ひ:So you went to the Nicofarre? How do you think about it?
ム:It was awesome! Is it just opened last week? It's incredible!
ジ:今日はね、ムートさんと一緒にニコファーレ行って……150万個の LEDだっけ?
ひ:数わすれた! How many LEDs over there?
ム:1.2 million total pixels…
ジ:It's 1.5 million LEDs.そう150万個。That was pretty awesome!
ム:Yeah! It's incredible! It's the first time I've ever seen a tech-demo freight room.
ジ:部屋全体がもうデモになっていて結構おもしろかった。You took a lot of pictures, so you gonna put them up, right?
ム:Yeah!
ジ:後で4chanに上げると。
ひ:あ、あれ使わなきゃいけないんじゃない? 4chanの。
ジ:ああー。That's right!(笑) This…we could have used earlier. It's just a description of 4chan in English.
ひ:日本語版読もうか? ボク。
ジ:そうだね、それがちょうどいい。
ひ:(日本語版の説明パネルを手に持って)4chanは、だれでもコメントをつけたり画像を共有したりすることができる画像掲示板として、2003年にスタートしました。4chanの共同制作コミュニティは、日本で人気の電子掲示板のひとつである『ふたば☆ちゃんねる』に似せてつくられており、日本と同じような掲示板群を『英語』で作っています。それぞれの異なる掲示板は、日本のアニメ、マンガ、文化からテレビゲームや音楽、写真、といったそれぞれのトピックスに特化しており、ユーザーは匿名でこのコミュニティに参加することができます。
ジ:速いねー。日本語読むの速いねー。
ひ:日本人だからねー。
ジ:ちょっと、こっち(英語版)やってみてよ?(笑)
ひ:4chan is a simple image-based bulletin board where anyone can post comments and share images. 4chan's collaborative-community format is copied from one of the most popular forums in Japan, Futaba Channel. Different boards are dedicated to different topics, from Japanese anime, manga, and culture to videogames, music and photography. Users do not need to register a username before participating in the community. はいっ!(大拍手)こんなんで拍手してもらえるんだ?
ジ:すーごいね!
ひ:なにが? 何で酔っぱらってんの? ワイン一杯しか飲んでないよね?
ジ:バラしちゃだめ!
ひ:He looks like drank! Looks like he is drank!
ジ:We only had one glass of wine.
ム:Hahaha.
ジ:Let's move on! Because I know we wanna talk about social networking and all the cool stuff staff you are doing now. We got this, I don’t know, what to say about it…
ひ:そういう意味では匿名な訳じゃないですか? でも最近正反対のfacebookが大流行な訳ですよ。How do you think about Facebook, it's goes against anonymity? Maybe it's totally different Facebook and 4chan. What do you think about Facebook?
ム:I did a little talk last year about it at TED about last year, the culture of anonymity is definitely dwindling. It's a kind of scared a hell out of us, moving toward persistent state of identity where all the actions are recorded indefinitely or so. So I mean the Facebook is as a product, it obviously works very well for what its intents.
Or it's more of that Facebook is a kind of that ushered us in to kind of a wave… now everybody is required to use sign up or authenticate with your profile! It's good to happen, just need alternatives, still need to exist. I'm not saying the Facebook is bad, we need an alternative! My fear is that, if they have their way, there will be no alternatives like 4chan.
ジ:彼はまあ、4chanとfacebookに関して、4chanはサインアップとか個人情報を何も入れる必要が全くなくて、facebookは製品、商品、サービスとしては凄くいいんだけども……アノニミティって?
ひ:匿名性。アノニマスとか。
ジ:……逆に今回facebookによって、皆、自分のログインネームとかパスワードとか作って、記録がずーっと残る。だからfacebookはモノとしては凄くいいんだけれども、永久的な記録が残るということで、まあ、TEDという大きなイベントがアメリカであるんだけども、そこでそのスピーチをして、facebookに代わるモノというのも必要だなと。
ひ:まっ、補完関係だよね。
ジ:補完関係、Is that right?
ム:Yes!(一同、笑)
ひ:日本だとmixiが、匿名でも使えるSNSとして結構使われている。逆にfacebookは匿名だとアカウント消されちゃうっていうのがあって。
ジ:For anonymity, I don't know if you know about Mixi. Which is It's a big like Facebook like service here. You can actually create an account, an anonymous account! You can opt in or opt out, I guess. But for Facebook you have to have an identity.
ム:May I ask which is more popular in Japan right now?
ひ:Mixi is the most popular one in Japan, only Japan.
