http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-01-passig-de.html (in German)
The German conservative elitist literature magazine Merkur “wonders what the hell the Internet is good for.”
From argument 1 — “What the hell is it good for?” — to argument 9 — new technologies reduce our ability to think, write and read — German writer and journalist Kathrin Passig compiles cultural criticism’s most frequent objections to new technologies, which in recent years have been resurrected in connection with the Internet.
“It’s an amazing invention”, said US president Rutherford B. Hayes about the telephone in 1876, “but who would ever want to use one of them?” (argument 2), while British colonel Sir John Smyth strongly disapproved of the use of the musket in 1591: “The bow is a simple weapon, firearms are very complicated things that get out of order in many ways” (argument 6).What is really remarkable, writes Passig, is how much critique of new inventions has to do with the critic’s age, and how little with the thing itself: “The same people that greeted the Internet in the 1990s, ten years later reject its continuing development with exactly the same arguments that they poured scorn upon back then. At the age of 25 or 30, it is easy to appreciate and to use technologies if they give one an advantage in terms of status or knowledge. If, a few years later, it is one’s own advantages that need to be defended against progress, then it’s more difficult.”
Passig’s remedy against the trap of recycling worn-out arguments: unlearn. “The adult human being simply knows too many solutions for problems that no longer exist.”
Thursday, December 17, 2009
internet and “solutions for problems that no longer exist” :: net critique by Geert Lovink
Lecture David Gugerli – The Culture of the Search Society :: Society of the Query
Data Management as a signifying practice
David Gugerli, ETH Zurich
November 13, 2009, AmsterdamEdited by: Baruch Gottlieb
Databases are operationally essential to the search society. Since the 1960’s, they have been developed, installed, and maintained by software engineers in view of a particular future user, and they have been applied and adapted by different user communities for the production of their own futures. Database systems, which, since their inception, offer powerful means for shaping and managing society, have since developed into the primary resource for search-centered signifying practice. The paper will present insights into the genesis of a society which depends on the possibility to search, find, (re-)arrange and (re-)interpret of vast amounts of data.
Download here the full lecture of David Gugerli given during the Society of the Query conference on Friday the 13th of November 2009.
Jay Rosen Interviews Demand Media: Are Content Farms "Demonic"?
Written by Guest Author / December 16, 2009 12:00
I first became aware of Demand Media by reading this feature by Daniel Roth in the November 2009 issue of Wired [Ed: ReadWriteWeb wrote a feature about it in August]. In fact, Roth alerted me by email that his piece was about to come online, because he thought I would find it interesting. He was dead on. I found it fascinating, and also scary.
Since then the discussion of these "content farms" (what ReadWriteWeb editor Richard MacManus called them recently) has picked up a lot intensity online. For a good round-up, see Jason Fry's recent post The Furor Over Content Farms. In the following interview with Demand Media founder and CEO Richard Rosenblatt, I explore this new online phenomenon.
Jay Rosen teaches journalism at NYU and blogs at PressThink, which won the Reporters Without Borders 2005 Freedom Blog award. He is also the director of NewAssignment.Net and blogs at the Huffington Post.
I've been discussing Demand Media a bit on Twitter, always referring to it as... (the demonic) Demand Media. This got the attention of someone from the company because I heard from Richard Rosenblatt, the founder and CEO, who said that I didn't understand the firm's mission. I asked him if he would do an interview with me to clarify what that mission was. He graciously agreed. Today I caught up with him by IM and we had the following exchange.
Rosen: In the November 2009 Wired article by Daniel Roth, this was the part I thought most important:
"Most media companies are trying hard to... boost the value of their online content until it matches the amount of money it costs to produce. But Rosenblatt thinks they have it exactly backward. Instead of trying to raise the market value of online content to match the cost of producing it -- perhaps an impossible proposition -- the secret is to cut costs until they match the market value."Now, when you wrote to me, you said I didn't get the mission of Demand Media. As I understand it, the mission is to make a ton of money on the Web by using data mining to understand demand and then cutting costs in this way Roth described. Do I have it wrong?
Rosenblatt: It's not all about cost cutting but about building a sustainable media model that allows us to achieve our mission to build an engine for what the world wants to know and share. We do this by connecting consumers with content that meets their specific interests and [offers] connections to people that share their passion. To do this well, and at scale, has required significant innovation and investment.
