We have to make a choice: divert more & more energy to avoid & repair leak after leak or come to terms with an open world. # This is the big ethical and practical choice we need to confront. Every time we choose to keep even the smallest secrets we sow seeds that’ll grow into [...]
Tagged as:
cablegate,
epistemology,
foreign affairs,
government,
history,
internet,
julian assange,
knowledge,
love of learning,
news,
open government,
philosophy,
politics,
process,
secrecy,
transparency,
truth,
wikileaks
It took me most of my young life to figure this out. After growing up as a precocious political junkie I got jaded pretty early. I grew up in a rural conservative family but somehow, deep-down I’m an urban technophile who often hopes there’s no problem that walkable neighbourhoods and Twitter hashtags can’t solve. In [...]
Tagged as:
cities,
conservatism,
democracy,
design ego,
elections,
government,
ideology,
moral psychology,
motivation,
politics,
pragmatism,
progressivism,
purpose,
relevance,
values,
voting,
will to relevance
We had an interesting exchange on Twitter the other day, about the lack of attention given by the media to lesser-known election candidates. Partially aside, it was the kind of thing I’ve been hoping to see for a while — a lively backchannel discussion about how local politics news is covered — and I hope [...]
Tagged as:
blogging,
conversation,
elections,
ideas,
journalism,
leadership,
linking,
politics,
reporting,
social media,
twitter
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 [...]
Tagged as:
change,
collaborative democracy,
g20,
g8,
global politics,
open society,
politics,
protests,
social justice,
toronto
A few of us travelled from London to a ChangeCamp event in Toronto Tuesday night to help design a civic engagement toolkit: We see the municipal elections in 2010 as an excuse to gather people together to have real dialogues about the future of our communities. We believe that open source approaches can enable those conversations [...]
Tagged as:
change,
changecamp,
co-creation,
collaboration,
collaborative democracy,
conversation,
democracy,
ldnbeta,
participation,
politics,
rhetoric
I’ve learned not to care as much when other people are being stupid. It’s their problem. Last year I did more blogging in the spirit of “someone’s wrong on the internet,” but lately I’ve learned to lay off and let people screw up. (I’m so kind.) When I started writing about media it was because [...]
Tagged as:
collaboration,
complaints,
criticism,
government,
ideas,
open government,
opinions,
optimism,
pessimism,
politics,
pragmatism
I enthusiastically support Stephen Harper’s decision to prorogue parliament… Here’s why. Proponents of more open, participatory, and directly accountable government have just been handed the best opportunity we could ask for. It’s a turning point in the narrative of centralized power that began with Jean Chrétien’s run in the 90s and has built up ever since. [...]
Tagged as:
activism,
canada,
citizen engagement,
facebook,
government,
open,
parliament,
politics,
prorogation,
public sphere,
slacktivism,
social media,
stephen harper
There’s no way to avoid the reality that strikes will make people upset, but maybe we can do more to avoid them altogether. That suggestion was made by Larry Cornies in great column in Saturday’s London Free Press, arguing we’re overdue to consider the damage caused by strikes and lockouts, time to think more imaginatively about [...]
Tagged as:
deception,
government,
labour,
london transit,
manipulation,
negotiation,
open government,
openness,
politics,
society change,
strikes,
transparency,
unions,
work
Few people would disagree that as more brands & memes vie for our attention, the simple act of communicating has become an accelerating arms race. We shouldn’t necessarily complain. Not more than a decade ago it would have been impossible for most of us to get any kind of public attention for our products or [...]
Tagged as:
attention,
cultural evolution,
development,
generativity,
history,
learning,
open/conceptual,
politics,
public relations,
public sphere,
social media,
web
Brogan says it’s ok to do these so, ok, here’s the best of my posts about London Ontario so far. I noticed when I started putting them together they sort of make a case… but you’ll have to create your own adventure! First, some background criticism on our mostly unconnected city: Should London Exist? Ontario [...]
Tagged as:
cities,
digital media,
london,
london ontario,
london's social media mafia,
open democracy,
podcamp london,
politics,
social media,
web
by Brian on 10-08-2009
in media
Thanks to the miracle of aggregation and analytics we now have a lot more rankings and crap than we know how to use — so many handy ways to see who has the most authority, influence, power, popularity… Reminds me a little of Pandora’s Box — eh? One thing hasn’t quite made it out of [...]
Tagged as:
bloggers,
intellectuals,
knowledge,
news,
opinion,
politics,
rankings,
reporting,
trust,
web
