Discount mania in Czech internet waters

Although new ideas on the internet come and go like April rain, there are not many things that would cause such madness as the discount portals recently did. Concept of group buying is out there already several years but it only fully hit Czech internet scene at the end of 2009. To demonstrate the fact that it is not just another good imported idea but it is truly becoming new phenomena, one can only take into consideration that there are already more than 200 of group buying portals in the Czech Republic and several aggregator servers as well. Making it even easier, one can simply browse the web and easily see how oversaturated Czech internet is with group buying portal offers. Czechs really do like their discounts.

The idea of collective shopping (also called tuangou) originates in China and from there it spread to USA and Europe. It was very successful in the USA and continues to gain more and more popularity worldwide. It is interesting that even the big players such as Google or Facebook are realizing the huge market potential and for example Google is already launching its own group buying portal called “Google Offers.”

In the Czech Republic the avalanche of discount portals started mainly with the most popular Slevomat.cz and Zapakatel.cz at the end of 2009. Currently there are over 220 discount portals. There are also already around eight aggregator servers. Considering how small the Czech market is and the specifics of local customers that are notoriously known for being very careful, this is truly immense success. Big shark of Czech internet scene Seznam.cz and world major player Groupon.com also announced that they will enter the Czech group buying business. This can make things even more interesting in near future.

The basic idea behind the concept is quite easy and comes from fundamental economic concept of economies of scale. The more people buy certain product, the cheaper the production of this product becomes and the smaller profit margins a seller can give making the price very competitive. Group buying portals provide an opportunity to set a minimal amount of products that are required before the product discount is activated which makes group shopping very simple and economic calculation for sellers easy and with predictable results.

In reality, collective shopping concept offers much more than that. It has become mainly a great marketing tool. From the perspective of sellers, it can be used to promote a new restaurant, gym or anything else with minimal cost. If your product is good, people can come and see it on their own. It is very simple, cheap and effective. Many customers also end up buying product or service they would not even consider buying otherwise. It is easier to reach early adopters as well in this way. From the perspective of customers, the group buying offers cheaper products and if they use some aggregator server they can also easily compare different offers. They can also find something new and exciting in the area of discount offers they like.

The concept is interesting not only from economic perspective but mainly from the perspective of Media. It is almost a text book example of how new media can be commercionalized. Discount portals can be accessed from different media platforms and they are more and more interconnected with other content providers such as facebook. The idea itself also changes the balance between consumers and producers. It is not the revolution where consumers finally get the upper hand as many new media thinkers would hope for, but it still revolutionizes the way producers and consumers interact. Group buying portals match and coordinate customers and sellers enabling them to mutually profit. It also offers users the opportunity to choose only the product categories they are interested in which in turn gives discount providers valuable marketing data to individualize their offers even more. It is only another step forward and the users could for instance massively subscribe to potential future product or service or even in a way cooperate on new product development.

Nonetheless, enough of enthusiastic talk, let’s get real and face the things the way they are. As every idea on the Internet, collective shopping has its own problems and in some cases also potentially limited lifespan. Considering how things work on Czech group buying market, the original idea of group selling and shopping can be applied only to smaller part of offers. The vast majority consists of wellness packages, spa and cosmetic services or food & drinks. It is true that even service can be sold in large quantities and make a certain use of economics of scale but it is much harder to trace down how good the bargain-package really is. Discount of 90% from unreal price or otherwise unsalable product is hardly a good offer. As a marketing tool, the problem of discount portals is that there will be a large portion of users that will simply buy next good offer, instead of becoming loyal customers to certain restaurant or gym for instance. Another indispensable problem is with unreliable discount portals and even worse, there are also unfair practices of coupon sellers. Once customers spent money on something that never arrives or on terrible service, they will not be happy to come back and buy more. Big group buying providers can reimburse the customers, smaller probably cannot. In either case, any damage to reputation will come down hard on the whole collective shopping market and all the players.

Not only because of the above reasons are future predictions of group buying business in a way like attempting to make crystal ball prophecy. Nonetheless, there are potential changes which are quite inevitable. Mainly, with the entry of large players such as Google, the competition will be massive. Some of the smaller discount portals will probably go out of business or gradually merge together with the bigger ones. After all, the opportunities and money in the group buying business are not without limits. It is also only a matter of time before the unreliable portals will be pushed aside, either by the association of other discount portals or simply by negative consumer ratings and subsequent gradual elimination from aggregator servers. New players such as Google can also add new functionality to their group buying portals which others cannot. Oversaturation of market is already becoming a problem. This might either bring impulse for new ideas or it might eventually bring group buying business back to its roots. After all, the original idea of group buying was about putting people together and offering them a chance to buy goods in large quantities for good price and not about yet another way to sell useless products or overpriced services to customers that do not want it.

Lastly, talking about my own experience with group buying portals, I would say it was mostly positive. Unfortunately, I had negative experience as well. In first case a restaurant simply did not calculated with the number of sold coupons and decided to cancel the promotion. Since it was a big group buying portal, after several months it reimbursed the customers for the unused coupons. The second case was even worse, because the coupon seller made it impossible to use their services in time and after making false promises, it simply ignored the rest of the clients. Nonetheless, I did not become bitter user of group buying portals yet, just more careful one. Every idea simply has its pros and cons, so, are you ready to buy in large?

When the right goes wrong: Human Flesh Search phenomenon

Human Flesh Search Engine is originally a way of searching that bases on not only search engine but combines with human effort, which allows it to begin with limited information, a picture, a user ID, for example, but eventually discovers more as more people are mobilized to help identifying, unmasking and tracking down the target, which is usually a person.

