The artist Swoon presenting her work as part of the Conversations with Contemporary Artists series at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Part 1 of 2 (edited for time)
Audio archives of the unedited presentation and discussion with Gretchen Wagner are available on moma.org/audio or through the MoMA Think Modern podcast in iTunes.
Images courtesy of Swoon. © 2007 The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Swoon presenting her work at MoMA, (Part 1 of 2)
Swoon presenting her work at MoMA, (Part 2 of 2)
MoMAvideos
19 April 2007
april 2007 subject index
blakkbyrd
amsterdam crews
amsterdam
OPEN ATELIERROUTE
Museumweekend
artists/exhibiti0ns
pain - berlin
Nederlands Fotomuseum
FUTURESONIC 2007
MUTLIPLACE #6 // Network Culture Festival
graffiti/street art
jordaan
INVADER 04 2007
Swoon at MoMA
new media
ADVANCED TOPICS IN NEW MEDIA
resource center for cyberculture studies
DEAF07 programs
News Netherlands Media Art Institute
the0ry
blog bullies
Second Graders Learn Copyright Lesson
Jean Baudrillard in Second Life
games
streetwars amsterdam
amsterdam crews
amsterdam
OPEN ATELIERROUTE
Museumweekend
artists/exhibiti0ns
pain - berlin
Nederlands Fotomuseum
FUTURESONIC 2007
MUTLIPLACE #6 // Network Culture Festival
graffiti/street art
jordaan
INVADER 04 2007
Swoon at MoMA
new media
ADVANCED TOPICS IN NEW MEDIA
resource center for cyberculture studies
DEAF07 programs
News Netherlands Media Art Institute
the0ry
blog bullies
Second Graders Learn Copyright Lesson
Jean Baudrillard in Second Life
games
streetwars amsterdam
16 April 2007
OPEN ATELIERROUTE
http://saoe.nl/alg/index.html
De Stichting AOE organiseert het weekeinde van 20, 21 en 22 april 2007 weer een OPEN ATELIERROUTE over de Oostelijke Eilanden: Kattenburg, Wittenburg, Oostenburg, het Funen, de Kadijken en het Entrepotdok.
Deelnemerslijst OA 2007
Kunst in de Czaar Peterstraat | ||
14 April 2007
amsterdam crews
nice bunny
to all my amsterdam buddies,
if you are wondering why you havent seen me out and about recently, I've been ill and not getting out much.
garage sale
I've missed a stack of exhibitions, reviews and announcements - sorry guys, normal service will be resumed shortly
I'm hoping to see you soon.
write me...
blakkbyrd
Museumweekend
http://www.museumweekend.nl/
26ste MUSEUMWEEKEND 14 & 15 April 2007: The art of observing 26ste Museumweekend this years it is organised Museumweekend on the initiative of the museum association and that happens for 26ste the time!
More than 500 museums participate to this traditionally exuberant weekend: in the complete country is live therefore of everything in museums!
=========
pain - berlin
The exhibition PAIN feels the various representations and expressions of the pain after: Mourning in a modern Kreuzigungsgemaelde, the preparation of a charge hand, a video installation, flickering electrical impulses of a nerve cell, a cry. The community pin end function of the pain takes it thereby exactly the same into the view like the attempts to observe it to analyze to search or again loose-will. It shows that pain can be always both: subjectively and objectively, creatively and destructively.
The two places of issue, that Hamburg station – Museum of the present and citizens of Berlin the medicine-historical museum of the Charité, are program and challenge at the same time. With combinations and confrontations of artistic work, medical, volkskundlichen, religious and everyday objects the exhibition goes on a border course between science and art. PAIN understands itself as experimentation field for new visual and contentwise impulses from the different picture and thing worlds and places traditionally against both museums attached expectations and Sehgewohnheiten to the arrangement.
The exhibition is divided into four emphasis. During in „Ansichten of the Schmerzes“ the pain of the other one and handling it in the center stand, are in the „Reiz of the Schmerzes“ the own body as experience instance and realization instrument the ambivalente Protagonist. „Die time of the Schmerzes“ demonstrates, as our conception of pain changed over the centuries, in addition, as very the pain becomes the life rhythmisiert and the sense carrier. The „Ausdruck of the Schmerzes“ finally concentrates on the tension of the mental and physical expression of pain: in words, sculptures, music and preparations.
