Missed this last week: the Internet Society (ISOC) has handed out its annual Postel Award, which honours those who have made outstanding contributions to, broadly, the Internet.

The winner this year – awarded at the IETF meeting in Maastricht on Wed 28 Jul – was Chinese technologist Dr Jianping Wu (left). Dr Wu received the award for “the pioneering role he has played in advancing Internet technology, deployment, and education in China and Asia Pacific over the last twenty years”.

Dr Wu developed the China Education and Research Network (CERNET), the first Internet backbone network in China. It has since become the world’s largest national academic network. He has also been building a large-scale native IPv6 backbone in China. IPv6 is a crucial but complex expansion of the current Internet system and it is large-scale rollouts that are making it possible to shift the Internet onto these new networks.

ISOC President Lynn St. Amour had this to say: “Jianping Wu has dedicated his career in China to developing a broadly accessible Internet that brings people together. Twenty years ago, Dr. Wu recognized the importance and future impact of the Internet and the pivotal role it would play in terms of its impact on social reform, technology advancement and economic growth for China. He has worked tirelessly to bring his vision to life. As a result, the networks that resulted from his determination and hard work have played an important role in driving Internet development in China and have had a significant impact on the Internet worldwide.”

Dr Wu recorded an acceptance video for ISOC, which it has stuck on YouTube and I’ve embedded below (note: the sound is very low and not great).

The Postel Award is named after Jon Postel – one of the key figures in the Internet’s development who died in 1998. The award was started in 1999 and has been awarded to the biggest names in the Internet infrastructure world, although very few people outside that world will have heard of them, they have all been crucial members of a loose community of engineers, policy-wonks and assorted others who work to make sure that the Internet works in an open way.

If you win, apart from having done the world a service, you get a presentation crystal and $20,000. You can find out more at: http://www.isoc.org/postel/.

I posted the video of the United Nations’ representative Sha Zukang losing it about a week ago but forgot to stick up a blog post about it.

It was a remarkable thing: Egypt’s first lady had inserted her own agenda into the Internet Governance Forum’s schedule – which caused no end of problems as everything had to be reshuffled. But also her visit brought with it some over-the-top security precautions: no mobile phones; extra invites to be allowed into the building; restricted access; and – the big issue – everyone being locked down in the main room, unable to leave, while she wandered around in the “village” of booths outside.

Anyway, after the First Lady’s little segment about protecting kids online and a panel of “experts” forced to find some way of tying the IGF into the youth of today and protecting kids online — which was a complete waste of everyone’s time, to be frank — she wandered off but left everyone stuck in the main room.

Not everyone was happy about this. Many people wanted to just go to the toilet having been in the room for several hours. The UN’s head honcho – a very prickly Chinese man called Sha Zukang – was also unhappy as he had trouble getting back into the room to chair the next session on the future of the IGF itself.

As you can see from the video below, Sha was annoyed with the fact that lots of people were standing at the back waiting to be allowed to leave. But even when the situation was explained to him, he was already too wound up to care and came out with an extraordinary outburst.

Considering this has only been one or two minutes, it was really too much – and everyone commented as such. Of the many comments I heard at the back of the room, and that evening, the most common description of the short-fused Zukang was “prick”. The event also sparked a few UN old hands to recall other similar outbursts.

Anyway, here for your viewing pleasure is what happened:

I’ve always thought Eddie Izzard was supremely funny but I didn’t realise that he’d be a really nice bloke just to know and have a conversation with until today.

I embarked on some rather silly Twitter-following very early this morning (all sparked off by Stephen Fry tweeting about Trafigura) and ended up discovering that Eddie Izzard was in Los Angeles for a documentary about his life. I missed a Q&A he gave earlier this week at a screening (bloody shame) but he tweeted that he’d be on some chatshow I’ve never heard of – Kevin Pollak.

As it turns out this is a low-budget, Internet-only chatshow that makes me want to call a few mates, drive up to Hollywood and completely overhaul because there have been some interesting guests but the format is painful. Kevin, bless him, needs an audience to be funny (plus there is a reason canned laughter tracks exist) and he is a truly dreadful interviewer, but if you press play on the show (embedded above) and come back 17 minutes and 20 seconds later you’ll find Eddie Izzard giving a really interesting interview.