Rosen: Here's what I think Demand Media has right. It's important to know what people are interested in. It's good to have tools that tell us what they wish to know. Using that knowledge to guide production is innovation, too, which we need-- precisely because production is so easy and cheap and the tools are so good.
But here's what I think bothers a lot of people, and leads to a description of your firm as a "content farm" or "factory." I read about the 11 people - and 15 different roles - involved in the production of articles and video in Demand Studios. I get your idea that "quality is based on relevance." But if you're trying to match costs to the available revenue for a given piece of content, what happens when editorial quality requires costs greater that what's available in search revenue? And who's watching out for that point?
Rosenblatt: I like the way you describe and characterize our business; maybe we have a lot more in common that you think. We are building content that is evergreen and solving a different type of problem. We are focused on creating content that solves problems, answers questions, saves money, saves time, makes you laugh - content that improves people's lives in big and small ways. It's relevant and impactful to millions and millions of people every day. It must generally fit within the economic framework the Internet provides today. As those economics change so will we.
Rosen: Okay I got that but I am not sure it answers this part of my question: ...if you're trying to match costs to the available revenue for a given piece of content, what happens when editorial quality requires costs greater that what's available in search revenue? And who's watching out for that point?
Rosenblatt: We only make content that we think can be done responsibly and within our cost structure.
Rosen: As you know, there's a conversation going on out there about Demand Media, and I want to show you a bit of it. The premise, as Jeff Jarvis puts it, is that companies like yours (and Associated Content, to name another) "produce crap that's just good enough to fool algorithms," especially Google's. This is said to be a problem for Google.
So Jarvis writes, "I think we may see search fall as the sole or even key means of discovery and filtering of quality content. I see three rings of discovery today: search (Google); algorithms (see: Google News, Daylife); and humans (see: Twitter). Note again that Bit.ly alone causes as many clicks a month -- one billion -- as Google News. Human power rises again. That's what Fred Wilson says today when he argues that social beats search, because "it's a lot harder to spam yourself into a social graph." What do to you think of Wilson's idea, "social beats search" because it cannot be gamed as easily? If he's right, isn't that a threat to Demand Media's profits?
Rosenblatt: First of all, we're not filling up search engines. We're creating content that lives on some of the most engaging websites in the world. These sites have really amazing tools that truly help people - whether it's managing your diabetes, motivating yourself to stop smoking, helping you drop your golf handicap, or determining what hike to take the kids on this weekend.
And I wouldn't say we are even "search-led" any more. We are led by consumer demand. We are maniacally focused on giving users exactly what they want, where they want it. We have algorithms that tell us what search visitors want. And algorithms that tell us what YouTube visitors prefer. And we're working on new algorithms that tell us what social network users desire. And we're pretty sure the needs of mobile users will be different than all of the above - so we'll tune our approach for them too.
Search is just where we started, because that's where most consumers started their information seeking experiences. But the world has changed a lot since we started Demand Media four years ago - and we're changing with it.
Rosen: So you're getting social too and moving away from just search?
Rosenblatt: Absolutely and have been planning this for years; we consider this a core part of our business and social has been at the center of our business since we started
Rosen: Does the description of your company as a "content farm," content mill, factory (or even digital sweatshop) seem to you inaccurate or point missing in some way? I mean I know these are not nice terms or polite descriptions but are they wrong headed?
Rosenblatt: Completely missing the point. We have significant editorial processes. Let me explain. How do we do this? We hire qualified professional writers, film-makers and copyeditors. Set clear editorial objectives and style guidelines for every piece. Require external sources with every submission. Copy edit what's been turned in. Fact-check it. Check it for plagiarism. Rate each piece so that writers get feedback. Provide education to improve the team members. Perform quality audits and take down content that doesn't meet current standards (thousands per month). Weed out content creators who aren't performing well or improving fast enough (we let go more than 100 creators per month). What's more like a sweatshop: someone's living room working their own hours or a typical newsroom?
Rosen: When you're trying to build trust in an editorial brand, you pay those costs when they exceed available revenues, which I talked about. But it seems to me that Demand isn't trying to build trust in that way, it's trying to create content that meets demand, stays relevant and grabs the available search revenue. Why doesn't Demand Media create the bulk of its content under the Demand brand, like Reuters, say?
Rosenblatt: We believe that the Internet continues to fragment and passionate audiences want their own community and brand. The brands we are focused on: our Web sites such as eHOW, Livestrong and our other properties. This is where we focus our branding energy.
