🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello,

The venture is best described at

http://22surf.com
http://authena.org
http://vvgallery.org

If you're interested in finding out more, please send your resume to
mcgucken@jollyroger.com .

 Last summer I presented a paper at the OSCOM Open Source CMS
conference
entitled "Authena: Business Models Based on Open Source CMS & DRM."

http://authena.org
http://oscom.org/Conferences/Cambridge/Proposals/mcgucken_authena.html

A rough "open source" business plan may be sampled & downloaded from:
http://22surf.com

If anyone would like to see the more complete plan, please let me
know!
And feel free to forward this around.

Basically with Moore's Law driving down the costs of bandwidth, chips,
and
drives, and with the Open Source movement decreasing the costs of
content
management software, content sellers including record labels, movie
studios, publishers, and creative individuals have lot to gain by
leveraging Open Source running upon Lintel architectures.


Google recently purchased blogger. Blogger derives its value from
peoples'
passions.

Think about the sum total of passion represented within all the Open
Source CMS out there. And as Moore's law marches on, making audio and
video-on-demand a reality, and Metcalfe's Law brings us better OSCMS
each
and every day, think about where all the passion will be expressed in
a
few years.

Could Open Source CMS be the killer-app of the Open Source world? The
way
I see it, as more bands, writers, artists, photographers, and teachers
use
postnuke, gallery, xoops, envolution, cafelog, and oscommerce to join
the
semantic web, more and more servers will run Linux.

Couple this with the open RDF/RSS1.0 standards and the Dublin Core and
CC
Licenses, and suddenly it seems the Open Source world has a good
chance of
establishling the common universal standards for archiving content and
managing digital rights.


This will grant Creators a great freedom to define how their content
is
used, in line with the Consitution's original spirit.

Revenue streams include:

1) sell keyword advertising throughout free OSCMS hosting services
(blogs,
galleries, etc.),
2) sell advanced hosting options/extra disk space, to individual
creators
& contnet conglomerates
3) charge 5% on content marketplace transactions
4) charge 5% on Open Source Arts services marketplace transactions
(freelance site for open source CMS programmers)
5) manage/host media assets of large businesses (record labels/movie
studios/etc.),
6) tie it all in to an open source friendster/FOAF
(friend-of-a-friend)
network

The Three Pillars of Authena
A Philosophy of Creators' Rights

1. Full Artistic Control: Open Source CMS allows Artist-Hackers to get
under the hood to change themes, graphics, UI, sound quality, modules,
etc.

2. Distribution: Open Source CMS coupled with RDF/RSS fosters
efficient
searches and syndication on the semantic web, and thus effective
distribution and syndicated commerce via web services.

3. DRM: Open Source CMS coupled with an extensible rights language
such as
the CC licenses expressed in RDF/RSS allows a full spectrum of rights
definitions in parallel with distribution. Open security standards and
protocols afford financial transactions, secure delivery, and trusted
ratings for marketplaces and content.

It is ultimately trust that any such business is built on, and thus a
brand
that establishes trust by providing a fair and open marketplace would
become the company's most valuable asset.  A brand that allows
creators to
become their own record labels, publishers, stock photography shops,
and
producers by offering inexpensive, Open Source CMS solutions, while
also
providing a central trusted marketplace where the record labels and
publishers can syndicate their content, will prevail. The proposed
business
would control the brand while giving the software away and allowing
anyone
to set up marketplaces of their own.  Anyone who set up a smaller
marketplace could elect to syndicate their content to any other
marketplace.  Thus the large, trusted marketplaces will grow ever
larger.
The first mover in "trust" would have a lot to gain.

Over time, marketplaces that are best able to establish trust will
prevail
and snowball.  Here's a figure:

http://slideml.bitflux.ch/files/slidesets/511/slide_3.html


And below please find some more scenarios:


The Authena Spirit: A Philosophy of Creators' Rights

The only place the word "right" appears in the United States
Constitution
is in the following passage:

The Congress shall have Power To promote the Progress of Science and
useful
Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the
exclusive
Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

Authena's philosophy is to leverage Open Source CMS technologies along
with
rights languages to afford creators the full spectrum of their
inherent
rights.

Authena Fundamentals:
1. Creators will be free to designate hosts and marketplaces for their
content. No contracts need be signed with corporate conglomerates to
facilitate basic rights management and global distribution.

