what am i doing here? why do i spend the time i do on pursuing my overwhelming interest in the baggies? what is a native born north american doing blogging, making videos, posting photographs, joining websites; as well as managing and subscribing to e-mail groups in the name of a team he's never seen play at home; who play in a place that is 1500 miles away from where he lives, and that he's never actually been to; and in a country he hasn't visited in 35 years? what's it all about, eh?i recently read a book called the cult of the amateur by a guy named andrew keen. basically it is a propaganda piece that proposes that blogs, wikis, social networking, and the digital world are destroying our economy, our culture and our values. in fact that is the sub-title of the book: how blogs, wikis etc. ... this is a book for people who are familiar enough with computers - and may come in contact with them at work and in basic home use situations - but are otherwise not particularly knowledgeable users, who are often enough frustrated by these environments and who might be predisposed to mistrust or dislike the computer, internet and digital media in general. in other words: there is a fair market waiting to hear such a critique. the trouble is, this impulse and interest is essentially borne out of fear, and creates a desire for critically biased attitude toward its source. in this case: that which we don't understand.
he made some basic mistakes, i think, or rather omissions in his thesis. i agreed with many of his starting points and foundation criticisms. for example, wikis - that is, user editable information, in the form of online compendiums, such as an encyclopedia, are - by nature - an unreliable source of information. the problem, as he rightly points out, is that editors with opposing agendas may delete and replace good information with bad information - or express an opinion in their entry that conflicts with that of a previous editor and their contribution.
with a major entry about something like McDonald's restaurants, or Wal-mart, for example, you are apt to find constant and highly biased edits and re-edits, made by those who have vested interest in one side of a propaganda message or another. what he failed to point out, is that where articles and information concerning large corporate and political organizations are often inaccurate, poorly written and/or misleading; the minutiae and localized information concerning the purely cultural (literature, music, sport, science, film, TV) is very often excellent - and the fact is, the more esoteric the subject, the better and more accurate the information. in fact, it is sometimes the only place that this information appears - such is one effect of the digital media revolution: the expansion of content and detail.
but mr. keen is not particularly interested in the localized (what he refers to ironically and sarcastically as: "democratized") or the esoteric. while he is careful to not promote particular corporate brands over others, it is clear enough that he thinks disney does a fine job giving us entertaining and high-quality cultural products. for him, this level of excellence is what our culture is about; and, therefore, needs to be protected from those who would make inferior product, or edit new material from it. for example, mr. keen, calls file-sharing "piracy". when you can't make your point by discussing or referring to something by its proper name; and thus need to bestow upon it a title which is designed to plant specific, highly charged images (either negative or positive) in the perception of those receiving the message, you are then engaged in flagrant, unadulterated propaganda. what sounds better to you: "let's discuss the ethics of file-sharing?" or "let's discuss the ethics of piracy?"
i also agreed with him that blogs are not efficient - or accurate - at delivering news - and certainly a home-blogger could never compete with a professional news agency at delivering news from its geographical source. but here again, he has missed the point: blogs are not for reporting news, but are (or rather, should be) personal, diverse and engaged editorials on culture. at their best, they are localized opinion about the news, and report on otherwise unnoticed effects of that news in localized areas of the culture. for example, what's it like trying to follow a team that regularly plays outside the premiership when you do not reside in the UK? this situation presents concerns and questions of freedom, accessibility, ethics and culture that the average supporter of manchester united or real madrid never have to deal with.
so, who else is better prepared - or sufficiently engaged, for that matter - to report on the problems of following the baggies from an international perspective, and in a world where digital media and FREE software are a major issue, than someone who is engaged specifically in these questions? by his omissions, the reading of someone like mr. keen helps one to define what one is actually doing when engaged in these endeavors. i may only be read by a handful of people, at the moment - and i am not a professional writer of any sort - but the point is (and i can only hope) that what i say has meaning to this handful of people... but then again, i don't do a lot of mainstream promotion of my activities. football may seem to be a funny place to be looking; but i am seeking a cultural underground - i want to see a revolution... a genuine and authentic experience! i want freedom! i want what is possible and in all of its constituent integrity. in other words - and specifically in terms of digital media and technology in general: let software be unencumbered and let it be free to do its natural work!