ジ:日本ではfacebookってどうなの?
ひ:そこそこ増えてきているよね。
ジ:So I’m just asking Facebook relative to mixi. Comparing, I guess Facebook is getting some attractions here. 何でfacebookが流行って来ると思う?
ひ:アメリカっぽいから、オシャレだから! Facebook is cool! That' why we Japanese use it!
ム:You think it's cool?
ひ:Yes!
ジ:クールかねー?
ひ:ほらっ、アメリカで流行っているものって好きじゃん?
ジ:あー。もともとツイッターもそうだよね? I guess things are popular at the States, whether Twitter or Facebook, they end up permeating through here!
ム:Twitter is pretty exploded in here. Every single business card I've got has a Twitter account.
ジ:日本ではに来て名刺交換するときに、ツイッターのアカウント情報が入っている。日本では逆に、アメリカよりもすごい流行っているんじゃないの? という印象は受けている。
ひ:アメリカの人は逆に、そこまでツイッターをつかわないよね。
ジ:友達系でが使っているよね。ビジネス系じゃなくて。So, Twitter I think in the US, it's my impression anyway, so it would be great to give your thoughts; Twitter, people are using it for more social aspects, not much for business as they were here.
ム:Twitter? So it’s now like people are using to promote themselves, surprising timesharing conversations. I don't know much about Japanese, but you can write a way more, you can express more, and it’s characteristics of Japanese. It's kind of interesting!
ジ:日本のツイッターはキャラクター数が決まっているけども、漢字があるから結構長く書けるんだよね。
ひ:まあ情報量が増えるよね。そうか、英語で140150文字ってかなり短いよね。
ジ:短い! The limitation on characters is fanatic, or as Kanji, you get more information in the same amount of space.
ひ:How about blog? People using Twitter or Facebook, so I don't think blog bog is still popular in United States for ordinary people.
ム:Blogging? Chips away from the blogging, blogger, WordPress, people are used to a long form of blogging. Now, Twitter and Tumblr are pushing people toward more short form of blogging. Tumblr has a really strong run in the U.S right now! They've launched in Japan, about a year ago, Germany, internationally, probably more countries now.
Yeah, it's still around! Blogs are shifted and been to a kind of media properties. Most of the popular blogs are trying to be like magazines! The redesigned Gawker is a big network. Blogging is still popular it's a kind of shifted from where it is!
ジ:昔と違ってブログはアメリカでは、流行ってるは流行っているけども、かたち上は変わってきた。まあツイッターは皆知っているけども、1年前からタンブラーというのも出て来て、日本、ドイツ、アメリカで出て……やっぱり短い方がよくないかと。大きいブログというのは逆に、メディア化しちゃって……ゴーカー?
ム:Gawker. They very famously switched over there. They wanted to be less like a blog, more like a…legitimize them, made, say, better! I think they've lost like 3/4 of the traffic. Actually completely trashed the traffic because I guess the people were confused! I think Google were tripled.
I don't know where their page views are now, but at the end of the day, definitely significantly capped in half! Most of the webs are a kind of adapting their designs, more reminiscent of a news web site, like New York Times or magazines, than a traditional blog.
ジ:大きなブログっていうのはまあ雑誌化しようとしてたり、メデイアになろうとするけども、結局Gawkerっていうのは、三分の二ぐらいに人が減ってしまったりとか、あんまりうまく行かなくなって来ているのというのが現状。What do you think about MySpace, and all this, the Murdoch staff? Why they lose it, they have a huge properties and no working with Facebook.
ム:The main cause is the language. They were built on Code ColdFusion 2, it didn't scale well. It was always a kind of decrypted code base, and it gets stale still. Facebook was obviously founded on college students opened up to high school students and opened up to works spaces, eventually to everybody. They built a real platform. After MySpace was acquired by a traditional media company, you can't, couldn't keep up with like a small town's engineers!
ジ:今までfacebookの話をしていたんだけれども、その前はマイスペースが断トツトップで、で、どうしてダメになって来ているかというと、コードベースはコールドフュージョン2であまり拡張性がなく、しかもニュースコープに買われて、やっぱり大企業、特にメディア会社がすごい保守的なんで……。小っちゃいスタートアップと比べて動きが鈍いということで、やっぱり追いつかなくなった。
逆にfacebookっていうのは、学生に集中したり、それは大学生始め、高校生、それと企業、そしてAPIを公開することで、色んな開発者プラットフォームとして確立してるんで、どんどん広まってきているというのが現状。
ひ:そもそもマイスペースが何で流行ったのかよく分からないんだよね。I’d I'm wondered why MySpace was getting bigger before? It's just a music site or something?