To the exhibition appears a Begleitband with illustrations of the issued works of art and objects as well as with approximately 20 Essais, which light up the pain from medically and more daily, more philosophical and more religiously as well as science and art-historical perspective.
Under others works are shown by the following artists: Marina Abramovic, Francis Bacon, Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois, Nathalie Djurberg, Hans Baldung Grien, Bruce Nauman, Mathilde of ter Heijne, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Bill Viola, SAM Taylor Wood.
An exhibition of the national gallery in Hamburg station - museum for present - Berlin
and citizens of Berlin the medicine-historical museum of the Charité
in co-operation with practice for exhibitions and theory.
Promoted of the donation German Klassenlotterie Berlin and the HauptstadtkulturfonDS.
www.hamburgerbahnhof.de · www-MT-MUSEUM/MT/PRESS · www.bmm.charite.de
http://www.hamburgerbahnhof.de/cont/contd/
INVADER 04 2007
The Invasion News Letter 23 is out:
http://www.space-invaders.com/inl23.html
http://www.space-invaders.com/inl23.html#english
http://www.space-invaders.com/inl23.html
http://www.space-invaders.com/inl23.html#english
streetwars amsterdam
StreetWars is a 3 week long, 24/7, watergun assassination
Amsterdam 2007
Game dates :
June 4th - June 25th, 2007
http://www.streetwars.net/amsterdam2007.फ्प
For an attempted assassination, there sure was a lot of giggling going on.
"I'm going to feel pretty good about shooting someone, if I don't die first,'' said would-be assassin Nicole Califano, who was drinking a beer, which was not helping to steady her trigger finger any.
Califano is one of 130 contestants armed with water pistols who are stalking each other this month
http://www.streetwars.net/press.php
MUTLIPLACE #6 // Network Culture Festival
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brno, Prague (Czech Republic), Budapest (Hungary), Kielce (Poland), Cluj (Romania), Bratislava, Kosice, Trnava, Zilina (Slovak Republic), Providence (Rhode Island, USA) and Internet
April 13 – April 22, 2007
http://www.multiplace.sk
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MULTIPLACE is a distributed network of people and independent organizations dealing with the interactions between media, technology, arts, culture and society. Activities of this network culminate this year in the 6th annual festival that takes place between April 13 and 22, 2007, in 10 cities and 6 countries simultaneously.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Around 70 different projects are being organized around the framework of the festival – workshops, installations, discussions, concerts, performances, exhibitions, presentations, screenings, streaming or parties, and also live streaming from different locations through the internet.
This year's new definition, Network Culture Festival replaces the focus on "new media culture" in order to more accurately define the festival's emphasis on networking collaborations and related inspiring possibilities. Since the festival is an open structure, there in no exact number of events and thanks to the "floating" part of the program called "Jump Into the Network", it is open to your participation.
Jump into the Network is an interactive part of the program. You can join, via the Internet, a series of psycho-geographical games created by the Romanian association AltArt, take part of one of the workshops, bring your old computer to be recycled, or offer your talkative parrot for Internet discussion. In both Bratislava (SK) and Brno (CZ), there are also platforms for the realization of your own projects.
News Netherlands Media Art Institute
April 2007
Museumweekend
The Netherlands Media Art Institute presents during the Museumweekend a videoprogram from the collection with the theme Dreamworlds.
Nine short videoworks are shown on Saturday April 14 from 15.00 – 18.00 h, and Sunday April 15 from 13.00 – 18.00 h. The exhibition Dark Mirror is also open.
More information Museumweekend: www.museumweekend.nl
Workshop by Usman Haque and Robert Davis
11 May
Build your own neural processor with two international acclaimed special guests!
More information and application: www.montevideo.nl
Workshop Packet Forth
May 18 – 20
This 3 day workshop is an introduction to generative visuals using the open source programming language Packet Forth. With Aymeric Mansoux, Tom Schouten and Marloes de Valk.
More information and application: www.montevideo.nl
Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst
Montevideo/Time Based Arts
Keizersgracht 264
1016 EV Amsterdam
T 020 6237101
F 020 6244423
www.montevideo.
