The Printing Press, Literacy, Education, and Unalienable Rights

community :: technology :: education

There seems to be some very interesting things afoot these
days... subtle revolutions in the works... large-scale evolution taking
place. We are seeing this in all areas of society: technology, law,
government, education, religion and spirituality, and most importantly,
in the community. What follows are some outlines of things my friends
and I have been discussing.

Version 1.0

* Clergy hold monopoly on the written word

* Guttenburg's Press

* Literacy

* Higher Education

Version 2.0

* Corporations and their teams of programmers hold monopoly on software

* Open Source Software movement, improved high-level languages that everyone can learn

* Computer literacy grows

* Information for everyone; power of software generation for everyone

More thoughts on this later...

A Revolutionary's Cookbook

community

So you want to start a revolution? Well, hey, we all want to
change the world. Who are the world changers? Some of them are like
great machines that chew up everything in front of them. Others are
charismatic, fervor inspiring fanatics. There are all kinds. My
favorites, though, are the ones I model my behavior after: parents.

Take it from the Buddha: life sucks. Then we die. Then we get reborn
and have to learn all over again that life sucks. People hate this; it
makes them crazy and irritable. So, when people come in contact with
others who don't seem so upset about the fact that life sucks, it's
attractive.

We're all screwed up; it's the nature of humanity (biochemical
analog programming). We learn crap at an early age that we spend the
rest of our lives dealing with. But when we meet people who embrace
this craziness, things seem okay. We breath a little lighter. Hell, we
might even smile ;-)

Sometimes these sunny folk are even a little stable; sometimes
they're not nomadic hippies; sometimes they seem kinda normal. When
these people stick around in one area, they start to make friends --
people want to be near them. Their positive outlook is not some
bullshit facade, but rather a living reality; one that is upheld as
genuine by proof of these people's actions.

Watching them makes me realize that they treat every part of the
world as if it was their precious child. Every interaction with
existance and all its suffering is both a learning experience and a
teaching experience. I like being around this and I want to be more
like them. These people are community seedlings. They are like the
initial structure and catalyst around which crystals form. They are the
revolution.

The Second Superpower Rears its Beautiful Head

business :: management


http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/jmoore/secondsuperpower.html



Sam Jaddalah sent this to me the other day; I have been travelling in
Germany, so I haven´t had the chance to check my mail until now.
However, this article is well worth taking the time during vacation to
submit a weblog entry.


Here´s a tantalizing quote:


"There is an emerging second superpower, but it is not a nation.
Instead, it is a new form of international player, constituted by the
'will of the people' in a global social movement. "


Super power:


"This body has a beautiful mind. Web connections enable a kind of
near-instantaneous, mass improvisation of activist initiatives. For
example, the political activist group Moveon.org, which specializes in
rapid response campaigns, has an email list of more than two million
members. During the 2002 elections, Moveon.org raised more than
$700,000 in a few days for a candidate's campaign for the US senate. It
has raised thousands of dollars for media ads for peace -- and it is now
amassing a worldwide network of media activists dedicated to keeping
the mass media honest by identifying bias and confronting local
broadcasters."


What I find interesting (maybe even extra ordinary) about this is
that is puts people in the same place as huge corporations -- the
ability to mobilize federal/policatal/legislative bodies in our country
with the same lever (the only lever?): cash.




Another intersting quote:


"Meta-blogging sites crawl across thousands of blogs, identifying
popular links, noting emergent topics, and providing an instantaneous
summary of the global consciousness of the second superpower."


To this quote,


"Thus the new superpower demonstrates a new form of 'emergent
democracy' that differs from the participative democracy of the US
government. Where political participation in the United States is
exercised mainly through rare exercises of voting, participation in the
second superpower movement occurs continuously through participation in
a variety of web-enabled initiatives."


I would like to add the following: yes it differs, but it also
provides a means by which the PEOPLE can become as effective
participants in the legislative and political process as big business
and other powerful key players in government.


This makes me think of some of Frank Herbert's non-Dune science fiction works:


"The symbol of the first superpower is the eagle -- an awesome predator
that rules from the skies, preying on mice and small animals. Perhaps
the best symbol for the second superpower would be a community of ants.
Ants rule from below. And while I may be awed seeing eagles in flight,
when ants invade my kitchen they command my attention."


Okay, here he hits the bone I am picking:


"Deliberation in the first superpower is relatively formal -- dictated
by the US constitution and by years of legislation, adjudicating, and
precedent. The realpolitik of decision making in the first
superpower -- as opposed to what is taught in civics class -- centers around
lobbying and campaign contributions by moneyed special interests -- big
oil, the military-industrial complex, big agriculture, and big drugs -- to
mention only a few."

Economics, Entropy, and Management Theory

business :: management

I would like to explore the possible connections between the following:

• economics
  
  
• entropy/thermodynamics
  
  
• information theory
  
  
  
• the conservation of energy
  
  
• neural networks
  
  

Then I would like to see how one could apply findings from these
connections to management theory, specifically, the management of
networks of individuals and networks of networks within and outside
organizations.

