The distribution of Information = The distribution of Power
I attended a conference this week about the impact of technology on social issues. It had many interesting speakers, not least the wonderful people at AccessNow who are doing extraordinary and secret things to help political activists use the web and get the word out despite repression. Above all, it was fascinating to watch people grapple with the seismic impact of technology on the world – but with no clear map to guide them. Many, I’m afraid, turned to familiar prejudices to show the way.
Curveball and the manufacture of a lie
The Guardian requested this from me today:
British foreign policy – a critique (and plaudit for the US State Department)
The Semiotics of “Pot Noodles”
The following appeared in the Financial Times, which I have long treasured as the most truly subversive of newspapers. This short article provides a rare pleasure – a profound, concise and it appears wholly unintended yet devastating insight into the true nature of the current economic and cultural system (a similar insight is to be found in the revelation that a toothbrush I recently bought came with a CD-rom with which to programme the device). Such signs are perhaps faint signals of the very death of capitalism – or at the least the death of our sense of the absurd.
Sudan, Genocide and George Clooney’s satellite
I have been pondering the news that George Clooney and the
Micah Sifry, one of the two political-tech gurus behind the Personal Democracy Forum (PDF) (the other is Andrew Rasiej), has kindly posted my remarks to the #PDFLeaks “flash” conference last Saturday in New York City. It was a great discussion, with a lot of smart people, including Arianna Huffington and Charles Ferguson, trying to grapple with the implications of the Wiki-drama. You can see it all
WikiLeaks and Terrorism (Personal Democracy Forum, 12 December, 2010, NYC)