2. Creators will be afforded a full spectrum of rights options via the
extensible Creative Commons licenses.

3. Authena client and server modules will remain open and free, in
accordance with the GPL license.

4. RDF/RSS feeds will contain digital rights descriptions within the
framework of the extensible CC License and Dublin Core schemas.

5. Three fundamental types of media formats--thumbnailed, watermarked,
and
pristine original--will be described in the RDF/RSS feed, which may
employ
an Authena schema in addition to the Dublin Core and CC License
schemas.

6. Pristine originals of media may be encrypted or stored within a
password-protected directory, should the creator's chosen license
necessitate this.

7. Web services employed by Authena will be based on simple paradigms,
implying the use of REST, which also offers strong support for the
semantic web.

8. A robust ratings system will be built into Authena clients and
servers, which will allow for the ranking of content as well as the
repositories and marketplaces. These rankings will be made available
within the RSS feeds. Rankings facilitated by trusted sources will be
given more credibility, so as to discourage ballot-stuffing.

9. Security and encryption, when needed by the creator's chosen
license, will be provided by open source technologies including SSL
and PGP.

10. Authena will use simple protocols based on open standards. 

Authena Scenarios
1. Photography: Jenny wishes to create a portfolio of photographs
taken during her summer trip to Wyoming, and perhaps sell some. With a
few mouseclicks, she launches a photo gallery powered by the Open
Source gallery project at pnavy.com. She uploads her pictures and
enters the rights information, releasing a few pictures under Creative
Commons licenses. A client-side Authena module at pnavy.com watermarks
the pictures and embeds RDF license descriptions in the media using
EXIF. The Authena module also generates an RSS feed containing the
rights descriptions and locations of the images. Jenny then opens
accounts at stock photography shops including westgallery.com and
wyominggallery.com, both powered by Oscommerce with photography and
Authena modules (vvgallery.org), and syndicates her pictures to the
stock photography marketplaces. A server-side Authena module at
wyominggallery.com reads the RSS feed residing on the same server as
Jenny's portfolio, and using her Authena password she entered when
registering, wyominggallery.com transfers and logs rights information,
thumbnails, watermarked versions, and the pristine originals via a
REST protocol over https. The originals distributed under the CC
license are kept in a public directory, while the proprietary
originals are encrypted and/or kept within a password-protected
directory. A greeting card company in Ireland browses thumbnailed and
watermarked versions of the pictures at wyominggallery.com, and after
using a couple of Jenny's public domain photographs, they purchase
publishing rights to her proprietary photographs, and download a
zipped package of high-resolution originals off the wyominggallery.com
server. Jenny is compensated accordingly by wyominggallery.com.

CMS Client Hosting Jenny's Pictures: Gallery/Postnuke/Phpnuke with
Authena Modules
CMS Server Selling Jenny's Pictures: Oscommerce with photography and
Authena modules (VVGallery)

2. Music: The Tain Collins Band records their first CD. With a few
mouseclicks at bandnuke.net, they launch a postnuke-powered website
devoted to their CD, making three songs available for download with
the CC licenses. An Authena module generates the RDF/RSS rights
description for the entire album. An Authena spider from
freestreaming.com parses the rights information, and grabs the mp3s
released under the CC licenses, preserving the Attribute license. The
Tain Collins Band registers for accounts at cdworld.com and
streamingbands.com to syndicate their CD's content, providing the
sites with their Authena password. Authena modules at cdworld.com and
streamingbands.com look back at the RSS feed at the Tain Collins
website, and the digital content and rights are transferred and logged
via a REST protocol over https. Thumbnails (10 second song clips),
watermarked (songs with irregularities or lower audio quality), and
the pristine originals, stored in the password-protected Authena
directory, are transferred. People can buy physical CD's from
cdworld.com (oscommerce powered), or they can subscribe to access
streamed music from streamingbands.com (netjuke powered). Both
cdworld.com and streamingbands.com compensate The Tain Collins Band in
proportion to how often the music is listened to via streaming media
or ordered via physical copies of the CD.

CMS Client Hosting Tain's Music: Postnuke/PhpNuke with Zina & Authena
modules
CMS Server Selling Tain's Music: Netjuke/Oscommerce with Authena
modules

3. Books: Kelly has written a book about windsurfing. With a few
mouseclicks at surf.net she launches a Phpnuke portal devoted to her
passion. She makes the first chapter of her book available for
download off her site, releasing it with a CC license which is
manifested in the RSS feed. She syndicates the entire book to niche
CMS marketplaces including allsports.com and booksondemand.com. The
digital files are transferred and logged via a REST protocol over
https. David comes across Kelly's site, and after reading the first
chapter, he wants a hard copy. He follows the link to
booksondemand.com and finding another book on windsurfing, he decides
he wants them both. Booksondemand.com lets David combine the two files
into one book, which he orders and receives at a local Kinkos with a
print-on-demand press.

