Jason Prini .com

Techcrunch is reporting that soon, maybe as soon as this week, Facebook will open source it’s code.

This would be a good move for Facebook, who has to constantly be aware that they can lose their users even faster than they got them. Facebook use in Canada is down from last fall when it was just exploding.

Social networks are ephemeral. They are not static and must be nurtured to grow. As these systems mature there will be a point where the “Parents” have to let them go out on their own, turning the private platform network inside-out and letting it grow free online.

This WILL happen. It must. MySpace was too overprotective of it’s network and refused to let it go free when it should have, now it’s not nearly as popular as it was when it was ready to leave the nest. MySpace is a 40 year old living at his parents house technologically.

I’m excited to see how opening Facebook might affect the social media wars in the coming months.

Monsanto has been suing Canadian Farmers for years now. You see the wind, insects and birds all naturally spread plant genetics. Some of Mosanto’s patented genetics (what kind of dystopian world do we live in where genes can be patented?) have naturally spread to non-Monsanto farms and so the corporation is looking to collect on those “losses”. This is a good example of where tighter copyright laws might very well take us.

Just like Mosanto pays legions of lawyers and lobbyists to try and shape public opinion that they have a right to profit from natural process, the entertainment industry is doing everything it can to ensure that it has the control to profit from the natural sharing of culture.

You can do something. Write to Jim Prentice, Steven Harper and your local MP. Tell them that culture is public domain and you don’t want to hand over more control of it to corporations.

Of course my biggest question of copyright debate is this:

Why is the debate almost completely about controlling data that must be shared to work (like music), and almost not at all about data that MUST be controlled at all cost (like my social insurance number).

If you’re looking for a review of how we got where we are, click on to watch Larry Lessig’s BRILLIANT corruption lecture: Read the rest of this entry »

We’re prepping for our Europe trip next week. One of the great things about staying with family and friends in Europe is that you can pack light. We’re hoping to beat last year’s weight by enough so we can each have a single bag to lug around. There’s no wedding this year, which offers us some great weight savings.

Every year I leave a few pairs of socks, underwear, t-shirts and sweaters in Poland. This way I only need enough clothes to get me to a laundry, which is 2-3 days max. I also wear my heaviest and bulkiest clothes when going from place to place.

This year we’re in London for a couple days, then we’re off to Tirol Italy where my parents have rented a house. My brother is meeting up with us for about a week of hiking and eating in the mountains. Then it’s off to Poland for a couple weeks with family and seaside relaxation.

Our airfare was significantly higher this year, probably due to high fuel prices. I wonder if we’ll be able to fly to Europe in a world with a $500 barrel of oil. At the current rate of increase that’s less than a couple years away. Montreal-London via sailboat?