The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
by jonl
This talk by Eli Pariser reminds me of discussions with David Weinberger about online echo chambers. I recall that this came up as social technology became part of the political process in ~2004. I’ve been concerned that the polarization we’re seeing in the U.S. and elsewhere is exacerbated if not caused by our tendency to pay all of our attention where we agree, and none of it where we’re challenged by opposing or new ideas.
Technology, politics, and balance
by jonl
When Mitch Ratcliffe and I published Extreme Democracy in 2005, the question came up whether the discussion of politics and social technology was technoutopian. Without getting into the specifics of the book (which included diverse articles, some more positive than others about the potential role of what we now call social media in our political life), I can say that I rejected the “technoutopian” label as a rather shallow dismissal of a complex question: does a technology that gives everyone the potential to have more of a voice bring us closer to a democratic ideal? Or does it turn up the noise and overwhelm the signal? Or could it do both?
Continue reading “Jon Lebkowsky: Technology, politics, & balance”
A good tour of the world economy by my my friend Marshall Auerback
Get Ready for a Global Growth Slowdown
Tuesday, 05/3/2011 – 1:31 pm by Marshall Auerback | 9 Comments
Governments across the globe are headed for a disaster entirely of their own making.
Though capital markets remain strong, the global economic backdrop continues to deteriorate as fiscal retrenchment takes hold. Commodity markets have rallied in tandem with the fall in the dollar even though there are signs that growth in the emerging world is slowing. Japan’s economy is in the soup, the U.S. economy has failed to pick up as many thought (with a mere 2% growth rate expected to be released for Q1 shortly), and the European economy is overdue for its own slowdown. The U.S. stock market has also rallied despite the threat of a very high gasoline price, disappointing economic growth data, and a fairly mixed earnings picture.
I do work on the applications of collective intelligence to global problem solving. I have a strong additional interest in change strategies, and why we fail to notice seemingly apparent changes that, in some cases literally, are right in front of our nose.
If you haven't seen Simon Roberts recent ARUP foresight presentation yet, I think you'd enjoy it very much:
CMU’s Classroom Salon Uses Social Networking to Tap Collective Intelligence of Online Study Groups
Taking their cue from social media, educators at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a social networking application called Classroom Salon that engages students in online learning communities that effectively tap the collective intelligence of groups. Thousands of high school and university students used Classroom Salon (CLS), this past academic year to share their ideas about texts, news articles and other reading materials or their critiques of each others’ writings. With the support of the Next Generation Learning Challenges initiative, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, CLS will be used in an innovative experiment at the University of Baltimore to see if it can help students who are in danger of failing introductory courses or otherwise dropping out of college.
New Corbis Creative Research Reveals Trend Toward “Mass Intelligence”
Corbis reveals a collective longing for rational solutions to the world’s problems and how it is manifested through increased education and technological advances as well as a shift in management style, working practices and policy making. In North America, the number of adults 25 and older with at least a high school diploma has increased from 80 percent to 84 percent, while high school and college enrolment rates are at an all-time high. What’s more, the hottest areas of growth are the fields of biotechnology, nanotechnology, bioinformatics, applied optics, genetic engineering, molecular biology, environmental science, and artificial intelligence. “Our report shows that today we’re beginning to recognize the need for a more pragmatic and rational approach to the future,” says Mark Retzer, Senior Director, Creative Research at Corbis.
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Video: Changing the World, One Map at a TimePatrick Meier | May 4, 2011 at 9:31 am | Tags: Re:publica, rp11, video | Categories: Conferences, Crisis Mapping, Crowdsourcing, Digital Activism, Humanitarian Tech, New Media, Ushahidi | URL: http://wp.me/pecFU-1oX
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Hosted in the beautiful city of Berlin, Re:publica 2011 is Germany's largest annual conference on blogs, new media and the digital society, drawing thousands of participants from across the world for three days of exciting conversations and presentations. The conference venue was truly a spectacular one and while conference presentations are typically limited to 10-20 minutes, the organizers gave us an hour to share our stories. So I'm posting the video of my presentation below for anyone interested in learning more about new media, crowdsourcing, crisis mapping, live maps, crisis response, civil resistance, digital activism and check-in's. I draw on my experience with Ushahidi and the Standby Volunteer Task Force (SBTF) and share examples from Kenya, Haiti, Libya, Japan, the US and Egypt to illustrate how live maps can change the world.
Click to Visit Original Post and then View Video (53:41, Color, Major Stage Presentation)
Theme: combined clouds and crowds to achieve social progress with maps as a foundation.
Last Saturday's issue of Barron's ran a cover story on the deficit and their own take on how to address it. In contrast to the recent recommendations from President Obama and the House Republicans, defense was actually “on the table,” not “at” it. In the absence of any adult thinking on the deficit since the Deficit Commission in December, Barron's addresses a void that remains vast and empty in Congress and the Executive branch. The article puts on the table a defense recommendation — which I urged to them — that goes significantly deeper than even the Deficit Commission's — in truth fuzzy — recommendation on “security” spending.
Almost immediately, Forbes published at its website a related piece on defense spending and The Pentagon Labyrinth that contains some interesting private sector views on how the public might be beginning to perceive the current size of the defense budget and condition of our armed forces: note the references to “defense entitlement,” “defense bubble,” and “parade ground military.” It would seem that the paradigm is changing, at least outside Washington DC. (If you think that the recent killing of bin Laden proves the “parade ground” moniker wrong, I urge you to read the introduction essay in The Pentagon Labyrinth: “Why Is This Handbook Necessay?“.
Bursting The Defense Bubble: End The Entitlement Mentality
Steve Denning, Forbes, 30 April 2011
Grow Up, Guys!
By GENE EPSTEIN
Barron's Cover SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011
While the President and GOP sling mud at each other, the debt crisis is growing. Barron's offers some tough-but necessary-ways to alleviate it.
Phi Beta Iota: It is possible to eliminate the deficit by making Medicare prices honest and stopping the borrowing of money for corporate pork that feeds political pork. It is possible to eliminate personal income taxes by adopting the Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax, which actually produces a great deal more revenue which is desperately needed to bail out the equally irresponsible state governments and pension funds (both government and corporate). America is hosed. It is not possible to “reset” until Washington can combine intelligence and integrity, and that may require a public revolt on both taxes and the fraudulent corrupt Electoral System that keeps the two-party tyranny in a position to continue looting the Commonwealth.
Seven Promises to America–Who Will Do This?
Serious (Honest) Thinking About US Budget
$500 Billion in Cuts is Minimal Mandatory….
US Goverment 2011 Revenue, Costs, & Debt–Two Party Tyranny Lies Straight Up, Media Goes Along