ジ:How they started out? How they get so popular?
ム:I honestly don't know much about the history of MySpace.
ジ:ちょっとねえ、彼もよくわからない。
ひ:ナニか流行ってたよね?
ジ:でもやっぱり、どこかに集中しないとダメみたいだね。学生とか、大学生特にそうだし。確かfacebookもスタンフォードの大学生が作ったんだよね。
ひ:ハーバードじゃなかったっけ?
ム:Harvard dropped outs! And then moved to somewhere of Palo Alto. Actually they have new office in Menlo Park. Google was Stanford.
ひ:Microsoft and Apple too, Stanford! というわけで、じゃあ小さい会社の方が、動きが速いということは……キャンバスはスモール・カンパニー?!
ジ:If you've got to be nimble a nibble to be good, Canvas must be really tight? (笑)How many people are there and what are your plans?
ム:Five people including myself.
ジ:彼も含めて五人。
ム:So the Canvas was founded last year, I think it's June when we stared. The original goal was to… the form for function-esthetic of message boards haven’t hasn't changed in a decade. If you compare vBulletin which is the popular software still exists today, till ten years ago it was essentially, a kind of the same!
Yes, when you look back what were misrepresented users at UseNet, the same BBS again, we are looking at 10, 20 years from now. So originally the thought was a kind of reimagine the message board for 2010, 2011, given more modern browsers and , for much more sophisticated users, people who want to be doing with our software.
ジ:Thank you for making that really short! (笑)
ム:You can say that!
ジ:キャンバスというのは、さっき言ったように彼も含めて5人。(画面コントロール・スタッフに)今パソコンの方に切り換えて欲しいんですけど。
ジ:これがキャンバスのベータ・ページで、彼の発想っていうのは形、見た目、それを10年前だったらブイ・ブルティンとかずっと変わってないわけで、15年、20年前ぐらいにだったらユーズネット。最近のメッセージボードっていうのはまあブラウザーも新しくなっているし、ユーザーの期待感も上がって来ているし、そこを中心に考えてキャンバスというサービスを作り始めたと。
ひ:How to use Canv.as?
ジ:キャンバスは2010年の6月に始まってまだベータ中。
ム:So for the first version of the product we really wanted to focus on images, because that’s I know and the team really excited about. So the site has three main components, post themselves, stickers, and the remix functionality. So this is just an example of the browse page! Actually you can play things, “Oh, men, My Little Pony!” On the page itself, you can use it on the web sites, different stickers that a kind of express the sentiment of those! And scroll content that way…
ひ:ちょっとずつ翻訳した方が楽じゃない?
ジ:うん(笑)。今、見てる画面がトップページでー、ここでMy Littlie Pony、まあ、かわいいポニーを出しているんだけども。
こういったポスティングが出来て、赤いステッカーをコンテンツの上に貼り付けることができる。こうやって……あっ、2回使え無いんだ?
ひ:うん、ひとり1個まで!
ム:And threads themselves become a kind of chains of replies based on the original post, in order to threads just like 4chan! This example, this is a clip from a web comic. People responded with, and created their own images. While they are created, we have an built in editor, the remix editor. You can actually see, having these images are edited in that image!
ジ:ポスティングが出来て、ステッカーもあって、で、リミックス機能っていうのがあるんだけれども。誰かがポスティングして、それを変換させるエディティング・ツールがある。さっきのは、Can you show us again, the transition from the original to the next one?
例えばこれの元になっている絵は、こうやって引っ張っていくと……
これですと。
Let's see the PlayStation one! さっき見えた、プレイステーションのが気になるよね? 元は何だったか……あー、これこれ。
アメリカではすごい話題になっているけども。プレイステーション・ネットワークが凄いハッキングされて、個人情報が漏れ漏れで……。
ひ:あれっ、お金払ったんだっけ、アメリカは?
ジ:賠償金払ったと思う。Do they have to pay out some money?
ム:We might have come to a month of worth of network usage and also a few months of protection because of the personal information leak.
ジ:あー、個人情報が漏れることによって、そのモニタリングサービスの費用とか、1カ月分タダとか、そう云うのを一生懸命やったと……。あれもともと、何だったんだろう? あれ、一緒じゃん?
ひ:ああ、一応目の位置を合わせたってことね。Just eyes!