Corporations Inherently Amoral?

business :: ethics

WHY Corporations Inherently Subvert Nature and Society

This is a curious page with interesting concepts outlined. I would
be interested to read more about this - especially the quoted source.

OneWorld.net

open business :: community :: sustainability

These guys are very interesting - they have a more general approach to what the OBF is trying to do for business. It might be a really good idea to become partners with this organization. Here are some excerpts:

our vision

OneWorld has a vision of equitable and sustainable distribution of
wealth amongst the world's population, underpinned by global attainment
and protection of human rights and by governance structures which
permit local communities control over their own affairs.

our mission

OneWorld is dedicated to harnessing the democratic potential of the
internet to promote human rights and sustainable development

OneWorld.net values:

* human rights for all as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

* sharing the world's natural and economic resources fairly

* simple and sustainable ways of life

* the right of every individual to inform and be informed, with access for all to the benefits of new technology

* participation and transparency in decision-making

* social, cultural and linguistic diversity

OneWorld seeks to respect these values in its operations and governance and to:

* work in a spirit of partnership with organisations with overlapping aims
* follow principles of not-for-profit organisations with structures of ownership which are non-beneficial
* recognise that rights of access to internet technology should be balanced by responsibilities in its application
* avoid any source of finance derived from activities which indisputably conflict with our vision and values

More good info:

our aims

OneWorld aims to be the online media gateway that most effectively
informs a global audience about human rights and sustainable development

OneWorld aims to bring together a global community working for
sustainable development through interactive online partnerships of
organisations and individuals sharing our vision

OneWorld aims to transcend geographic and linguistic barriers in our
work; in particular to give a voice to those typically overlooked by
mainstream media and policy-makers

To inquire about becoming partners: partnership@oneworld.net

Network Architectures in Business

technology :: business

No, I don't mean Foundry, Cisco, cat5, or lattency - I mean
people. I mean corporate structure... NEW corporate structure. Rohit
Anand (a friend of mine who from Techspan who is consulting for PBS
right now) and I were jamming about business, project management,
application development, and people management the other day. It was a
really great brainstorm. In my mind, the pivotal part of the
conversation was when we started talking about networks of motivated
people doing business.

The idea was that the corporate structure of today tends to crush
many motivated, highly skilled, high-energy individuals. Yet, at the
same time, many of these individuals don't really want to own a company
and all the headaches that come with this. So, what about changing the
corporate hierarchy? What about moving from the bifurcations we see on
org charts to clusters of management like you see in a neural net?

Certainly bears thinking about...

On a semi-side note, this brings be to my favorite business topic:
biology. One of my favorite things to do is look at business situations
and imagine a biological/ecological analog. It is my firm beliefe that
in the world of business, we are multi-cellular, though invertibrate
organisms. We have not developed to the point where we are thinking in
wholistic, systems terms. We don't think in terms of economies, we
think in terms of CEOs. We still think of the one cell, not all the
cells, the organism.

Internet Super Heros

Allen Lerner and I were hanging out the other day, jamming about AdytumSolutions and E-Secure Systems... he was talking about working out, and feeling better about himself - more confident, more
comfortable. As he was describing his self image and the introspection that had led him to want to redefine himself, I got the coolest visual image...

I saw something akin to the super hero transformation that occurs in the time of need: from work-a-day cloths, to flying-out-of-phone-booth tights and cape. Not that I saw Allen in tights, or anything... ;-)

But as that image soaked into my brain, it struck me how well it fit what we do - especially what E-Secure Systems does. We are the techno super-heros; all of us that work in this industry; we're like the Hall of Justice, where uptimes, network security, and customer satisfaction are the law that we support. We really started getting into this, too!

Allen called me later that night, and just went off. I was laughing my ass off. He did this whole improve on internet superheros that was just hysterical - and true.

It was just fantastic :-)

Blue Sky Factory

technology :: business

Allen Lerner of E-Secure Systems and I met with Greg Cangialosi
of Blue Sky Factory the other day. These guys are very cool and
friendly. They do internet marketing for companies in all areas of
industry.

It's nice getting to know Baltimore better; I look forward to future
visits and growing friendships there. We are talking with Greg now
about the potential of his contributing some of his knowledge and
experience to the OBF and the OBMN (Open Business Materials Network).

We shall see...

Content Contributor - Brad DeLong

open :: business :: economics

We've just heard back from Brad DeLong, the economist of UC
Berkeley fame. He has most generously agreed to let the OBF re-publish
hist works (copyrights his).

This is simply fantastic - his writings and interests are very
broad; his views are well-thought out and innovatitve; and he is
well-respected by his peers not only in the field of economics, but in
diverse other fields.

Thank you for this contribution, Dr. DeLong!

We will begin putting some of his previous articles up on the
website of the OBF once we move the site further down the beta
process...