civics

Let’s be honest: G7, G8, and G20 meetings have historically accomplished very little. They’re big, expensive opportunities for powerful people to get their pictures taken, trying to remind everyone how important they are (or how important they suppose themselves to be). We’ve known this for a long time. We should also admit that the corresponding [...]

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Learning to Be Open By Default

by Brian on 06-24-2010

in civics,london

This is my first post following ChangeCamp London (there will likely be one or two more) in which I’m suggesting points for probable improvement: mostly things I actively promoted through the planning process, and which I hope to see emphasized more in the future. This post argues for the need to be open throughout the process. [...]

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A recent tweet reminded me of Clay Shirky’s excellent observation: Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution. Kevin Kelly called it The Shirky Principle, using the example of unions to illustrate: Unions were a brilliant solution to the problem of capital management which tended to exploit uncapitalized workers. But [...]

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Reality Hunger: A Manifesto by David Shields One of 2010′s most talked written-about books. For anyone interested in writing and storytelling this might be worth owning and occasionally flipping through for inspiration. A lot of great insights about truth and fiction — and whether either can really exist in pure form — much of which [...]

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Notes on Satire

by Brian on 06-05-2010

in art,civics,creativity,culture

I worry I enjoy ambiguity, irony, “meta” and satire a little too much. I’m worried my last post about copyright laws might seem too resentful (it is somewhat resentful — regretfully) because I genuinely sympathize with all sides. In the case of copyright, I appreciate the economic [and social!] stability it enables, and I want [...]

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Yesterday’s announcement of new copyright legislation in Canada was met with the expected array of complaints from complainers, aka bloggers, slackers, n’er-do-wells, social deviants, hipsters, and cultural parasites. They received the news as an affront to their supposed “freedom” to exchange intellectual and aesthetic work and reshape existing artifacts into new “creations.” The dispute comes [...]

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My book is finished and available for purchase, download, or reading online. Sorry if you don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook, where I already mentioned it a few days ago. This is the formal “announcement.” Description: Truth, Will & Relevance outlines an innovative way to understand human nature and conduct — conceived specifically to address [...]

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The whole process relies on failure. People have to be willing to accept failure and admit to mistakes, or the process won’t work properly. If we artificially hide information to deny failures — whether it’s done in the name of positive thinking or is simply a manifestation of anti-social self-interest — then the process becomes [...]

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How It Happened Last night a group of us got together to discuss ChangeCamp London and different opportunities for fostering a more collaborative & open culture in London. It was a great meeting and we’ll see some good things coming together in the near future. With that still fresh in my mind, I noticed a [...]

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Minds for Sale

by Brian on 03-04-2010

in civics,economics,web

This talk is causing me to reconsider many assumptions and ideals. For the most part I still believe in cultivating more creative and educational autonomy for ourselves in order to overcome the digital sharecropping and sweatshop-type mind labour that critics are warning us about. Ultimately I keep coming back to my belief (for now it is based largely on faith) [...]

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