so, what i am doing here - with my blogging, video editing, e-mail and forum posting - is to report on something - in a highly editorial fashion - that no one else can, and define (at least in some small part) who i am in all this! i am taking an active part in a major cultural shift - as digital technology increasingly creates a folkloric culture from that which once was all big business. while by mr. keen's definition of the word - i am indeed a "pirate", as - and at very least - much of my blogging consists of photography, video and graphics that i have taken from news agencies, DVDs, the internet, etc. and reused here without permission. as well, i often remove the copyright stamp on an image in order to improve the quality and usability of the photo to the public at large. while i freely admit to all the things i have done - i have never hijacked a ship, nor taken part in bloody thievery, murdering, kidnapping or mutiny on the high seas, so i would suggest that mr. keen's description of my cultural behavior in the world of digital media is a prejudiced, unnecessarily dramatic and flowery; as well as wholly inaccurate characterization.
the other thing that mr. keen pointed out in his book - and where we do not diverge at all - was the functional uselessness of DRM (digital restrictions management) software; in that most "piracy" occurs not through the posting or copying of un-protected files on the internet; but direct peer-to-peer sharing of purchased (and subsequently "ripped" or copied to hard-drive) files acquired from a licensed commercial purchase or rental.
the only sector of main-stream culture that has found any extensive use for DRM is in the distribution of broadcast materials which have a short, high-impact first life, but are of relative little interest in second-life. this would be a characteristic of most news and sporting events.
what i mean by this is, a film has a first life - that is the market into which it is initially released. nowadays that could be theatrical first run, or straight to DVD rental and/or pay-tv markets. after this, it has its second life: rerun in repertory movie-houses, distribution on broadcast TV, and the re-selling of the DVD as "used" and also made available for private use home rental. in this sense, the second-life of cultural information is usually much longer than its first, although of a diminished impact and dispersed interest. news, sports... this is media content that has the most high impact in its first life, as it demands immediate attention to receive the content. this kind of information rarely has much of a second life, and when it does, it is invariably by virtue of a specific event having been exceptional or out of the ordinary: landing on the moon, a president's assassination, a substantially unexpected result in a sporting event... this all happens quickly, and the information goes into varying levels and forms of second life almost immediately.
a top-flight english football match has - with the greatest and most notable of exceptions, and up until quite recently - had a fairly non-existent second-life. in the world cup, with time-delays and games played half-way around the world, a big match might have a global first life of about 16 hours; provided that the local news agencies do not report scores from games ahead of time, so that people watching are able to enjoy the experience of a time-delayed match during its first-life. i remember world cups where this was common practice and you would be warned on the regional news if they were going to show the score before the broadcast of a game. because once the report of the final score is received, the information has entered second-life and is immediately and massively diminished in worth. anyway, i still think the real money (and focus) should be TV, shirt-sales and general merchandising. everything else should be free access - like the traditional radio broadcast. just as the online live text commentaries are on the BBC - so should their audio commentaries be available to an international audience. i could even accept the idea of a small licensing fee payable online for the right to listen. they should just not be using DRM that ties accessibility of a stream or file to a particular software; because, as a computer user - you should always be free in what choice of software you care to use, and how you care to use it. anything less is a kind of tyranny.which is why i am so surprised that the premiership, football league, and the BBC guard their information products so diligently; and don't differentiate when thinking about an information product's first and second life. i try to remain faithful to the albion, and am always hopeful and put trust in the idea that they will do things more authentically and ethically than other organizations. for example, i am so proud that my team - and uniquely so among professional teams - wear sponsor-less jerseys; proving the worth of shirt-sales over advertising. however, in terms of media licensing the albion use a slightly more restrictive model of content control than most other clubs. in the premiership and football leagues, each club has a website for which they - as a group and in a collective agreement with their governing bodies - employ the services of a content management company called performgroup; who develop and maintain the cookie-cutter WORLD template websites for all clubs that operate under this agreement. that is to say, almost every premiership and football league team; as well as six or seven conference teams, who must have private deals with them, and who also use the WORLD website template.
