_ The Future of KPFK _

This is the first article of a series I intend to write on the emergence of new media and how it will remake information dissemination. Starting first draft:

I'm running for the KPFK Station Board. For those readers who don't have a clue as to KPFK or Pacifica, please go to the KPFK website. As I stated in my 500 word candidate statement posted there:

"Let's bring Pacifica into the 21st Century. Today, KPFK treats the internet as an important, yet secondary priority - another way of getting the broadcast message out. Yet the days of "broadcast" are numbered. Today, any of the one or two hundred million people with web-enabled picture cell phones can listen on line - not just to KPFK, but to thousands of "stations" that may be a lone voice on a mountaintop, a jungle treehouse in Kenya, a teenage collective in Tokyo.

We need to think long and hard right now: How can we use the Pacifica expertise and credibility to synergize with these new, much more powerful, means of communication, this new connected world community? The enemies of the Pacifica Mission are moving on this."

What kinds of things are possible using the new media?

1 1. Connections: Connecting people, connecting ideas, connecting resources, connecting to our past, connecting to our future.

1.1 Connecting people: We have all kinds of fantastically talented, resourceful, creative, committed people out there. We need them all. Let's create a space on the web like this Blog, but for Pacifica activists. There are plenty of good models to start from, but we can evolve some improvements of our own, I'm sure. For example, most blogs don't include hypertext "names." Yet these names are essential for other people who may want to point a link to a particular spot in a long article.

Eg., here's a named link to the top of this article.

And, here's a link to my article on Values.

In this article, you may note my use of a numbering scheme for topics. This is to make it simpler for people to link to just exactly that point in the article. Each of those numbers has an identically named link. So, to link to topic 1.5 below from another webpage, you would add #1.5 to the end of the link address in your html code which results in your link text.

1.2 Connecting ideas: It's not that difficult to organize the ideas that we share, as well as those with which we disagree. In line with the Mission Quest to explore the roots of conflict, let's think about the structure of an on-line database of ideas. As an example of how powerful this can be, consider the best-read, most popular and influential book of all time - the Bible. One of the key elements of the Bible that made it so powerful was its organization into book, chapter and verse. Right or wrong, the universality of reference to passages such as the famous John:3.16 gave Christianity a huge ideological advantage. So, one of the first jobs in building this is to explore how idea systems have been organized to date.

Using on line database techniques, we can build the chains of argument and inference, incorporate the links to supporting sites, documents, media, and make all this available for reference and discussion. Let's cut through the BS. We find ourselves repeating the same old arguments time and time again, and to the same people. Blog sites, such as this one, also typically employ rating systems so that people can see which articles met other people's needs. There are ways to extend these systems as well, so that we can zero in on the most concise, precise and meaningful submissions.

Ultimately, when we want to explain or defend a complex topic on line, we would like to present our critics with an idea system, in which each statement is linked to the premises and evidence supporting it. Additionally, we might want the reader to be able to expand any given statement into that sequence on screen, not as separate links. This doesn't have to follow the form of precise symbolic logic, but rather, simply a set of statements and links explaining why we believe something. This lets our reader know where we're really coming from, as opposed to assuming all kinds of things about us that may not be true. All of us have had the infuriating experience of having someone constantly jump to conclusions about us and then try to insist that we hold those positions. In addition to simplifying communication to others, this kind of organization forces us to identify what and why about our own beliefs.

In addition, we are always reinventing the wheel. Let's use "transclusion," inclusion by reference, a term invented by computer revolutionary Ted Nelson. If we get a good idea from someone else, then we should link to that instead of just grabbing it and using it without attribution. This allows people who make the effort to think and research to at least get credit and credibility, which assists us all in finding good sources. For myself, it is always a joy to find a really new idea that I am doubly happy to be able to credit the marvelous person who originated it.

1.3 Connecting resources:

1.4 Connecting to our past: Spielburg's Holocaust Project is a good example of what can and should be done. Too bad it was too late to stop the Holocause itself.... No one should die without some record of their life. The day will come fairly soon in which vastly powerful engines of inference will be able to take millions of pieces of data, such as on-line diaries, and weave them together into a real world history, and a real-world picture of today, in great detail.

It is critical for the resolution of many conflicts that we have the testimony to defeat the lies of the concentrated corporate interests. For that reason, I suggest that if you know anyone who is elderly and has not written some kind of auto-biography, talk to them. Even if they think that their life was humdrum and unexceptional, the reality is that they witnessed a lot of history. Even if you can only get it on cassette tape, that may be enough to make a difference some day. We do have fairly good voice transcription systems today, and those will get a lot better in the future.

1.5 Connecting to our future: There are a lot of possible paths that humanity might take, but the overwhelming reality is that history is speeding up. We will see more change that anyone before us. An awareness of what is likely as well as what we might want to avoid is critical to our life decisions. Let's find the resources and links and create pictures of what is possible and desireable. Let's fill them out in detail. Then we can use them to sell our visions to others who may be caught up in day to day existence, and we can provide the opportunity for other people to explore our concepts, find the problems and weaknesses, and bring in improvements.

After all, isn't that what has fueled every great religious or political movement in history? We have the artists and visionaries. Let's put their talents to the task of painting that picture of where we could and ought to be tomorrow. Let's explore the alternatives collectively on-line and search out the paths to get from here to there.

More coming - let's hear some comments and critiques! Thanks...