ム:This is an example of the editor itself. We built this just with HTML, it is not Flash, HTML5 in Canvas, and it’s really basic.
ジ:How do we edit, if you wanted to change the color or to fill?
ひ:Is it free or charged?
ム:It's all free.
ジ:全部無料です、と。Do we have to be invited?
ム:Yes, it's still a private beta. In order to use the site, you need to either request an invite or have a priority on it to invite you. And for Nico users, we created special award that will show later, a screen to sign up to the service. a backdoor signing is created, because you are elder! Show later the backdoor signing for the service.
ジ:すごいねー! その話は聞いてなかった。紹介制のプライベート・ベータなんだけれども、ニコユーザーだけには特別に登録できるように作ってある。
ひ:ニコユーザーは登録できる!? はい後ほどそのURLを。ボクが好きなのは、アイコンを置いていくから画像の属性をユーザーが勝手に決められるじゃん? だから可愛い画像だけ見たいとしたら、そこだけ並び替えできるから、そういうとこが割と便利だなーと思っていて。
ジ:He really likes the fact that you can rearrange things, so if you like pretty girls, like we know Hiroyuki does,(笑)we can put them all together on the same spot!
ム:Hahaha. It's a part of the design meant to incorporate, you know eight years of learning from 4chan, having grown up with chat rooms and message boards. And you take that knowledge and try to use that to do this!
ジ:8年間4chanをやって、それのノウハウを蓄積して、キャンバスにそれを全部反映させようと。なので並び替えとか、ステッカーとか、そのリミックスとか、本当に昔からやりたかったことを、ちゃんとした企業としてやると。4chan is still all volunteers right?
ム:4chan is never really a real company, it’s maintained this as a hobby or a product of mind. And basically it's just me with a help of a lot of volunteer moderators, people like John. We have a part time developer who does a most of the code works now. Probably about anywhere between 20 to 50 moderators who are active for removing contents and vanishing users that broke the rules!
ジ:今、4chanの話にちょっと戻ったんだけど、基本的には20~50人ぐらいのモデレーターがいて、デベロッパーが1人いるんだけれども、基本的には企業ではないので、彼も参加しているし、でもそこでやり切れなかったことを企業でやっていこうと。その発想を元にCanv.as を作った。
ム:How many people work with your 2ch?
ひ:Maybe 300 moderators, half of them don't work, just have a right to delete messages.
ジ:2ちゃんねるのモデレーター300人もいるの?
ひ:うん、削除する人は……。でも登録しているだけで何もしない人が多い。そんなもんです(笑)。
ジ:サーバーはどこに置いてあるの?
ひ:サーバーはアメリカ。2ch's server is in California.
ジ:Where is your server for 4chan ?
ム:Also in California! Los Angeles.
ジ:Is that because of the band length?
ム:Yes! I have a friend that works in data center, right downtown and they also get us an incredible deal on hosting. Because 4chan does something like 2,000 mega bits per second, day in and day out to serve. So we were able to negotiate like an affordable one.
We use ads to make money to make revenue! And they do ok, a kind of hit and miss. Let's say, the site went down in 2004 and 2005 and luckily ads sustained for past few years. But definitely no thrill for a hosting setup.
ジ:That what we should do to put the Nico ads on it. Maybe hilarious! でサーバーはロスに置いてあるんだけども、バンド幅っていうは2,000メガ・ビット・パー・セック。
ひ:2ギガ?
ジ:広告収入だけでやっている、あとはボランティア。2003年、4年には何回か落ちたんだけども、あれ以来はほとんど落ちていないので……。
ひ:Why did you stop receiving donations?
ム:The last time we accepted donations was in 2005, a campaign in the fall called “Donate or die in 2005,” we raised about 14,000 dollars in that way. The promise to people who donated was that I will purchase the servers and collocate them for a one whole year. And since that day we haven't accepted a single donation!
I just don't like the model; I think the site should be totally free and open to all its users. We just shouldn't be asking people for money. I mean the ads we run aren't pretty intrusive, they are only 3 banners per page. Now they are actually all clean, generally work safe. I don' think it's too much to ask looking at those 3 small ads.
We don't put ads in the contents which is the most of people do. For the site as large as 4chan, we definitely don't monetize it to the maximum. It's basically, to make sure to break-even. Because again, 4chan is not really treated as a company by me, I want to continue to run the site and host as long as I can, so as long as it breaks-even I'm happy.
ジ:4chanというのは、基本的にはドネーションは一回だけ、14,000ドルだから、今の為替だと77円で計算すると、110万円ぐらい……。