In the Lion’s Den at the home of techno utopianism – the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School.
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Net religion vs Organized religion
Net religion bumped into real, organized religion again at the Berkman Center’s Votes, Bits Bytes conference today, held at Harvard University’s Law School. The subject couldn’t be more topical. In the recent elections, church-based groups got out the vote. Despite the view that a blogger’s vote is worth ten ordinary votes, real religion triumphed Internet … Read more
Netizens: white, wealthy and middle class (and full of it)
“The Internet is becoming more and more widespread and will increasingly represent a scientific random sample of the population,” claims ICANN’s newest board member, Joi Ito. Quite what scientific experiments he will wish to perform, once the desired sample size has been reached, remains a mystery. But like many people who spend too long in front of their computers, he’s talking about a Platonic ideal rather than the real world.
A survey by the US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration shows that the internet has entrenched the divide between rich and poor, and the races. Statistics reveal an internet that’s overwhelmingly white, wealthy and urban. And the net’s best days may even be behind it. The pace of internet adoption has tapered off to a trickle, with a substantial part of the population not interested in the internet at any price.
Does US politics need a Nerd Party?
A newspaper columnist has called for the old-fashioned, “left wing” Democratic Party to be replaced by a new, emergent party of computer nerds.
Dan Gillmor of Silicon Valley’s San Jose Mercury urges the Democrats to abandon “old, discredited politics”, while an “increasingly radical middle” needs a new party with some “creative thinking”. From where will this come? In a column published the same day, he tells us.
Writing before the outcome was known, Gillmor enthuses about “the most exciting development … the new world of cyber-politics,” where the “expanded horizons” on offer should cancel out the groupthink, which he briefly acknowledges, and lead to greater accountability and participation.
Such settler rhetoric – “new world”, “horizons” – is familiar stuff from techno utopians. So too is the hope, amongst many intelligent, impatient people with a reluctance to develop their social skills, that we must be able to do better. (Bill Gates doesn’t have the patience or inclination to watch TV, and many internet activists don’t have the patience or inclination to persuade a stranger, which is a lot more difficult and unrewarding.)
We briefly heard about “Emergent Democracy” last Spring, although it disappeared in about the time it takes you to say “Second Superpower”. But we’re sure to hear more about this itchy, push-button, “interactive” version of democracy, a kind of thumbs down at the Roman Coliseum, in the future. Maybe Dan will become its Arthur Schlesinger.
In The City keynote: How the music business can be loved
A plea to legalise P2P file sharing. I now favour voluntary approach to the same goal. Read the original transcript here.
How Wikipedia ‘will make universities obsolete’
For most web surfers, the Wikipedia is simply an occasionally useful online resource that needs to be taken with a huge sackful of salt. For others, it’s a poor excuse for a real encylopedia. But for its proponents, it’s nothing short of revolutionary! It’s Emergent, you see. A column by veteran tech writer Al Fasoldt … Read more
BBC Newsnight: the Google IPO
Transcript at the BBC site, here.
Hungover CNET wakes up next to MP3.com
What a night out that was. It must have seemed like a good idea at the time… On Friday morning CNET woke up to find it was sharing a bed with MP3.com, and couldn’t quite recollect how the pair of them had got there. We’ve all had nights like this, but yesterday CNET staffers were … Read more
One blogger is worth ten votes – Harvard man
Working in his secret laboratory at Harvard University, a Fellow of the prestigious institution has come up with a formula that rocks electoral maths to its core.
Former software developer Dave Winer has worked out that one weblogger is worth ten ordinary voters, and he revealed the results of his complex calculations to Wired this week.
Normally we avoid ten-a-penny Internet cranks. The gaffe-prone former software developer has put his foot in his mouth so many times it probably qualifies for a residential parking permit.
But we did the maths ourselves – and were confounded. His work could indeed have far-reaching social consequences.
The 1001 Politics of the Archive
“The implications of Google have real implications for mass social procedure, on how we enquire,. “It’s so much bigger than terrifying – it’s Interesting.”
An early look at Googlephilia, for a panel discussion at the Next 5 Minutes festival in Amsterdam, 13 September 2003.
