Wikicompany

Millions on the streets with a New World View

January 18, 2007 on 3:53 am | In politics, fascism, internet, freedom | 1 Comment

[Note: this an almost verbatim copy of my 911blogger forum message here]

Let me first say that this blog article is an excellent controlled demolition of the official neo-con newspeak, which gets so much airtime on CNN and all the other ‘news’ traitors.

I don’t think we are ever going to get millions on the street in the US. At least not in the state the US is in at the moment.

The reasons for this assertion are many:

An almost completely controlled media infrastructure (from researcher/investigator/journalist, to news agency, to broadcast/printing company, to the individual presenter/writer)
The mentally ingrained political duopoly
Poor quality food/water supply and nutritional awareness
Capitalistic consumer existence and anxiety (which takes away our time - which is all we really have, and disturbs our ability to focus on the things which are important in life)
Our indoctrinated beliefs in the current social system and its institutions
Uneven healthcare
Propaganda schooling for the ‘commoners’ to prevent independent thought and the sense of individual sovereignty
The empty belief in national patriotism and other “slide” (stop critical thinking) labels.

Even if we had millions in the street, most of them would not know what to really do when they could change things. People are raised with social beliefs that are very hard to break down. Even many 9/11 people don’t look beyond that event, to really start seeing what it is that is causing the rise of authoritarianism (and their willing victims) around the world.

If people are going to wake up, they will realize and see its because most of us have been living in a false mindset, consisting of false beliefs and a weak knowledge of our own great potential to be a factor of change in our own community (the divide and conquer governance strategy). This is such a shock to most people, that they won’t even want to discuss the facts which may supply substance to such a claim.

The question is then, how many people can truly challenge their own beliefs to such an extend, and still be a force of positive change? How many are needed to truly start changing local, state, and national policies? How to respond when the fascists continuously threaten and kill the good people?

9/11 forms a great catalyst for this mental evolution, which so many, including myself, are/have gone through.

One of the most important things to help this process along, is to be open to new ideas about almost everything in life, but outspoken to clear false messages and actions (such as 9/11), and keep that open mind as one explores the universe of false history and false intentions by our community ‘leaders’ and their gatekeeping messengers.

Simply talking with people, however slow and painful that process is (as we all know), is the only way forward, and we have neglected it by just listening to mainstream media for much too long. This is why the Internet poses the greatest risk to the New World Order fanboys, and why it isn’t achievable anymore! Once people see the synthetic structure of individual devaluation, social separation, and fear injection, the system starts to fall apart from the core.

America is changing, many people are seeing that their mindset was false, and that that mindset was deliberately synthesized by a minority in their own community (school, media, etc.) and beyond, and that there are millions who are starting to see those same things. Lets talk to each other, learn to respect each other (and all other life that surrounds us) no matter what the topic is, and see the true beauty which is in each and everyone of us. Lets give each other the education we paid for, but never received by the public school system.

9/11 was their biggest mistake, and is now our starting point for a New World View. A world view in which people care to rule themselves. A world in which we live by and respect the freedom and needs of other people. A world in which we don’t take more than we need and share if we can. A world where each person can be him or herself, and tell others how rare that social miracle has been in the history of our species.

If we can get just a million of these New World View people on the streets/Internet/wherever talking to others about the real issues, I have legitimate hope for a less dark outcome.

Internet2: a disguised global censorship project?

November 30, 2006 on 4:33 pm | In media, library2.0, fascism, internet2, web2.0 | 2 Comments

Library2.0 evangelist Michael Stephens seems to be unaware of the evil lurking within the Internet2 project. Its a bit like the “Net Neutrality” or “extreme DRM” issue squared. First you get toll road pricing (to slow down non-commercial/independant sites), then ‘they’ monitor, block and arrest voices of dissent. Michael, be sure to read some of these Internet2 censorship pages.

Both Clinton and Bush liked to spy and prey on their own people (for no reason, well… they are not telling us the real reasons). See also the Free Media World Index. Think about a mostly Internet2 world and an investigative reporter like Gary Webb. 1984 is now, Bush’s New World Order is next, unless we the people wake up and educate ourselves about our history and our own potential to be a positive force in the world. Don’t be an apathic, non-critical consumer in a crowded, polluted, noisy space, who lives in fear of whatever the government wants you to be afraid of. Dare to be yourself, dare to speakout about problems.

