Ben, love it! 3 things that occur to me from first glance
1) Would like to see more emphasis on why "Farmers Market" food is better than "Chain" food, despite the barriers to accessing it (cost, time, inconvenience). Farmers Market food has the distinct benefit of being more transparent (you know where it's grown and how it got to your belly), it has a smaller ecological footprint, it's healthier, and supports people who truly care about the product, not just the $$$bottom line$$$. Finally, people should understand that because this is a grassroots movement, it's not going to have the immediate benefits as those with highly sophisticated budgets but with sustained support and critical mass, the annoyance factors will be greatly reduced and become the norm (hopefully!) It would be great to further translate GNU/FOSS/Free Culture principles into a Farmers Market principle. 2) Pedestrian doesn't sound like the right word (ped being foot) but small thing really 3) Needs tightly condensed 1 paragraph version that leads to this longer version. Gonna throw this on my blog if that's okay, I think this has great elevator pitch potential, thanks for posting! ~Jacob On Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 5:00 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Send Discuss mailing list submissions to > [email protected] > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > [email protected] > > You can reach the person managing the list at > [email protected] > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Discuss digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Raising awareness: The Apple refrigerator analogy (Ben Finney) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:13:25 +1000 > From: Ben Finney <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Subject: [FC-discuss] Raising awareness: The Apple refrigerator > analogy > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > Howdy all, > > In a conversation with a close friend, I had to explain why her Apple > product would not ?work with? GNU+Linux. > > Specifically, she wanted to use our free-software-only GNU+Linux > workstation at home to put audio and video files on to the Apple device, > and play them there. > > I came up with a quick analogy that had problems. I now have a better > one, and I would like YOUR feedback on improving it: > > Consider if Apple had sold you a new refrigerator. > > > A refrigerator performs the pedestrian function of preserving food and > making it available when needed, and this refrigerator advertises that > capability. > > The refrigerator you bought from Apple is also beautiful in form: curved > edges, easy access doors without visible handles, silent hinges. The > accessible interior is gorgeous also: the shelves invite storage of food > and even make it look better and simple to work with. > > Not only is it beautiful, it also does more: it allows easy manipulation of > the food in intuitive ways, even allows you to combine them nicely and > suggesting Apple-recommended dishes to make with these groceries. > > Apple has gone to great effort with these refrigerators, to make them > ?integrated? with large multinational chain supermarkets. You can get your > food into the fridge without needing to learn much about all the different > stores; the experience of getting the food there is quick to learn. You > can, in effect, get groceries into the Apple refrigerator using a single > interface. > > This is a very popular mode of operation: Apple have spent a great deal on > marketing this new way of getting food into refrigerators and working with > the food, and most of your friends and family also have gone over to using > Apple refrigerators. > > > Your new Apple refrigerator does indeed preserve the food you put into it > from the chain supermarkets, and makes the food ready whenever you want it. > > It is so pleasant to work with that you are very impressed, and soon all > your other ways of working with food seem difficult and make you long for > working with your Apple refrigerator again. > > Everyone soon comes to expect that they can get their food into the > refrigerator easily everywhere and work with it. After all, the large > multinational chain supermarkets are everywhere, and everyone uses them. > > But there's a problem: That single interface, which works so well with the > large multinational chain supermarkets, is not available at your local > farmer's market. > > > You discover this problem some time after buying the expensive Apple > refrigerator and falling in love with it. The discovery that the local > farmer's market is somehow different, not providing the easy access to > Apple-refrigerated food storage, makes you think something must be wrong > with the farmer's market. Why wouldn't everyone just do food the Apple way, > which is obviously so much better? > > You have a friend who uses the local farmer's market; she is often doing > things rather differently from everyone else. You think she's a little > strange for choosing to do so many things in ways that seem difficult and > awkward, but it's her choice. > > You notice she doesn't have an Apple refrigerator, but she does know a lot > about food storage, so you ask her how to get the farmer's market food to > work with your Apple refrigerator. > > Your friend gets a tired look on her face. (You've noticed this look > before, when discussing some new kitchen device you bought and problems > with it that seem obvious to you.) She has obviously encountered this > issue. Maybe she knows how to fix the