Far from going off on his surreal semi-structured humour bursts, Eddie Izzard was actually in a relaxed and chatty frame of mind. I’ve no doubt that having watched a documentary about his rise he had been pondering about his life and existence and clearly had some thoughts running through his head.

What came out though was what a smart, driven person Eddie is. He has retained copyright on his DVDs (he did accounting exams), he carefully and methodically approached his career of choice, he has interesting insights into his profession. And he was clearly willing to talk about personal details: the death of his mother when he was six which, apparently, the film goes into in some detail and is the main driver in Eddie’s life; and the fact that he had had a relationship with the film’s director.

I really wish it had been me interviewing him because he was relaxed, in a small room and willing to open up. It’s rare that such a practiced and polished performer is willing to let his guard down that much. Anyway, we shall never know. It does make me want to get into Internet video though – and do a really professional journalistic job of interviewing interesting people.

Eddie Izzard’s film Believe is at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 cinema on Sunset until Thursday and then it moves to New York. Initial reviews have been very positive.

It makes me proud to be British when I see something as simultaneously wonderful and hilarious as a middle-aged woman brow-beating a government minister into changing government policy.

Joanna Lumley is a treasured British asset – a ludicrously posh but much-loved and fearless actress – and she has been spearheading a campaign against the government for its treatment of Nepalese “Gurkha” British Army fighters.

Just look at this video in which Lumley speaks and then stares at immigration minister Phil Woolas just daring him to contradict her. The finest traditions of a British Battleaxe. He cowers under her summary and then embarks on a droney, bureaucratic explanation of how it all works and why the government hasn’t just made a complete arse of itself. I think Woolas’ political career is effectively over.

So what was it all about?

Well, Gurkhas are a throwback to the British Empire days but they have a strange kind of symbolism because they are renowned for fighting incredibly hard in extremely difficult situations for a country that has never really done much for them.

Recently, however, a number of Gurkhas has been refused the right to stay in the UK, setting off the quiet but deadly rumblings of Middle England who just don’t think that’s fair play. And Middle England found its perfect frontwoman in Joanna Lumley who has almost single-handedly forced the government in all its officiousness to change its policy by “not bloody having it”.

The Labour government lost a vote on the issue recently, causing the prime minister to invite Lumley to Number 10 for tea where he promised to sort it out. But then the next day, in a complete civil servant farce, a number of Gurkhas has their applications to stay in the UK turned down.

Lumley, furious, set off to the BBC to do an interview, but Woolas was already there. Then, apparently, the two went off for a private meeting and then this impromptu press conference was held. A royal farce and all of it done with incredible British politeness. I love it. And Joanna Lumley has gone from Institution to Legend.

Interesting judgment from the United States Supreme Court earlier today: you cannot say the word “fuck” on TV. Well, you can, but you’ll be heavily fined by the FCC. The same goes for “shit”.

Unfortunately, we did not get a Peter Cook and Dudley Moore-style explanation (“What is the point of saying: ‘Fuck! Shit! Tit! Bum! Arsehole!’?“), as the Supreme Court chose to render fuck and shit as “the F- and S-Words”.

Nonetheless, it decided that the FCC decision to remove the one-fuck-for-free rule on TV broadcasts on US networks was neither “arbitrary” nor “capricious”.

Read the full Supreme Court decision here [pdf]

It’s not just these two words either – the FCC rules cover anything that denotes “sexual or excretory activity or organs”. Bono has yet to yell out that winning an award made his sphincter vibrate (it was Bono that created the new rules by saying it felt “fucking brilliant” when he won his Golden Globe a few years back) – but it would be interesting to see how the FCC reacted to that.

The Supreme Court noted in fact that the Federal Communications Commission has taken a “cautious, but gradually expanding, approach to enforcing the statutory prohibition”.

Interesting to note that there was no mention of the “C-Word” in the judgment – which is a word that Americans find incredibly offensive across the board, far more so than in Europe.

WTF?

Anyway, the case was brought by Fox and then backed up by NBC and others. You can’t help but see why. When people use this language and hear this language all day, every day – particularly in shows that appears on networks that are not subject to the same rules – it’s hardly surprising Fox and others are not over the moon at being fined large sums for a simple slip of the tongue.

