Month: September 2007

Review: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers

An important film. Watch it. Share it.

Sep 12, 2007 by Aaron Fulkerson photo of 'Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers'

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers

★★★★☆ Private contractors are getting rich while everybody else is suffering: This is the point director Robert Greenwald makes — passionately — in this 2006 documentary. Using whistleblower testimony, firsthand accounts, financial records and classified documents, Greenwald levels charges of greed, corruption and incompetence against private contractors and shows the subsequent devastating effect on Americans and Iraqis.

I love my girls and SDSIC "Bullseye"

Tara and Ashby

 

Ashby and me

 

I found these photos on Tara’s blog. While posting these Tara suggested I should also mention the fabulous dinner she made tonight. Curried lentils. Fantastic.

 

I got home late this evening after presenting at the San Diego Industry Software Council’s “Bullseye” event. The organizer was shocked to learn that my scruffy looking ass was the presenter for the event. The reaction when he learned this was priceless. Dude, I had pants on! He proceeded to go out of his way to convince me that this was a serious event and the panelists were serious “C-level” executives for large corporations. By the end of my presentation he was sufficiently pleased 🙂

 

This was one of those events where you’re to pitch to the panel and audience and have them shred you afterwards. It wasn’t much of a shredding. I did get some good advice about providing more specific examples. It’s a difficult place to be in when you have no idea who the audience is and we don’t “pitch” to sell our software. The customers come to us. Anyway my presentation was super generic and diluted to suit a wide audience, which made it less satisfying than it could have been. The concept of open source was lost on two of the panelists. “But you’re leaving money on the table!” “I can understand seat licenses, but this makes no sense.” The other two panelist were insightful and very interested in what we’re doing. The audience was pretty receptive too and offered some positive feedback.

 

A final note about today, we had 780 downloads. Wow. We’re growing. We didn’t even get any press. Some of the folks at this event asked how we’re growing so rapidly and doing so well with no advertising or PR budget. After joking about having no clue I asserted we’re doing this by:

 

  1. having a great product
  2. having an open and honest conversation with anyone interested
  3. building an authentic community for our users

What else could it be?

Book Review: Wikinomics

Good read if this stuff is new to you, rather boring otherwise

Sep 11, 2007 by Aaron Fulkerson photo of 'Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything'

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

★★★☆☆ Perhaps this was ground breaking when it first came out. Having just read it and knowing the subject matter as well as I do I thought it was alright,. but for me it wasn’t that interesting. Of course, I am the founder of a open source wiki company; so, I’m certainly atypical. The authors provide a solid assessment of open source as hyper free market capitalism, which I appreciated. I think it’s a good book for folks who are new to the new collaborative world we’re in. If you’re you live and breathe it this probably won’t be very interesting.

9/11

Bryan Thatcher's 9/11 photos Bryan Thatcher published his photos of the 9/11 NYC Trade Center attacks for the first time. Bryan lives in NYC. He is the President of Fusebox which is the creator of Empressr. He’s a great guy I often run into at technology conferences and someone I always enjoy speaking with.

Bryan’s photos are powerful. I saw them initially in my Facebook stream. These images immediately grabbed my attention. These force us to remember this horrible event, which can be a good thing, I think. However, I wish we could encapsulate the terror the USA has illegitimately subjected other nations to in an equally simple and powerful set of images. On a day like today I wish Americans would also reflect on the endless war we’ve entered, the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis, the United States persistent disregard of the Geneva Convention, torture, domestic surveillance, the suspension of Civil Rights and Habeas Corpus, the unprecedented expansion of executive privilege, a complete lack of federal accountability, and Hurricane Katrina. These are all things we Americans should be reflecting on today.

There is a call for a 9/11 General Strike.  I think this is a good first step. What does one do when they wake to find themselves part of the Empire? Obsequiousness  is consent. It makes us all just as guilty as those who stood by as New Orleneans drowned, farmers sold to the US Government are tortured and held indefinitely in Gitmo and other invisible prisons, another hundred thousand innocent Iraqis are starved and killed, and war profiteers with direct connections to the White House reap hundreds of billions in rewards for their manufactured war. We are Americans. This if our government and corporations. We must all individually speak out. We must share our outrage. We must participate in protests and acts of civil disobedience. Otherwise we are complicit. This isn’t a political issue. It’s a human and civil rights issue.