This is one of many short video segments which will be added to the Digital Tipping Point (DTP) archive. Thanks to Thomas King, a writer for Linux.com and LXer, for doing the rough editing for this series of interview segments!

Microsoft is a fascinating company. Even its staunchest critics have respect for it the same way that they might respect the power of a massive hurricane. Microsoft is simply a force of nature. Which is part of the fascination of the Digital Tipping Point film, because we are documenting the changes that the Free Open Source Software will bring to global culture, and part of those changes will hit Microsoft. We think that Microsoft will undergo a radical transformation sometime in the near future.

And this interview with Microsoft insider Victor Stone helps understand Microsoft as only a former insider can. Victor's interview is particularly interesting because he has worked in developing some Free Open Source Software, and he is also a musician who works with music licensed under the Creative Commons, which is a licenseing framework inspired the Free Open Source Software licenses. Victor himself is wickedly intelligence, witty, incisive, and articulate. He has an unusual balance between the exacting mind of a software developer and the creative spirit of a musician. This interview is raw, rough edited footage not meant to be watched all the way through, and yet Victor is interesting enough that many people will want to watch most of his interview. Of course, since we present the interview chopped up into 29 segments of about 4 minutes each, you will have lots of flexibility in watching the video as you see fit.

Coincidentally, segment 14 of this interview will take our video collection to 1,100 items of about 5 minutes (average) on the Internet Archive's Digital Tipping Point Video Collection.

In segment 03 (Tape 146~007), Victor says that Minister Gil was responsible for spearheading the cc licenses so that it easy for a musician to understand which parts of a musical piece to be sampled. Victor says that although Minister Gil was not huge in the US general public, Gil was, in fact, very popular among other musicians, who all recognize Gilberto Gil's name. Gil opened the door for other musicians to walk through due to his prestige. He discusses the cultural hurdles that Free (as in Free Speech) music needs to overcome in North America. If music or other content is Free as in Free Speech (and particularly free as in free beer) than it is assumed by the broad mass of consumers to either be of poor quality ("it sucks) or stolen. Here Victor is reaching some of the basic premises of the DTP project. Namely, there are cultural biases which Free Software and Free creative works will hopefully address; namely, by engendering a greater trust in intellectually property created and distributed in a common space (the Internet). "There's no free lunch" is one tidbit of cultural wisdom pervading North American culture, a tidbit that maybe digital culture will mitigate in some way. He points out that the artistic impulse to create is a primary impulse, and the impulse to monetize the primary impulse is secondary and maybe not all that initially intuitive to artists bent on expressing their vision. "The art is something that just happens very naturally" Victor says. "Commercialism is something that happens after the fact" he says. Gil's contribution of his work to the cc makes a clear statment that this "Free" environment is in some sense real, because Gil's work clearly does not "suck". Gil's contribution adds gravity to the cc movement. "If Gilberto says it's okay, then there must be something there that the record company and the establishment isn't telling me about" Victor says.

This footage is our raw rough-cut footage. It lacks transitions, music, special effectsor finish rendering. It is our "source code". Please feel free to rip, mix and burn this footage consistent with our Creative Commons license as disclosed on this page.

All of the segments of Victor Stone's interview can be found here:

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv146_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_005.ogg (segment 01)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv146_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_006.ogg (segment 02)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv146_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_007.ogg (segment 03)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv146_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_008.ogg (segment 04)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv146_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_009.ogg (segment 05)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv147_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_001.ogg (segment 06)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv147_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_002.ogg (segment 07)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv147_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_003.ogg (segment 08)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv147_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_004.ogg (segment 09)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv147_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_005.ogg (segment 10)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv147_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_006.ogg (segment 11)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv147_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_007.ogg (segment 12)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv147_sf_02_victor_stone_foss_activism_008_009.ogg (segment 13)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv148_sf_03_victor_stone_foss_activism_001.ogg (segment 14)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv148_sf_03_victor_stone_foss_activism_002.ogg (segment 15)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv148_sf_03_victor_stone_foss_activism_003.ogg (segment 16)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv148_sf_03_victor_stone_foss_activism_004.ogg (segment 17)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv148_sf_03_victor_stone_foss_activism_005.ogg (segment 18)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv148_sf_03_victor_stone_foss_activism_006.ogg (segment 19)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv148_sf_03_victor_stone_foss_activism_007.ogg (segment 20)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv148_sf_03_victor_stone_foss_activism_008.ogg (segment 21)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv149_sf_04_victor_stone_foss_activism_001.ogg (segment 22)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv149_sf_04_victor_stone_foss_activism_001.ogg (segment 23)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv149_sf_04_victor_stone_foss_activism_001.ogg (segment 24)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv149_sf_04_victor_stone_foss_activism_001.ogg (segment 25)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv149_sf_04_victor_stone_foss_activism_001.ogg (segment 26)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv149_sf_04_victor_stone_foss_activism_001.ogg (segment 27)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv149_sf_04_victor_stone_foss_activism_001.ogg (segment 28)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv149_sf_04_victor_stone_foss_activism_008_009.ogg (segment 29)

If you like this segment, please consider typing up a summary for it and emailing that summary to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com. Your work will be credited and posted on this page.

The DTP will be many, many films created by the global open source video community about how open source is changing their lives. We, the DTP crew, are submitting this footage for anyone to rip, mix, and burn under the Creative Commons Attribute - ShareAlike license. We welcome edits, transcriptions, graphics, music, and animation contributions to the film. Please send a link for any contributions to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com.

Or, if you would like to contribute by directly transcribing this particular video segment, you can do so by going here:

http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Tape_146

and typing the audio as you hear it into the wiki. Please be sure to add the transcription for this segment under: Segment 007, Victor Stone
You can find other ways to contribute by going to our wiki front page here:

http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Thanks for viewing our video!

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