agt77

As the summer comes to an end, we start a new season. Enjoy the words and read what I have to say at the end.

Poetry

("For Whom the Bell Tolls" Ernest Hemingway)

Do you hear sound of bells?
Do you hear weeping of bells?
The Inconsolable bells of churches are crying.
In the sky the bell - sun and the bells - stars are crying,
On the September land
All trees and flowers, like the bells, are crying.

On first of September terrorists - executioners
Have killed the biggest children's holiday:
"The Day of Knowledge"
In the small city of Beslan,
And In all Russia.
On first of September terrorists - executioners
Have shot joy and smiles of children.
On first of September terrorists- executioners
Have blown up love of parents and care of teachers.
On first of September terrorists - executioners
Have crushed hope and have brought fear everywhere.

On first of September in Russia
Was a murder
Of the most remarkable children's holiday:
" The Day of Knowledge" --
Pain of bells,
The bells' memories.

For whom do the Bells toll?
For all people
Who have been killed by terrorists - executioners
In Russia, the USA, in Israel --
In the different countries...
Do you hear sound of bells?
Do you hear cry of bells?

Thoughts on "We are the Web"

    I've been a reader and subscriber of Wired Magazine for a number of years I would say for most of the magazine's existence. Lately the quality of writing seems to be around the latest Hollywood blockbuster, sort of dumbing down if you ask me. Well, I shouldn't be harsh, each month does feature commentary by Bruce Sterling and Lawrence Lessig, plus the Japanese Schoolgirl Watch. Still there are times, then there was an article in August which was simply amazing. It was called We are the Web.   The premise of the article was that we are the ones that have inspired the development of the Internet.   The hyperlink, which starts the article is people getting in touch with others, it is the individual reaching out over wires, or wireless that drives it.
    The author Kevin Kelly looks at the start of the Web, when people thought it was all going to be controlled by big business and just be like television with us the passive consumer of commodity; now that was a miss wasn't it. He mentions that only 40% of web content is commercial, the rest of the content is by people who have someting to say or create. He says this about the growth: "The scope of the Web today is hard to fathom. The total number of Web pages, including those that are dynamically created upon request and document files available through links, exceeds 600 billion. That's 100 pages per person alive.". That is an amazing amount and we are all part of it. When you send a poem to an ezine, you become part of the library of the Internet. What drives this is the desire in all of us to create something, to leave a mark, however small, that someone else will read. We are like our ancestors, scrawling drawing on the side of the caves, or scratching a name into a tree. Something that says, "I was here".
    How has the web changed, I remember and this is mentioned in Mr. Kelly's article that: "he public's fantasy, revealed in that 1994 survey, began reasonably with the conventional notions of a downloadable world. These assumptions were wired into the infrastructure. The bandwidth on cable and phone lines was asymmetrical: Download rates far exceeded upload rates. The dogma of the age held that ordinary people had no need to upload; they were consumers, not producers.". So true, I remember that the rates of dl to ul were in favour of downloading, in fact some methods of getting the Internet ensured you would be more interested in downloading then uploading. The Internet was part of our passive existence, we were more interested in getting then giving. You would have blazing fast download speeds and almost nothing for upload. That's because we were supposed to sit back and accept what was out there. Then reality came into being and what are we doing, producing. Who would believe it, certainly not the pundits. Certainly not those early startegists. Kevin Kelly mentions blogging, in fact he says there's anew blog every 2 seconds. You blog, I blog, we all blog. My daughter blogs. It's a way I can find out what's she's doing out there in Edmonton.   We blog because we feel we have something to say, and sometimes we do find an audience.
    So what is the reality, again Kevin Kelly writes: "With the steady advance of new ways to share, the Web has embedded itself into every class, occupation, and region. Indeed, people's anxiety about the Internet being out of the mainstream seems quaint now. In part because of the ease of creation and dissemination, online culture is the culture". Moreso, we are the culture, we have become the culture. Now with Creative Commons licenses, we can share what we create with others and become part of the larger.culture that's not controlled by the gatekeepers of old. Windows has an ad where a girl talks about breaking up with her boyfriend and instead of moping, she writes songs, records songs, no doubt in MP3 format and burns her own CD. At one time that would have been a huge joke, now it's plausible and probably happening even as I type these words.. I guess if there was anything that might be different in the ad, it would be she would post her songs on her own website and then on iTunes©. Kevin Kelly mentions blogs, and now there are podcasts. Blogs turned us into journalists and commentators, podcasts turns us into radios. What all this has done is drive the creative juices in us all. I keep coming back to that same point and its because I believe it. We all have a story to tell, a poem to write, a song to sing. What kept us before, nothing really its just most of it was lost because of the isolation and the fact for most of history the regular person could not access the tools. Now, we can. In the 20th century, the media was controlled tightly by a few, now they are the ones isolated from the main. People can write and publish, they can make videos and films. We will blog until we have nothing left to say and then discover there is a lot more for us to say.
    I think how things have been over the last seven years. I know I'm repeating myself but it has always amazed me that people send me their work. It's always been about you, not me. Well okay it's about me as well. Still you know what I mean, each month someone sits down, writes a poem and emails it to me and to other poetry ezines. And we print them.   Some months, there's a lot, others, not as much. That doesn't matter really, it's the amazing reality that someone wanted to find a means of expressing themselves. For my anniversary issue this year I wrote of all the ezines that have ceased publication. Great ezines that simply stopped publishing, no doubt because it is a challenge to keep going, especially if you are a one person operation. I know that day is coming for me, it has to, but not today.
Why does it end, perhaps 'end' is the wrong word. How about, moved on. The publisher/editor felt they did all they wanted or needed to do and now there are other avenues of creativity.
    What has the last ten years meant for us? A whole new means of communication and community. We are not limited anymore by anything. I asked another daughter about IM's. She told me almost no one telephones, well at least not as much. Everyone IM's each other, they talk and then they get on the computer and fire up their instant messenger program and chat. They chat with school friends with one person or with a bunch. They plan on line. They gossip and complain online. Then they go beyond their school to others perhaps not even on the same continent. Community has expanded to others anywhere. Today your poem goes out further.
    All this in ten years, Kevin Kelly ends his column with this: "After the hysteria has died down, after the millions of dollars have been gained and lost, after the strands of mind, once achingly isolated, have started to come together - the only thing we can say is: Our Machine is born. It's on."

And it's not being turned off, anytime soon.

Paul Gilbert

The material contained is copyright by the individual authors. My words are under a Creative Commons licence. You can use what I say whatever way, just say I said it, okay?