Surely, there’s no particular search engine for this kind of service, or, namely any search engine can be used to perform the task. The method is simple: to reach all tools and humans you can find through all kind of channel, mostly internet, since that’s where everything one has even done can be traced back by certain means, and with the help of human, the mechanism can be even more resourceful.

However, what drew the attention of the public is not only how efficiently the search can be done, but the “punishment” accompanied by searching. Once tracked, all the target’s personal information will be post on-line to inform the participants that it is hunted down successfully. With one’s phone number, email, blog, address, workplace or even family exposed and whole bunch of people hating him or her, it is quite usual that the defendant accused for moral deviation ended up a victim of countless harassing calls and threats.

The term “Human Flesh Search Engine” is most likely derived from Chinese on-line forum with a founding activity in 2006 known as “everyone knows that you’re a dog” , challenging the anonymity of internet suggested by a cartoon by Peter Steiner published by The New Yorker on July 5, 1993

One of the key elements for a Human Flesh Search activity to come into effect is the participation of active internet users who can zealously provide information and intelligence needed for further searching. As one may wonder why on earth anyone would put much hard work in it, what drives people to become the human flesh part of the engine could be just the same reason for those to edit a Wikipedia page or to upload a video on YouTube: the ideas that everyone can contribute, that everyone can make themselves recognized by the peers and that they have the equal right to make their voice heard. To give a relatively familiar, simple argument, it is the need for self-actualization that leads them to the path of Human Flesh Search where they do the detective work free of charge. In this sense, Human Flesh Search could also be a practice of collective intelligence, with a weird common goal such as hunting someone down.

In addition to self-actualization, a significant factor is the moral intention that usually involved in the activity. Indeed, a Human Flesh Search Engine could be triggered by anything, a request from a post, for enmity, jealousy or purely curiosity, but for the most famous or infamous cases, it is always fired up by the wrath of the masses toward the immorality.

That truth is that Human Flesh Search Engine became a top issue in China in 2006 with a couple of classic movements carried out which made it seemingly a praiseworthy achievement in the age of collective internet work at that time.
One of them, for example, tracked down a mid-age woman who uploaded a video of herself stomping a cat to death with her high heel. Six days after she was listed as wanted in a forum post, her name, age, place she lived and worked and all other personal information were exposed on-line and got her fired from her job as a nurse.
Later, Human Flesh Search Engine performed tasks one after another, such as exposing paramours in love affairs, making a girl who insulted victims of Sichuan earthquake arrested.
Huge victories of crowd-sourced detective movement had proved themselves comparable to police in the efficiency. At the moment, it became a legend that whenever there’s unjust in the world, the Human Flesh Search Engine will be started up, with the excelliance of millions of anonymous heroes fighting against it. In fact, till today, many of Human Flesh Search participants are still convinced that they are doing something that “rights wrongs,” that they are on a mission.

While in pursue of a supposedly “good” purpose, such practice of justice is yet largely questionable. The netizens in the mass hunting movement apparently had taken charge in every process from promulgating, exposing, arresting, and bringing to trail to conviction or execution, granted themselves as the police, the judiciary, the jury and the headsman in the same time, and administered the right on behalf of the people.

Written by Yunshan Hsieh

Are we alone in the Universe? You can find out with SETI@home!

Have you ever wonder if we are the only living intelligence in the Universe? Would you like to be the one who will find out? If so, let join the SETI@home, an internet-based public volunteer computing project.

SETI or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence has been run by the BOINC software platform of the Space Sciences Laboratory, at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States since May 17, 1999. The SETI project was set up to meet two main objectives. The first one was to detect intelligent life outside Earth by supporting an observational analysis and the second goal was to prove the viability and practicality of the 'volunteer computing' concept. Although, the first purpose has not been accomplished yet, the second one has, and very well. Originally planned to be utilized by fifty thousand to one hundred thounsand home computers, nowadays, SETI@home is the largest distributed computing project with more than five millon participants wolrwide. At the end of 2009, SETI@home had the ability to compute over 769 teraFLOPS, while the world's fastest supercomputer, the Cray Jaguar, achieved 1759 teraFLOPS. Along with other BOINC’s projects like Milkyway@home or Einstein@home, SETI@home is the third largest computing project that has the exploration of interstellar-space phenomena as its primary purpose.

How does it all work? Well, the radio telescopes known as the “radio SETI” catch narrow-bandwidth radio signals, which can be prodused only by man-made sources like radars, satellites, or TV stations. Therefore the detection of such signals would proove the existence of extraterrestrial technology. The data are analyzed digitally, so the more computing power is available, the bigger chance that an alien signal will be caught up. Since the concentrated computing power in a form of supercomputer was quite expensive, SETI@home came up with an idea to benefit from the capacity of home computers that would get involved on the 'volunteer computing' concept. All you need to do, is to install a BOINC software, which is displayed as a screensaver when your computer is idling. Unlike other doing-nothing screensavers, the SETI@home screensaver shows how your computer is processing the SETI data that has been downloaded from the internet. Moreover, the software can also benefit from your free CPU while the computer is active.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQpj7bfRqBo&feature=related

However, what is the purpose of getting involved in such volunteer computing projects as SETI@home? A survey has revealed that main reasons for joining the volunteer-computing community were “contribution to a good thing” for 60 % respondents and “wish to use the whole capacity of their computers” for 20% of participants in the Seti@home project. It means that there are a few major motivation factors like pure pleasure from creating things, one’s interest in a certain goal, or spreading social connections. Protagonists of volunteer computing and simillar Wikinomics concepts see this form of collective intelligence as a huge step forward, almost a new paradigm. On the other hand, are there only positive effects of the volunteer computing and Wikinomics in general? Critics as VanDijck and Nieborg point out that there are also indispensable drawbacks, for example the motives of participation in diverse forms of collective intelligence, the mass averageness, and the fact that Wikinomics may be just a hype. Actually, there is a whole range of weaknesses, which are often denounced, like we can see on Metacrap website.

