For 1US$, I will look for 30 seconds, with reasonable interest, at any unsolicited ad, directed to me on the web.

I need legal advice of how to register a copyright of my own preferences as a consumer and as a human being. Why should that not be possible? Does that not include even more intimate and I would hold creative content than what most copyrighted books have? 

Now if I get that copyright then I would make the following public offer: 

For 1US$ (revisable), I will look for 30 seconds, with reasonable interest, at any unsolicited ad directed to me through any social media or any other site I visit while travelling the web. 

I hereby declare that I am a great consumer and I have a good history of easily falling for offers on the web. That said, nothing here should be interpreted as a commitment to purchase anything or to otherwise follow or do what is suggested in any ad for which I have been paid a royalty.

I will then contract an ad-blocker so as only those advertising sufficiently interested in me so as to be willing to pay me to see their ad have access to me. Depending on the efficiency by which I am served, and the little I would get bothered by unauthorized access to me, I will offer the ad-blocker up to 30% of any income derived by me in royalties on my copyright on my own preferences.

A Tale of Two Worlds…roaming the web or roaming the streets… drones or boots on the ground?

I have horrible visions of my descendants sitting in front of computers with ever more capacity and connectivity… sending drones and roaming the web… while some other people’s descendants roam the streets, and develop a higher capacity in being boots on the ground.

And then one day, these other descendants come... and knock the power out of my descendants’ computers.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” ― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

PS. My father would never have been liberated without boots on the ground

We might need a Global Web Constitution, and Inspection Panels, to get along well with the Googles and Facebooks of this world

The role of a Constitution is foremost to defend the citizens from government abuses. In this respect, and since one of the most important issues of our time is how to guarantee acceptable relations between us, the small users, and they, the gigantic information and or knowledge dissemination machines that govern so much of how we communicate, and handle so much of private information on us, like Google and Facebook, one could say that we are in a dire need of a Web Constitution. 

Also, “Don’t be evil”, is for instance, a company motto of Google and which supposedly precludes them from manipulating rankings to put their advertising or content partners higher in their search results. That sounds great… exactly how it should be… but, how can we make certain that the supposedly is for real and that a company follows its motto and declared principles, and that we can trust it as much as we should, for ours and theirs benefit? Perhaps Google and Facebook should establish something like the Inspection Panel of the World Bank, which is there to guarantee, to the rest of the world, that the World Bank follows the rules and principles it has itself declared to follow. 

The last thing we citizens need is for these tech-giants to enter into joint venture agreements with Big Brother.

PS. This is a speculation which resulted from a conversation with my daughter Alexandra Kurowski

PS. And, for me, when managing knowledge, it is also extremely important to make sure that does not pose any treat to the biodiversity of knowledge development… as we can never know where the next world saving idea can come from.

PS. Below more comments related to this theme!

https://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2019/05/i-have-some-ideas-about-what-could.html

http://teawithft.blogspot.com/2014/07/facebook-i-want-to-be-happy-so-if-you.html

http://teawithft.blogspot.com/2007/06/in-search-of-answers-on-search-engines.html

http://teawithft.blogspot.com/2014/05/if-erasing-google-must-be-sure-it-is.html

http://teawithft.blogspot.com/2013/12/we-need-personal-drones-more-than.html

http://teawithft.blogspot.com/2007/09/some-of-gods-greatest-gifts-are.html
http://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2014/06/should-not-google-and-other-public-eyes.html

The local web correspondent

I have an idea that I am going to present to the press and other media and just in case I can patent it or at least to avoid that someone else patents it am jolting it down here and I will publish somewhere on one of my many blogspots.

I believe that a newspaper that creates a special very local page for local communities such as condominiums, senior resident homes, companies and other and then appoints a member of that community as its local correspondent is placing itself in a privileged position to defend its interests in these difficult times. The local correspondent would work for free though special identifications and rewards like giving out some prizes to the best of them and raffling other prizes among them would help to stimulate them.

The local webpage where only members of the community can be registered will be a part of the medias overall page.

