[OT] TV, Internet, and Democracy

[Christopher Browne]

On 5/25/07, John Van Ostrand <john-Da48MpWaEp0CzWx7n4ubxQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-05-25 at 09:56 -0400, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> > I may be sorry to mention this, but an excellent example of this mistake
> > (IMO) was the reaction of some on the community to the Microsoft Vista
> > launch. Stand on the corner across the street, demonstrate, inflate a
> > big penguin, and hand out CDs. It certainly made the participants feel
> > good (look how many brochures we burned through!) and was great for peer
> > recognition (participants later judged the event a success because
> > photos of it found their way onto social websites). But the net real
> > effect of that event, to get more open source use in Toronto, was near
> > zero. Make no mistake, this event was done for the benefit of the people
> > doing it, not the target audience -- it served a purpose, to be sure,
> > but not the one stated.
>
> It's unfair to say that the Vista launch demonstration was ineffective
> because it had little effect. Virtually all individual ads have little
> effect. It's the sum of many ads that make the difference. The more
> people that see the inflated penguin pop-up, the more they will think of
> it when they see Linux. It's reinforcement.

No, I think Evan is right about this.  Or at least that he's saying
something that should be considered, rather than dismissed.

I'm very skeptical of the value of demonstrations (e.g. - of the sort
where people "demonstrate against FOO"); it is not at all obvious what
difference they make in either the short term or the long term.  It is
unobvious that they had material effect.  Not even in the big bad
cases like Tienaman Square.

It is tremendously unobvious that protests against Microsoft will
cause any grand inspiration on the part of the populace.  Nor is it
evident that this is of any relevance, when Microsoft doesn't
negotiate licensing contracts with "the populace."  The *interesting*
contracts are large ones, where individuals don't enter as material
factors for decisionmaking.

> > People complaining because the show was not just focused on Linux may
> > have forgotten to notice that Linux tradeshows are tanking around the
> > world. Remember the New York LinuxWorld every February? At the turn of
> > the century it ate up nearly a third of the cavernous Javitz Centre, now
> > it's GONE. Ditto the original Linux Expo in Raleigh, and other efforts
> > as well are either gone or hurting.
>
> The trade show is dying, the conference is still there, but it can't be
> priced like IT360 (or most commercial trade shows.) The Ohio Linux Fest
> grows every year and is full of great content. It's focus is Linux and
> Open Source.

There's some truth there, but nonetheless, there has been a loss of
large venues, and the growth of small ones does not make up for that.

> These types of events are popping everywhere. Locally we have the Ottawa
> Linux Symposium, the FSOSS at Seneca, Hick Tech in Owen Sound, and the
> Ontario Linux Fest at the TCC, and probably more that I don't know
> about. Those efforts are not hurting, in fact their growing in number
> and attendance.

Well, the Grand Old Shows were quite a bit bigger than these small ones add to.

I expect that in another couple years, there won't be an IT360, so
it's good that the smaller shows are burgeoning...
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