The fact is that there will be always people trying to make money from everything new that appears, thus keeping wheels of economics turning, which is quite positive, though. In fact, I see the essential apple of discord, between collective-intelligence protagonists and antagonists, in the conflict between the traditional view of ownership and results of the currently running "liberalization of information." The fact that the most important part of today’s economics, the information, can be easily transfer without owner’s permission, will, or even awareness, has made the exchange of information much easier and its flow more rapid. Because of this, I think that we might want to give up the old strict delimitation of ownership in order to support the positive effects of informational liberalization like for instance the Creative Commons license already does. However, the speed of innovation, which has undeniably become a key to success, is still inhibited by the traditionally tough law of property. Although concepts of collective intelligence such as Wikinomics infringe the traditional institute of property law significantly, it does so in everyone’s favor, even though someone’s favor is bigger than others’, one would say, as always.

All in all, if the new model of ownership liberalization helps us to find extraterrestrial intelligence or new medicine against a serious disease, I will think of it like of an interesting opportunity how to contribute to the world development, which is worth giving it a shot.

sources:
Pierre Lévy: Collective Intelligence
http://www.well.com/~doctorow/metacrap.htm
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question204.htm
Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [online]. St. Petersburg (FL) : Wikimedia Foundation [cit. 2009-01-10]. InnoCentive. .

WikiLeaks: From the lawyer of mankind to the enemy of the state

“We open governments”. With this accurate declaration Wikileaks defines itself on its Twitter profile. In November 2010, WikiLeaks began releasing U.S. state department diplomatic cables, which state the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public sphere. The publication of these documents will spread unprecedented insight into US Government foreign activities all over the world. Such activities of WikiLeaks constitute an interesting example of the promotion and enhancement of collective intelligence within the abilities of new media and they can also explain the paradigm shift proposed by Dr. Axel Bruns within the Web 2.0.

Wikileaks defines itself as a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important information and news to the public. Their aim is to “provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information” to their electronic drop box. It was funded by investigative journalists, human rights campaigners, technologists and the general public. In the early stages, WikiLeaks was launched as a user-editable wiki which allowed the free editing of information in the web. Corresponding to the concept of Collective Intelligence by Lévy, communication tools such as WikiLeaks enable humans to interact, share and collaborate with simplicity and speed.

Also, there seemed to be the common opinion that – once WikiLeaks published unfiltered information – the Collective Intelligence would validate it. The most socially important aim for Lévy is to create the “instruments for sharing our mental abilities in the construction of collective intellect or imagination”. However, WikiLeaks developed into a more traditional publication model with the disclosure of information only after it has verified its trustworthiness. This process occurred partly because of the criticism that many uninvolved people were exposed to danger and partly because the disclosure of confidential information created a conflict with legal systems. Although WikiLeaks has become cautious as their activities have become recognized in the society, it still builds his journalistic agenda cooperatively with the society and creates collective intelligence.

WikiLeaks has been criticized regularly for the lack of control on its publications such as the spread of a counterfeited HIV test from Apple boss Steve Jobs, which was even previously approved by the head. The non-profit organization does not attempt to sell any truth and it is aware of it; rather it supplies unfiltered data to journalists, the society and the judiciary. The collective intelligence develops at a later time in the shared interpretation of the documental evidence through a subsequent public debate.

Besides the rise of Collective Intelligence, WikiLeaks indicates also a change of the traditional relation between consumers and producers. In his book „Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage” (2008), Axel Bruns introduces a paradigm shift of cultural and societal participation and economic production in developed nations. The industrial age with its “hierarchical and centralized structures for the organization of production, distribution and market economics“ transforms towards the information age: “a networked, heterarchical environment characterized by many-to-many information flows”. According to Bruns, there is nowadays a system that allows end users also to be their own producers and distributors and that makes the conventional model of media production, distribution and consumption irrelevant. Producers take advantage of the Web 2.0 technologies such as Wikipedia, Twitter and Flickr to communicate their thoughts to a potentially massive audience.

WikiLeaks illustrates this new balance between producers and consumers. With its series of publications it pushes the boundaries of unrestricted access to information; therefore it takes power away from the powerful and hands it over to the citizen. The conflict WikiLeaks induces is who dominates the information spreading: The digital public sphere changes the established structures and power relations. By offering unrestricted dispersal of information, WikiLeaks gives people the opportunity to form an opinion by themselves. At the same time, this uninhibited flow of information depicts a serious issue for the journalism industry and governments as they lose control over the dissemination of information. According to Bruns, a clear process chain from producers through the distributors to the (end-) consumers is not a feature anymore of the media industries in the information age. Besides, power over information is not controlled anymore by a small number of media proprietors.

WikiLeaks showed its political potential when it published the “Collateral Murder” video showing gunsight footage from the Bagdad airstrike on 12 July 2007, in which Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists were killed by an Apache helicopter. The video has been viewed more than 6.5 million times on YouTube and gave the world one of the most descriptive insight of what the Iraq war looks like. This is an example of the user-led content production as the leak’s source was a number of anonymous military whistleblowers and as the global news agency Reuters was not able to get hold of the record. This shows the new power WikiLeaks has in the journalism industry. They provide people with unseen information and news agencies cannot prevent them from publishing unfavoured news.

In the future, the ability to create Collective Intelligence as well as the impact on Produsage will depend on how the correlation between WikiLeaks and the media will be formed. If they cannot be impeded by legal restrictions and if they allow the general public to influence their releases, WikiLeaks will maintain a large impact on the structure of journalism.

