Infoquake

Will Open Source Software Rule the World?

A few people have pointed me to this discussion about Infoquake on the Asimov’s forums. Some of the forum participants appear to be skeptical about Infoquake because it doesn’t embrace open source software as the end-all, be-all of human existence.

Linux penguin on a throneI could point out that one shouldn’t necessarily take anything one reads in a science fiction novel as an outright prediction. I’ve blogged elsewhere about the impossibility of predicting the future in any meaningful kind of way. As many other people have said, science fiction is largely about the present, and Infoquake isn’t really a serious attempt at predicting what life will be like in the year x. It’s more like looking at the year 2006 through a funhouse mirror in order to see things in a different light.

But enough about the book. The real question is whether open source software will become the dominant (or even only) form of programming in the future. My answer to this question is no, because I don’t think the open source software model has proven itself yet.

A very quick summary of the debate before we get much further:

  • Proprietary software is like a car that’s sold to you with the hood closed and sealed. You want to tinker around under the hood to make your car run faster or smoother? Tough, you can’t. Only authorized mechanics and dealers can get under that hood. No, more than that, only authorized mechanics and dealers are legally allowed under that hood.
  • Open source software, by contrast, is like a car that’s sold with the hood wide open. Complete documentation for every last screw, bolt, and chip is sitting in the glove compartment, and everyone in the world can poke their nose in your engine and see how long it’s been since your last oil change.

The idea with open source software is that, when everyone has access to the complete source code, everyone can pitch in to fix security exploits and coding inefficiencies. You don’t get the kind of security snafus you get with Windows where some independent researcher finds an exploit and everyone has to wait around for Microsoft to fix it. When will the patch be ready? “We’re working on a fix,” say the ‘Softies. “Just keep quiet for a few more months. It’s not that bad. Trust us.”

Open source sounds like a great idea, in theory. But so does socialism. And while I’m not ready to throw in the towel on socialism either, let’s just say that thus far it hasn’t performed as well in the real world as it does in a laboratory setting.

But the open source movement has produced some very good pieces of software, like Mozilla Firefox, the OpenOffice suite, the GAIM instant messaging client, the MySQL database, and the Apache web server. There’s also Linux, of course, an operating system which has become ubiquitous in technical circles and on web servers, even if it hasn’t made much traction on the typical business user’s desktop. This blog itself runs on WordPress, an open source project.

So why am I down on open source’s prospects for the long term? A few reasons:

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The Day of Gimmicky Promotional Giveaways

It’s Thursday, my brain functionality’s starting to recede down the back of my neck, and I’m staring at a stack of Infoquakes wondering what I can do to promote the book. I’ve toyed with the idea of doing some kind of gimmicky promotional giveaway here on my blog before. But I’ve always decided to put this off, because I don’t like to do things half-assed and I have no idea how effective this will be. … Read more

MySpace Spam or Clever Marketing?

In case some of you are wondering why your MySpace Friends lists are suddenly exploding, here’s why: I’ve been going crazy with MySpace promotion over the past few weeks.

Despite my misgivings about MySpace (which mainly have to do with the site’s design, functionality and usability — not its general purpose), I’m attempting to make practical use of it to promote Infoquake. And so in the last three weeks, my friend count has skyrocketed from about 75 to over 1,200. (In case you’re curious, you can visit my MySpace page.)

Screen shot of David Louis Edelman's MySpace pageHow am I adding so many friends so quickly? For a few days I was using a program called Friend Adder Professional to do the heavy lifting. With this program, you can actually send friends requests based on Google searchs of MySpace profiles, up to 500 a day. So one day as an experiment I sent friend requests to 500 people who listed Cryptonomicon as a favorite book. The next I did the same thing with Accelerando.

This might have continued indefinitely if my nice Jewish mother hadn’t instilled in me a strong sense of guilt. So I took a closer look at the MySpace Terms and Conditions and discovered that MySpace prohibits “any automated use of the system, such as using scripts to add friends or send comments or messages.” As well they should. So I stopped using the automated program and have continued adding friends manually.

But even without the automated bot, is adding friends for self-promotional purposes permitted by MySpace?