I have witnessed several important videos being removed from Google Video already, and the removal (read: non-approval - since YouTube checks all comments) of my own critical comments on YouTube. This is just the beginning of a long-term struggle to get back some of our media freedom, which has been taken away from us (both in Europe, and even more so in the US) in the last decades, especially since the beginning of the 90’s, when the US government started consolidating media streams (sources and presentation) to gain more control of the message (now propaganda). The few big media companies left in the US, are all heavily controlled by the government and the big corporations. There has also been a dumbing down of journalism and TV presentors.

If you still believe modern fascism has not infiltrated US politics, religion, finance, science, education to a significant and dangerous degree, see 911.wikicompany.org

The true purpose of a library is enabling and securing the communication of our culture and science throughout many generations and for all social classes.
The most important thing about the Internet is not its potential or average bandwidth speed, but the fact that we can communicate with each other, without too much interference from organizations with more power.

Thats the true revolution, upon which Web2.0 is based. The participation-for-all web is the true vision of the web. The power distribution of Internet2 won’t bring that vision nearer, quite the opposite IMO.

Wikicompany review in Farsi

November 22, 2006 on 5:19 pm | In sparql, wikicompany, usability, reviews | 2 Comments

I’ve started working on some features for Wikicompany again, such as a tag cloud for sectors. The tag browsing still needs to be converted to a SPARQL based system, which actually is already half done. I’m still thinking about a good integrated Mediawiki user interface system which takes advantage of the (beta) REST API.

I don’t read Farsi. I hope the review is as good as that elegant Persian scripture. If someone wants to tell me what it says, I would be very grateful. I suspect it (rightfully) criticizes all the unfinished/ugly profiles still lingering around.
Farsi language review of Wikicompany.

The American Dream: You have to be a sleep to believe it

October 20, 2006 on 2:58 pm | In politics, metasearcher, fascism | No Comments

Long time no post. I’ve been mainly occupied with things other than freelancing and Wikicompany, since late summer 2006.

My part-time job at the Rijksmuseum is going fine, but there still a lot of ground work to be done, before frontend changes will be visible. My preliminary work on a new web interface for the Rijksmuseum library catalogue is called Metasearcher. Metasearcher is a Ruby on Rails based metasearch interface for standard query protocols such as SRU. I’ll post more on this interesting project some other day.

Whats been on my mind a lot since late summer is the rise of US fascism. Besides having given a (well accepted) presentation about 9/11 (including: the imperial wars thereafter, the media blackout, and the history of fascism relating to the US) on 9/11/2006 in Eindhoven, I’ve started to document my own journey into the history and fundamentals of fascism at 911.wikicompany.org. Feel free to make changes, since its a wiki.
The eye

I always knew of the criminal influence of the CIA and other (secret) organizations towards their own people and other nations. However, the level of criminal intent, corruption and fraud is beyond belief if one starts to dig deeper into their history and their current structure and policies. As one example watch the videos about the stealing, privately owned, Federal Reserve US central bank, causing debt and poverty in the US.

I encourage anyone to start this journey for themselves, and reduce the time spend in front of the televsion. Its not easy, and it takes some time, but then again most of the best things in life take some effort (at least at first). Don’t just consume, express and impress.

This full political awareness brings a whole new view upon the world around you, and has made me realize even more how timely and important the struggle for freedom truly is. Not just in the US, but also in the rest of the world. In my experience most people who deny the urgency of action against the rise of global fascistic structures, are not very aware of political history and seem to just close their eyes and mind.

People who are ignorant (willfully or not) are a major part of the problem underlying the rise of fascism, because they tend to side with the bully, in the belief thats the easier and safer thing to do. Just as in preliminary school, it takes a strong will and courage to stand up against tyrrany.

With regards to military personnel; there is no valid excuse possible for supporting the killing of people in imperialistic wars, even if a prison sentence is the only other option. This moral justification question haunts many ex-soldiers to this day. Ignorance isn’t bliss. Research before you choose to join the army and kill in the name of an amorphous concept without real historic proof. If so, does that same concept make your apponent worth killing today? And is that the only solution left to the perceived problem?

This apathy towards ones own freedom and democracy is in large part due to the structure of our society , especially the mind-control excersized by the mainstream media. We are not ‘taught’ to be vigilant about our freedoms, to question authority, policies and news stories, to see hidden symbolism. Most people are unaware of the mind-control done using the hollow repetition of words like: terrorism, conspiracy, security, democracy, freedom and free markets. In psychology jargon those words are called “slides”, causing the mind to stop questioning the underlying arguments leading to the statement.