CMS Client Hosting Kelly's Book: Postnuke/Phpnuke/Xoops with Authena
Modules
CMS Server Selling Kelly's Book: Oscommerce/VVGallery with Authena and
book-publishing modules

4. Film/Educational Repositories: Greg shoots a documentary pertaining
to peoples' favorite great books. He creates a personal CMS portal at
filmgallery.com/greg and uploads mpegs of his work. He releases it all
under the Creative Commons Attribute license. The UCLA film school
finds his technique amazing, and they add his work to their
repository. This will bring some renown to Greg, so he's psyched. And
because the Authena modules are already installed in Greg's Gallery,
and the UCLA film school has an Authena-empowered repository at
uclafilm.org, all they have to do is point it at the RDF/RSS feed at
Greg's site. The UCLA Authena server modules read the CC licenses in
the RSS feed on Greg's site, and seeing that they grant permissions to
use the files as long as they cite Greg, the Authena module ports the
film clips into UCLA's repository, preserving the CC licenses.

CMS Client Hosting Greg's Film: Gallery/Posnuke/Phpnuke/Xoops with
Authena
CMS Server Hosting UCLA Film Repository: Oscommerce/VVGallery with
Authena or Netjuke with film modules and Authena

5. Corporate Repositories: Apple computer is creating a repository of
all film created under a Creative Commons license. Having installed
the Authena server modules, they employ google, searching for every
site containing an authena.php file, which generates the RSS/RDF feed.
They scan the RSS feeds, checking the Dublin Core "dc:format" tag for
avi's and mpeg movie formats, and the cc:license tag for appropriate
rights. Finding Greg's movies at the UCLA film repository, and
ascertaining the CC licenses allow their use in the given context, the
UCLA Authena modules upload the digital files into their own
repositories, maintaining the digital rights descriptions.

CMS Client Hosting Greg's Film at UCLA: Oscommerce/VVGallery with
Authena
CMS Server Hosting Greg's Film at UCLA: Oscommerce/VVGallery with
Authena

6. Gaming:
Independent game developers post their mods and original graphics on
their own Postnuke sites at gamernuke.com. Many of them release their
early work under CC licenses, to gain publicity. Opensourcegamer.org
continually scans the RSS Authena feeds at gamernuke.com and several
other gaming communities, downloading all the new mods and graphics
released under CC licenses, so as to become a repository for public
domain mods.

CMS Client at gamernuke.com: Postnuke with Authena modules
CMS Server at opensourcegamer.org: Oscommerce with Authena modules 

Syndicated Commerce & A Philosophy of Creators' Rights
Unlike physical property, digital media can exist in multiple places
at once. This suggests that the digital marketplaces of the future
will have copies of the pristine originals residing on their servers.
A creator may easily syndicate their film, music, or book to several
marketplaces. Thus the OSCMS model of content and commerce
syndication, wherein the creator uploads their content onto their
personal CMS, generates versions including thumbnailed, watermarked,
and pristine originals within a secured Authena directory, and
syndicates it to multiple marketplaces. The creator may choose
multiple niche marketplaces for their content, as well as huge,
general marketplaces, such as an Ebay or Amazon for content, or public
domain repositories. Rather than having their content pass through a
centralized corporate structure, their content is distributed via a
network of markets.

Authena is starting out as "a philosophy of creators' rights" inspired
by the Open Source CMS renaissance. Should working paradigms be
adopted, they may become standards. Many entities are attempting to
develop DRM standards from the top down, whereas standards may have a
better chance being built from the ground up. Thus a good place to
begin is with simple implementations which add useful functionality to
Open Source CMS systems. If enough authors, artists, musicians,
photographers, and creators find it useful, then certain aspects may
become standards.

Based on the RDF specification, the Dublin Core, and the Creative
Commons licenses, Authena will strive to afford a full spectrum of
rights definitions. Authena will seek a new paradigm of syndicated
commerce and a new mechanism for distribution, whereby creators host
their content on an Open Source CMS such as Postnuke, and syndicate it
to any number of trusted marketplaces and repositories based on other
CMS or Open Source commerce systems such as Oscommerce.

If you're interested in finding out more, please send your resume to
mcgucken@jollyroger.com .