Politics, the environment, technology, activism. And stuff.
Posted in General on Jun 20th, 2008
The always-insightful Mark Schmitt has some interesting thoughts on the significance of internet-enabled low-transaction-cost issue organizing: Low transaction-cost organizing will present many challenges to the way we think about politics and how to regulate it. Much of the regulation of money in politics, for example, is based on limiting organized money (PACs, bundling) because some people can organize and [...]
Posted in General on Jun 19th, 2008
Reading about the floods on the Mississippi makes me think of John McPhee’s masterful 1989 book “The Control of Nature” in which he talks about New Orleans’ three hundred year battle against the Mississippi. In this age of hurricanes and floods, McPhee’s work is still visionary and clear-sighted. I can’t recommend it highly [...]
Posted in General on Jun 19th, 2008
Kevin Kelley rolls a great little neologism, “Scenius”: Scenius is like genius, only embedded in a scene rather than in genes. Brian Eno suggested the word to convey the extreme creativity that groups, places or “scenes” can occasionally generate. His actual definition is: “Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. It is [...]
Posted in General on Jun 13th, 2008
A few random ideas for talks I’d like to see at Plone Conference 2008. In case anybody needs some inspiration. Chime in with your ideas! Name names! Even better, propose one of these talks! (Note: there are probably lots of talks I’d love to see that aren’t on this list, I just couldn’t think of [...]
Posted in General on Jun 2nd, 2008
Gavin Clabaugh’s got a fun (and wise) new riff on the larger forces shaping our world: I see this third force everywhere. I see it hiding inside the inaccurately named thing called “social networking. I see it embedded in “American Idol.†It follows me to the grocery store. It wakes me up at night. It’s busy [...]