Alternatively communities themselves could set up their own page and negotiated their linkages.

"The local web correspondent" © Per Kurowski

"The community web correspondent" © Per Kurowski

Growing difficulties to enjoy the booty

During the recent meetings of the World Bank, as a result of the current mess surrounding its president Mr. Wolfowitz, some issues were unfortunately relegated to the background.

One of them refers to the announcement of the Initiative for the Recovery of Stolen Assets, which, together with other agreements such as OECD’s against corruption, shows how the world progresses, very slowly but safely, on the path of better global governance.

The ease by which until now thieves managed to hide their loot is shameful; sometimes even under the noses of their victims. There is of course still a long way for an initiative like this to become an effective instrument ... but perhaps in less time than what the outlaws in the world suspect.

Parallel to official initiatives, the technological advances that allow access, archive and send information is converting civil society, citizens, whether we like it or not, into real-time investigators. It’s not they are searching, but when they do see a knowingly corrupt, and have their cell phone with camera in hand, they will take a photo of him in his moments of enjoyment, which will swell the truth-files until these explode.

In the same way, all those concealment of ill-gotten goods services, to which some corrupt countries have been dedicated are becoming more expensive; as that international community of civil societies develops and understands they have all better row in the same direction, if they are to have a chance for survival on an ever shrinking planet.

Finally and observing how in Canada an ordinary court recently began a trial on violations of human rights (the genocide in Rwanda), the day should not be far away when one of those millions of emigrants in the world who have been much forced to emigrate as a consequence of corrupt acts by their rulers, could successfully sue one he finds enjoying ill-gotten money in their new alternative country. The tests you would need to enter your claims, would all be sent to you on the web.

Does the above threaten the sovereignty of nations? Sadly yes! So therefore it is always much better for nations to free themselves, sovereignly, from their own corrupt.

One of the 4,292,466 shadow citizens of a shadow nation. (Insolently there are still records to be scrutinized)

Translated from El Universal

Corrupter and corruptee

Once again, next week, Transparency International (TI) will publish its annual index on how the world perceives corruption in the various countries included in the ranking. It is not necessary to mention that our country has never been able to occupy a reasonable placing within this ranking, although there are some expectations that we could achieve advances after putting into law a new Constitution, in year 2000 or 2001. 

But it takes two to tango! This year, by public acclaim, they will also publish an index that represents the other side of the coin. This index will rank the corrupters and will be denominated the Bribe Payer’s Index. I believe this will raise blood pressure levels in many countries that normally celebrate their high ranking in the Corruption Index.

Evidently, no one believes that the world will ever manage to totally eradicate corruption. In a sense, I hope it doesn’t, since this could mean the elimination of something that is an integral part of humanity, something like reducing human bio-diversity. However, I do believe that there are many means out there with which we can minimize the pernicious consequences of corruption and in this respect, no one needs it more than the developing nations.

Among the instruments at hand we must not underestimate the impact of these rankings. The modern world sees in them a comfortable, although probably somewhat simplistic, way of synthesizing today’s overabundance of information.

I believe the new TI index is appropriate and will be useful among other aspects in minimizing the effects caused by looking at only one side of the problem. For instance, until just recently, in one of those countries that normally come out smelling like roses from the corruption ranking, it was standard and legal practice to deduct for income tax purposes bribes and “payments” if and when the same are a “normal customary practice” in the country in which they were actually made. In this respect there was the very disturbing possibility that The Corruption Index itself could possibly promote corruption by evidencing a “normal customary practice” of bribing. Hopefully tax deductibility of bribes should perhaps be more difficult to justify if we have an index that ranks corrupters as well.

About a year ago and as I surfed through TI’s web site, I ran into a commentary made by a reader which literally said something like: ‘As a President of an international company, I find your corruption index of various countries to be a very helpful tool in my everyday business dealings”. In the face of such cynicism I researched a bit more who this person and company were and, lo and behold, they did not really have a relevant position in the global market after all.