12 April 2007
Jean Baudrillard in Second Life
6th April 2007
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Odyssey/195/146/26
Jean Baudrillard brought to Second Life
- ------------
Ester Dreier and Lamb Lamont are proud to announce that Jean
Baudrillard has been caught while floating around the Odyssey art
gallery. Look at the amazing philosopher, take pictures and click
on him to let him talk about death, life, and how is it to be a
simulacrum!
Baudrillard will be available in Odyssey art gallery as long as we can
retain his soul.
- ------------
Jean Baudrillard was brought to Second Life by
Ester Dreier (a.k.a. Paolo Ruffino)
Lamb Lamont (a.k.a. Lamberto Azzariti)
script by Masami Kuramoto
texts by Matteo Bittanti
special thanks to
Sugar Seville
0100101110101101.org (a.k.a.Eva & Franco Mattes)
Gazira Babeli
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Odyssey/195/146/26
Jean Baudrillard brought to Second Life
- ------------
Ester Dreier and Lamb Lamont are proud to announce that Jean
Baudrillard has been caught while floating around the Odyssey art
gallery. Look at the amazing philosopher, take pictures and click
on him to let him talk about death, life, and how is it to be a
simulacrum!
Baudrillard will be available in Odyssey art gallery as long as we can
retain his soul.
- ------------
Jean Baudrillard was brought to Second Life by
Ester Dreier (a.k.a. Paolo Ruffino)
Lamb Lamont (a.k.a. Lamberto Azzariti)
script by Masami Kuramoto
texts by Matteo Bittanti
special thanks to
Sugar Seville
0100101110101101.org (a.k.a.Eva & Franco Mattes)
Gazira Babeli
10 April 2007
Second Graders Learn Copyright Lesson the Hard Way
teacherartexchange digest: April 08, 2007
teacherartexchange@lists.pub.getty.edu
Subject: Second Graders Learn Copyright Lesson the Hard Way
From: "Judy Decker" <***>
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 13:10:36 -0400
X-Message-Number: 1
Dear Art Educators,
One teacher's second graders learned a lesson in copyright law the hard way. They created watercolor paintings of dogs in the style of Daniel Kessler.
http://www.kesslerart.com/
http://www.kesslerart.com/cats_and_dogs.html
The teacher was so excited about the children's paintings that she emailed the artist giving him her Artsonia link. Daniel Kessler was not flattered by the second graders' imitation of his work. Rather, he had his lawyer contact Artsonia directly to have the work removed from he site.
Here is just one sample of the second grade paintings - all were very similar to Kessler's
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/Files/dog.jpg
Students used different colors but all were similar - with apple on dog's head. This image will only be at this location for a short time - for illustrative purposes.
Second graders copying his style was not Fair Use.
You can read the discussion on this thread on Art Education list.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/art_education/
I think we can all come up with a way this lesson could have been done that would not have violated copyright so I won't list ideas here. I will post one reply from *** as it was a good one.
From ***:
At the risk of being in the minority and raising the ire of some of this list, may I suggest that Kessler has a point? Because there is little variation between and among the artworks produced by the children, I suspect that Kessler viewed this not so much as children learning about his style; rather that the dogs are copies of his work.
Kessler's dog illustrations are the source of his livelihood. They are copyrighted images (this is plainly stated on his website) in the same way that books are copyrighted. For them to be copied and then sold--regardless that the copying was by children and regardless that they are cute--is taking from the artist's source of income.
========
From ****** Thu Apr 05 13:40:46 2007
I'm so bummed about what just happened. I had my 2nd graders make these awesome abstract dogs in the style of Danie l Kessler, living artist from Washington DC.
I told my students I would email him after I uploaded their artwork to our online gallery on Artsonia and send him a link so that he co uld admire their attempt to imitate his work.
I thought he would be flattered. Instead, he had his lawyer contact Artsonia and delete the whole gallery claiming it was a copyright i nfringement.
What? Artsonia makes money on parents buying items with student artwork on it. But a large number of pieces of art teachers have students make is based on famous art. Should all that be deleted too?
What I think it all amounts to is bad news for my poor 2nd graders who had an art teacher who thought she had a good idea in contacting the artist. Bummmmmmer.