Axel Bruns, Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage

Axel Bruns, News Blogs and Citizen Journalism: New Directions for e-Journalism

Pierre Lévy, Collective Intelligence

www.twitter.com

www.wikileaks.ch

A Lifestyle that Created a Brand

 Or, the lifestyle that launched a million brands. Party photography has created commercial opportunities through creatively using collective intelligence, produsage and transmedia storytelling.

Ever since since such articles as 'Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization' and it’s counterparts, in works such as Timeout New York and Vice, published within recent years, ever since Gavin McInnes founded Streetboners and TV Carnage, following the hugely successful Vice 'Dos and Don'ts', a lifestyle was born, one without an ideology, one which ‘refuses to aknowledge itself’. This lifestyle has been ridiculed, debased, even claimed to be dead, though whatever came from this movement of paradoxical self-absorbed non-identity, was a genius way to profit commercially. The idea of selling people what they themselves have created is baffling yet has probably launched some of the most successful campaigns this decade.

The nonchalant party lifestyle, captured at just the right ‘photo-op’ moment in time by Mark ‘The Cobra Snake’ Hunter, surprised millions by becoming incredibly lucrative, while emitting an ethos of spontenaity and of a DIY approach to his work.

            Visiting his website, welcomes one into a world of fantasy, where the only thing worth documenting is a good party or a worthwhile connection. From here, a clothing line has been launched, which touches on transmedia storytelling: The items for sale reflect the actions taken place at the events documented and to click purchase is to feel like part of the event.

            Produsage enters here at the door of the event, as browsers of this site fantasize of taking part, attend hosted events themselves, or attend similarly themed events which advertise a quick appearance made by the photographer himself. And so the guests take part in the creation of the product itself, fuelling it further.

            And from this, people, the viewers, the consumers, the attendees, went on to create more of the same, Last Nights Party is a website hosting a mini-series, documenting nights out in New York, spent partying and pondering, the type of thought inspired by the previously mentioned photography: A lifestyle documented equals a lifestyle advertised. Also available here are hundreds of photos, similar to those posted on the CobraSnake website, featuring, but most importantly not staring celebrities, whom lend a hand to the DIY feel of the published works, creating a sense of ‘being part of something’. And now, the consumer is hooked. Henry Jenkins’ ‘Additive comprehension’ can be applied here, as more layers of information have been planted in the story of the lifestyle, the story of each character.

            This is transmedia storytelling literally splayed across traditional media: Photographs, videos and sound bites of attendees will be published on television, radio, magazines and most importantly the internet. The photographer himself, as well as the celebrities featured and also the non-celebrities who through association become internet stars are all part and parcel of a media machine that is fuelled by exactly repeating these instances over, to create a story and creating ‘characters’ which these people have become, in order for their careers to continue, as Henry Jenkins put it: ‘if it doesn’t spread, it’s dead’. Others fuelling the machine are Gavin McInnes, Ryan McGinley, Hedi Slimane who all photograph certain types of people, giving each of these characters another layer to their story. Another story, another lifestyle, lots of branding.

            Each character at the party can be looked into further also, creating the ‘every-brand’ as there is a character for everyone, this is similar to the traditional transmedia storytelling feature of having many access points for consumers, namely the example of creating Spiderman colouring books for children, action comics for men and Mary-Jane centered comics for women. Another aspect of collective intelligence at play here is the application of blogs, namely Tumblr, Flickr and Blogspot in the spreading of photographs: free advertising for the attendees, for the brands that dressed them and for the drinks they consumed or posed with in photographs. Tumblr, to begin, is rife with ‘reblogs’, an addictive hobby, taken up by millions at absolutely no cost to the company owners, instant produsage. Add advertising to the websites themselves upon which people freely reblog and instantly there is a commercial aspect at work.

            Not hugely dissimilarly to fanfiction, in which fans continue unfinished story lines to their own satisfaction, fans of photographic websites can go on to post their own similar photographs, freely going about advertising all of the brands that they wear to their friends, absent-mindedly or not,  as well as founding their own mini-brands, to be hosted on websites such as eBay, fuelling further online advertising which appears along website borders and also compiling lists of the purchases they have made on websites such as Lookbook.nu.

            Lookbook is an invite-only website, which creates a sense of exclusivity, instantly attractive to the browser. Members upload photographs of themselves in outfits creatively compiled in attractive settings. The Members wish to be voted highly and so present the clothing in the most attractive manner possible, advertising their own lifestyle which has been heavily influenced by the clothing company directors.

            All of the elements mentioned so far: photography, branding, celebrity, music videos etc. all come to one conglomerate melding point at festivals such as Coachella, where all aspects are at the forefront of the ticket holders to do list, or possibly, commercially affected mind-set. One video advertisement from the festival features a quote that sums this up is: ‘Some people think of Coachella as a religion, they take pills like it’s the body of Christ, they drink like its holy water’, this scripted line sells the festival as a lifestyle.

            In order for the lifestyle to continue, to live, there must be an ever-growing contingency of DIY seeming, underground ‘producers’ or hubs of interest, places for the inspiration to be found for the continuity of the lifestyle. Seemingly paradoxical, there must be subcultures and alternative creative outlets, for the lifestyle to be profitable.

            Lifestyles that create this brand, must contain a certain air of nonchalance,  for example in magazines such as I-D or Purple, one can see their favourite characters both in ‘candid’ party photographs, carefully created and curated by advertisers, alongside appearances by the same characters in campaigns using apathy to create a unique selling buzz. One example here is the participation of couple, Jethro Cave and Sophie Willing in an advertising campaign for Closed, a clothing brand. The couple feature in a video advertisement on the brands website, in which both models speaks apathetically about themselves, casually dismissing the importance of ‘modern fashion’, in order to create a sense of ambiguity, of a ‘detachment’ from the brand that hints at a lifestyle which is desirable. The emphasis is not on the brand but about their own creative endeavours. Both of these people are characters. They both are models, and will continue to feature in campaigns in the same detached way as in the Closed campaign, the same way that couples will appear in campaigns for The Kooples, lavishing the viewer with stories or how they met, never mentioning the brand at hand, though always looking good in the clothes they have been directed to wear and for Oliver Peoples, where Devendra Banhart, a well-loved indie musician lackadasically spends time with his girlfriend in a non-stylized home-video type advertisement for eyewear.