the focus of their content control is DRM encoding of their streams and files so that they are only supposed to work with Windows Media Player in conjunction with Internet Explorer. this is true of their live audio commentary, as it is for their video highlights and news reports. despite the fact that i could make the ALBION WORLD demo page play the audio content using the native GNU-linux media software, and i could make some of the video work the same way - it seemed that ultimately i could not make most of the video work. anyway - and as i said in a previous post, i'm still not ready to spend the £39.99 to find out if i actually can access their live audio commentaries.
a fair number - perhaps even enough to constitute a majority (i've never counted) - of teams in the english premiership and football league have a licensing deal with the BBC, whereby the local BBC radio stations broadcast the home games of the club (or clubs) in their area. these broadcasts are all streamed live online through the BBC website, linked to the corresponding local home pages. for example: BBC Derby, BBC WM, BBC London, BBC South Yorkshire, BBC Suffolk, BBC Solent etc. etc. however, the BBC employs a type of DRM that restricts these streams from working outside the UK. in turn, the football club then uses this stream as live audio commentary available to subscribers of the team website's WORLD services. it is only through the club's website that the stream becomes available to international users.
matches from the blue square premier are not restricted in this manner. so, for example, cambridge united's home games are streamed all over the world through BBC Cambridgeshire; however, the peterborough united matches that are also carried on the same local, are not. i have no idea how the licensing works for scottish football, as my experiences with the SPL online streaming of audio commentary has no consistent nature. while inverness caledonia thistle and motherwell seemed to have their matches stream unrestricted to all international users - as i could always access their audio commentary online, and no restrictions warnings are posted; the majority of the other teams, like rangers, celtic, hearts and hibs, all had the same "UK listeners only" restrictions as the english leagues.
the baggies have opted for even further control than this, and do not have their home matches broadcast on their local BBC network. instead, they take full responsibility for creation of their site content and do their own audio commentary - or commission it from a licensed broadcast in the private sector (i.e. commercial or satellite radio)... perhaps they even use the beaconradio broadcast, for example? i've no idea, really, and would have to research it further to say. although, the impression i had from corresponding via email with a representative of the albion once, was that they themselves create a non-broadcast streaming audio commentary specifically for their own and unique use online.
my initial inquiry as to the use of DRM and the ALBION WORLD services was prompted by my own interest in the possibility of subscribing. with the baggies relegated again - and not much in the way of the football league championship on TV - i was motivated to look for a way to follow the matches other than the live BBC text commentaries. one of my questions - since i use no microsoft software whatever - was: did they believe it was ethical to make their content available only to Windows users? the albion representative - an otherwise prompt and pleasant correspondent - did not really answer the question, other than to state that DRM was an essential tool needed to protect the rights of paying subcribers (what?!?!); and that since microsoft operating systems are used by an overwhelming majority of computer users, they were obliged to cater to this market. i can only conclude that he did not understand the question, or believes "practical consideration" a component or necessary definition of the word, "ethical". as far as i understand - and with apples's new capability for running windows applications - the WORLD service will, for the first time, be available to mac users... still nothing mentioned for FREE software, though.
i may not have to worry though. we shall see, but it appears that SETANTA SPORTS CANADA will be broadcasting primarily championship matches this year. this will mark the first time that second-tier football has ever been broadcast extensively in canada. i have seen the listings for the opening weekend, and having lost a substantial percentage of its premiership rights, it seems they are going with the championship as their main content, and the rights for broadcasting the premier league appear to have been dispersed and re-assigned. i wouldn't be surprised if a new "soccer-specific" ESPN affiliate shows up on the airwaves soon. on the opening week of the season SETANTA SPORTS CANADA is broadcasting the season opener (middlesbrough v sheffield united) live on the friday evening. then, a live TBA early on the saturday morning followed by a live broadcast of west brom v newcastle united; with a time-delay repeat of the southampton v millwall match later that evening. on sunday, the coventry v ipswich match is to be broadcast live. nothing has really been posted in the way of listings for the premiership matches, yet; but, i'd be willing to bet that someone, somewhere is thrashing out the details right now.yes, it's going to be another interesting year in english football and digital multi-media; and sometimes armed with nothing more than the BBC live text commentaries with which to follow the baggies in real time, there's still every reason for me to blog about the challenges of being a west bromwich albion supporter living in toronto... even if just for the sake of my own sanity!!!
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