Thinking about movements.org

Some questions you might ask as you analyze movements.org:

1. who founded it?
2. why?
3. what are the goals of the site?
4. what does the group support?
5. what does the group oppose?
6. who supports the group?
7. does it seem like there is a lot of interactivity/participation on the site?
8. what are some of the noteworthy design features?

Ptoww! 2009 Summit

Joe Bageant: Algorithms and Red Wine

(Excerpt from a terrific post by a writer who wrote from the perspective of the poor, unemployed, and over-worked people, the folks the Democratic party and liberal left left behind in the 90s. The whole piece is good, an engagement with some of the problems Lanier engages, written in a very accessible style. Joe died yesterday.)

Joe Bageant: Algorithms and Red Wine:

"On the other hand, this whole business of the new hive cybernetic connectivity, could be just a swarm of data bits with no particular significance, in and of themselves, other than the magical thinking belief that they do. Which ain’t no small thing, given that what we agree upon as reality is achieved by social consensus. Hell, to some people Beelzebub still stalks the earth. To others, America is a free republic, not a company town. We all have our hallucinations.

One thing for sure. Most people in the (over)developed world think the connectivity and speed of the algorithms behind the cyberhive are worth it. Even teachers teach to a standardized test so students will conform to an algorithm, and if that ain’t hive mind, I don’t know what is."

Diverting the Radicalization Track | Hoover Institution

Diverting the Radicalization Track | Hoover Institution:

"The challenge of alternatives is not about promoting democracy; it is about diverting at-risk populations from the grip of extremist actors so that such populations have space to experience the freedom to choose. In many cases, the violent extremists exert their grip through religious arguments, which disguise their own extremist goals by hiding them behind religion and the supposed religious battle. Exploiting religion in this way helps extremists. And while religion is of course not irrelevant in the fight against extremism, and while we must understand Islam so as to reflect sensitivities in the religion and its cultural milieus, it remains true that extremists would love nothing more than to engage us in a religious debate we cannot win. We should not play into their aspiration; instead, we should engage at-risk groups based on the needs of the people — young people — who comprise them."

...

"As a result of what new technology offers, the current generation of youth is the most individually empowered generation yet. They can act one way at home and in their communities and have a completely different identity over the internet or through their mobile phones. Because the digital and technological world offers young people opportunities to generate their own media and entertainment, they are learning critical thinking through self-exploration, and they are practicing digital democracy on a daily basis, even if they claim to despise the very concept of democracy. Without their keyboards, remotes, and telephones, they assume a real-life political, religious, ethnic, or nationalist identity. Behind the technology, many of these “digital natives” are beginning to identify with a transnational youth identity. Call it a “youth party” or simply a trend. But many of these youths seem to embrace platforms that facilitate interaction, expression, self-generated media, and expansion of social networks as defining features."

...

"The entrepreneurial spirit of the private sector (especially technology companies such as Google, Yahoo, and Facebook) and its desire to expand into new markets offers a tremendous opportunity in that the U.S. government need not start efforts from scratch, create new forums, or even seek to influence the direction of these independent business enterprises. Its ambition should be to partner with companies that capture the imagination and attention of impressionable young people by virtue of what they do for profit — profit which drives their creativity and success. Whether this is Facebook and the civil liberties, platforms, and global connectivity it provides; or Yahoo and its communication services; or Google and its expansive search engines, the private sector is offering alternatives that have global appeal and universal penetration. The U.S. government must work with these companies to expand the reach and scope of what they do.

For example, Howcast.com is an American focused company that serves as a one-stop shop for “how-to” videos. The U.S. government could use this website’s platforms to make inroads into at-risk environments by creating “how-to” videos on, say, using social networks for protest and mobile phones for freedom of expression, and for providing instructions on how to get around Internet censorship. The U.S. government has, in fact, already started working with Facebook to build worldwide, grassroots movements against violence."

Facebooking for Change

Facebooking for Change:

"We are in the midst of uncertain times, but I am hopeful about the future because young people are using Facebook for change in every corner of the globe. They are building civil society in places never before imaginable, standing up to violent extremism wherever it exists and for the first time, are really aware of their value as a demographic. As a government employee who focuses on youth empowerment and countering violent extremism, all I can say is a big fat thank you to Silicon Valley for creating the most important opening of our time.

Inspired by this phenomenon, Facebook, Access 360 Media, Columbia Law School, Google, Howcast, MTV, YouTube, and the U.S. Department of State are bringing leaders of 17 pioneering organizations from 15 countries together with technology experts next month for the first-ever conclave to empower youth against violence and oppression through the use of the latest online tools."

How I became a soldier in the Georgia-Russia cyberwar. - By Evgeny Morozov - Slate Magazine

How I became a soldier in the Georgia-Russia cyberwar. - By Evgeny Morozov - Slate Magazine:

"Not knowing exactly how to sign up for a cyberwar, I started with an extensive survey of the Russian blogosphere. My first anonymous mentor, as I learned from this blog post, became frustrated with the complexity of other cyberwarfare techniques used in this campaign and developed a simpler and lighter 'for dummies' alternative. All I needed to do was to save a copy of a certain Web page to my hard drive and then open it in my browser. I was warned that the page wouldn't work with Internet Explorer but did well with Firefox and Opera. (Get with the program, Microsoft!) Once accessed, the page would load thumbnailed versions of a dozen key Georgian Web sites in a single window. All I had to do was set the page to automatically update every three to five seconds. Voil�: My browser was now sending thousands of queries to the most important Georgian sites, helping to overload them, and it had taken me only two to three minutes to set up."

