Monday, January 10, 2011

Open Letter to Steve Jobs



Dear Steve,

Today in one of our local newspapers, I read about your one-to-one communication late in the night on “freedom from porn”. On the other end of the Atlantic ocean, there is also life ongoing, and please be sure that we have similar concerns, and similar problems. I am working as a senior freelance software consultant/ energy analyst on thermal power plants.  


My sons are EEE, IT graduates from local University, METU. When they purchase the latest gadget and then they give me the older one to me. So a first I had your old iPodTouch, the cheapest, the oldest, the earliest version.  At first I objected to use, since my desktop was seemed to be more than sufficient for me with big screen, and I love to write long letters on the big keyboard to those who send e-mails direct to my attention. Anyhow this small old version toy gave me my freedom. I have access to my email inbox 24 hours a day and I can respond to my colleagues, as well as to my clients. I can have cheap overseas calls via SkyPe. Now we have new iPAD.


I noticed that if you have an iPhone/iPAD application, then you are in the business, if not, you cannot reach to the population between 15-40 years old. That means if you are in software business you need to have iPhone/iPad/iPodTouch application.


An application is a threshold to move to an upper level of information/ software technology.
That is good but now we have a question, How a small company or an self employed individual (that is me) can create application to his/her blog page??


I write co-ed articles in our local reputable think tank institute, USAK, Journal of Turkish Weekly on local energy issues. I noticed that many think-tanks in the USA have iPhone/iPAD  applications, such as Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Brookings Instutude. Our local institude will also have a similar iPhone/iPad application in near future in order to receive more hits from young educated local population.


One other concern of mine is as follows. Commercial companies do not stay in the market forever. Today they are IN, tomorrow they are OUT. If they wish to continue to make business in our environment, they should comply with globally accepted/ and locally enforced  rules regulations and laws. They should have respect to our prevailing written/ unwritten values. I believe that Apple has that business ethics.


On the other hand, for example YouTube is an ignorant company. YouTube obeys to rules and laws in the USA and EU but does not care the rules and laws of our country.  There are many ways/ proxy pages to have access, if you insist to have access. Move on, no problem. You learn details of PC/ Internet/DSL changes. 


We should keep in mind that companies are not equals of national states. Sovereign states cannot tolerate unlawful initiatives, and states can take all necessary measures, as in the case of USA vs. Wikileaks, Germany on Pro-Nazi releases.  It is your writers sincere feeling that sovereign countries have the right to stop the unlawful/ unnecessary activities.  


If a business enterprise (a thermal power plant, a solar plant, a wind energy company) has certain displease to any article in the web, any threat to their business interest, then the web owner has to retrieve the article upon request.  If I write an article and a business enterprise feels uneasy and declares so, I feel that it is my responsibility to delete that article immediately. There is no shame/ no disgrace.


YouTube in Turkey is similar to WikiLeaks in the USA on security concerns. This is a matter of cost and benefit calculation within company management. So company does not want to spend some extra money to stop unfair/ unnecessary/ mostly childish insults/ threats where they take  these insults/threats seriously in the USA and European Union.  


It is nothing to do or in conflict with "freedom of expression".  It is simply restriction profanity and extreme  bad manners  in social network of the cyber space. We do not care whether the world is laughing at Turkey because of these legal proceedings.  The world is also laughing at the USA and European Union for various reasons. Anyhow who remembers the mighty companies of the past, IBM, Xerox, DeutscheBabcock, VKW etc?  


Thank you for your time, Your comments are always welcome. Best regards, and all the best

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