Déjà vu

R.I.P. Multiply, My Opera, Panoramio and ...

"We are here to help you on a daily basis as on a long-term one to organize your thousands of pictures and all your memories to build in time in a unique and secured space your digital heritage."
~About Ipernity: www.ipernity.com/about/us

Many great attempts to record and share the cultural heritage are somehow based on similar noble goals there were behind French revolution: Liberté, égalité, fraternité! The basic idea is that by providing equal and free access also onto information, we get to know more about each others, which then would strengthen equality, solidarity and freedom even more. Someone who comes from a different culture often looks strange and intimidating, but if and when we learn more about that culture, we very likely, or hopefully, start to accept the other.

But as history has proven for so many times, even the most noble ideas may prevail because of many "counter forces", and worse of them is selfishness. Although, it is very human and natural for all of us to think our own best. In case of internet, the worst forms of selfishness are things like spammers, thieves of copyright protected materials, and "black hat hackers". White hat hackers (whitest of them) have of course helped us to fight against those evil ones, but the fight is still often lost.

My personal claim is that the expenses of many great online communities would not be so high if they would not have to fight against thieves, spammers and black hat hackers. This is of course also highly political topic! However, as long as there will be inequality (e.q. between genders and standard of living), the cultural differences will be too great to overcome.

Soundtrack by Thierry Soret, Pierre Miramont, and Christophe Hugues Loriot: soundcloud.com/orphangray/03-ekahalat