             From this, one can deduce that the influence of party photography as subtle branding has been successful. It has played an important part in the creation of a genre of advertising, lending to a lifestyle which fuels many brands now associated with it. Party photography, merchandise, events, videos, familiarity, related brands, huge commercial success have ultimately lead to a lifestyle that created a brand, for everyone, exclusively, through the clever implication of collective intelligence, produsage and transmedia storytelling.

Belarus: Internet vs. Dictator

Belarus is an ex-soviet country in Eastern Europe with about 10 million people population known for its vast forests, lots of potatoes, pretty girls, kind-hearted gloomy people prone to sustain big amounts of distilled beverages, great agricultural machinery, rich history and of course its president and its “stable” economical situation. For me as for a Belarusian by citizenship and self-identification it is very important to spread the knowledge about first of all the existence of my country (yes, some people have no clue of what “Belarus” might be) an secondly about the dreadful political situation that we’ve been having already for ages. In other words even right now by the means of this assignment I’m trying to contribute to the change that Belarus is longing for and therefore also contributing to the global “knowledge space”. According to P. Lévy communist countries couldn’t survive due to the absence of the phenomenon of the collective intelligence: “It (totalitarianism) was incapable of collective intelligence”. What we have going on in Belarus right now is clearly a totalitarian regime in the best traditions of the USSR and the way we are trying to stand up to it is the Internet. Attempts to overthrow the existing regime by the use of demonstrations, political meetings and peaceful revolutions didn’t work out. Either the people are too scared or the government is too blunt and taking measures, or most likely both of those things, but another election in December 2010 ended up in the fourth term in a row of the eternal Belarusian president. Naturally there’s no freedom of speech in the country. Radio, television and the press is governmental and doesn’t tolerate any negative statements about the government and doesn’t permit any emission of these statements to the international scene. Thus I personally have met people who truly believed that Belarus was a kind of a model state, a great example of honest politics and fair economics. Nevertheless in spite of the full control in the country the dictator is not able to subordinate the Internet although he’s trying to. There’re numerous Internet magazines, newspapers (http://charter97.org/en/news/) and projects (http://belarusinaction.wordpress.com/) that play a great role in struggling against brainwashing and informational blockade. But sadly sometimes especially in the most severe moments even these scant means of deriving true information can be blocked. Like for example as it happened in December when thousands of people marched along the main avenue in Minsk peacefully showing their disagreement with the results of the elections. This demonstration came to an end with mass arrests and violence on the side of the government. The few things that were functioning at that time were Twitter, Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=80666187169), and a couple pro-opposition web-sites which were also successfully closed in the next several days. During the December massacre the mobile phones were not working and the majority of the Belarusians were not even aware of what was going on in the capital. The only way to get to know the latest news or whether everything was alright with one’s friends and relatives was mostly Twitter and then Facebook. I remember myself tracing the news by thousands and thousands of twits and Facebook posts during several days. People were searching for their friends or other way round were informing about their safety, they were passing forward working links to see the news and posting fresh footage from the downtown; they were sharing their indignation, despair and sorrow initiating massive reaction and discussion… This is when collective intelligence worked in its full measure in order to produce thought provoking ideas and motivation not to give up after that night of another failure and to rapidly act again. People were blogging intensely to at least somehow cover the events and thus generating new ideas of how to act when the government showed its real face that night. Hundreds of volunteers were creating and completing the lists of the seized by the police. Later even a website http://pashtouka.org/ was launched for sending e-cards to the arrested activists and in this way also starting the produsage of these special e-cards. Talking about creative produsage, there’s a nice example within the context of situation in Belarus: http://www.antibrainwash.net/ . Antibrainwash.net gathers anti-Lukashenko leaflets, posters and graffiti stencils and encourages everyone to share creative ideas. Another web-site of the same character specializing in leaflets: http://samizdat1.narod2.ru/catalog/ .

Getting back to the December events again I must say that everybody was posting at that time; moreover everybody was sharing others’ posts to spread the valuable information. This is when each and everyone were trying to collaborate to hand down the information to the global eye waiting for some real power to step in. Even a web-page for alternative online election appeared. But unfortunately the government took action and everything officially was passed for an act of hooliganism in the streets of Minsk. The worst thing is that they started tracking down people by blogs and posts they made and social networks’ accounts that they used. People were threatened; the scandal was hushed up… But the change did happen. I’m talking about the change in the minds of the Belarusians. Back in 2006 when the third term election was happening obviously the Internet was less used than nowadays and therefore people were resorting to ordinary methods of action which were to go and protest in the streets or just to keep silence. But this time in 2010 everybody could see what the majority was thinking and could feel the unity of purposes, the spirit and sympathy. That’s why I think that collective intelligence in case of Belarus is not just something not possible in a totalitarian regime but also a tool to fight this regime. Hopefully next time…whether it’s in another four years or maybe earlier our new political experience of sharing in the Internet will bring a true change to Belarus.

Aliaksandra Pushchanka

Madventures – from Finland to the World

Are you tired of running in eternal rat race? Have you ever thought getting out from the rat race and doing what ever you want, where ever you want? Yep, I think most of us have, but usually everybody ends up with same conclusion: ”BUT how I would have money for that!” Who wouldn't like to travel around the world, enjoy the most beautiful landscapes and experience different cultures and sometimes just chill out but also check the most extreme activities? Two finnish guys, ”travellers” as they called themselves, made the dream come true. They combined enthusiasm to traveling with an idea to get money from (for) it: film your own travel series!

