Liberation Technology Stakeholders…

09 Justice, 11 Society, Autonomous Internet, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Ethics, IO Technologies
Venessa Miemis

Preliminary List of Stakeholders

Appropedia
Brave New Software
Creative Commons
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Free Network Movement
Free Software Foundation
FreedomBox
Future Forward Institute
New America Foundation
Open Source Ecology
P2P Foundation
Personal Data Ecosystem Consortium
Tor Project Anonymnity Online
Unhosted–Open Web Standard for Decentralizing
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Phi Beta Iota: We disagree on the inclusion of the New America Foundation–they are not stakeholders as much as beltway “think-tank” opportunists, and too heavily reliant on proprietary hooks going nowhere.  New Software Foundation has been changed to Free Software Foundation.  We would add to the above list:

Autonomo.us
Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conference
Cook Report on Internet Protocol
Free Internet
GNU Operating System
Liberation Technology Project (Standford University)
NetZero Free Dial-Up Internet Access
Technology Liberation Front

Many others will be identified over time.

See Also:

Autonomous Internet [Open, Free, Distributed]
Next Net, Transitional Net, Autonomous Net
Charles Wyble: Autonomous Free Internet
Reference: Internet Freedom–and Control

Serious (Honest) Thinking About US Budget

03 Economy, 07 Health, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Military
Tom Atlee

Dear friends,

The three articles below describe major approaches to addressing the deficit — for health care, taxes and the military — that would have a greater impact on America's budget woes than ANYTHING being currently negotiated by Congress and the Obama Administration.  Even better, these three things would, if implemented, actually improve the quality of life in the U.S., instead of degrading it, as so many of the current proposals would do.  They give a taste of some excellent thinking emerging from the fringes of this “budget crisis” debate.

[After I wrote this I was alerted to another very interesting “People's Budget” recently released with little coverage in the mainstream media, which I recommend to those interested in alternatives.]

When I imagine a Citizens Jury, a Citizens Assembly, or any other randomly selected body of citizens convened to deliberate about the “budget crisis”, this is the kind of information I believe they should be exposed to.  We don't need to undermine public health to create affordable health care.  We don't need to undermine the wealth of the nation to have a reasonable tax system.  We don't need to endanger American security to have a strong, affordable military.

We just need to think a bit outside of the boxes that most mainstream media, pundits, politicians and partisan activists (intentionally) put our minds in, and ask ourselves “What's the REAL problem here — and what would ACTUALLY solve it?”

How to Save a Trillion Dollars

Taxes on the Wealthy: New Top Brackets Needed for the Have Mores

Want to improve US national security? Cut the defense budget.

Continue reading “Serious (Honest) Thinking About US Budget”

US Government Bails Out and Pardons Wall Street, Sends Barry Bonds to Jail–What’s the Difference?

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests
DefDog Recommends...

Barry Bonds Faces Jail Time While Wall Street Execs Sit Pretty

What’s the difference between Barry Bonds and Goldman Sachs executives? The later was fortunate enough to be questioned by incompetent lawmakers while Bonds ended up in a courthouse with an actual jury and prosecutors.

. . . . . .

“The Goldman guys  may have worse batting average than Barry Bonds but they were better educated by their lawyers about they should shouldn’t say. They also had the benefit of being questioned by incompetent people who had no idea about the financial nomenclature at the heart of their allegations,” Singer says.

For more on why and how Wall Street has avoided criminal charges and jail time check out today’s story in the New York Times about how regulators have, in some cases, willingly protected banks and their executives.

Of course, Matt Taibbi’s Why Isn’t Wall Street In Jail? is also a must-read.

See Also:

Continue reading “US Government Bails Out and Pardons Wall Street, Sends Barry Bonds to Jail–What's the Difference?”

Harvard “Boys” Crash, Burn, No Apology

04 Education, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Academia, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), IO Impotency
Who, Me?

economicprincipals.com

March 27, 2011, David Warsh, Proprietor

A Recent Exercise in Nation-Building by Some Harvard Boys

It was worth a smile at breakfast that morning in February 2006, a scrap of social currency to take out into the world. Michael Porter, the Harvard Business School management guru, had grown famous offering competitive strategies to firms, regions, whole nations.  Earlier he had taken on the problems of inner cities, health care and climate change.  Now he was about to tackle perhaps the hardest problem of all (that is, after the United States’ wars in Afghanistan and Iraq).

He had become adviser to Moammar Gadhafi’s Libya.

Phi Beta Iota: Harvard is now the poster child for all that is wrong with education–no intelligence, no ethics, and grotesquely expensive.  Yale can now claim the mantle in the East.

Read full original….

Safety copy below the line.

Continue reading “Harvard “Boys” Crash, Burn, No Apology”

Seth Godin on Education Bubble & Alternative

04 Education, Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence
Seth Godin Home

Buying an education or buying a brand?

It's reported that student debt in the USA is approaching a trillion dollars, five times what it was ten years ago.

Are those in debt buying more education or are they seeking better branding in the form of coveted diplomas?

Does a $40,000 a year education that comes with an elite degree deliver ten times the education of a cheaper but no less rigorous self-generated approach assembled from less famous institutions and free or inexpensive resources?

If not, then the money is actually being spent on the value of the degree, on the doors it will open and the jobs it will snag. If this marketing strategy works big, it pays for itself in no time.

A marketing tactic might move the dial, but that doesn't mean it's always worth the money.

The question is whether a trillion dollars is the right amount for individuals to spend marketing themselves. What would happen if people spent it building up a work history instead? On becoming smarter, more flexible, more self-sufficient and yes, able to take more risk because they owe less money…

There's no doubt that we need smarter and more motivated people in our organizations. I'm not sure we need them to be better labeled or more accredited.

Phi Beta Iota: This is why we feel very strongly that a Vice President for Education, Intelligence, & Research is needed; the corollary of this is that Cyber/IO should be about EDUCATION, not about corporate vapor-ware pretending to do attack and defend of systems that are in the proverbial Stone Age.

USA Has Become Deaf, Dumb, and Blind

04 Education, 07 Other Atrocities, Advanced Cyber/IO, Budgets & Funding, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Waste (materials, food, etc)

Published on Monday, April 11, 2011 by TruthDig.com

Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System

Note:  Truthdig server overwhelmed.  This is the Common Dreams reprint.

A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy. It celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. It churns out stunted human products, lacking the capacity and vocabulary to challenge the assumptions and structures of the corporate state. It funnels them into a caste system of drones and systems managers. It transforms a democratic state into a feudal system of corporate masters and serfs.

Finish reading at CommonDreams

See Also:

Michael Bloomberg, Vice President for Education, Intelligence, & Research — Creating a Smart Nation

2010: Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Trilogy Updated

2009 Perhaps We Should Have Shouted: A Twenty-Year Restrospective

1995 GIQ 13/2 Creating a Smart Nation: Strategy, Policy, Intelligence, and Information

1992 E3i: Ethics, Ecology, Evolution, & intelligence (An Alternative Paradigm)

Complete Safety Copy Below the Line

Continue reading “USA Has Become Deaf, Dumb, and Blind”