As the reality of relative democracy (but only in some countries) is still very young on the timeline of human civilization, there is still a lot of hope to expect the general awareness of freedom and fascism (and their political mechanisms) to grow. Education and respect for that which makes life worth living is the key here. See also this fascinating video lecture with Terence McKenna. Terence believes our main problem is our big ego, and that we need to re-evaluate our social structure and purpose. A society less focussed on individualism, consumption, and scientific progress, and more aware of the significance and beauty of a life style more in harmony with nature, including the humans on this planet.

The Internet is a very important invention on the timeline of human civilization, its the extension of local communication to an almost boundless (and costless) form of communication between humans. Looking eg. at the media blackout around alternative theories for what happend on 9/11 (and more importantly why), its clear that the Internet is filling the informational/educational gap left by traditional news businesses. The Internet is facillitating the democratization of information. And the fascistic forces against freedom will fight that any way possible, in all its subtle - and not so subtle - ways.

The average amount of television viewing time and newspaper/magazine subscriptions is dropping. This in turn causes more media kartelisation (to increase relative scale for cost reductions), creating an even larger gap between the spirit of Internet journalism and mainstream journalism, and in many ways the death of real investigative journalism by media companies.

What will be interesting to see is if (and then how) Internet journalism will be able support investigative journalism. I personally see lots of parallels between investigate journalism and free software projects, and perhaps I’ll write more about those business models some other day.

If you don’t have a lot of time to research these things yourself, I can recommend looking at the list of ‘whistleblowers‘ with many web/video/audio links to their important, couragous and inspirational investigative work. And also look up New World Order. It will open your eyes and mind to the reality of the rise of fascism. The next steps are up to you.

To be continued.

Jama Poulsen (blog at wikicompany dot org)

New job, new planets, blog moved.

June 1, 2006 on 9:48 pm | In wikicompany, rijksmuseum, library2.0 | 4 Comments

I’m truly excited to start working for the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands soon.

I will have the opportunity to work with some of the most beautiful art collections in the world. My role will be to help manage the existing catalog system and provide ideas and software to improve the new catalog system.

It will be both an honour and a challenge to help improve the access to the huge Dutch art legacy of the “Gouden Eeuw” and also from earlier and later periods. This crossroad of great art and cutting edge information technology is such an interesting combination. May we live in interesting times.

Besides my work on improving Wikicompany, I’ll also start to write about my ideas and actions on Library2.0 concepts. Not all of that will be immediately relevant to my work, eg. text-to-speech, and content-based image retrieval, but it will help to think outside of the box when designing information systems.

To help myself and others to keep up with all the ideas floating around about web information systems, I’ve expanded the planetarium with some more domain specific news streams:

Free Software
Semantic Web (todo)
Library2.0
Art Museum

Important: The wikicompany blog is now hosted onsite. New RSS feed link here.
I would have preferred to use Mediawiki syntax as the blog interface, but currently MW blogging isn’t quite ready for that. However blogging using MW isn’t that far away I suspect. Brion is working on something.

SPARQL REST

May 16, 2006 on 2:56 pm | In sparql, semweb, wikicompany, mediawiki | No Comments

PS: I'm currently looking for interesting work in the semweb/web service/php/perl/linux/mediawiki field. So if any employer out there is interested, I can send my resume. I currently live in the Netherlands, but would be willing to relocate if I really like the job/location context. My ideal would be NZ ;-) , I much enjoyed my 2 month adventure there a couple of years ago. Email: [email protected]

I've now managed to setup the SPARQL powered REST interface for Wikicompany.

Examples:

Booleans as in: "show biotech or healthcare companies operating in the US and Europe" are not correctly parsed yet:

http://wikicompany.org/api/companies/region:US:Europe/sector:biotech:?healthcare

Multi-value filters are also not working correctly yet (I suspect the ARC SPARQL parser does not correctly handle '&&' in filters). I emailed the author of ARC about this, (but perhaps I'll be able to fix this myself):

http://wikicompany.org/api/companies/sector:web:design

Relations (such as customers, competitors etc.) will soon also be findable using the REST interface. Sorting is also not fully implemented yet.
Now I need to setup a nice form interface for querying Wikicompany (and perhaps other relevant RDF repo's also!).

