About George Oats and the flickr commons...

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FrankThinnes

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Dec 18, 2008, 1:34:11 AM12/18/08
to Culturemondo Network, tessy...@culture.lu
I wonder if we should do something about George Oats' being fired by
yahoo (Read George's blog: http://george08.blogspot.com/2008/12/not-quite-what-i-had-in-mind.html).
An open letter, maybe? I know, yahoo is a huge company and is none of
our business to question their "policy". I also don't think that they
are interested in the opinion of some cultural portal people from some
weird european Micro-States or even from Down-Under ;-) But honestly:
I try to buy organic and happy food, coffee from happy coffee
plantations, the same for bananas and so forth - I wonder if I should
keep posting my pictures on a website that is run by a company that
fires his employees in that nasty way ??? On top of that, I wonder
what will become the flickr commons project? Is it "safe" in terms of
sustainability? What if I talk some of our museums or the Edward
Steichen "Family of Man" photo collection into joining the project -
and then they just dump it?

What do you think of all this??

Frank





r...@waag.org

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Dec 18, 2008, 7:29:03 AM12/18/08
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I think George's post says a lot already. But yes, although I do not
really have suggestions, the discrepancies between the back end reading
out a script so as to stay legally within frame , and the front pend
pushing of notions of friendship, camaraderie and community are really
hilarious if it were not so sad, and call for some kind of response, so
I'm in.

Katelijn Verstraete

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Dec 18, 2008, 8:32:09 AM12/18/08
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I agree, its quite disturbing how they handle non-existing 'transition', especially hard in a world where money is made from building up a sense of community and the enthusiasm of people who believe in it.
I'm certainly willing to sign a letter to yahoo!
Katelijn

FrankThinnes

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Dec 19, 2008, 1:44:56 AM12/19/08
to Culturemondo Network
The way the "lay-offs" are done, reminds me the Milgram Experiment
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment)... People were (and
obviously still are) often told to follow "a script" to do dirty
things...



On 18 Dez., 14:32, Katelijn Verstraete <katelijn.verstra...@asef.org>
wrote:
> I agree, its quite disturbing how they handle non-existing 'transition', especially hard in a world where money is made from building up a sense of community and the enthusiasm of people who believe in it.
> I'm certainly willing to sign a letter to yahoo!
> Katelijn
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cultur...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cultur...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of r...@waag.org
> Sent: Thursday, 18 December, 2008 8:29 PM
> To: cultur...@googlegroups.com
>
> Cc: tessy.fr...@culture.lu

Isaac Mao

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Dec 19, 2008, 1:51:09 AM12/19/08
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Pity that George can't transfer the message to Flickr on their
self-censorship problems and cold attitude to Chinese censorship
problems. Maybe it's good thing for her to find other a better career.
She did a great job already. But change we need.
--
Isaac Mao
Research Fellow
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Harvard University

We Make Art Not Money
Skype: isaac.mao
Blog(s): http://isaacmao.com
Thinking: http://twitter.com/isaac
Profile: http://mao.wealink.com (Chinese)
http://www.linkedin.com/in/isaacmao (English)
Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/isaacmao
Subscriptons: http://anothr.com/isaac.mao
Digest: http://diigo.com/user/Isaacmao


If you travel to China or can't access some overseas web sites, please
prepare to download Tor(http://torproject.org) to get free access to
those sites.

Ilya Eric Lee

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Dec 23, 2008, 12:06:45 PM12/23/08
to Culturemondo Network
I feel the same immediately after finishing reading Oates' blog and
now
I am hesitate to mention anything about Flickr in a lot of
circumstances.

It's previous success fully based on the sense of community or
communities, though for people in China they do suffer certain
moments
without warm responses and change is still needed.

I myself do need certain open letter to clarify some feeling toward
them.

How about other people on the list thinking of this?

best, ilya

Ru Harper

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Dec 23, 2008, 12:18:03 PM12/23/08
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Would it be useful to the group if I set up a shared document on
Google docs, that we can all edit and contribute to?

If I include everyone who has replied on this thread so far, and add
people if they are interested, that would seem like the most practical
solution.

What do you all think?

Ruth

2008/12/23 Ilya Eric Lee <ilyae...@gmail.com>:

okpaku

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Dec 23, 2008, 12:33:36 PM12/23/08
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Dear Ruth et al,
 
Good idea. You can add my name to the list.
 
Dear George,
 
Sorry about this experience. I searched for you that Friday as soon as I was told about it. I have always said that the man has not been born who can shut out my sunshine with his umbrella. Your star is too bright for anyone or institution to cast a shadow over it. So be strong and do stay in touch.
 
Warmest,
 
Joe
 
 
 
Dr. Joseph O. Okpaku, Sr.
President and CEO
Telecom Africa International Corporation
222 Forest Avenue
New Rochelle, N. Y. 10804 USA
Tel: work +1 914 636 6498
>> >> I agree, its quite disturbi ng how they handle non-existing 'transition', especially hard in a world where money is made from building up a sense of community and the enthusiasm of people who believe in it.


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g...@abitofgeorge.com

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Dec 23, 2008, 8:08:34 PM12/23/08
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Thank you, Joe and everyone for your kind wishes.

Apologies for not showing my face on Friday. It was all a bit much. I was
having a lovely time until then though!

I hope you're all enjoying a nice holiday break, if that's your thing,
g
>>> >> I agree, its quite disturbing how they handle non-existing
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