“It’s nature’s way of telling you something’s wro-ong”; my head sang to me. I was sitting on the patio having dinner with Linda. I sang her the snippet. “Who sang that?”, she asked. “I think it was Free“, said I. “They also did “Alright Now”, Linda offered. “Then it wasn’t “Free”, said I.

A quick trip to iTunes on the kitchen computer identified “Spirit” as the group that sang Nature’s Way in the early 70′s.
It also provided a plethora of subsequent covers. Then to top it all off, a short search of youtube uncovered this video:
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsTK2LHZKPQ]

I know I’m not the only one to believe that this is amazing. Why isn’t everyone amazed? How old do you have to be for it to be amazing? Will those who aren’t amazed finally be impressed when they can hum the song and a Google-created audio-algorithm can identify it? Is it possible that, in this time and place, an attitude of “anything is possible” has supplanted “wonder”.

Spoiler Alert!!: If you are a fan or devotee of open source software this video ends badly with Sergey Brin pounding a stake through the heart of the open-source community.

Am I, perhaps, being a bit overdramatic? I’m not so sure. Watch for yourself as Brin announces a $10 million financial incentive that seems guaranteed to pervert the intrinsic, community centered, value system that has come to characterize FOSS (free and open source software).
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_avwGFsv60U]

So many metaphors come to mind but a tragedy-in-the-making of this magnitude calls for Shakespeare.

Romeo and Juliet: It is the scene where Romeo is trying to make nice to Juliet’s disfunctional family. While attempting to prevent violence between Tibault (Juliet’s boorish kinsman) and Mercutio (Romeo’s likeable, wise-ass cousin) Romeo accidentally gets Mercutio killed.

If you’re at all like me the death of Mercutio was the real tragedy in this story and he was every bit justified in calling for a plague on Montagues and Capulets alike. The whole long, drawn out parade of miscommunications that followed and resulted in the death of two spoiled, misguided kids was beside the point.

“What are you talking about?” I hear you say. Well, Google is Romeo and the Telecom industry is Juliet. Google’s cousin, the affable, sharp-witted open-source community, is Mercutio…….
Okay, so maybe this isn’t the best metaphor but Romeo says something after Mercutio dies that is relevant to this conversation.

This day’s black fate on more days doth depend;
This but begins the woe, others must end.

Brin has just put $10 million dollars on the table in a blatant attempt to monetize the Free Open Source Movement. It is a black day indeed. The Open Source movement is built upon collaboration and the idea that, by helping one another, we will help ourselves by creating innovative and useful solutions to mutual problems. The rewards are increased prestige, the feeling of a job well done, and a product that will make our lives, and the lives of others, easier.

By monetizing the process Brin and Google have effectively introduced an extrinsic reward system that possesses none of the altruistic values that the FOSS community hold dear. As Romeo said, “This but begins the woe, others must end”. But who ends it, and how, will make all the difference.

“An increasing amount of our social interaction with other people (and people-like agents) will be occurring online. Visualizations of these interactions can have a huge impact on how legible these social environments are, what behaviors they encourage, and how appealing they are.�

Judith Donath, a professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, makes this observation in a visually rich tome entitled Elsewhere Mapping.

She goes on to suggest “A Conversation Mapping can construct a rendering of each participant from the history of that person’s interactions in the environment. Such a depiction is meaningful: it can help make each person stand out as an individual. Persistent history is the information world’s version of a body.�

I love this last statement! It offers a very interesting explanation for the popularity of a wide range of online behavior. If virtual existence is important to me, and I’m convinced that my continued online existence is contingent upon the creation of a persistent and significant online presence, I will do everything I can to make that happen.

I will most likely create a blog and maintain it. I might also make a habit of commenting on other people’s blogs. Having a presence on MySpace, Facebook, or Linkedin couldn’t hurt either. Posting pictures on Flickr or accounting for my every move using Twitter would probably add ‘virtual substance’ to my online corporality.

Of course, to insure that these strategies were working, I would need to engage in constant self-monitoring. This is best accomplished by Googling myself to make sure that I really exist. I would hope for a mention on the first page of Google results but I’m sometimes thwarted by a Canadian divorce lawyer and a capital funds manager, both vying for attention. Existing is getting to be hard work.