I like the current design of the REST interface, its simple and clean and allows for expressive queries (without any SPARQL knowledge).

I see the semantical tags and relations as the first noise filter., at some point in the future the results from these queries should also be able to be filtered based on full-text search.

An additional smart method would be to do optionally do a full-text search for each unkown semantical tag.

MediaWiki is hot

May 14, 2006 on 2:25 am | In wikicompany, trends, wiki | No Comments

I've started implementing the second part of the REST interface for Wikicompany. When done, more complex semantic tag queries can be answered.

Examples:

Show software companies operating in germany with a Euronext stock notation:
http://wikicompany.org/api/companies/region:germany/exchange:euronext/sector:software
Show biotech or healthcare companies operating in the US and Europe:
http://wikicompany.org/api/companies/region:US:Europe/sector:biotech:?healthcare

The returned output will be a list of URLs in RSS/Atom/JSON/RDF format, pointing to the company profile.

Comedy: making reality acceptable

May 11, 2006 on 12:29 am | In wikicompany, media, features, spider | No Comments

There's some great stand-up comedy being streamed onto the web by Cringe Humor NYC. Grab streamtuner and streamripper and have a laugh.

I wish streamtuner could also handle video, podcasts, skypecasts, and other 'live' streams from various sites, really decoupling the content from the web/RSS site interface with a simple and consistent browse/search/bookmark interface.

For Wikicompany I've been hacking at an intelligence-augmented web crawler which will create company profiles from URLs. Its pretty useful already.

The spider collects data from various sources, parses and mangles the data (including geocoding, auto tagging, logo handling) and creates a link for the Wikicompany publish form. From the publish form any manual changes can be made, before including the profile in Wikicompany. Parsing an existing profile on Wikicompany back to the form is on the todo list.

The spider is not perfect yet, but the results are very promising. I'm currently testing the algorithms on about 4000 company domains (mainly biotech companies).

I want to automate as much work as possible, but some things only a human can (currently) do. Although some good NLP software might be able to automate even more things. Some statistical approaches, once more correct context data is known, could also be interesting.

I also wrote a tool which can generate a company URL list from a list of company names, which really helps to collect large lists company URLs from various sources on the web.

Here's a small list of profiles which were gathered completely automatic:

Marketing 0.5

April 22, 2006 on 10:12 pm | In wikicompany, marketing, business, semanticweb | No Comments

The semantical tag interface is improving, see eg. the list of companies active in germany.

In other news: Today I received a free Google Adwords coupon for 50 Euro. It will be interesting to play with this subtle, but well designed, ad campaign tool. Perhaps it will even benefit the project in some way.

I made some Wikicompany marketing material for the occasion. Click on the globe to promote your business via Wikicompany.

Semantic tagging coming along

April 17, 2006 on 4:08 pm | In semweb, wikicompany, semanticweb, usability, tagging, rss | No Comments

Part of the transition from categories to semantic tags is now done on Wikicompany.

See the tags on these examples: Full Sail Brewing, VNU, Atos Origin

The tag browsing interface is still primitive, but because of the REST web service, a RSS feed with detailed info is available for each company, so many more details can be presented (logo, other tags, phone numbers, subsidiaries, etc).

Even mediawiki extensions can be used within the tag interface, as can be seen in the examples. This really shows the power of a good wiki platform, instead of a traditional CMS.

Semantic tagging todo's:

A commandline tool to extract the semantic relations from every article and dump these into the SMW tables.
The new company input form should register semantic annotations automatically.
A more usable interface for browsing tags, with dynamic filters
- Better usability when searching and browsing tag-sets. Something like the ShopWiki page styles seems nice.
- Move to REST URLs and services for the tag browse interface
- Uniform multi-word tag input / output (not often needed, but still important)
- A "related tags" function (based on the graph analyis of tags)
- Flickr and delicious tag integration ("show the 5 most interesting pictures and links belonging to this set of tags"). Open web services are simply delicious.
- Google maps rendering of companies per tag-set? I'm actually thinking to redo some of the geo interfaces on Wikicompany. Eg. provide a full-screen browse interface, in addition to the normal gmap view.

Another project I'm working on is a web crawler for creating company profiles from just a URL. Not an easy task, but very interesting work. Since the amount of user contributions is currently very low, this may provide a way to get many more free company profiles.