Rosen: As you know, journalism is in a good deal of peril today because of a collapsing economic model. I've read that Demand does not want to go anywhere near news, which is interesting, but do you feel you have discovered anything that would be useful to journalists as they try to survive
Rosenblatt: We respect journalists very much. We think they need to use technology to help them figure out what audiences want and how to get value from their content more effectively. And there are big opportunities for them to increase quality by removing inefficiencies in the process of content creation. We would love to partner with as many publishers and media outlets as we can
Rosen: You seem to know how to make money on the Web, why not get into news?
Rosenblatt: Because we haven't figure out how to do it responsibly and profitably also, its completely saturated and highly competitive. Consumers already have more sources than they need.
Rosen: Someone who follows my work and knew I was interviewing you told me to ask you this: Do you love the Web? The implied question there is: if you love the Web, then why are you doing this, running these content farms... ?
Rosenblatt: OMG. My entire career and life has been about the Web. Trying to innovate and create value where open spaces exist. We do not have a content mill as we discussed but an efficient method to get people the information they need when they want it. That is improving the Internet and I am proud of it
Rosen: Open spaces? What does that phrase mean?
Rosenblatt: Where there is a lot of room for opportunity for not only our company but for other entrepreneurs.
Rosen: I know you have a meeting to run to... thanks very much... anything you wish to add?
Rosenblatt: I hope to see you in NY in the future to continue our dialogue. All my best and happy holidays.
Check out ReadWriteWeb's entire coverage of Demand Media and content farms:
Farm photo by Randen Pederson.
- Content Farms: Why Media, Blogs & Google Should Be Worried
- How Google Can Combat Content Farms
- Demand Media Is a Page View Generating Machine - And it's Working
- Answers.com: 31 Million Copied and Pasted Web Pages Can't Go Wrong
- The Age of Mega Content Sites - Answers.com and Demand Media
- How Demand Media Produces 4,000 Pieces of Content a Day
- Ad-Driven Content - Is it Crossing The Line?
Jay Rosen photo by Joi Ito.
© 2003-2009 ReadWriteWeb
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
stupid tired
Forget family time! I am so stupid tired that I can't play World of Warcraft anymore. So what do I do? Go to bed? No.
I read the mail, then the news, then anything else I can think of. When there's no more new anything I resort to Lolcats. When I run out of lolz, I remember to check xkcd... just in case...
Randall Munroe's been reading my mind again.
New Technology Keeps Senior Drivers Safe on the Road | Posit Science Corporation
I may not be popular this Christmas because all the family are getting brain training software, including my partner and the kids (reading). It's not a hint! It's a help!
New Technology Keeps Senior Drivers Safe on the Road
Author: Posit Science
Date: Thursday, November 19, 2009
CAMBRIDGE, MA – Nov. 19, 2009 – New technology reduces the crash risk of senior drivers and can keep them safely on the road for a longer period of time, according to data presented at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) today to a national gathering of aging experts. Jeff Zimman, Chairman of Posit Science®, the leader in brain fitness software, spoke on “Mobility for Tomorrow” as part of the Shaping Life Tomorrow conference, convened by MIT AgeLab.
“Driving is essential to leading a rich life in most areas of our country,” said Zimman. “As we age, most of us want to be able to keep driving as long as we can safely. This past summer, brain fitness technology that achieves that goal and that had previously been available only to study participants became commercially available to everyone.”
The technology, called DriveSharp™, was brought to market by Posit Science as cognitive software for people concerned with their driving. After a thorough review of some 60 medical and science journal articles that have appeared in recent years attesting to a long list of benefits of these training exercises, DriveSharp is recommended by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
In his talk, Zimman reviewed numerous studies that have shown that users of the exercises in DriveSharp, on average, cut their at-fault crash risk in half, doubled their visual processing speed and improved their reaction time sufficiently to increase stopping distance. A multi-year study released this year also showed that those who completed the brain training exercises drove further, more frequently and under more varied conditions. They were less likely to give up driving and were able to continue driving with greater safety.
Zimman also cited a number of studies that have shown that these and other Posit Science exercises deliver benefits beyond driving, including better memory, attention, wider field of view, quicker processing, higher functional independence and better health-related quality of life. A white paper by aging technology analyst Laurie Orlov reviewed multiple studies, including ACTIVE, IMPACT and SKILL, and concluded that these exercises can help people “age in place” or “in the place of their choosing.”
