Anonymous & Anthropology of Hacking (02/11/11, anthropology.net)
Anthropology of Hackers (09/21/11, Atlantic Monthly)
Hacker Culture and Politics (Draft Syllabus Spring 2010) course at NYU by Gabriella Coleman
Reference: How We Use Social Media in Emergencies
Advanced Cyber/IO, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Mobile, Real TimeHow We Use Social Media During Emergencies [INFOGRAPHIC]
Mashable
The use of social media during national and international crises, both natural and political, is something that Mashable has followed with great interest over the past few years.
As a culture, we started becoming more aware of the power of social media during times of crisis, like when the Iran election in 2009 caused a furor, both on the ground and on Twitter. More recently, the Internet and social media played an important role in spreading news about the earthquake in Haiti and political revolution in Egypt.
But what about other kinds of natural disasters or crime? Can social media be used to good effect then?
OpenBTS GSM Simplified — Freeing Humanity
Advanced Cyber/IO, Autonomous Internet, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Hacking, Mobile, Real Time, Tools
OpenBTS is an open-source Unix application that uses the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) to present a GSM air interface (“Um”) to standard GSM handset and uses the Asterisk® software PBX to connect calls. The combination of the ubiquitous GSM air interface with VoIP backhaul could form the basis of a new type of cellular network that could be deployed and operated at substantially lower cost than existing technologies in greenfields in the developing world.
In plain language, we are working on a new kind of cellular network that can be installed and operated at about 1/10 the cost of current technologies, but that will still be compatible with most of the handsets that are already in the market. This technology can also be used in private network applications (wireless PBX, rapid deployment, etc.) at much lower cost and complexity than conventional cellular.
Project News (Last Updated 17 January 2011)
Kestrel Signal Processing OpenBTS Page with Links
OpenBTS YouTube Short Videos (Just Over 30)
Phi Beta Iota: This is as close to “world-changing” as it gets. Neither Microsoft nor the cellular providers–nor the governments whose people stand to gain the most (but whose corrupt politicians prefer the status quo)–want to surf this wave, they would rather fight it. If there were ONE social networking initiative that is guaranteed to change the world for the better, this is the one. In our always humble opinion.
Disagree, but Engage–Free and Fair Elections in USA?
Civil Society, Cultural IntelligenceDisagree, but engage: That's civility
On issues ranging from abortion to guns, it is possible for adversaries to find common ground
February 10, 2011|By Robert Fersh and Andrew L. Yarrow
EXTRACT: These processes are most successful when participants have strong, informed opinions and can make a difference if they reach agreement. This was the case in the U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project, where 34 diverse American leaders joined in an influential consensus report in 2008 to show a way forward for the United States in its relations with Muslim majority countries. The group included a former Clinton administration secretary of state, former Republican members of Congress, high-ranking former officials of the George W. Bush administration, 11 Muslim-American leaders, a former director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, clergy of differing faiths, and others. Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota, said: “This report provides clear-headed ideas and analysis that the American public and bipartisan leaders can get behind in working to improve U.S.-Muslim relations. The process by which the group reached consensus is a good model for dialogue for the tough issues our country faces.”
Continue reading “Disagree, but Engage–Free and Fair Elections in USA?”
Seth Godin: The Danger of Repeating Signals
Advanced Cyber/IO, Cultural Intelligence
The danger of repeating signals
Kevin shares this great quote from the Count of Monte Cristo:
“I have been told,” said the count, “that you do not always yourselves understand the signals you repeat.”
“That is true, sir, and that is what I like best,” said the man, smiling.
“Why do you like that best?”
“Because then I have no responsibility. I am a machine then, and nothing else, and so long as I work, nothing more is required of me.”
Phi Beta Iota: The blinding flash of insight here, related to the Ladders of Inference Search, is that both the institutions that are rushing blindly and repetitively into the past with their archaic and failed paradigms, AND their critics who keep repeating the same criticisms, and going nowhere. This realization is what powers the transpartisan, dialog & deliberation, and general “engagement for emergence” memes–UNTIL you are willing to sit down and LISTEN to those you consider antithetical to all that you are and do, you will not be capable of learning or evolving in a holistic manner. Hence, Advanced Cyber/IO must be FIRST about connecting all to all, THEN about establishing TRUST (see Robert Garigue's Contributions), ONLY THEN about sharing and sense-making, and finally about concerted consensus. The emphasis on cyber-security is ignorant and misplaced–it is a cancer on the art and science of global engagement.
EGYPT: CIA’s Last Stand? Mubarak as First Domino? Advice for the USG: BUTT OUT.
07 Other Atrocities, Advanced Cyber/IO, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Real Time
Suleiman: The CIA's man in Cairo
Suleiman, a friend to the US and reported torturer, has long been touted as a presidential successor.
. . . . . . .
In the mid-1990s, Suleiman worked closely with the Clinton administration in devising and implementing its rendition program; back then, rendition involved kidnapping suspected terrorists and transferring them to a third country for trial.
. . . . . . .
Under the Bush administration, in the context of “the global war on terror”, US renditions became “extraordinary”, meaning the objective of kidnapping and extra-legal transfer was no longer to bring a suspect to trial – but rather for interrogation to seek actionable intelligence. The extraordinary rendition program landed some people in CIA black sites – and others were turned over for torture-by-proxy to other regimes. Egypt figured large as a torture destination of choice, as did Suleiman as Egypt’s torturer-in-chief. At least one person extraordinarily rendered by the CIA to Egypt — Egyptian-born Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib — was reportedly tortured by Suleiman himself.
Phi Beta Iota: A great deal hinges on the next few days. We are betting on the Egyptian people. The USA should BUTT OUT. Not only is the Administration completely ignorant of the dynamics in Egypt, where young people, old people, workers, and all other walks of life have “come out”–the Muslim Brotherhood has been SIDELINED–but anything the Administration says can and will be used against it and against the people of Egypt. The USA is long overdue for getting back in touch with its core values, which should NOT include redition, torture, and dictator pals, all “in our name.”
How Military Spending Drains & Distorts Economy
03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Officers Call
When American Conservative Magazine and a senior Fellow of the Ludvig von Mises Institute collaborate to produce a dynamite article that builds on and reinforces the great work of my friend, the late Professor Seymour Melman of Columbia University, a card-carrying liberal, you know it is time to sit up and read it carefully.
Below is a an excellent article describing how the political economy of the Military – Industrial – Congressional Complex drains and distorts the civilian economy. Melman did the path breaking research in the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s and his warnings about deindustrialization were prophetic. No less an authority that William Anders, CEO of General Dynamics, confirmed Melman's warnings in spades, when Anders explained to a group of defense contractors in the 1991 why General Dynamics was not going to convert into civilian production after the cold war ended, because “most [weapons manufacturers] don’t bring a competitive ad-vantage to non-defense business,” … and … “Frankly, sword makers don’t make good and affordable plowshares.” [see The Domestic Roots of Perpetual War, pages 58-59 & footnotes 4 and 5.]
Chuck Spinney
Military spending drains and distorts the civilian economy.
By Thomas E. Woods Jr.
American Conservative, 1 March 2011
Phi Beta Iota: Summing up, we have military spending distorting the economy, Wall Street defrauding the economy, and a mix of politicians completely out of touch with reality and pretending to be “governing.” We can't make this stuff up.