And besides, my students' artwork would have only made people more curious about Daniel Kessler and more likely to buy his work.
I put some of these abstract dogs on my school website if you want to see w hat I'm talking about: [dead link]
===========
editors note
I was asked to remove the url of a dead link .... what difference does it make?
who knows?
teacherartexchange@lists.pub.getty.edu
Subject: Second Graders Learn Copyright Lesson the Hard Way
From: "Judy Decker" <***>
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 13:10:36 -0400
X-Message-Number: 1
Dear Art Educators,
One teacher's second graders learned a lesson in copyright law the hard way. They created watercolor paintings of dogs in the style of Daniel Kessler.
http://www.kesslerart.com/
http://www.kesslerart.com/cats_and_dogs.html
The teacher was so excited about the children's paintings that she emailed the artist giving him her Artsonia link. Daniel Kessler was not flattered by the second graders' imitation of his work. Rather, he had his lawyer contact Artsonia directly to have the work removed from he site.
Here is just one sample of the second grade paintings - all were very similar to Kessler's
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/Files/dog.jpg
Students used different colors but all were similar - with apple on dog's head. This image will only be at this location for a short time - for illustrative purposes.
Second graders copying his style was not Fair Use.
You can read the discussion on this thread on Art Education list.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/art_education/
I think we can all come up with a way this lesson could have been done that would not have violated copyright so I won't list ideas here. I will post one reply from *** as it was a good one.
From ***:
At the risk of being in the minority and raising the ire of some of this list, may I suggest that Kessler has a point? Because there is little variation between and among the artworks produced by the children, I suspect that Kessler viewed this not so much as children learning about his style; rather that the dogs are copies of his work.
Kessler's dog illustrations are the source of his livelihood. They are copyrighted images (this is plainly stated on his website) in the same way that books are copyrighted. For them to be copied and then sold--regardless that the copying was by children and regardless that they are cute--is taking from the artist's source of income.
========
From ****** Thu Apr 05 13:40:46 2007
I'm so bummed about what just happened. I had my 2nd graders make these awesome abstract dogs in the style of Danie l Kessler, living artist from Washington DC.
I told my students I would email him after I uploaded their artwork to our online gallery on Artsonia and send him a link so that he co uld admire their attempt to imitate his work.
I thought he would be flattered. Instead, he had his lawyer contact Artsonia and delete the whole gallery claiming it was a copyright i nfringement.
What? Artsonia makes money on parents buying items with student artwork on it. But a large number of pieces of art teachers have students make is based on famous art. Should all that be deleted too?
What I think it all amounts to is bad news for my poor 2nd graders who had an art teacher who thought she had a good idea in contacting the artist. Bummmmmmer.
And besides, my students' artwork would have only made people more curious about Daniel Kessler and more likely to buy his work.
I put some of these abstract dogs on my school website if you want to see w hat I'm talking about: [dead link]
===========
editors note
I was asked to remove the url of a dead link .... what difference does it make?
who knows?
08 April 2007
DEAF07 programs
Upcoming live streams
Are you interested in one or more DEAF07 programs, but unable to make it to Rotterdam at that specific time? Many DEAF07 events will be broadcast live via the internet, with RealVideo streams.
The following events will be streamed:
Symposium
- Symposium: Interact or Die! - Sat 14 Apr, 11:00–18:00
Brunches
- Snack&Surge Brunch: Out in the Open - Wed 11 Apr, 11:00–13:30
- Snack&Surge Brunch: Rules of Engagement - Thu 12 Apr, 11:00–13:30
- Snack&Surge Brunch: Media Insurgency - Fri 13 Apr, 11:00–13:30
- Snack&Surge Brunch: Marked Up City - Sat 14 Apr, 11:00–13:30
Global Bending Conferences
- Media Art Education in China - Wed 11 Apr, 14:00–16:30
- Harmonizing Instability: Cultural Globalisation between East and West - Thu 12 Apr, 14:00–16:30
- Opening Creative Space: Rooting Curatorial Media Practice in China - Fri 13 Apr, 14:00–16:30
- Polar Bending: I-TASC, the Interpolar Transnational Art Science Constellation - Sat 14 Apr, 14:00–16:30
Seminars
- Interrupting Realities - Wed 11 Apr, 15:00–18:00
- Critical Ecosystems - Thu 12 Apr, 10:00–13:00
- Not Everything Is Interaction - Thu 12 Apr, 15:00–18:00
- Connected Archives: Presentation - Thu 12 Apr, 15:00–18:00
- CREATE - Fri 13 Apr, 10:00–13:30
- Transdisciplinary Innovation - Fri 13 Apr, 15:00–17:30
- UbiScribe: Collocollaboracontentquery? - Sun 15 Apr, 10:00–18:00
These live streams can be viewed with the free RealPlayer, which can be downloaded from www.real.com.