Based on the study results, Posit Science recommends people use the DriveSharp program for about an hour a week for 8-10 weeks to tune up their abilities to the levels seen in the studies.
DriveSharp is available for $89 at www.PositScience.com or at a discount through AAA clubs at www.DriveSharpNow.com. Last week, Posit Science partnered with AAA to donate $1 million dollars in software to Massachusetts public libraries.
About Posit Science
Posit Science is the leader in delivering clinically proven brain fitness software. The company combines breakthrough research and a focus on great customer experiences to create products that are engaging and help users think faster, focus better and remember more. Staff neuroscientists, engineers and video game developers collaborate with more than 50 scientists from leading research institutions to design, build and test computer-based training programs. Posit Science products are available online and through health, long-term care and auto insurers. Posit Science is currently featured in the PBS documentary "The Brain Fitness Program.” For more information, visit www.PositScience.com or call 1-866-599-6463.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Randall Munroe is reading My Smoking Vagina's mind
I swear it's true. My Smoking Vagina is about to play our first gig in about 20 years and instead of practising, aka, trying to remember where the notes go, I'm at the Australian Conference for Field Robotics watching the... could be a wicked elvis costello joke there but it will go untouched... eigenvectors and wondering why there are no women in the room.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Scared of stairs
We’re scared of stairs.
I understand that to an engineering mind
It’s just another challenge to be mounted.
But I don’t know why
The young leaders of tomorrow are being
Held back at the edge of a precipice of
Exploring. To excuse
Our own inaction and fear of failure.
We must be seen to take seriously
The risk of stairs at sporting
Events and other venues
For any falling from
The path is your
Problem now
Not mine
I’ll wish
Upon
A
Friday, October 30, 2009
Andragy: 2D Goggles - Lovelace and Babbage - Women, Crowbars and Computers
I have a new heroine. Not just Ada Lovelace but Sydney Padua who has created the most fantastic strip about Lovelace and Babbage over at 2D Goggles.
I love also that I can quote women about the world's most interesting stuff right now. See Cynthia Breazeal, Sherry Turkle, Donna Haraway, Katherine Hayles, Patti Maes, Elizabeth Grosz, Catherine Harding and of course, Sydney Padua, who just gets why you've got to love women with crowbars and computers.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Castells in the Sky
A virtual riposte for my ‘off topic’ posts on network theory, feminism and structural cyberbullying! I thought that a blog assignment was perfect for tackling a big topic loosely, and I literally followed a literary path in my approach, where each post from first to last developed a different view of gender within network society while showing the evolution of application of network theories (and their lack) within some levels. Rather than 'off topic', see instead, 1,000 short words sketching in extensive research and original riffs on the topic.
Network theory is the ideal portable laboratory, to use Latour’s concept from “Give me a Laboratory and I will raise the world”, within which to destabilize scale and remove the inside/outside dichotomy, turning the dichotomies of gender and science into dialectic. However, technological determinism lies at the heart of network theory. As Evelyn Fox Keller) puts it, just as modern feminism emerges from the recognition that women are made not born, contemporary studies of science come into being recognizing the difference between nature and science. There is a historical and epistemological parallel between the two that when combined can illustrate the dynamic instabilities and structural inequalities of, more than anything else, power.
As Foucault says, the perception that power resides in the machine, or panopticon, itself rather than in its operator is an effective and diffuse form of social control. And so, I was looking from the top down at Harry Seldon’s Panopticon as well as searching for Castells in the sky.
As Latour explains, the laboratory is within the same societal constraints as the rest of society. And so network society is both within the same constraints of science and sex that the rest of us are and the use of network theory as an ‘objective tool’ should be opened to a feminist and science studies perspective, the combination of which is either a seamless epistemological parallel or a place of great dynamic instability depending on your footing.
So I argue, that as a whole, my blog assignment showed a meta-theoretical approach to network theory and feminism, which is something I continually contest and attest. At every stage of the construction of network society, gender has had an impact and continues to do so in the very structure at every scale.
As Foucault says: "the analysis, elaboration, and bringing into question of power relations and the 'agonism' between power relations and the intransitivity of freedom is a permanent political task inherent in all social existence". There is an elephant in the room, hear me trumpet!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
2D Goggles - Lovelace and Babbage - Women, Crowbars and Computers
I have a new heroine. Not just Ada Lovelace but Sydney Padua who has created the most fantastic strip about Lovelace and Babbage over at 2D Goggles.