By the way and on a quite separate issue, it is incredibly how frequent it is to find web sites put up by some small-time entrepreneur and who, even though his dealings are strictly local (like the proverbial corner barbershop), evidently believes that with it, he has acquired global presence. The same could probably happens to writers of articles, like myself, and in this respect The Web must surely be the napoleonic complex’s best ally.

But coming back to the matter at hand. It is evident that anyone that dares to say that the Corruption Index is a ‘helpful tool in my everyday business dealings’ should be negatively ranked in the Bribe Payer’s Index. Actually, when we analyze civilization, or at least its various religions, we find that in general terms they consider that he who tempts (a role usually assigned to the Devil) is considered to sin more severely than he who succumbs to temptation does. It is surprising that these contradictions have not come to light earlier. We welcome them.

And while we are at it. I would much appreciate it if TI, or any other organization with similar status and credibility, could develop an index that encompasses the matter of compliance with commercial treaties. 

For example, I am sure that if we were to generate an index that reflects compliance with agreements signed on agricultural policy issues, Venezuela would come out towards the top while those countries that today chastise us would be among the least compliant. Indexes like these would be very useful to small countries like Venezuela. They would show them how to navigate in a reasonable way in the very complex world of international commercial treaties.

The telecom ombudsman

As we rapidly approach the next millennium, there is no doubt that the Internet world with all its communication, information and commerce facets, will most surely evolve into one of the most important elements in the development of any country. The way we can take advantage of it will depend on how it is commercially regulated.

In Venezuela we are at a crossroads. Either we allow access to the Internet to be the main business, to the benefit of the telecommunication companies and the national government who ultimately issues the corresponding concessions, or we allow the users, our children and future entrepreneurs to capitalize on the opportunities by way of free and cheap access.

Recent efforts at privatization seem to not have favored the end users of the services. 

CANTV was sold on the basis that it generated high income for the Nation and expectations of high returns for the investors. Evidently, the only outcome of this equation are high tariffs. Likewise, Margarita knows more than well that the price to be paid for success in the sale of its power sector is just that, high tariffs.

The State, due to conflicts of interests, frequently cannot adequately manage its role as representative or defender of the public’s rights, as in this case, those of the end users. It is precisely because of this that all around the world, the figure of the Ombudsman becomes important. 

The Ombudsman is an independent, capable and responsible person. Adequately provided with the resources necessary to fulfill his role, he dedicates his time to the users interest.

One prime example of this is the TIO in Australia. Its initials come from the words Telecommunications, Industry and Ombudsman and it is an independent entity established in 1993 to help solve disputes between the telecommunications companies and the small users both residential and commercial. As of 1997 it has also been entrusted the processing of complaints about Internet services.

TIO’s service is free, but it only intervenes after the user has initially tried to solve its disputes directly with the purveyor of the service. It’s authority includes the investigation of matters relative to billing, service cuts, mobile service, access to the Internet, privacy, operator and directory assistance, public phones and basic telephone service.

Today TIO processes about 1,200 complaints per week. Approximately 95% of these cases are solved within 48 hours and only 0.05% of these end up in court. As do most arbitrage processes, the TIO does not analyze cases from a strictly legalistic viewpoint but rather on the base of merit and reasonability.

The costs incurred by TIO are covered by all of the telecommunications companies depending on the number of complaints raised against them.

In spite of all this success, however, and to the detriment of all Australian users, aspects related to tariffs are unfortunately out of TIO’s jurisdiction. 

I am convinced that in order to truly comply with his role of defender of the rights of the users of public services, the Ombudsman must be involved in the process of establishment of tariffs. Evidently, this role in tariff fixation must be based on reasonability, and not on the blocking of tariff increases which are necessary in order to continue to guarantee an adequate service.

How wonderful it would be to see the incorporation of the figure of the Ombudsman of Telecommunications to help with our own privatization efforts. He could most certainly help insure that the awarding of concessions does not result in a penalty for future users. 

Likewise, his support of the inclusion of norms and regulations in the concession agreements that would guarantee a good level of service as of day one would save us a lot of the grief we are shouldering today.

