Item 1 to 3 are excerpted from a journalistic report by Peter Beaumont in the Guardian. Item 4 is a report on the ‘internet smugglers’ in Lybya from the LA Times. It shows the interconnection between ‘physical’ courage and organisation, that is the very condition for the social media networks to operate. 1. Tunisia “When… Continue reading
Date archives "March 2011"
Exporting the lessons of the Arab uprisings, a model to us all
Our hope is that through this cycle of struggles the Arab world becomes for the next decade what Latin America was for the last – that is, a laboratory of political experimentation between powerful social movements and progressive governments from Argentina to Venezuela, and from Brazil to Bolivia. Excerpted from an editorial in the Guardian… Continue reading
Sony’s war against user innovation
an enemy for all makers, hackers, and innovators … in the … the consumer electronics industry. And who is this slayer of progress? Sony. From the introduction to a special overview article by Make magazine, by Phillip Torrone: “If you’re over the age of 25 you likely have a long history with Sony. They were… Continue reading
Seeing class from the air: the role of Google Earth in the Arab uprisings
Quoted from Thomas Friedman in the NYT: “While Facebook has gotten all the face time in Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain, don’t forget Google Earth, which began roiling Bahraini politics in 2006. A big issue in Bahrain, particularly among Shiite men who want to get married and build homes, is the unequal distribution of land. On… Continue reading
Why is the strategy of ‘containment’, in order to derail social movements, no longer working?
Interesting excerpt, from Mark Heley, followed by a tentative hypothesis about the role of social media in changing the very logic of social organisation. 1. The problem “The contemporary institutions of national government, born out of the age of radio and television, are simply constitutionally incapable of processing what is happening. They are analogue institutions… Continue reading
The row over connectivist learning theory
Jenny Mackness reports about virulent critiques being expressed against the connectivism of George Siemens and Stephen Downes: (full article has links) “What is it about connectivism that stirs up such strong emotion? In my experience it has now been strongly attacked in public at least twice – the first during CCK08 by Catherine Fitzpatrick –… Continue reading
Osiris software – Establish serverless p2p communications portals
Our activities on the net are being closely monitored and there are plans in several countries to allow governments to shut down communications, as recently happened in Egypt. Tools are needed to help circumvent such blocks, so as to keep communications going even in adverse conditions. While hardware is an important choke point – physical… Continue reading
Madison in Egypt
The social and labor struggles in Madison, Wisconsin are a crucial turning point in labor history, because they happen in the heartland of Empire, after nearly 30 years of decline, and following the tipping point of 100 million concurrent strikes in India alone, in September 2010. On the one hand, it is symptomatic of a… Continue reading
Network Robustness and the Next Net
I am posting this because recently i’ve been asked about it in conversations surrounding the building of the “#nextnet” ( http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23nextnet ). While there is a plethora of work on networks and robustness / resilience, there are a few starting points: Error and attack tolerance of complex networks Réka Albert, Hawoong Jeong & Albert-László Barabási… Continue reading
Open Data Cook Book
from the Open Data Cook Book Open Data Cook Book – Making Open Data Accessible for Everyone The open data cook book is collecting recipes for ways to find and use open data, particularly open data of social value – such as open government data, or open data for campaigners and charities. Working with data… Continue reading
Fieldnotes from the Bangkok Fashion Scene
In 2010 the EduFashion team, a research project funded by the Eu, went to bangkok to look at the vibrant fashion scene there. Is the bangkok fashion system a possible model for a coming “maker culture”? read our fieldnotes (from the OpenWear blog): Lately the notion of ‘creative industries’ have had a certain salience in… Continue reading
Extending our civil rights to the virtual realm
.Over the past several weeks, men and women in many countries, including Belarus, Egypt and Tunisia, have expressed grievances related to, among others… the denial of their right to participate meaningfully in decision-making, underscoring the indivisibility of all human rights: civil, cultural, economic, political and social…We are alarmed at increasing limitations on the right to… Continue reading
Mark Pesce on Hyperempowerment, the fourth characteristic of the age of connection
Hyperempowered individuals and networks are asymmetrically empowered relative to any individual or group of individuals (whether as a collective, an organization, or an institution) not similarly hyperempowered. In any exchange, hyperempowered actors will always be more effective in achieving their aims, because in every situation they know more, and know better how to act on… Continue reading
Book of the Week (2): excerpts from Insect Media, our animal internet
* Book: Insect Media. An Archaeology of Animals and Technology. Jussi Parikka. University of Minnesota Press,2010 In our final installment dedicated to Jussa Parrika‘s book, two excerpts showing how the internet and media are extensions of animality, rather than of our humanity: Genesis of Form: Insect Architecture and Swarms From chapter II: “Social insects provided… Continue reading
How Human Ingenuity, DIY Technology, and Global R&E Networks Are Remaking the World
Gordon Cook has finished the first half of what is planned to be an extensive book-length treatment of the massive collaborative ‘optical’ networks that are being built for global science, with an application layer built on top. In this part, which is also the February-April 2011 issue of his famous newsletter, he also refers generously… Continue reading