I love also that I can quote women about the world's most interesting stuff right now. See Cynthia Breazeal, Sherry Turkle, Donna Haraway, Katherine Hayles, Patti Maes, Elizabeth Grosz, Catherine Harding and of course, Sydney Padua, who just gets why you've got to love women with crowbars and computers.
Sherry Turkle on Robotics and Relational Artifacts
Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT and the founder (2001) and current director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, a center of research and reflection on the evolving connections between people and artifacts. Professor Turkle received a joint doctorate in sociology and personality psychology from Harvard University and is a licensed clinical psychologist.
Professor Turkle is the author of Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud's French Revolution (Basic Books, 1978; MIT Press paper, 1981; second revised edition, Guilford Press, 1992); The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (Simon and Schuster, 1984; Touchstone paper, 1985; second revised edition, MIT Press, 2005); and Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (Simon and Schuster, November 1995; Touchstone paper, 1997).
Seminars and workshops at the Initiative on Technology and Self led to four edited collections, all published by the MIT Press, on the relationships between things and thinking. The first volume, Evocative Objects: Things We Think With, was published in Fall 2007. The second volume, Falling For Science: Objects in Mind, appeared in Spring 2008. The third volume, The Inner History of Devices, was published in Fall 2008. The final volume, Simulation and Its Discontents, followed in Spring 2009. Professor Turkle is currently completing a book on robots and the human spirit based on the Initiative's 10-year research program on relational artifacts.
Professor Turkle has written numerous articles on psychoanalysis and culture and on the "subjective side" of people's relationships with technology, especially computers. She is engaged in active study of robots, digital pets, and simulated creatures, particularly those designed for children and the elderly as well as in a study of mobile cellular technologies. Profiles of Professor Turkle have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Scientific American, and Wired Magazine. She is a featured media commentator on the effects of technology for CNN, NBC, ABC, and NPR, including appearances on such programs as Nightline and 20/20.
I (andra) recommend reading some of Turkle's papers on nascent robotics and relational artifacts. Although I'm not certain how to relate that to my art. lol.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Henry Markram builds a brain in a supercomputer
The 2009 TED Talk by Henry Markram describes how we now have the maths to model the neurocortical columns of the brain. He (and IBM) have built Bluebrain, a computer capable of modelling the brain. What's most interesting to me are the philosophical questions raised; what is a person? where and how do we begin and end? and with whom can we communicate? even, why are we here? And especially, what can a robot think? And is our brain evolving outside of our body in augmented reality?
These are all touched on in this fabulous TED Talk . It's one of the best 15 minutes I've spent all year! I've added the official TED bio below to do better justice to the rich subject than I can.
"In the microscopic, yet-uncharted circuitry of the cortex, Henry Markram is perhaps the most ambitious -- and our most promising -- frontiersman. Backed by the extraordinary power of the IBM Blue Gene supercomputing architecture, which can perform hundreds of trillions of calculations per second, he's using complex models to precisely simulate the neocortical column (and its tens of millions of neural connections) in 3D.
Though the aim of Blue Brain research is mainly biomedical, it has been edging up on some deep, contentious philosophical questions about the mind -- "Can a robot think?" and "Can consciousness be reduced to mechanical components?" -- the consequence of which Markram is well aware: Asked by Seed Magazine what a simulation of a full brain might do, he answered, "Everything. I mean everything" -- with a grin.
Now, with a successful proof-of-concept for simulation in hand (the project's first phase was completed in 2007), Markram is looking toward a future where brains might be modeled even down to the molecular and genetic level. Computing power marching rightward and up along the graph of Moore's Law, Markram is sure to be at the forefront as answers to the mysteries of cognition emerge.
"Markram refers to the robot as "science on an industrial scale," and is convinced that it’s the future of lab work. "So much of what we do in science isn’t actually science," he says, "I say let robots do the mindless work so that we can spend more time thinking about our questions.""
Jonah Lehrer, Seed Magazine"
Henry Markram builds a brain in a supercomputer
The 2009 TED Talk by Henry Markram describes how we now have the maths to model the neurocortical columns of the brain. He (and IBM) have built Bluebrain, a computer capable of modelling the brain. What's most interesting to me are the philosophical questions raised; what is a person? where and how do we begin and end? and with whom can we communicate? even, why are we here? And especially, what can a robot think? And is our brain evolving outside of our body in augmented reality?
