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POWER-CURVE SOCIETY: The Future of Innovation, Opportunity and Social Equity in the Emerging Networked Economy

Power-Curve Society, written by David Bollier, examines how technological innovation is restructuring productivity and the social and economic impact resulting from these changes. It addresses the growing concern about the technological displacement of jobs, stagnant middle class income, and wealth disparities in an emerging “winner-take-all” economy. It also examines cutting-edge innovations in personal data ecosystems that could potentially unlock a revolutionary wave of individual economic empowerment. Power-Curve Society is the Report of the Twenty-First Annual Roundtable on Information Technology, a dialogue convened by the Communications and Society Program.

Download PDF | Read on Scribd | Order Copies | On Twitter: #powercurve

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword, Charles M. Firestone
Introduction
The Innovation Economy
The New Economy of Personal Information
The Power-Curve Phenomenon and its Social Implications
Jobs in the Power-Curve Nation
The Social Implications of the Power-Curve Economy
Government Policies and Leadership Responsibilities
Conclusion
Roundtable Participants
About the Author
About the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program

2013/02/112013/02/11

Reference: Integrated Intelligence: The Future of Intelligence (2003)

Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Culture, Education, P2P / Panarchy

PDF 15 pages: 2003 Integrated Intelligence

Abstract

Many classical depictions of intelligence suggest that individual human intelligence is part of a greater transpersonal consciousness. The concept of this integrated intelligence has resurfaced in contemporary times in a number of fields. This paper presents the ideas of four thinkers whose works incorporate integrated intelligence – Broomfield, Dossey, Wilber and Zohar. Inayatullah's Causal Layered Analysis is used to deconstruct them. The four authors and their texts are compared and contrasted on some of their major themes. Finally, some of the most significant issues associated with integrated intelligence are introduced.

Phi Beta Iota: This is the best short summary of the documented works of four great minds that have explored alternative forms of knowing that are compellingly suggestive, as one of the four reviewed authors says, that “Classical science and history will not suffice as the methodologies of the twenty-first century. For these are the stories of colonialization, domination, and segmentation, and ‘Judeo-Christian millenarianism.'” [Bloomfield 1997: 172]. In combination (Phi Beta Iota again), traditional Chinese, traditional Indian, and Islmaic philosophies of balance and governance are going to be major forces in the 21st Century–and being ideational in nature as well as rooted in major demographics, there is absolutely nothing the USA can do about this EXCEPT become a Smart Nation that embraces diversity and the truth on their merits.

2013/02/07

Rickard Falkvinge: Sharing is a Constitutional Law Right, Copyright is an Ordinary Law Privilege — This is Huge Advance for Public Over Private Corruption

Culture, Knowledge

Court Of Human Rights: Convictions For File-Sharing Violate Human Rights

Civil Liberties: The European Court of Human Rights has declared that the copyright monopoly stands in direct conflict with fundamental Human Rights, as defined in the European Union and elsewhere. This means that as of today, nobody sharing culture in the EU may be convicted just for breaking the copyright monopoly law; the bar for convicting was raised considerably. This can be expected to have far-reaching implications, not just judicially, but in confirming that the copyright monopoly stands at odds with human rights.

The European Court of Human Rights in Luxembourg is no dismissible small player. It is the court that oversees the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which is part of the Constitution of the European Union and of most (if not all) European states. When this court makes a decision, that decision gets constitutional status in all of Europe (except for Belarus, which is not a signatory).

Therefore, the copyright monopoly as such – which is ordinary law in European states – was just defined as taking a back seat to the constitutional right to share and seek culture and knowledge, as defined in the European Convention on Human Rights, article 10:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.” (ECHR 10)

We have long claimed that the copyright monopoly stands in direct conflict with civil liberties (one of my most well-known keynotes, Copyright regime vs. civil liberties, even highlights this in the title). While the judiciary is slow to react to new phenomena, and issues like this percolate very slowly to the top courts where verdicts make a reak difference, I’m very happy to see that the issue did indeed get to the relevant court at last, and that the Court made the only reasonable decision.

Read full article.

2013/01/162013/01/16

Owl: Aaron Swartz — Prosecutors as Persecutors — Call to End All Donations to MIT — Burn MIT to the Ground, Metaphorically Speaking

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Academia, Commerce, Corruption, Crowd-Sourcing, Culture, Governance, Government, Knowledge, Law Enforcement, Media

Following up on the excellent post, Mongoose: Moti Nissani on Who Killed Aaron Swartz? it is now clear MIT refuses to cut any kind of deal, and the prosecutor went nuclear on what should have been a matchbook case. Now it emerges that the prosecutor going after Swartz went after another young man involved with computers who also died, allegedly from suicide, as supposedly did Swartz. “Prosecutor Stephen Heymann has been blamed for contributing to Swartz's suicide. Back in 2008, young hacker Jonathan James killed himself in the midst of a federal investigation led by the same prosecutor. James, the first juvenile put into confinement for a federal cybercrime case, was found dead two weeks after the Secret Service raided his house as part of its investigation of the TJX hacker case led by Heymann — the largest personal identity hack in history. He was thought to be “JJ,” the unindicted co-conspirator named in the criminal complaints filed with the US District Court in Massachusetts. In his suicide note, James wrote that he was killing himself in response to the federal investigation and their attempts to tie him to a crime which he did not commit.”