I’m no lawyer, but I can’t see why not. The MySpace Terms are somewhat ambiguous. They prohibit using profiles “in connection with any commercial endeavors except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by MySpace.com.” But later they prohibit “commercial activities and/or sales… such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, or pyramid schemes.” I don’t think my profile falls under any of those categories. Sure, there’s all kinds of information about Infoquake on my page, but there’s no exhortation to purchase. There are no links to online booksellers. The word “buy” isn’t even on the page.

(It’s also worth mentioning that the MySpace Terms and Conditions are full of strange provisos that everyone seems to ignore and MySpace has no intention of enforcing. Did you know that technically you’re not allowed to post any last names — even your own — on your profile?)

So assuming that self-promotion via MySpace is perfectly legal, the next obvious question: is this ethical?

After much thought, I’ve concluded that sending massive amounts of friend requests to strangers on MySpace is not spamming. What’s my rationale? I’m glad you asked:

  • Adding friends is a one-time permission-based activity. All you have to do if you never want to hear from me again is to click a single button and deny my friends request. If I accidentally try to add you twice, you can block any future communication with a single click.
  • The only content I’m communicating is a request to communicate. There’s no advertising in my profile photo or my profile name. If you’re interested in finding out who I am and what I’ve done, click on ahead. Otherwise, ignore away.
  • I’m targeting people with a professed interest in hard science fiction. The problem with e-mail spam is not that it’s unsolicited; the problem is that 98% of it doesn’t apply to me. If these unsolicited messages were about Richard K. Morgan’s latest novel instead of cheap home equity loans, I’d start looking at my junk mail folder again. So I’m trying to only add people whose profiles are on-topic. I’m not going to send a friend request to someone who has no interest in (or is openly hostile to) science fiction.
  • I answer all messages personally. Any questions or concerns about my book or my profile go straight to my e-mail inbox. I answer them personally, one at a time, without resorting to automated responses.
  • I’m trying to be completely transparent. Open up my profile, and I state upfront who I am and what I’m doing. I’m a science fiction author interested in getting the word out about my book. I’m soliciting feedback, and adjusting my tactics as I go to avoid pissing people off.
  • I really am trying to make friends. I’d love nothing more than to hold a nice, protracted dialogue with everyone on my friends list about the merits and shortcomings of Infoquake. I’ve been telling people to send me their thoughts on the book if they get around to reading it, because I really do want to know.

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WorldCon Mid-Convention Report

It’s generally a good thing to have a niche in any field. I would have loved to be the Dark, Cool Mysterious SF Writer like Neal Stephenson, or the Dapper, Quick-Witted Handsome SF Writer like Neil Gaiman. But it seems like if there’s any niche I’m destined for, it’s the SF Writer Who Does Dumb Things and Then Blogs Self-Deprecatingly About Them. I just got back from the Pyr panel at WorldCon in which I … Read more

Prepping for WorldCon

I am busily preparing to get on a plane tomorrow and fly to Anaheim, California for the WorldCon convention. I’m going to attempt to blog from the con once or twice, but it’s certainly possible I’ll be too busy drinking in the bar to get around to it. For those who want to know where to find me, here’s a schedule: Friday at 2:30 PM: Pyr Group Panel with Lou Anders, Alan Dean Foster, Kay … Read more

From First to Final Draft: A Case Study

[Note: I generally try not to cross-post entries between this blog and the DeepGenre group blog I belong to. But in this case, I’m making an exception. Feel free to read and respond to this entry on DeepGenre instead.] This weekend, I did something that’s guaranteed to strike fear in the heart of even the most accomplished writer: I looked back through the old drafts of my novel. Every writer has a different method of … Read more

Pyr Panel and DeepGenre Reading at WorldCon

Attention, WorldCon attendees: your agenda on Friday afternoon, August 25, at 2:30 p.m. has been set. My editor, Lou Anders, will be holding a panel on the future of the Pyr imprint, and it promises to be a rollicking good time for all. Feast your eyes on this list of Pyr authors that will be making an appearance at the panel (and make sure to follow the links to their respective websites): Lou Anders David … Read more