iPad… a lot. But it would have to be better and by that I mean a camera or two (Skype, AR), Flash (you could see a plug-in icon whilst Steve Jobs was viewing the New York Times) and decent connectivity with external devices.
The keynote seemed to focus on this ‘third category’ (please, no comparisons or jokes about the Third Reich), which is kind of odd. I mean, sure… mobiles are pretty useless for reading content/viewing websites but laptops do a fine job (my Macbook is a lovely device) already. OK, so the iPad looks lovely but your point about the content/consumer relationship is a valid one. Ultimately unless you’re only planning to consume with this device, you’re not going to see any advantages with an iPad over a combo of mobile and lappy.
That’s never stopped anyone buying something because it’s cool though… and hopefully the iPad will develop into something more useful (for me) very soon.