ThinkProgress � Koch Industries Employs PR Firm To Airbrush Wikipedia, Gets Banned For Unethical ‘Sock Puppets’

ThinkProgress � Koch Industries Employs PR Firm To Airbrush Wikipedia, Gets Banned For Unethical ‘Sock Puppets’:

"Last year, Koch Industries began employing New Media Strategies (NMS), an Internet PR firm that specializes in “word-of-mouth marketing” for major corporations including Coca-Cola, Burger King, AT&T, Dodge and Ford. It appears that, ever since the NMS contract was inked with Koch, an NMS employee began editing the Wikipedia page for “Charles Koch,” “David Koch,” “Political activities of the Koch family,” and “The Science of Success” (a book written by Charles). Under the moniker of “MBMAdmirer,” NMS employees edited Wikipedia articles to distance the Koch family from the Tea Party movement, to provide baseless comparisons between Koch and conspiracy theories surrounding George Soros, and to generally delete citations to liberal news outlets. After administrators flagged the MBMAdmirer account as a “sock puppet” — one of many fake accounts used to manipulate new media sites — a subsequent sock puppet investigation found that MBMAdmirer is connected to a number of dummy accounts and ones owned by NMS employees like Jeff Taylor."

March 24 Class

You are on your own today.

Blog the class. In real time. Starting now.

There are different ways to do this--everyone; a couple of scribes, a couple of scribe-watchers; reporters, editors, critics; proclaimers and responders; pros and cons--what dynamic makes sense? Maybe folks with cameras want to post video blogs. Maybe different layers or versions--initial responses and immediate conversation, then compilation, design, synthesis, rethink.

What to post? Tell me who's there, who's missing, what you're feeling or thinking. Describe your process (how are you figuring out what to do since I'm not in the room)? There's a lot to do, can you get organized quickly? How? What are you doing to make this work? 

Is blogging while trying to discuss this stuff helpful or harmful? Why? If it's harmful, what should you do to meet the requirement that you blog the class and at the same time actually discuss something and put together something informative and creative?

It can't be all form, though. You need content. 

Use the class time to discuss what Andrejevic has to say about iWar and iPolitics. Your blogs (live from today's class, in real time) need to report what you are getting from the reading. What is he saying that matters? Do you agree? Why or why not? What do others think? Is there consensus? Division? Confusion? How are you dealing with this?

I think it makes sense to identify key insights and then raise questions. I also think it makes sense to highlight details, concepts, claims, and arguments.*

But you might have something else in mind--what? Is it worth going with? Then do that. 

Can you present the material, the ideas, the questions, the stuff that matters in a compelling way (are lists actually pretty good ways to summarize and transmit information)? Images? Video? Dialogues? Cartoons? What can you do/make that you'll be proud of in the limited time you have?

LocationS11: Heads up!! Change in syllabus!!

LocationS11: Heads up!! Change in syllabus!!:

"Heads up!! Change in syllabus!!

I've made a couple of changes in the syllabus for after spring break. Here are the changes. Please make sure that you note them on your syllabus and are prepared for the changes.

3/22 Marc Andrejevic, iSpy, chapters 1-2

3/24 Marc Andrejevic, iSpy, chapter 6-7

3/29 'Google's Revolution Factory' --Alliance of Youth Movements
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23283

look through and analyze this website: http://www.movements.org/.

'Diverting the Radicalization Track'

Be sure to read the summit reports (links available at both sites).

What is this group? What does it do? How do you know? Are these good guys?
Why or why not?"

Mapping Election Fraud with an SMS Reporting System - Haiti Rewired

(a number of the people mentioned in this article are affiliated with AYM)

Mapping Election Fraud with an SMS Reporting System - Haiti Rewired:

"Inside a dark, mildly air-conditioned room at the Jeune Ayiti Centre de Projets in downtown PetionVille, 12 people sporting “Obsevate” t-shirts sat around the table with their laptops and smartphones. It was March 20, Election Day in Haiti. A small TV off to the side played an England soccer game, but attention was mainly focused front and center to a projection screen displaying a Google Map of Haiti. The map was covered in green house icons with a few red flags scattered around the countryside, testaments to incidents of voting fraud or irregularities that polling station supervisors had reported via an SMS text message.

They were updating the Mwen Konte voting map, a Google map generated from a database of SMS text message reports of irregularities and fraud in the voting process. Cell phones are the communications backbone in Haiti, and they figured prominently in the little-noticed effort to provide transparency in the electoral process, which is typically riddled with fraud and corruption. Sunday's election was the second round of voting after the initial Nov election unraveled amid allegations of fraud. The two candidates that remain are Mirlande Manigat, a seasoned politician and former First Lady, and Michel Martelly, a charismatic show-boater who rose to fame from a career as a pop star."

Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular: a cognitive teardown of the user experience

Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular: a cognitive teardown of the user experience:

"Mystery is that second layer of attributes that are present but undefined explicitly, yet somehow created with just enough context to consume mental resources in subtle and compelling ways. At its most basic level, experiencing mystery in what we interact with makes you ask the question, “Why did they do that?”. What we mean here is, “Why did they do that? – A good thing, not “What were they thinking? – A bad thing. If you think carefully about the experiences you have in the ebb and flow of life, you realize that the most compelling are those that force you to think long and hard about why a given thing is the way it is. For example, why did Frank Gehry create the Guggenheim Museum Bilboa using the shapes he did? The famous architect could have created any shape concept, but why did he choose those shapes? It’s a mystery – we do not know and probably neither does he. What we do know is that his creation is cited as one of the most important works of contemporary architecture. In the same way that a building can captivate millions of sightseers, the element of mystery (conceptual depth) can help sell a few million copies of a simple interactive game."