The murky side of the Internet is well known: Nigerian swindlers, child pornographers, terrorist networks, pedofiles lurking in chat rooms. And more. But that is not all there is to it, and during the past couple of months I have witnessed three good examples of the power of the Net to be useful and a force for good.
I have been a member of a photography mailing list called the Leica Users Group (LUG) since 1998. Currently there are about 1100 members, concentrated in North America and Europe, but also with a fair contingent in Asia and Australia, and at least one member in South America that I am aware of. The LUG is a truly global community, and not only virtual: it is common practice to announce one’s travels on the list in order to meet members in person. I have met between 30 and 40 of the LUG members in person. One of the people I have met is Jim Shulman in Philadelphia. In early December, Jim got the idea of putting together a LUG yearbook for 2006 and having it professionally printed, with each participating photographer submitting two images. Jim promptly announced his idea on the list and offered to coordinate the collection of images and the production of the book. He set a deadline of December 31st for submissions, and by January 1st about 60 photographers had submitted two images each to Jim. To get the book printed, Jim used one of the new online printing outfits, blurb.com. By the third week of January, the book was ready and was being shipped by blurb.com. The beauty of this type of publishing is that prices are kept reasonable, because unlike a conventional publisher, blurb (and other similar companies) only prints a book when someone orders one, so there is no risk of getting stuck with unsold copies, and no inventory carrying costs. The book can be ordered online from blurb.com here, and it its production quality is every bit as good as books from traditional publishers. So, thanks to the net and the availability of high-quality online printing, one person in Philadelphia was able to coordinate and manage a publishing project involving over 60 contributors from four continents–in the space of 6 weeks! This is something that would have been next to impossible even 10 years ago.
My second example also involves the LUG and is a truly heart-warming story. One of the members of the list is Douglass Herr in California. His specialty are superb bird photographs, which surpass anything you see in National Geographic and the like. Do not take my word for it, just have a look for yourself. On Tuesday morning I saw a “For Sale” message from Doug on the list. This was unusual for two reasons: we have a rule on the LUG that “For Sale” messages are to be posted only on Fridays, and Doug is a long-standing member who would not violate this rule; and even more serious was the fact that the equipment being offered for sale basically include Doug’s entire photography kit, which he had been using to create the beautiful images we have been enjoying for years. Clearly something was very wrong, and Doug indeed indicated that the reason for selling his gear was a family emergency. A sad story indeed. But then something amazing happened: people on the list decided that they would help Doug out financially so that he would not need to sell his gear. The list owner published Doug’s Paypal address, and donations from far and near started streaming in, mostly from people (like me) who had never even met Doug in person. The point is that we on the LUG are a real community–not unlike a village in the “good old days”, except that this particular village is spread across the world. Within 24 hours enough money had come in to allow Doug to cancel the sale! He still has the family emergency to deal with, but at least now he has the means to deal with the financial aspect of this emergency, and the rest of us will continue to enjoy his photos.
My third example is nothing as serious as the one above, but quite nice nonetheless. I love Belgian beer, and I am always on the lookout for the more “exotic” Trappist brews and other products of the more than 300 independent breweries in Belgium. Even though I live in next-door Netherlands, many of the most interesting Belgian beers are not available here…or so I thought, until early last week, when another LUG list member pointed out to me an article in the Boston Globe about Jeff Cunningham, a guy from Massachussets who moved to Amsterdam and open a specialty beer shop, called the Cracked Kettle. After reading the article, I immediate visited the shop’s web site and e-mailed Jeff about one particular beer–Westvleteren, the Holy Grail of Beer, made in limited quantities in the Westvleteren monastery in Belgium and available only by appointment (once a month, and only two cases at a time!). I live near Amsterdam, an often go to the city. I must have walked past this shop at least 50 times in the past few years without realising what a temple of beer I was missing out on. I found it deeply ironic that I learned of this place from an article in a newspaper on the other side of the Atlantic. And the story has an even happier ending: last night I was in Amsterdam, stopped by the shop and picked up several bottles of Westvleteren and Achel, another Belgian favourite of mine.
So: thanks to my online community for being there and being real, too!