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I was enjoying an email chat with Keola over on the Big Island when he mentioned 'Culture Hacking'. We both share an interest in the survival of endangered cultures, As an Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies in Hilo, he has done more than just talk about bringing the Hawaiian language the benefit of technology. Keola is why Mac OSX supports the Hawaiian language. He built the first Hawaiian Language internet site, hacking the fonts himself and building a server from donated Mac Classic parts. While I'm nowhere near the steward he is, I have always been very interested in the history of my family's native Cornwall. In recent years many such otherwise ancient cultures have benefited immensely from personal computers and the internet. The increased awareness and participation these technologies allow make it easier for people like me who live half way around the world to at least be aware of life back in the old country.
This merging of history and technology leads to some interesting hybrids, the one before me today is the idea of 'Culture Hacking'.
Wether through language, art, food, martial arts or artifacts, instead of becoming weaker with time, perhaps cultures that encourage or at least allow themselves to be tweaked by non-professionals instead of defending their purity and isolation can gain important survival benefits. Like the 'random' modifications in DNA that ultiventually lead to more successful species, perhaps the casual, subtle modification of a culture increases it's survivability. Diversity supports adaptability, which is reported to be the next important key to survival after dumb luck.
Technologies such as books, television and ultimately the internet do more than merely preserve what they document, they also encourage participation, which in the case of the Web is more than vicarious. I remember years ago there was some concern in Cornwall that the Devon County Council had plans to reduce funding for local Cornish language instruction in schools. Because the ancient Celtic language that had once been spoken in southern England was considered 'dead' there didn't seem to be much need to spend money on it. But this was also an important time in the resurrection of the language because there were now more people studying and speaking "Kernewek" then there had been back when it was the native tongue. A concerted effort mounted over the web brought thousands of people like me, generations removed from their homeland, to the cause and after a flood of faxes, emails and phone calls, the language program was saved.
That was a 'Culture Hack.'
That would be a Culture Hack, and one I would love to see.
9:06:34 PM
Google has released a new version of its photo management software. Picasa 2 can be used to organize photos and create photo CDs, slideshows and desktop collages. Improvements include new editing, file-sharing and organization tools.
What the above article doesn't say is that this wonderful service isn't available for Mac users. Why? It's an online network service that runs in a browser. ShutterFly and Dot Mac have done it, why can't Google. I get upset when a service provider myopically limits their product to just straight, white, male land-owners. Oops, I meant PC users.
Google is considered to be one of the 'good companies' in contrast to the 'bad' ones such as Microsoft, Quicken, the schmucks who make FaxSTF and of course AutoCAD. I hope we will soon be included in the party because the Mac community need a good, cheap photo-sharing service. The popular alternatives 'Shutterfly' floods you with spam and shrinks your photos down to a useless size while Dot.Mac charges $99 a year. For many users there is no other way to send photos because services such as AOL (America Only Laughs) and Earthlink won't allow large photos to be included in their emails because they might contain the dreaded viruses or spy-ware. Since we Mac users don't have that problem, why do we have to suffer the restrictions invoked to protect those dumb twits who bought shit PCs?
Dot.Mac is actually very nice, and their other services are also valuable and well worth the $99 bucks, but that's not an answer for the general public or those users who have a hard time finding the return key in broad daylight.
Come on Google, let the good computers in. We promise not to break anything!
11:35:46 AM
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The quality of the Mac, the influential but minority market it serves and the avid fan-base that has supported the device for thirty years are all luscious blog-fodder.
