Culture

In a Corrupt Society, Cheaters Feel Righteous

Submitted by jesse on Fri, 01/18/2013 - 12:41
Ben

In a society that is corrupt, cheaters are fueled by a sense of righteousness. Driving on the 401 near Brockville, listening to NPR, this is what I hear Daniel Coyle say, reacting to Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah.

It's a fantastic insight as to why someone like Lance would not only cheat, but continue to do everything he can to deny that it is cheating.

It also speaks to the larger culture, and the impact that sensational cheaters have, given the attention and spectacle that surrounds their rise and fall.

The righteousness arises from the perception, that not only is everyone else cheating, but that by cheating more, you're beating the cheaters at their own game.

Blogging Your Way to Hollywood

Submitted by jesse on Tue, 01/15/2013 - 16:43

This past weekend was the third iteration of my Getting Paid in the Knowledge Economy course, and one of the things I preach to my students is the importance of regular writing, especially blogging. At the very least as a means of working on your word craft, but also as a way of letting the world into your head. You never know what other people will see and like.

One of my students and friends Neil Andersen shared an article that reinforces this point.

In Hollywood the search for creative talent and ideas knows no end, and the folks there are always hungry for more. Turns out their increasingly turning to social media as a source, especially blogs, as the more writing that is available, the more likely they're able to find what they're looking for, even if it is rough and requiring work.

Hackers, Sexism, and the Tyranny of Structurelessness

Submitted by jesse on Wed, 01/02/2013 - 19:10

Information activist, disruptive journalist, citizen technologist, blogger, and internaut extraordinaire Asher Wolf has written an open letter to the Hacker Community that is a must read. I follow Asher on Twitter (via my emergent list) and was also following the recent Chaos Computer Club Congress which happened over the holidays.

Unfortunately it is not uncommon for hacker-related events to have melodrama as a consequence of the pervasive libertarian ethos the culture embraces.

An exercise in Cyberpunk Surrealism

Submitted by jesse on Mon, 01/17/2011 - 12:30

When the calendar year comes to a close people get into the habit of reflection and forward thinking regarding where they've come from and where they want to go. New Year Resolutions are one way to articulate this kind of thinking, and while I tend to avoid such arbitrary expressions, I decided to put upon myself a worthy challenge that could fuse a bunch of my interests while also making me exercise in an intellectual and creative way that I've not done for some time.

I've always wanted to produce my own internet show, but I'm never able to make the time or find the right configuration or playing partner. Lately however I'm spending a fair bit of time researching YouTube and video on the net in general. That gave me a rather ludicrous and intimidating idea.

I'm going to try and produce a YouTube video for every day of 2011. They will be available via my Openflows YouTube channel.

10 Things You Can Do To Change The World

Submitted by jesse on Thu, 07/01/2010 - 13:06

"Those not busy being born are busy dying" Bobby Dylan

On the weekend of June 26th, Toronto underwent a transformation. A new generation of activists were politicized, and in many cases radicalized. Also, a new generation of journalists were born, products of a long-awaited fusion of traditional and new media. For me, it was a return to days of old, going back a decade to when I was young and radical.

So I was there, on the streets, providing coverage and witnessing history. I'm still processing the insights and emotions triggered by the events, and I finally have time to put down some thoughts. Rather than focus purely on what happened, I'd rather share my story in the form of advice for how to move forward.

Resisting Internet Orthodoxy

Submitted by jesse on Thu, 10/29/2009 - 22:37

I've been thinking a lot about what makes the work I do and the ideas I have different from my contemporaries. Rather facetiously, I talk about the internet as a new religion embraced by the masses in search of salvation. By resisting internet orthodoxy, I deliberately try to see our society and its relationship with technology in a unique manner.

This begins with refusing to use the same jargon and phrases as others, and playing with words to find more accessible and meaningful ways of explaining trends and phenomena. The internet is full of technical concepts that have exclusive and rigid meanings.

Yet the power and resilience of the internet is derived from its open nature, so it only makes sense that we embrace freedom when we talk and think about related ideas and concepts. I do this by generally distrusting technical authorities, including early adopters, technology executives, and I.T. admins. I respect their knowledge, but always question whether their perspective has the potential to be transfered to people who aren't in a position of technical authority (the vast majority of us).

When it comes to the world of social media, which is both technical and non-technical, elitist and also accessible, I find myself consistently frustrated by the level of "group think." In contrast to other technical areas, social media accommodates anyone and everyone, so jargon isn't an acceptable vocabulary to control the discussion and analysis.

What you commonly find is a spoken and unspoken orthodoxy, rules that dictates how tools should be used and people should act. The problem is that this stifles innovation and doesn't allow for the kind of true experimentation we should be seeing in this sector.

Public relations, marketing and advertising people lament the rash of social media experts who project their own industry orthodoxy onto an emergent discipline. Few understand the dynamic involved when in a long chain of diverse individuals and organizations who have a range of expertise culturally acclimatize their own networks and friends.

The seeds of this kind of internet orthodoxy were sown in Ursula Franklin's definition of technology as being "how we do things around here". The variable comes in how we define where we are, with the internet collapsing space into time and everyone being "here" at some point in time.

It's Become a Story About Speed

Submitted by jesse on Tue, 06/03/2008 - 08:37

As I started my day I tuned into to watch my friends on CBC News Morning and the lead story is about more massive cuts and layoffs at General Motors. While this is obviously an economic and labour story, Danielle Bochove at one point summed up the situation when she said, "It's become a story about speed."

GM had already made cuts and plans to respond to rising fuel prices, however they were clearly not enough. In fact GM found that the speed by which the economy is changing is far faster than expected, as is the speed by which consumers are buying smaller cars.

Unfortunately the Canadian Auto Workers had just concluded a new contract with GM, and these announcements effectively undermine it, showing the drastic measures GM is taking.