An Ombudsman would be most welcome in what has up to now been a negotiated process strictly between telecommunications companies and the nation. If the players do not accept this, we should require it of the Constituent Assembly.

In closing, I remind the users of cellular phone services in Venezuela, that tariffs in Israel, for example, are 10 times lower than theirs. The explanation? In Israel, the concessions were awarded to those operators who offered to install the most lines and the lowest tariffs. In Venezuela the concessions are awarded to those that offer the best deal for the taxman.

Accessing www.Venezuela.com

Many columnists writing about the Internet maintain that due to the type of information it makes available, it will some day allow less developed countries not only catch up with developed nations, but actually surpass them. This theory is based on the idea that the former would be able to enjoy the benefits of new inventions and discoveries without being tied down by previous ones. We don’t wish to exaggerate the importance of the net, but the fact is that it exists, that with every day that passes there are more users, and that huge amounts of resources are being invested in its development. The following are some comments related to the above.

1. Orphaned Pages: Individuals and organizations of all kinds are dedicated to the dissemination of information via the Internet by means of the creation of web pages. Many of these pages are immensely valuable and are continually consulted by thousands of users. Other have less success. Just like ships lost in space, there are many abandoned pages floating around in cyberspace as silent witnesses to those immense efforts in development that have fallen by the wayside.

These orphaned pages contaminate. Sometimes they only cause minor irritation to the net’s users, they frequently turn into instruments that are contrary to the reasons and interests for which they were created. For example: in early 1996 someone interested in Venezuela could access, via the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, a special web page where he could find the most recent information regarding the privatization process carried out by the Venezuelan Investment Fund. The page was never brought up to date and since then, it still proudly touts the objectives of privatization of entities such as Alucasa and the Electricidad de Nueva Esparta for the fourth quarter of 1996. Evidently, the impression is totally negative.

Obviously this fact is not exclusive to Venezuela. It occurs in all parts of the globe and with may types of organizations. In our experience it has been increasingly difficult to eliminate a page since, due to this dizzying growth, service companies maintaining these pages cannot keep up with the demand and don’t have the time or the interest necessary for those who wish to retire their pages.

Every user is responsible for his own page, but as far as the official pages produced by government entities, we believe a central entity should a) supervise their creation, b) maintain a registry of existing pages, c) watch over them while they are active, and finally d) give them a proper burial when they become obsolete.

2. Venezuela’s Page: With frequency we see a duplicity of efforts when organizations, both private and public, include information relative to diverse and general aspects of Venezuelan life such as geography, economics and law in an effort to make their pages more attractive. This effort is not restricted to the development of the pages but extends into their maintenance.

It is extremely important for the country to be able to capitalize on the possibilities for advancement offered by the Internet. Some of these include the education of new generations and the direct promotion of the nation’s economic growth and development. We therefore believe it would be beneficial to set up a central super-data base about Venezuela and allow all interested users to access it for free. In order to insure the success of such a page, it must comply with certain minimum requirements.

It must avoid subjective or biased data. For example, any data that a government presents in order to defend its administration automatically produces a counter-reaction, inviting “opposition” pages, detracting from the perceived validity of the information and creating the duplicity of efforts described previously. In this sense, the first basic prerequisite must be to allow only data bases that present information that is objective and real.

Evidently any organization can create its own page and include the information it wishes. The idea, however, is that, as far as a formal Venezuelan Page is concerned, everyone should be in agreement with the information presented. This is the only way we can guarantee that everyone will want to use it for their own development and that all will be interested in keeping it alive and up to date. It will also insure that it will not quickly turn into the type of floating space garbage we mentioned before and that it could, just maybe, turn into the “best web page in the world”.

Information is power, for good or for bad. All those who may have an interest in the development of this project must participate if it is to be successful. Today, the information about our country can only be qualified as pathetic. Its correct development should be of vital importance to the country and it is surprising to see the little attention this is receiving in Venezuela.

It is high time the government, the opposition, private and official organizations, universities, states and municipalities, ..... (the list can go on for ever), take a break from their individualistic efforts and dedicate a bit of their time to the development of our www.venezuela.com web site.