Not A Blog™

Today is the first—hopefully to be annual—International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day. The obliqueness of this reference does not escape me; indeed, it’s a rather recent happening in the world of science fiction, and I’ve just so been fortunate enough to jump on the bandwagon, in a manner of speaking. This whole thing came to my attention just in time to do something useful about it by the deadline, which is today, Monday, April 23.

A few days ago, the vice president of the Science Fiction [and Fantasy] Writers of America, Howard Hendrix, penned what I consider to be a rather bumbling ramble about the terrible state of the internet and how it will kill all things good and true. Strange, this position, coming from the VP of the SFWA—a position one assumes would be held by someone who, even if they don’t agree with the encroachment of technology on everyday life, at least can understand what the appeal is. Dr. Hendrix, however, compared writers giving their work away for free to scabs who undermine unions, a comparison neither polite nor apt.

I read of the rant, but did not actually read the rant until today. I’m already not the type who supports unions—and I’ve always found it curious that even a group such as science fiction and fantasy writers feel the need to form some sort of guild—so I figured the rant of the vice president of such an organization would be of little interest to me.

The point of the rant was that writers are undermining the SFWA by posting their work for free—as if the guild would never survive without the precious influx of funds! The icing on the cake was when he said he could not continue as VP of an organization filled with people who

…would give imprimatur to the downward spiral that is converting the noble calling of Writer into the life of Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch.

It’s a curious position, if only because we typically consider this “Guardian of Profits” point of view to be held by the RIAA or some other monolithic organization who does not actually create, but disseminates. In a sense, the SFWA is this: the SFWA does not, in and of itself, create work. It collects people who do. I suppose, then, that it only makes sense that its leadership would react so similarly.

It goes without saying that many in the community were not exactly pleased with being patronized and insulted at the same time. However, at least one person embraced this with the intent to shame—and, I dare say, it’s working. Jo Walton (an author with whom I’m unfamiliar, but will add to The List), started International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day in “honor” of Dr. Hendrix and his exquisite choice of verbiage. The idea is that professionals—and in the spirit of things, non-professionals, as well—post some professional work on this day to be read for free.

I’ve decided to take a slightly different approach, not only because I’m not a professional and therefor have no professional work to release for free, but also because I’ve spent the entire article talking about the day itself, rather than posting work (professional or not), and saying it’s in honor of this celebration. But more importantly, I want to use this day to make an announcement that has been some time in coming, but which I haven’t taken the step to officially move on. Today is as good a day as any. In fact, one could say there is no better day.

I wrote some time ago about open source and all that. Traditionally, my work has been copyrighted, originally by express statement, lately by fiat. Well, I’d like to go ahead and officially make my Not A Blog™ distributable under the Creative Commons license. I’ve already posted writing here for free, for what that’s worth (nothing, as a matter of fact, since it’s free), so I’m not posting more today. Rather, I’d like to post the meta-bit regarding my writing: the bit that allows you to pass it around.

This is a token gesture, to be sure, because if you were wont to pass around anything I write here, you would have done so already. Well, now it’s official. I’m a pixel-stained technopeasant futurist wannabe. My work is free to share.

It is, I suppose, the future.

-Ted