The Wordsmith's Forge

There's a music video coming out of my poem "Origami Emotion," and a preview of that inspired my partner Doug to go looking for the poem online.  And it's everywhere.  This one has definitely escaped into the wild, passed around by word of mouth and blog and newsletters in a way that makes me suspect this one just might make it down to deep time.  This is a thing I value more than copyright.  This poem, flying around the world on its own wings.  <3  Apparently it's quite popular in sermons across multiple religions.  As an interfaith worker, that makes me happy too.

If you want to see the results, just google "Origami Emotion Elizabeth Barrette."

Some of these predate the internet even in their slang usage, although social networks have greatly spread the usage. 

Your location is intimate, sensitive information that can be used to hurt you.  But this app uses it to your advantage by relaying information about your planned route, progress along it, and safety level to designated companions.  This enables people to manage their own travel and safety more effectively, without tying them to a physical bodyguard.  It's a useful tool for some contexts.

This search engine can be set with a choice of several filters to weed out mainstream propaganda or target independent sources.  Furthermore, it's a safesearch engine that does not record user information.  That makes it a good choice for looking up things you don't want anyone to know you looked up.

This gaming community solved online harassment.  First they polled the community to determine local standards.  Then they created a learning system which allowed users to penalize behavior outside community norms, or reward particularly good behavior.  This is optimum because it allows each community to set and maintain its own standards.  Parameters are created by the community and enforced within its own interactions, not devised and imposed from outside.  This way, each little corner of cyberspace can establish its own ideals.  Everybody wins!

I got to talking with some friends about the uncanny valley, and then I found this video of two chatbots talking together.  The imagery is basically two talking heads, with a voiceover. The uncanny valley effect works in audio as well as visual mode, and it is creepy.  For those of you whose impaired vision has left you out of the uncanny valley based on sight, here's a chance to experiment with hearing it instead.  Or anyone else who thinks it's cool.

The conversation runs 6:37.  I didn't last a minute before tapping out.  Other friends variably lasted about two minutes, and less than ten seconds.  How long can you make it?

 ... is in progress.  It's a great idea, if you're doing it for a few seconds.  If you're using that as the primary interface, however, most people get tired and sore very quickly.  And if you keep doing it, then you wind up with repetitive stress injuries.  People have found this out by using touchscreens on their desk computers.  Seriously, folks, haptics matter.

This case is of interest to writers everywhere, because writers often need to research the nefarious things that their characters do.  Or even things that are appalling but actually have a good reason behind them.

Because they were never going to pay you for it anyway.  If they were, and this is a category the author left out, they pay you anyway.  Subcategories include people who use free copies to decide if they want to buy a product, people who are reading the freebie while waiting for a paper copy to come out, and crowdfunding where folks read free stuff but have the option to sponsor more/faster/whatever if they wish.

The author is absolutely right that many people will pay for convenience over free stuff, if they have more money than time/energy or if the EROEI is better when paying.  This is why my year-end collections are now spiralbound at Staples instead of hand-punched at home.  Save us a day's backbreaking work?  TAKE MAH MONEY!

Conversely some people will tolerate extra effort for free stuff because they have more time/energy than money.  That's okay too.

The general rule is, make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing.  Reward good behavior, ignore or discourage bad behavior.

In crowdfunding, I have noticed that giving away things is an excellent way to get more money.  It's a little counterintuitive ... in a cash  economy.  But it is the fundamental premise of a gift  economy.  We say, "The gift must move."  You don't just accept the goodies and pocket them.  You give something to someone else, which can be a share of the first or the same kind of thing or something totally different.  The idea is to keep the energy moving.  A lot of folks in crowdfunding route part of their incoming funds back to other projects crowdfunded by someone else.  I can only afford this sporadically but I still do it.

Another consideration is relationship.  When people like a creative person, they will throw money  without even being asked.  But if they feel their money is going to a big corporation instead of the author, they're less enthusiastic about that.  They get downright huffy if they feel like they're getting screwed, not getting their money's worth -- maybe the prices are jacked up or the product isn't very good.  So that's a big reason why some people pirate.  It's not just an economic issue that people can't afford a product or feel it's overpriced.  It's a relationship breakdown between provider and customer.  Consider how very badly the music, movie, publishing, etc. industries have treated their customers.  Well, now the bottlenecks are coming loose and people have other alternatives.  Newsflash: if people hate you and get a chance to leave or hit back, they will TAKE IT.