”We're two guys from Finland, Riku with the mike and Tunna behind the camera. We're on a global odyssey to learn about the most bizarre traditions on earth and to uncover the secrets this planet holds. We believe that the best way to travel is to step outside your comfort zone that's where you find the real culture. Theres just the two of us, lifelong travellers in the strangest destinations of the world. No crew, no security, no limits.”

This is how the main authors and journals Riku Rantala and Tuomas Milanoff introduce themself and their mission in travel documentary television series Madventures. In a nutshell Madventures is a Finnish series about travelling and lifestyle around it. But furthermore it's showing cultural differences and global & local phenomenons. Madventures started as a gonzo journal style travel series on a finnish broadcast but ended up to Travel Channel as international broadcast. On 2009 National Geographic Society bought license to series and show is released on this spring.

How did this production team of just two guys managed to make so simple idea as international success and even profession for themselves?

The first season was made on fast schedule to show what's the idea and episodes were shot on during the journey just to get money to cover the costs of the trip. The premiere of the series was in 2002 and like it was planned, it was a breakthrough.The first season was concentrating more to travelling, backpacker lifestyle, hints and own experiences. Locations of the journey were usually out from basic tourist resorts and the series had also different sections e.g. interviews and cooking and fictional features that made traveling more interesting to the point of ”basic” followers. When finance side was secured, second season was more planned and included more journalist material.

The first two seasons were made only for Finnish audience. On the third season Finnish was replaced with English and the style of the series was also changed from free traveling and lifestyle to show ” the most bizarre traditions on earth and to uncover the secrets this planet holds”.

There was more and more people getting into individual traveling and Madventures took everything out from their popularity. Already during second season they launched online shop for by-products and their own homepages was accompanied traveller board stranded.to. Straded.to is still vivid travel forum where people not only talk about Madventures and traveling in general but also search company for trip, share tips for the cheapest flights and offers. Also authors of series are participating to discussion.

The best part of the board is location information. As they have said the most updated information from locations is easiest to get online and often other travellers are the best source. Straded.to is working on this way pretty well as it is devided to sections by continents and countries. Users can share and get the most recent info and usually they know writers as reliable from the community.

Besides their own homepage, forum, blog and twitter & facebook they represented on different finnish media and made co-operation with several news and travel agencies. For example:

In 2006 Madventures made ”Travel School” video series to Kilroy Travels and co-operation followed by Madventures blog during the shooting of third season. In 2008 they also took part to produsage site on Helsingin Sanomat( the biggest newspaper in Finland)) webpage with their own section to ”Oma Kaupunki” (own city) site. Oma Kapunki is free ”where to go, what to do in Helsinki” -site in where users can add their own locations and events.

More they were show,n more popular they got. After second season, in 2006, Madventures was already having a ”cult” reputation especially among young people. Fans were translating and making subtitled videos from episodes and the best parts of seasons to Youtube. In fact even the official DVD release of the first season is still without subtitles so it seems that the authors wouldn't mind about this.

The style of the series and phrases and manners which Riku and Tunna were repeating were to be phenomenon of their own. There was more and more videos, clips and parodies made to youtube inspired by the series. The fan-productions vary from inside jokes and total parody to amateur tourist videos and quite a professional style travelogues but they all still own a lot to the original Madventures.

Whether those repeated parts were intentional or not, they turned to be successful way to get series more popular.

The interesting part on this kind of new media phenomenon is that Madventures episodes are on their own having many popular culture references. One of the many are episodes in U.S referring to Fear and Loth in Las Vegas and praising Hunter S. Thompson, who is known as creator of Gonzo journalism. They also made up some of their own fictional characters. One of the most discussed was Coco ( ”true traveller” ) who later turned to be Tunna's brother, but during the season it was difficult to realize was he real person or not. They used him also when doing ”Travel School” for Kilroy Travels.

On the other way Riku and Tunna had cameo roles on a finnish adults animation series ”Pasila” in 2008. In the episode the main character tries to escape the rat race to Goa and meets Riku and Tunna at the airport.

In 2007 Madventures extended from digital to print media: they released a travel guide Madventures: Kansanvälisen seikkailijan opas (”Guide for international adventurist”). The book differed from traditional travel guides on way that it barely contained any info about destinations. It is more a guide to individual traveller from planning the trip to reverse cultural shock. It also contains behind the scenes and background stories from the two first season. The guide was awarded with ”The Travel Book of the Year” -prize in Finland.

Already during the first season Madventures caused discussion on boards and also on magazines. Especially part focusing to different cuisines and food cultures caused some sensations. Recently they released a cooking book ”Mad Cook - Kulinaristinen seikkailukirja” (”Book of Culinary Adventures”) and the new spin-off series ”Mad Cook” is broadcasted this spring in finnish television. Mad Cook products are again something else than just traditional cooking. Both book and series are about experimental cooking inspired by traveling but also revealing politics, history, ecologic and ethic questions of food and eating.

It seems that Riku and Tunna are getting all the time new ideas originated from Madventures: the most recent one is to launch pop-up restaurant inspired by travelling and making of "Mad Cook". They are hosting a new brunch event every Saturday of this May in Helsinki. It's success before it even began: all the events are already sold out!

I think neither of the guys couldn't think where this one filmed backpacker trip would get them later, but already almost 10 years of Madventures have made travelling as their profession. They are often interviewed when ever finnish media is writing about travelling or cultural differences and also nowadays food, which seems to be one of the most discussed topic of recent years. How did they do it? It's a project of creating interesting characters, mixing fact and fiction, referring to popular culture works and hiding hints to get fans more interested, using media to stay updated, using many different media (old and new) to get increasing amount of different types of audience.... In the end it wasn't so simple and have taken a lot of effort, but they have not only became "Specialists of travelling, as Helsingin Sanomat was calling them, but also media specialists.