The streams will also be archived. When the above programs have ended, the streams will remain available for viewing on demand.
========
A large international exhibition shows an intriguing overview of contemporary interactive arts. From cutting edge and experimental technological art to almost classical video art. With works from Europe, the United States, Canada, China and Japan, and also some specially commissioned works. The exhibition opens with a performance of Code31 on the 10th of April and runs on till 29th of April.
The exhibition is closed on mondays and on wednesday 18 April.
Unless stated otherwise, all works are exhibited in Las Palmas/LPII
FUTURESONIC 2007
http://www.futuresonic.com
FESTIVAL
PROGRAMME
The future is here...
Futuresonic 2007, the
urban festival of art, music
and ideas takes place
on 10-12 May 2007
in Manchester.
A sensational line-up of performances, exhibitions and events across Manchester city-centre featuring over 30 major events, and more than 100 acts and artists from around the world, crammed into 3 days of sounds, sights and delights.
Nederlands Fotomuseum
On 19 April 2007 the Nederlands Fotomuseum is opening its doors in the completely refurbished Las Palmas building on the Wilhelmina Pier in Rotterdam. The move from the Witte de Withstraat to Las Palmas means that the museum has twice as much exhibition space at its disposal, state-of-the-art public facilities and the newest depot for photography in the Netherlands. The inaugural exhibitions in the new Nederlands Fotomuseum are Dutch Eyes and Panorama Las Palmas.
http://www.nederlandsfotomuseum.nl
http://www.nederlandsfotomuseum.nl
resource center for cyberculture studies
a new set of book reviews [ http://rccs.usfca.edu/booklist.asp ] from
the resource center for cyberculture studies [ http://rccs.usfca.edu/ ]
for april 2007:
1. Techno Fashion
Author: Bradley Quinn
Publisher: Berg Publishers, 2002
Review 1: Andrea Zeffiro
2. Virtual Worlds: Culture and Politics in the Age of Cybertechnology
Author: Pramod K. Nayar
Publisher: Sage, 2004
Review 1: Maura Conway
Author Response: Pramod K. Nayar
stay tuned for a very large list of new books waiting for review!
coming soon.
the resource center for cyberculture studies [ http://rccs.usfca.edu/ ]
for april 2007:
1. Techno Fashion
Author: Bradley Quinn
Publisher: Berg Publishers, 2002
Review 1: Andrea Zeffiro
2. Virtual Worlds: Culture and Politics in the Age of Cybertechnology
Author: Pramod K. Nayar
Publisher: Sage, 2004
Review 1: Maura Conway
Author Response: Pramod K. Nayar
stay tuned for a very large list of new books waiting for review!
coming soon.
04 April 2007
blog bullies
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6502643.stm
Call for blogging code of conduct
Kathy Sierra went public on her fears in her blog
The support for a blogger hounded by death threats has intensified
with some high profile web experts calling for a code of conduct in
the blogosphere.
The female blogger at the centre of the row has been shocked to
discover that hers is not an isolated incident.
It has led her and others to question some of the unwritten rules of
blogging.
It could force a re-examination of the way the tight-knit blogging
community behaves.
Among those calling for a bloggers' code of conduct is Tim O'Reilly
- - one of the web's most influential thinkers. "The fact that there's
all these really messed-up people on the internet is not a statement
about the internet." He told BBC Radio Five Live that it could be time
to formalise blogging behaviour.
"I do think we need some code of conduct around what is acceptable
behaviour, I would hope that it doesn't come through any kind of
[legal/government] regulation it would come through self-regulation."
While condemning the bloggers who issued the threats, Mr O'Reilly was
keen that the whole blogosphere should not be tarred with the same
brush.