These are all touched on in this fabulous TED Talk . It's one of the best 15 minutes I've spent all year! I've added the official TED bio below to do better justice to the rich subject than I can.
"In the microscopic, yet-uncharted circuitry of the cortex, Henry Markram is perhaps the most ambitious -- and our most promising -- frontiersman. Backed by the extraordinary power of the IBM Blue Gene supercomputing architecture, which can perform hundreds of trillions of calculations per second, he's using complex models to precisely simulate the neocortical column (and its tens of millions of neural connections) in 3D.
Though the aim of Blue Brain research is mainly biomedical, it has been edging up on some deep, contentious philosophical questions about the mind -- "Can a robot think?" and "Can consciousness be reduced to mechanical components?" -- the consequence of which Markram is well aware: Asked by Seed Magazine what a simulation of a full brain might do, he answered, "Everything. I mean everything" -- with a grin.
Now, with a successful proof-of-concept for simulation in hand (the project's first phase was completed in 2007), Markram is looking toward a future where brains might be modeled even down to the molecular and genetic level. Computing power marching rightward and up along the graph of Moore's Law, Markram is sure to be at the forefront as answers to the mysteries of cognition emerge.
"Markram refers to the robot as "science on an industrial scale," and is convinced that it’s the future of lab work. "So much of what we do in science isn’t actually science," he says, "I say let robots do the mindless work so that we can spend more time thinking about our questions.""
Jonah Lehrer, Seed Magazine"
Thursday, October 8, 2009
World Toilet Day | November 19, 2009
Artists get Involved - Scoop Brancisco supports World Toilet Day
Why World Toilet Day?
Because 2.5 billion people worldwide are without access to proper sanitation, which risks their health, strips their dignity, and kills 1.8 million people, mostly children, a year.
Because even the world's wealthiest people still have toilet problems - from unhygienic public toilets to sewage disposal that destroys our waterways.
I happen to know someone who devotes her life to improving that situation, in Australia and now in India. We can't all do that but we can do this, it's just one day, once a year!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Feted and Fettered : Warship at the Alter of Convergence Culture
Warship at the Alter of Convergence Culture was the seminar (sic) in my Computers as Culture class last night. I think that's pretty clever given the readings ranged from Henry Jenkins to Lawrence Lessig (a serendipitously translated title!). With such a richness on offer it's a shame that the entire class discussion dissolved into either a discussion of the latest technology/phone/program (technological determinism?) or the latest meme/show/clip/viral (participatory culture!).
Kathy Cleland tried valliantly to point out that we were discussing access to culture rather than participation, and we were enmasse rather lacking in our contributions to culture! The majority of a class of digital cultures masters students thought that voting buttons and editing wikipedia counted as participatory culture. That American Idol and Big Brother were examples of how big media was influenced by little people.
The Back Dorm Boys were the pinup poster of the seminar, with one glancing notice of the iTunes advertising running underneath the clip and much pride in the place the boys achieved getting contracts, manager and fans. The number of fans you have is the new gauge of power in China. Arguably everywhere else in the world too unless you have a lot of guns.
The control society described by Deleuze sees artists and consumers both feted and fettered. It's "the progressive and dispersed installation of a new system of domination... Can we already grasp the rough outlines of the coming forms, capable of threatening the joys of marketing? Many young people strangely boast of being "motivated"; they re-request apprenticeships and permanent training. It's up to them to discover what they're being made to serve, just as their elders discovered, not without difficulty, the telos of the disciplines. The coils of a serpent are even more complex that the burrows of a molehill."
Deleuze's "Postscript on the Societies of Control"(L'Autre Journal,1990) follows on from Foucault's description of the discipline society of the 18/19th century and the industrial revolution. Groups, closed, contained, hierarchies, one is always a beginner, learner, prisoner.
The control society is networked, dispersed, cybernetic. Feedback loops allow access to all areas randomly 'policed' and controlled. Deleuze described using a swipe card to enter and leave all buildings of the future including home and car. The doors and locks are not the barriers. The invisible program/software/code is.
Our culture of participation is a gigantic control mechanism that we are always opting into. We don't want to miss out on the rewards reaped by a feted few.
Geoffrey Hansen makes his living escaping from the most extreme bondage. He is not chained by links. He is an exception.