It means that they will either have to drop awards shows, or put very careful controls on them. And it means they still have to produce shows that don’t have a realistic edge to them.

I understand the desire of the FCC to keep things clean but its approach is increasingly unrealistic with the Internet becoming a centre of video dispersal. The FCC probably wishes it could extend its powers over Internet content but it doesn’t stand a chance and so it is increasingly in the ironic position of punishing those that are most restrictive in their content for the behaviour of others.

Nanny in a state

It is also a little nannying for the FCC to try to stop people from saying the word “fuck” or “shit” when they are so used so unbelievably frequently. What the FCC might do better focussing on is allowing for consumers to complain about the use of language that they find offensive. If people truly are offended by the use of such language – especially if it means they won’t watch a particular show – they you can bet the show’s producers will bear that in mind if they are informed by the silent passive viewers out there.

Either way, you can’t really blame the Supreme Court – they were asked to decide whether the FCC has acted arbitrarily. Since this was the FCC i.e. part of the government, since the rules were clear, and since there would have been a huge row if the Supreme Court voted in favour of swearing, its decision was not that surprising. Still, it was only 5 to 4 against.

Michael Smolens is the platinum guide for the revolution that is going on right now with video over the Internet. As the CEO of DotSub – a company which enables people to simply and easily transcribe and translate film online – he is on the cutting edge.

Which is why it is such a pleasure to talk to him: because he always has some video project or program on his mind that he tells you about, incredulous that you haven’t heard of it yet. So when Michael called me yesterday to tell me he’d be in Los Angeles in early February and did I fancy meeting up, I was delighted to hear about another extraordinary and inspiring use of film the likes of which make me want to pick up my camera right now and get filming.

I checked it out online this morning and then also dug out some other recommendations he had made to me and then it occurred to me, buzzing with hope and energy, that it might not be a bad idea to share this knowledge with whoever reads my blog.

So here is a quick guide to the most inspiring films and movements around at the moment. Why be medicated with nonsense television when you can be uplifted and inspired with Net marvels?

• Michael is attending TED@PalmSprings. This is the second branch-off from the TED Conference which has been running annually since 1990 in Monterey, California. It nearly fell apart in 2002 but has since come alive and just this year shifted to Long Beach. The whole mission of the Technology, Entertainment, Design – TED – is to have a conference that promotes “ideas worth spreading”. It comprises a series of lectures that cover a broad range of topics from science to politics to technology to entertainment.
  
  There was a TED conference in Aspen last year and now the Palm Springs version will be a “live hosted simulcast of the full TED2009 program” with live speakers, performances and so on. The packed-out, book-one-year-in-advance main conference will be in Long Beach but the Palm Springs version has better scenery and a big pool.
• The TED talks have branched out online and have their own YouTube channel which puts out a new video every week that has cutting-edge and inspiring thinkers boil down their idea worth spreading into 18 minutes. Even better than that, the organization has put together the Top 10 TED talks for you to watch and download. The top talk which is extraordinary and inspiring is from Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain researcher who studied her own brain when she had a stroke. It is fascinating. And you can watch it online, along with many others.
  
  The great, incredible, fantastic, marvellous thing is that you can also watch it below by simply clicking a button thanks to some code I have added. AND since this code pulls in a video from DotSub, even if you don’t speak a word of English, you can read the subtitles in 11 other languages (so far): Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. And if you want to see them in any other language, you personally can go in and create those subtitles extremely easily on DotSub – just click here and go to “Translate and Transcribe”.

• There are hundreds of hours of fascinating TED talks – but what about films? What if you don’t fancy listening to a lecture but would rather see beautifully filmed and edited portrayals. Well, according thanks to a pointer from Michael, why not check out Pangea Day? According to the person behind it, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, the idea is to have one day in which the world is brought together (“pangea” is the world for the hypothetical supercontinent that included all the landmasses of the earth before it broke up into the continents we now know). She gave a very eloquent explanation of the concept in 2006 when she actually won a TED prize (yes, the same TED), which you can watch on the Pangea Day website and where you can also watch some of the best films submitted.
• But what if you don’t fancy talks, and don’t fancy films? Well then I’d direct you to Current TV – television and news from around the world and all online. It’s a thousand times better, more interesting, more inspiring and more informative than 1,000 cable TV channels.

Enjoy.