"The fact that there's all these really messed-up people on the
internet is not a statement about the internet. It is a statement
about those people and what they do and we need to basically say that
you guys are doing something unacceptable and not generalise it into a
comment about this is what's happening to the blogosphere."
Cyber-bullying rife
Ms Sierrra has personally witnessed the usually harmless feuding that
is part and parcel of blogging take on an altogether more sinister
tone, with threats of a violent and sexual nature gathering pace over
the last month.
She agonised over whether to publicise what had happened to her, she
told the BBC News website.
Since describing the campaign against her, she has been shocked to
discover that cyber-bullying is widespread.
"As well as around 900 comments on my blog and hundreds of comments on
other blogs, I have received around 300 personal e-mails and about 70%
of them say they have been through a similar thing," she told the BBC
News website.
Among the messages is one from a blogger Ms Sierra described as "far
more prominent than me" who has been avoiding industry conferences
because of persistent online threats.
Ms Sierra herself pulled out of a planned appearance at ETech in San
Diego this week.
She believes it is time the technology blogging community sat up and
took notice.
"I think there is a culture of looking the other way. When other
prominent people look the other way it is creating an environment that
allows this type of behaviour," she said.
She also thinks it could be time to re-examine whether the blogosphere
needs to be completely uncensored.
"There is an unwritten rule in the blogosphere that it is wrong to
delete nasty comments. It suggests that you can't take criticism but
now there is a sense that this is nonsense," she said.
Tough on women
Denise Howell, a US lawyer and blogger, believes that the blogosphere
is no place for legal requirements.
"The tools of the Live Web have made it easier than ever for
ordinary people to communicate and express views in their individual
capacities, and to provide platforms, e.g. on their blogs, for others
to do so," she said.
"I think anyone who enjoys any aspect of the Live Web would celebrate
this fact, and agree its vitality would be impaired if the law
expected or required these ordinary people to envelop themselves and
their sites in elaborate legal provisos and conditions if they hope to
be shielded from potential responsibility for the bad acts of others,"
she said.
The Kathy Sierra situation is, she said, "forcing bloggers to examine
their moral compasses on a number of fronts". But, ultimately
self-regulation is the only way forward, she believes.
Although, as a female blogger, she has not personally encountered
bullying or sexism, she does think it can be tough to be a woman
online.
"Despite my fortunately good experiences, I do think it's harder in
some ways for women to blog. For women with families, it's constantly
in the back of your mind that you're putting not just yourself but to
some extent your family in the public eye," she said.
It has long been accepted that online behaviour differs from the
behaviour people would exhibit in the real world due, largely to the
anonymity it allows.
Technology blogger Sam Sethi agrees that blogging can bring out the
worst in people.
"These young geek guys they feel that that they can say what they
want and do it with anonymity. It can bring out the worst character
behaviour because they feel that they are hidden.
He agrees with Tim O'Reilly that the time is ripe for bloggers to
have a code of conduct and like fellow bloggers, has turned off the
facility on his blog that allows for anonymous posts.
"Too optimistic"
"It could be that the time has come to professionalise what bloggers
do," he said.
"It is up to the community to agree the rules and then it would simply
be a line at the top of the blog to say only show me sites that adhere
to this conduct," he said.
For Ms Sierra the reasons behind the campaign against her remain
elusive. Other than being a woman, she can see only one other reason
for the hatred she has experienced in the last four weeks.
"They thought I was just too damned optimistic," she told the BBC News
website.
"These people are interested in rage and they think that if you aren't
enraged then you are part of the problem. It seems that they hate my
optimism. They think I am poisoning peoples' minds with my positive
outlook," she told the BBC News website.
Such nihilism and anger have led her to consider hanging up her
blogging software for good.
Call for blogging code of conduct
Kathy Sierra went public on her fears in her blog
The support for a blogger hounded by death threats has intensified
with some high profile web experts calling for a code of conduct in
the blogosphere.
The female blogger at the centre of the row has been shocked to
discover that hers is not an isolated incident.
It has led her and others to question some of the unwritten rules of
blogging.
It could force a re-examination of the way the tight-knit blogging
community behaves.
