We’ve also recently published an article that provides a working schematic about the various social forms of participation and public on the Internet. It’s available for download now, but it’ll be chucked behind the paywall come September, so download here it while it’s hot! Or at least in homage to Aaron Swartz.

Title: Birds of the Internet

Abtract: Scholarly attention to new forms of participation on the Internet has proliferated classifications and theories without providing any criteria for distinctions and diversity. Labels such as ‘peer production’, ‘prosumption’, ‘user-led innovation’ and ‘organized networks’ are intended to explain new forms of cultural and economic interaction mediated by the Internet, but lack any systematic way of distinguishing different cases. This article provides elements for the composition of a ‘birder’s handbook’ to forms of participation on the Internet that have been observed and analyzed over the last 10 years. It is intended to help scholars across the disciplines distinguish fleeting forms of participation: first, the authors highlight the fact that participation on the Internet nearly always employs both a ‘formal social enterprise’ and an ‘organized public’ that stand in some structural and temporal relationship to one another; second, the authors map the different forms of action and exchange that take place amongst these two entities, showing how forms of participation are divided up into tasks and goals, and how they relate to the resource that is created through participation; and third, we describe forms of governance, or variation in how tasks and goals are made available to, and modifiable by, different participants of either a formal enterprise or an organized public.

While walking in district 1 in Ho Chi Minh City, we saw a street food vendor with this on the back of her hoodie:

These letters have been carefully handpainted on a whiteboard, but the board itself been hastily attached to an old metal railing, that hangs and droops into the alley. In the back you can see the yellow signboard that announces the same sewing shop, this time directly in front of the house. Signs like these announce to folks traveling down the main alleys that there is indeed a full commercial life tucked away in streets barely four feet wide.

I especially like towards the bottom, the letter P. Did you notice that it’s the only one written in lower case on the entire board? I also find the letter G a bit strangely written, but I can’t put my finger on it. Is there something weird about that vertical stroke? I think the way that the diacritics have been aligned on the word “nữ” are especially beautiful. Back in the day, when penmenship was a strong focus in the Vietnamese curriculum, students were taught to handwrite beautifully, paying carefully attention to the placement of diacritics. Penmenship is such a lost art these days! In relearning Vietnamese, I’ve learned some  rules about writing diacritics (i.e. always place them over the second vowel in a pair), but I’m no pro. The way that the tilda diacritic aligns perfectly with the little whisker at the U is especially nice. Compare that with the more haphazard accents thrown over the previous A’s on the board. With the bottom phrase, the use of underscores both on the left and the right make it seem like a gentle announcement: “fashion clothing.” I always thought that this sign looked a bit like the Futura font, no?

The word “Đo” unfortunately is spelled incorrectly, which only adds more to its charm. It’s mis-spelled in the same manner on the yellow sign in the back. It should be spelled “Đồ.” But I didn’t even realize this when I originally saw the sign. I only realized this mistake once I had snapped the photo and looked back on it on my computer.::shrug::

On the left in green, it reads “buy, repair, sell.” If you look in the right hand corner, you’ll a seven digit number which is their landline and then below it, like for all shop signs, is their address. Unfortunately, you can’t quite make it out here because of the accumulated dust and (more likely) poor photography.

I’ve always admired this sign for the mix of international orange, marigold, and blue. What a wacky color combination! What shade of blue is this? Columbia blue? And the weirdly skinny letters at the beginning of “điều hòa” and “máy giật.” The red fonts though I think are really striking. I especially like : the way that the pac-man E looks like he is wearing a yamakah and about to eat the ghost U; or the way the other U looks like a mug of steaming tea. The use of the circles as diacritics is a really unique feature…I could easily see making a font type with this motif…albeit the strikethrough is a bit awkward, but in rather beautiful way. However, given the limited space, I think they’ve actually misspelled this sign. Isn’t it supposed to be “điện” rather than “điên” — i.e. “electricity” rather than “crazy?”

This photo is of a sign for a bike shop down in an alley in Ba Đình district. It is a neighborhood of tightly clustered streets with mom and pop shops at every turn. This is one of them. I have passed this shop many many times and always admired the hand-painted typographic work: the italics in the first line, the use of alternating colors where “Xe Đạp” (motorbike) and “Xe Máy” (bicycle) are naturally grouped together, the hyphens. This is one of my most favorite signs in Vietnam.

I was riding around on my motorbike when one day I looked up and saw this little gem. Doesn’t it look like something straight out of some 1980s punk rock zine? The upward slant! The filled in O. The italics on the top. I especially like the C’s, and the negative space inside the letter, where it feels a bit like a sideways fat letter T. This sign is for a little barber shop on the bottom floor of someone’s house. He only has one chair but as the sign says, he’s only 10 meters down the alley!

Ha Long Bay is beautiful…

The change in Microsoft policy is due to  claims that Microsoft’s actions in fact further supported these ridiculous actions by the State. Microsoft’s lawyers called for criminal charges, since they’re hardwired to do as such. However, last week, Microsoft did a switcheroo and formally stated that they will not no longer offer legal support to politically motivated piracy inquiries. In turn, they will provide blanket software licenses to advocacy groups and media outlets. These groups would be automatically covered by these new licenses and would not have to formally apply. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel, made the announcement here.

In find these moves interesting since these licenses represent  a workaround to a State that wishes to minimize dissent. I think it also represents a moment where we see state and corporate interests diverging on the piracy “problem” when to date, there has been an increasing state-corporate convergence on this issue. To date, there has been increasing agreement and cooperation  among these interests in trying to prosecute and stem software piracy. Granted, the case here isn’t really about piracy per se. Piracy is clearly a proxy for State control and political dissent, but now that I think about it, is that really so new?