An easy way to learn a new language!

Learning new languages develops human beings. It is a kind of a bridge to fantastic opportunities of the 21st century. By knowing a foreign language we can entertain ourselves in much more interesting way. We can read new and fresh media, books, watch films in original languages. It is very helpful and useful to know as much languages as possible for our career too. Every company needs to have at least a few workers who speak different languages. If you know a foreign language you are able to get access to much more information in the internet space, to play an active role in various trainings and also to lead business correspondences. You can meet interesting people. In other words, you open new opportunities for your business development and you get a chance to experience a new culture and heritage. Do not forget about travelling! Any foreign language will help to: buy food or book a table in a restaurant, find your way or some place, buy tickets, and again to meet and communicate with new different people.

There are traditionally several methods of learning foreign languages. Among the most well-known is the teacher-student method where there is a lecturer teaching one person or a group of people. Today due to new technologies and mainly the Internet we can witness the rise of new methods and approaches. Not so long ago a professor of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago has developed a so-called Community leanguage learning (CLL) method.[1] Generally the idea of CLL is that students (those who want to learn a new language) work together during the whole process of learning. They decide together which part of the language to learn and revise. In CLL the teacher plays a role just of an adviser or a councellor. In other words, the students contribute to language learning of everybody, while the teacher simply observs them and time to time steps into the process and helps if necessary. The most interesting thing about this method is that the students are becoming «co-authors» during the learning process. They work together and finally form a product which all of them benefit from and this expirience could be used by other people too.

There are several companies that provide us with the CLL method of language learning. Some of the most famouse are: Babbel, English Portal, Language Kompis, Penal Parade, Fluent Future, Livemocha, Language for Exchange, and others…

The leader in community language learning is Livemocha (www.livemocha.com). Here what the official site of Livemocha says about itself: «Livemocha is the world’s largest online language learning community, offering free and paid online language courses in 35 languages to more than 9 million members from 195 countries around the world».[2] Already the numbers tell us that Livemocha is really popular among language learners. The following languages are avialable at present: American English, Spanish (Castellano), Persian, French, Hindi, German, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin, Icelandic, Korean, Arabic, Turkish, Polish, Ukrainian, European Portuguese, Greek, Dutch, Estonian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Finnish, Hungarian, Croatian, Czech, Slovak, Urdu, Catalan, Swedish, Hebrew and Esperanto. And also, it is possible to vote for new languages to be introduced, which makes Livemocha flexible for changes and modernization.

Generally, Livemocha offers grammar instructions, reading comprehension exercises, interactive role playing and both live and asynchronous interaction with other native speakers within the Livemocha community. When learners submit coursework for peer review, native speakers in that language can provide feedback on how that learner is progressing. Users can aid others in learning the languages that they are proficient in while learning other languages themselves.[3] There are usually four types of exercises in each lesson. You first learn new vocabulary by reading and listening to new words. By the way, all recordings are made by the average users as us. After that you are offered to check whether you remember new vocabulary by a short quiz. Then there is usually a writing part where you are working only with those words that you have learned so far. And finally, and here is probably the most interesting thing about Livemocha, there is a talking exercise. You simply have to record yourself reading a few sentences (possibly adding a few words in some places). It is interesting because after you are done with all four exercises a native speaker will check your work.

Also, the Livemocha web-site tells us: «Global interest in language learning is exploding. Trade, immigration and travel are conducted across countries and continents like never before in human history. The result is a powerful desire shared by people around the world to communicate with one another and understand different cultures. Not surprisingly, the size of the language learning market is estimated at a staggering $50 billion USD. In a world hungry for new language skills, and increasing broadband Internet access and VOIP adoption, our mission is to provide a more accessible, affordable, and engaging way to learn a language. Livemocha allows people around the world to help each other with language learning, and provides our community with opportunities to learn and practice new languages together».[4]

The last two paragraphs shows us some of the elements of collective intelligence. I do not think that all CLL method based establishments are part of collective intelligence, but I believe that Livemocha is defenetely one of them. There are almost 10 million users of Livemocha. They all contribute to language learning both in the interests of themselves and in the interests of others. Together they (we) build a huge platform which is avialable for everybody.

I also believe that another concept is used in Livemocha. With the internet growth and the boom of social networking technologies Livemocha is able to take advantage of the Web 2.0 concept of information sharing and collaboration tools, for which users can help other users to learn languages by direct communication or mutual correction of proposed exercises.[5]

Livemocha partly takes after popular social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. It allows its users to create profiles so as to communicate with others on the website. You can edit you profile, add images and add friends, which is again a very useful tool to practice a language.

Livemocha is partly connected to the transmedia storytelling concept. It uses many ways to attract people who search for learning languages. It is fully connectable with Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Youtube, and others… There are many articles about Livemocha written in newspapers, blogs, forums. Also, if you will search on Youtube, you would find many videos both official made by Livemocha's team and also amateur made by its users. The result of such work and such «transmedia storytelling» is that when you search (or simply google) information about language learning then Livemocha is in the top of the list. That means that Livemocha is highly popular and that search engines view Livemocha as a reliable sourche of information.

In addition to that, the official web-site says: «Livemocha is proud to have two of the world’s leading language publishers as partners. With unsurpassed educational publishing expertise, our partners provide Livemocha with world-class language learning content. The first is Pearson Education – the international media company. The second is Collins – the leading brand for bilingual dictionaries in the UK and Europe».[6]

To conclude with, there was a recent scholar research regarding studying new languages. The research has shown that language learning changes the brain density the same way as physical exercises develops your muscles.