Among those calling for a bloggers' code of conduct is Tim O'Reilly
- - one of the web's most influential thinkers. "The fact that there's
all these really messed-up people on the internet is not a statement
about the internet." He told BBC Radio Five Live that it could be time
to formalise blogging behaviour.
"I do think we need some code of conduct around what is acceptable
behaviour, I would hope that it doesn't come through any kind of
[legal/government] regulation it would come through self-regulation."
While condemning the bloggers who issued the threats, Mr O'Reilly was
keen that the whole blogosphere should not be tarred with the same
brush.
"The fact that there's all these really messed-up people on the
internet is not a statement about the internet. It is a statement
about those people and what they do and we need to basically say that
you guys are doing something unacceptable and not generalise it into a
comment about this is what's happening to the blogosphere."
Cyber-bullying rife
Ms Sierrra has personally witnessed the usually harmless feuding that
is part and parcel of blogging take on an altogether more sinister
tone, with threats of a violent and sexual nature gathering pace over
the last month.
She agonised over whether to publicise what had happened to her, she
told the BBC News website.
Since describing the campaign against her, she has been shocked to
discover that cyber-bullying is widespread.
"As well as around 900 comments on my blog and hundreds of comments on
other blogs, I have received around 300 personal e-mails and about 70%
of them say they have been through a similar thing," she told the BBC
News website.
Among the messages is one from a blogger Ms Sierra described as "far
more prominent than me" who has been avoiding industry conferences
because of persistent online threats.
Ms Sierra herself pulled out of a planned appearance at ETech in San
Diego this week.
She believes it is time the technology blogging community sat up and
took notice.
"I think there is a culture of looking the other way. When other
prominent people look the other way it is creating an environment that
allows this type of behaviour," she said.
She also thinks it could be time to re-examine whether the blogosphere
needs to be completely uncensored.
"There is an unwritten rule in the blogosphere that it is wrong to
delete nasty comments. It suggests that you can't take criticism but
now there is a sense that this is nonsense," she said.
Tough on women
Denise Howell, a US lawyer and blogger, believes that the blogosphere
is no place for legal requirements.
"The tools of the Live Web have made it easier than ever for
ordinary people to communicate and express views in their individual
capacities, and to provide platforms, e.g. on their blogs, for others
to do so," she said.
"I think anyone who enjoys any aspect of the Live Web would celebrate
this fact, and agree its vitality would be impaired if the law
expected or required these ordinary people to envelop themselves and
their sites in elaborate legal provisos and conditions if they hope to
be shielded from potential responsibility for the bad acts of others,"
she said.
The Kathy Sierra situation is, she said, "forcing bloggers to examine
their moral compasses on a number of fronts". But, ultimately
self-regulation is the only way forward, she believes.
Although, as a female blogger, she has not personally encountered
bullying or sexism, she does think it can be tough to be a woman
online.
"Despite my fortunately good experiences, I do think it's harder in
some ways for women to blog. For women with families, it's constantly
in the back of your mind that you're putting not just yourself but to
some extent your family in the public eye," she said.
It has long been accepted that online behaviour differs from the
behaviour people would exhibit in the real world due, largely to the
anonymity it allows.
Technology blogger Sam Sethi agrees that blogging can bring out the
worst in people.
"These young geek guys they feel that that they can say what they
want and do it with anonymity. It can bring out the worst character
behaviour because they feel that they are hidden.
He agrees with Tim O'Reilly that the time is ripe for bloggers to
have a code of conduct and like fellow bloggers, has turned off the
facility on his blog that allows for anonymous posts.
"Too optimistic"
"It could be that the time has come to professionalise what bloggers
do," he said.
"It is up to the community to agree the rules and then it would simply
be a line at the top of the blog to say only show me sites that adhere
to this conduct," he said.
For Ms Sierra the reasons behind the campaign against her remain
elusive. Other than being a woman, she can see only one other reason
for the hatred she has experienced in the last four weeks.
"They thought I was just too damned optimistic," she told the BBC News
website.
"These people are interested in rage and they think that if you aren't
enraged then you are part of the problem. It seems that they hate my
optimism. They think I am poisoning peoples' minds with my positive
outlook," she told the BBC News website.
Such nihilism and anger have led her to consider hanging up her
blogging software for good.
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