Open Life: The Philosophy of Open Source, by Henrik Ingo
Via: Enterprise Open Source News Desk
‘Open Life: The Philosophy of Open Source’ is a newly published book about Open Source ideology and business models. It is divided into 4 parts covering the topic from different angels. Part one introduces the general concept of openness, part two Open Source ideology and values, along with prominent personalities like Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman, part three is an exhaustive study in Linux businesses and their business models and finally part four is an introduction into the emerging trend of applying Open Source ideology and methods to non-technical fields, like Wikipedia or Creative Commons.
“One goal of the book was to introduce Open Source thinking to people who may not yet have been that exposed to it, perhaps because they are not experts in the field of computing. There is currently a strong trend of Open Source methods being applied in all kinds of fields, and I wanted to write in a style understandable to everyone, yet interesting enough also to people who already know a lot about Open Source would like to read it too”, the author, Henrik Ingo, explains…

Annihilation from Within, by Fred Ikle
(From John Robb of Global Guerrillas.)
I just finished an excellent new book by Fred Ikle, the distinguished defense and foreign policy scholar, called Annihilation from Within. It was a surprisingly good and a mercifully short (in the sense that he quickly gets to the point without needless repetition) read. I heartily recommend it for all readers of this site since Fred’s work is a natural compliment to the work being done here on global guerrillas.
Here’s Fred’s argument in a nutshell. The global order we enjoy today is unravelling. The reason is simple. Technological change is moving forward faster than social/political change. Eventually, ubiquitous access to rapidly advancing technology will make it possible for small groups to confront status quo political and social structures with weapons of mass destruction — nuclear, biological, and other unknown new technologies. Since our antiquated nation-states are not constructed to withstand these challenges the results will be devastating: some states will completely collapse, others will turn into police states, and some will be taken over by coups (he lays out a scenario for how these weapons can be used to take control of a state). In short, most of the damage that will be done won’t be from the attacks themselves, but from the societal response to the attacks (hence the name: Annihilation from Within). He completes the book by providing us with some ideas on how to mitigate the societal damage — continuity of leadership, detection, unity, and territorial sovereignty.

Wireless Networking in the Developing World, by Rob Flickenger, Corinna “Elektra” Aichele, Carlo Fonda, Jim Forster, Ian Howard, Tomas Krag, and Marco Zennaro.
(From the book’s website.)
The project
The massive popularity of wireless networking has caused equipment costs to continually plummet, while equipment capabilities continue to increase. By applying this technology in areas that are badly in need of critical communications infrastructure, more people can be brought online than ever before, in less time, for very little cost. We hope to not only convince you that this is possible, but also show how we have made such networks work, and to give you the information and tools you need to start a network project in your local community.
The book
This book was created by a team of individuals who each, in their own field, are actively participating in the ever-expanding Internet by pushing its reach farther than ever before. Over a period of a few months, we have produced a complete book that documents our efforts to build wireless networks in the developing world.

You can download the book in PDF form as a single file (2.0 MB), or in chapters.

Born Again Ideology, by Arthur Kroker
(Via bewareofthegod.com)
[The below is] excerpted from ‘Born Again Ideology’[…]. [Kroker] is an editor and theorist on CTheory, a Canada-based online journal of theory, technology, culture and media.
In the whole grand-view article, Kroker outlines the extraordinarily convenient convergence of a particular kind of Christianity, global neo-liberalism, and the imperial militaristic project of the US.
It’s a long, dense and poetic piece of writing, that must have been written with an opera playing loudly somewhere.

“The New Protestant Ethic

One hundred years after the publication of Max Weber’s classic text, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the fateful relationship between Protestantism and capitalism has been renewed in American political discourse. Except this time it is no longer the original convergence theorized by Weber between the spirit of Calvinism and acquisitive capitalism whereby Christianity was destined to be ultimately secondary to the unfolding historical project of capitalism, but the opposite. In a contemporary political climate marked by the resurgence seemingly everywhere of faith-based politics, capitalism and its historical correlate — modernism — have actually folded back on themselves, quickly reversing modernist codes of economic secularism and political pluralism, in the interests of being reanimated with the evangelical spirit of religious fundamentalism. What Weber foresaw as a primal compact between Calvinism and acquisitive capitalism — this migration, first in Europe and then in Puritan America, of Puritan attitudes towards personal salvation based on giving witness by habits of frugality, hard work, and discipline into the essentially acquisitive spirit of capitalism — has been renewed in new key. On the centennial of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the political universe is suddenly dominated by the spirit of what might be called the New Protestant Ethic as the ideological reflex of the age of networked capitalism and empire politics.
Animated by apocalyptic visions of the days of wrath announcing the Second Coming of Christ, motivated by feverish aspirations to be counted among the spiritually elect in the coming age of division between the Predestined and the Left Behind, witness to the vengeful spirit of the Old Testament, literal in its biblical interpretations, monistic in its drive to hegemony among the world religions, in active revolt against secularism, in bitter rebellion against pluralism, the New Protestant Ethic is the foundational creed of contemporary American politics….”

Creative Man, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies
From the Official site of Creative Man
Creative Man contains a likely scenario for the near future and a model for explaining the behaviour of modern man, with a focus on the increasing societal and individual need for creativity.
A growing part of the labour force will be working with creativity and innovation in one way or another. In part because it is necessary for competition, but also because an increasing amount of employees will prefer it.
Creative Man is about future creationists and their impact on our society. The book explains the logic and drive behind “creative man” and analyses which consequences it will incur within areas such as future education, professions and media.
The book received a lot of attention as well as enthusiastic responses from both business people and artists, and the two first printings were quickly sold out. Originally it was only printed in Danish, but because of its popularity, the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies has now decided to produce an English version. We have also decided to make the document available for free download on the Internet in order to spread the ideas as widely as possible for the benefit of everyone.

A printed edition of “Creative Man” in english can be ordered at a low price of €10 (or DKK 75) + VAT and handling. Please specify that it is the English version you want. We offer discounts for orders of 25 copies or more. Read or download Creative Man

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