I encourage you all to learn new languages bucause due to foreign languages you can easily travel in the ocean of information, opening new continents and islands, meeting and communicating with new people. It is up to you whether you will use Livemocha or something else.

Written by Bulat K.

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[1] Richards, Jack C. (1986:113) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching

[2] http://www.livemocha.com/pages/about

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livemocha

[4] http://www.livemocha.com/pages/about

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_language_learning#cite_note-0

[6] http://www.livemocha.com/pages/about

Jun, where E-democracy is possible

In the last 13 years, a little town in the south of Spain has been at the top of the cybernetic innovation. Jun, which is its name, and its city council have become an example of optimization of resources due to the efficiency of the administration: the 4328 inhabitants of Jun have said goodbye to the bureaucracy years ago.

-E-democracy in Jun

This story started when José Antonio Rodriguez Salas (the future major of Jun) met an American girl while he was a councilor. That girl was Virginia Johnson, the future assessor of Al Gore. During that period he learn a lot about new technologies and he came back to his town with the purpose of develop some ideas. The first step was to introduce Jun people into the new technologies and Internet, especially the older generations. Furthermore the city council gave some money to buy computers and other kind of hardware.

In December 1999, Rodriguez Salas (at this time major of Jun) declared Internet as a Universal Right and the free access for all the citizens, since that moment everyone in Jun could enjoy the new possibilities that the new tool brought them. It was the first town in the world that did it. Ten years later, pioneer countries in technological innovation, such as Finland, did it. It has to take into account that in 1999 Internet was not so develop as it is now and it was something unusual for the society, at least in Spain.

Two years after, in 2001, it was held the first interactive plenary session in the world. Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission declared Jun the birthplace of e-democracy and Rodriguez Salas its “father”.

Although its idea could not carry out in a completely way. There is a European Policy that does not allow competing with the telecommunication operators. To enforce this policy, National Commission of the Telecommunication Market prohibits offer Internet free.

-Goodbye Bureaucracy

Nowadays, due to the new tools that Internet offers us, the plenary sessions of Jun are more participative, the citizens just need a computer, a webcam and software that is facilitated by the town hall. Every inhabitant of Jun can give his/her opinion via twitter or sending an e-mail before, during or after the councils. All the complains are reviewed and must be answered in 24 hours.

In the elections of 2004 Jun’s citizens voted by SMS or using an electronic signature which was completely private. After the great results of participation in this municipality, some other countries tried to do it, like Switzerland and France that applied this new way of voting in five Parisian districts.

Another idea of Jose Antonio Rodriguez Salas was to apply the information technology to everyday life. That is why some of the usual things that we do daily or weekly have been “disappeared” for the inhabitants of Jun. For example, the patients that need a regular medication do not have to go to the doctor to take a prescription. Each one has its information digitized and it updates automatically. The people that go to the health centre have been reduced in 40%, the queues are shorter and there is more space and time to attend the emergencies. This kind of “electronic prescription” has been demanding in the rest of Europe.

The last idea was to create an application to allow the citizens of Jun access to all its information and to contact with the city council via mobile devices. This project has the name of “M administración” and it was subsidized (as other projects, such as the installation of the network) by big telecommunication companies like Telefónica, for being the first town that did it.

This new application has allowed people to enjoy more leisure and concerned less about the bureaucratic document. Jun’s citizens can complain directly and instantaneously to the major, so it’s easier for them to make known their problems and concerns. In many cases people do not complain because “it is a waste of time”. But in this little town everyone has his/her own opinion and they share with their neighbors and with the city council.

-Curiosities

The statistics support these ideas. According to municipal information the major of Jun, José Antonio Rodriguez Salas answered 27000 e-mails in 2007. The last year he answered 47000 (129 per day).

Rodriguez Salas is not only an active user of Internet (he has a blog, a channel in Youtube, a Twitter account and he is in Facebook too) but also has a lot of followers. He is the most followed major in Spain (Twitter 9.315 and Facebook 8.821), the third Spanish politician in Twitter and he is in the Top Ten in Facebook. Recently he has announced that his campaign for the next election will be made exclusively via Internet.

The Flag of this town is very curious. It is the only municipal flag in the world that has an encrypted message. As Rodriguez Salas says: “If you transform “0” into a “.” and “1” into a “-” you will have a message in Morse code”. The code was chosen by the citizens and it means “Love”.

Although being a small town it has appeared in many international media. In 1999, after declaring Internet Universal Right, Jun appeared in newspapers all over the world, from The New York Times to Sidney Morning Herald. In 2009 the Major of Jun was interviewed by BBC World and after that he appeared i the front page of Microsoft France (It is in French only).

Jun has held a lot of meetings about new technologies in which has participated politicians of the entire world. Recently there was a course for Latin American majors to learn about the possibilities that new technologies offer to them and its towns or cities.

This little town (4328 inhabitants) is known as “the town of Internet” and his major is commonly known as “the portable major”. Now we have seen that e-democracy is possible if the politicians want it to be. But maybe they are afraid of being so close to the citizens because they could be directly judged by the people who are representing.

Sources

An interview to the major of Jun in a Spanish Talk Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42dF4kbyAOc

Webpage of Jun: http://www.ayuntamientojun.org/

An article about Jun in Público (Spanish Neswpaper): http://www.publico.es/espana/43152/teledemocracia-desde-un-pueblo-andaluz

E-democracy in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-democracy

Jun in Wikipedia: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jun

An article in Cafebabel.com: http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/article/26830/jun-granada-town-internet-savvy.html

Ranking of the Spanish politicians in Social Networks: http://www.granadablogs.com/joseantoniorodriguezsalas/?p=4750

María Lalinde