So one scenario is, as mentioned by Nissani, that the government directly killed – by hanging – Swartz. But in light of this newly emergent pattern, perhaps it indicates another scenario equally sinister but more simple: that Heymann mercilessly and severely harasses his victims to death by suicide. No need to send in wet boys (a DOJ slang term for on-the-payroll DOJ killers specifically) to murder someone, just drive them insane or to self-destruction. The outcome is the same as someone putting a bullet in one's head. It's about prosecuting by persecuting. A capsule definition of what comprises much of what is called the US legal system. See this link for more:

Internet Activist's Prosecutor Linked To Another Hacker's Death

It seems like outrage at the official US government persecution-leading-to death of Aaron Swartz is picking up steam. Check out this excellent list of recent links from the Naked Capitalism site:

Berners-Lee Calls Prosecution of Aaron Swartz ‘Travesty’ Bloomberg. Notice how slanted the story is. Calls what he did “hacking” when was not, see here.
How the Legal System Failed Aaron Swartz—And Us New Yorker
TOWARDS LEARNING FROM LOSING AARON SWARTZ Center for Internet and Society
‘Aaron was killed by the government’ – Robert Swartz on his son’s death RT
On humanity, a big failure in Aaron Swartz case Boston Globe. Makes it clear MIT refused to cut a deal. I hope tech donors never give a dime to MIT again.

Continue reading “Owl: Aaron Swartz — Prosecutors as Persecutors — Call to End All Donations to MIT — Burn MIT to the Ground, Metaphorically Speaking”

2013/01/15

Michel Bauwens: Aaron Swartz’s Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto

#OSE Open Source Everything, Advanced Cyber/IO, Cultural Intelligence, Culture

Aaron Swartz’s Guerilla Open Access Manifesto

Written by Aaron Swartz, July 2008, Eremo, Italy

“Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.

There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have been lost.

That is too high a price to pay. Forcing academics to pay money to read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It’s outrageous and unacceptable.

Continue reading “Michel Bauwens: Aaron Swartz's Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto”

2013/01/052013/01/05

John Steiner: THE GLOBAL MARCH TOWARD PEACE by Gareth Evans*

BTS (Base Transciever Station), Culture, Peace Intelligence, Resilience

A starting point for the new Secretaries of State and Defense.

THE GLOBAL MARCH TOWARD PEACE

by Gareth Evans

Gareth Evans, Australia’s foreign minister for eight years and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group, is currently Chancellor of the Australian National University and co-chair of the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect. As Foreign Minister, he was at the forefront of recasting Australia’s relationship with China, India, and Indonesia, while deepening its alliance with the US, and helped found the APEC and ASEAN security forums. He also played a leading role in bringing peace to Cambodia and negotiating the International Convention on Chemical Weapons, and is the principal framer of the United Nations’ “responsibility to protect” doctrine.

Project Syndicate, 27 December 2012

CANBERRA – If we were hoping for peace in our time, 2012 did not deliver it. Conflict grew ever bloodier in Syria, continued to grind on in Afghanistan, and flared up periodically in West, Central, and East Africa. There were multiple episodes of ethnic, sectarian, and politically motivated violence in Myanmar (Burma), South Asia, and around the Middle East. Tensions between China and its neighbors have escalated in the South China Sea, and between China and Japan in the East China Sea. Concerns about North Korea’s and Iran’s nuclear programs remain unresolved.

Continue reading “John Steiner: THE GLOBAL MARCH TOWARD PEACE by Gareth Evans*”

2012/12/182012/12/18

Rickard Falkvinge: Banks and Credit Cards Company Blockade of WikiLeaks Illegal and Now Being Fought

Culture, Economics/True Cost, Money

Pirate Party Presses Charges Against Banks For WikiLeaks Blockade

Corruption: Today, the Swedish Pirate Party filed formal charges against Swedish banks for their discrimination against WikiLeaks, which has been systematically denied donations by payment providers since 2010.

Numerous payment service providers, including Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal, have blocked donations to WikiLeaks and other legal operations since 2010. Banks have been a part of the network of these service providers, which means that the banks actively participate in stopping donations without legitimate grounds. The Swedish Pirate Party says that this behavior is unacceptable and cause for grave concern, and has filed charges against the Swedish banks in question to try this behavior in court.

The charges were filed eariler today with the Swedish Finansinspektionen, the authority which oversees bank licenses and abuse of position. This follows an earlier initiative from the Pirate Party to regulate credit card companies on the European level in order to deny them the ability to determine who gets to trade and who doesn’t.

Continue reading “Rickard Falkvinge: Banks and Credit Cards Company Blockade of WikiLeaks Illegal and Now Being Fought”

Category: Culture

Michel Bauwens: David Bollier on Power-Curve Society — Free Online