farmer's market; after all, that's > the only part that's not working properly and she knows a lot about the > farmer's market. > > But your friend says something surprising: she thinks there's nothing wrong > with the farmer's market, and the problem is with Apple somehow. > > > Your friend talks a lot about the market-to-refrigerator interface, and > about how Apple is trying to control your refrigerator, and about how you > *could* put farmer's market food in the refrigerator but it would simply > not preserve that food nor let you cook with it. > > This doesn't seem right; your friend is saying a lot of things that seem > hard to believe. How could a refrigerator work with *everyone else's* food > (your other friends happily use the multinational chain supermarkets and > they never talk about food spoiling in their Apple refrigerator), but not > with the farmer's market? > > You insist your friend must be mistaken: the problem is clearly with the > farmer's market. Can she help you get the Apple refrigerator working with > the farmer's market or not? > > Well, your friend explains, Apple have gone to *special effort* to make > sure that only Apple-approved interfaces will put the food into the > refrigerator properly. She tries to explain the reasoning, but this is all > sounding too much like a conspiracy theory. > > > You start to get impatient. Your friend has been happily using farmer's > market food for a long time. Even though it seems to be more difficult, the > produce is less attractive and the groceries you're used to aren't > available, and it all involves a lot more work. You've seen and tasted a > lot of the great meals she's produced as a result. > > Why is she making this more difficult than it needs to be, you ask? Surely > if the farmer's market doesn't work with the Apple refrigerator, the > obvious solution is just to use the same standard Apple interface all the > multinational chain supermarkets use, and everything will work fine. > > Your friend starts talking now about proprietary interfaces, and restricted > protocols, and other topics she's bored you with before. She says that > Apple makes the interface, and they refuse to make it for farmer's markets > or any place that isn't one of the few multinational chain supermarkets. > > > Okay, but you've seen your friend getting around restrictions like that > before. Can't she use her clever farmer's market skills to get it working? > > Your friend repeats that the problem isn't with the farmer's market. She > now demonstrates by putting some farmer's market food into the refrigerator > directly: it looks a bit awkward the way she does it, since you're used to > the Apple refrigerator interface. But it's there; or at least, that's what > it looks like until you try to use the refrigerator. > > Though she shows you the food is there in the refrigerator, she's right: > the refrigerator acts like the food isn't even there, so it won't work with > that food. This is obviously no good; that food is inaccessible, making it > pointless to put the food in there. > > Your friend goes further and makes some fairly frightening suggestions, > about *modifying* your Apple refrigerator and making it behave differently > from everyone else's! > > She also points out that your refrigerator is deliberately restricted, and > Apple is treating you like a prisoner or a slave by limiting what you can > do; even though you bought it, you effectively don't own it. > > At this point you regret raising the topic at all, and you excuse yourself > from the discussion, taking your Apple fridge to a chain supermarket where > you know it will work. > > > So, with this information from your friend, there are a few options: > > * You can dismiss your friend's claims as paranoid conspiracy delusion. > > Everyone else with an Apple refrigerator encourages you to do this; she > clearly thinks Apple is some kind of evil mastermind corporation > controlling the world through refrigerators, which can't be right. > > * You can forever keep your Apple refrigerator separate from farmer's > markets, or any market that isn't one of the multinationals approved by > Apple. > > This, you admit, probably means you'll stop shopping at farmer's markets. > There are some nice aspects of farmer's markets, but you can come up with > lots of rationalisations for why it would be good to avoid them: they're > difficult to use, nothing seems the way you expect, things are > inconsistent between each one, they lack the professional polish of the > multinational chains, and so on. > > * You can learn more from your friend about modifying your Apple > refrigerator to remove these restrictions she talks about. > > This seems to involve losing some of the things you like most about how > it works, and definitely involves voiding the Apple warranty. > > * You can decide maybe all this trouble *is* because Apple has built those > restrictions into the device. > > Perhaps sell it ? but nobody else is making anything nearly nice enough > as a replacement. (Your ask your friend what she uses, and she shows you > an *ice box* for her refrigeration, and you certainly don't want to go > back to that!) > > -- > \ ?I'm beginning to think that life is just one long Yoko Ono | > `\ album; no rhyme or reason, just a lot of incoherent shrieks and | > _o__) then it's over.? ?Ian Wolff | > Ben Finney > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss > > > End of Discuss Digest, Vol 55, Issue 3 > ************************************** >
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