Posts from — July 2003

did a good bit of work with matthew fuller's behind the blip today

so I'm a slacker and just now getting started writing major portions of my dissertation.

this section is where I'll report on the topics that I've worked on this day and the word count. my goal is to add around 1000 words a day until i get a complete rough draft, sometimes the word count will go up significantly per day, because I add some section that I had stored away.

my tentatitive title is:
Political Economy of the Internet: An Exploration of Production and Ideology in Open Source Software Production

or
as i like to think of it: Finish the Dissertation Now: Articulated Pieces on the Political Economy of the Internet

21C.

Issue to of the revived21C Magazine is now out. It used to be an Australian mag, but now Paul Miller is running it. Its online only at the moment, but he's been promising a print version for a while now…

Anyway loads of good stuff, including an article by my partner in 47, [sic] on Propagate, his collaboration with Shepard Fairey. The video clip doesn't seem to be working, but keep on the look out cause its impressive. And yeah, he's looking for funding to take through round through, so if you got the cash, get in touch…

[via Quadrant Crossing]

[Abstract Dynamics]

21c was a great magazine, with some good articles and interviews, i hope the tradition is maintained.

Power Laws, Political Websites, and Inequality. “Googlearchy: How a Few Heavily-Linked Sites Dominate Politics on the Web” (pdf, 300k), by Matthew Hindman and two co-authors from NEC labs, is an examination of the link structure of some 3 million politically-oriented websites.

The authors draw observations similar to those in the Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality piece: For each of the issues examined, most of the links are to sites in the top 20; and the median site gets a single inbound link. The power law still holds at lower resolution, when communities of discourse are split into subcommunities.

The bottom line: we should be careful not to confuse retrievability with visibility.

While I found the article a little verbose, there are interesting tidbits throughout – and a nice list of references.

(Thanks, Kushal!)
[Corante: Social Software]

This is a interesting bit of research, but I wonder whether this is because of the method google uses to rank sites?

Intellectual Property in Education. From the Web Tools Newsletter, a webliography of resources on IP. [Kairosnews - A Weblog for Discussing Rhetoric, Technology and Pedagogy]

This is a handy resource.

America the fascist.. An article in the newest Adbusters magazine asks the question – is America becoming fascist? (a condensed version of this article written by Anis Shivani Oct. 2002). In it, Shivani states that ‰¥þAmerican fascism is tapping into the perennial complaint against liberalism: that it doesn't provide an authentic sense of belonging to the majority of people. And that is a criticism difficult to dismiss out of hand. As the language of liberalism has become flat and predictable, some Americans have become more ready to accept an alternative, no matter how ridiculous, as long as it sounds vigorous and muscular.‰¥? More inside… [MetaFilter]

This is somewhat insightful, and i think that if people are willing to think about it, we stand less of a chance of proceeding down this path.

Lackawanna Case: No Choice But Guilty. Why do terror defendants plead guilty when they are not? Because of implied threats by the Government to treat them as “enemy combatants” and throw them in the dark hole if they don't. [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]

The choice should never be, plead guilty or disappear. The choice should be plead guilty or plead innocent, but in any case you get a fair trial.

Kerouac bobblehead. Kerouac becomes a bobblehead. From the sports promoters in Lowell, Massachusetts, to the literati, everybody thinks it's a terrific idea. “Certainly, Jack would love it,” says the executor of his estate. [MetaFilter]

this is something to add to my wish list… i have a jack kerouac poster in the server room,

And haven't been back since.

I didn't realize this place still existed. I was born there exactly 56 years ago this morning.

[The Doc Searls Weblog]

congratulations doc, many happy returns

man, i'm in a grumpy mood and i left my Paul Valery book in next to my dissertation materials(sort of on purpose), over the next few weeks I'll post some nice Valery quotes such as “man is only human in small numbers” and the like for your consideration, primarily because it has nothing to do with my dissertation, but is still well within my understanding of what is 'good stuff'. I'm looking at Valery's work on politics, mainly because, well, no one is stopping me. It has nothing to do with anything other than he is one of the most intriguing authors of the last century. It won't be in my dissertation, it won't be anything prolly other than another one of those things that i do and remember doing, and remember things from, sort of the pursuit of being 'well read' and enjoying it.

I just finished China Mieville's Scar, which follows on his world from Perdido Street Junction. It is fiction, but well done fiction. It is sort of the cyber/steam punk genre, but really it is his own world. It is about 600 pages, and you should read Perdido first. But between the two, you have some very interesting insights into many things embodied in a well written, exciting fantasy world. I suggest it to those who read fantasy, if nothing else then for the experience.

I see that Spider Robinson has a new Callahan's novel coming out. You can't beat that. I'll wait for softbound though. I'm not so big into the whole Calahan's thing, but I think he tells interesting characters and thus interesting stories follow. Its a franchise.

Speaking of franchises, if you are interested in revolutionary politics and haven't read Steve Perry's 'The Man Who Never Missed”, you are really missing out. His “97th step” is also good, though I'm not as fond as the rest of the Matadora stories.

Someone's been ditching their collection of Theodore Roczak books in the used bookstore and I've been picking them up as they show up. He has things to say today that are as appropriate as the day he wrote them, usually, though sometimes the fog of time has scarred his ideas a bit. That happens with contemporary history, i suppose.

I've also been picking up old philosophy texts from the bookstore, i'm looking for good quality ones from 1899 to 1940 and I accept gifts:) Used is preferred, under original copyright…. If i have time I'll copy some of them out to the web. There are alot of interesting opinions and ideas in these texts. I was hunting for opinions on Bergson and Nietzsche primarily, but you know anything is good if it gives context. SO SO much of what has been written before is rewritten today, it always amazes me.