Ideologically Impure : DUFC : Down Under Feminists Carnival
This month it's Ten Simple Rules for Surviving Patriarchy that make a whole can of whoopass in the latest DUFC Down Under Feminist Carnival fantastically put together by Queen of Thorns at Ideologically Impure.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Australian Nobel prize winner|Nobel prize for medicine|Elizabeth Blackburn
Outspoken Australian scientist dropped by Bush wins Nobel
ANDREW DARBY
October 6, 2009
Independent...Dr Blackburn.
AUSTRALIAN Elizabeth Blackburn has won the Nobel Prize for medicine, setting a landmark for the nation's scientists.
The Tasmanian-born molecular biologist's Nobel is the first for an Australian woman.
Professor Blackburn, 60, who now works in San Francisco, pioneered the study of telomeres, caps that protect chromosomes in cells, and is a discoverer of telomerase, an enzyme that does the protecting.
Her work has opened a new field of science, raising the prospects of such medical breakthroughs as interfering with cancerous cells.
Professor Blackburn won with her long-time US collaborators Jack Szostak, who worked on the telemores unique DNA sequence, and Carol Greider, who co-identified the telomerase.
Australia's 11th Nobel laureate, Professor Blackburn is a vocal advocate of independent scientific thought who fell out with the Bush administration over cloning and stem cells.
She was dropped from George Bush's Council on Bioethics in 2004 after questioning its bias.
A colleague and friend, Melbourne University's dean of science, Rob Saint, said Professor Blackburn, who graduated in 1971, chose her career when women were starting to become more involved in the sciences.
"I think she would be representative of a change in that gender balance," Professor Saint said. "It's wonderful that here we're seeing the fruits of opening up the system.
"She is a very down-to-earth person, intelligent and wise. She stood up for not letting politics intrude into discussions about science."
Dr Blackburn's career path wasn't easy. Early in her tertiary education, she returned to her birthplace, Hobart, where according to her biography a family friend said: "What's a nice girl like you doing studying science?"
Her interest had been sparked by a likeable chemistry teacher at Launceston's Broadland school. There, biographer Catherine Brady said, she used the new chemistry lab to try to make touch powder fireworks.
She completed her schooling at Melbourne University High School, topping the state in three matriculation subjects, before completing a biochemistry masters, and moving on to Cambridge and Yale.
At the University of California for the past 30 years, Professor Blackburn had already won numerous prizes including the Lasker award, often regarded as the American Nobel, and the Australia Prize in 1998.
She said recently her work on telomeres aimed to overcome the burden of damage caused by ageing cells. "Can you push things in a better direction?" she said in a speech at the Google San Francisco campus. "That's what I've come to be interested in thinking about."
Professor Blackburn
has spoken out against closing career avenues to women because of the responsibilities of mothering young children. She said culture needed to change so a woman who had a family would not feel damned as a serious scientist.
The acting Science Minister, Craig Emerson, said her achievement was "an inspiration for all Australian scientists and those considering a career in science – especially for young women."
Professor Roger Reddel, from the Children's Medical Research Institute, Sydney, said Professor Blackburn's discovery of the telomerase enzyme - which 85 per cent of all cancers depend on for their continuing growth - may make it possible to treat most cancers by developing drugs that block the activity of telomerase.
Bloody Brilliant!
Although I've read the surveys on women in sciences in USA/Canada of last 20 years and we are not going forwards in most areas, so the success of a few should not be seen as representative of the status of the many.
But not only do we have a wonderful scientist but someone who speaks out about the need for independence in science and the need for women's role as mothers to be included in their work practices and recognised in a positive way.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Exhibition for artists with disability escalates to next level
|
Monday, September 28, 2009
Bligh is a hypocrite on Queensland abortion law | Article | The Punch
Keep the pressure on Queensland and the other states and territories to follow the lead from Victoria and ACT. A summary of abortion laws can be found on the The Children by Choice website.
The ACT has the most progressive law in the country. In 2002 they repealed the statutory and common law offences of abortion, and the procedure is now regulated in the Health Act. There is no evidence that any increase in demand for abortion at any stage of gestation has occurred.
In contrast, law reform in WA in 1998 has had less positive outcomes. The law is unnecessarily confusing prior to 20 weeks gestation, and after 20 weeks gestation access for termination is complex, requiring each woman’s case to be evaluated by a faceless committee. Documented problems with the regime include women feeling pressured to make a quick rather than considered decision after a negative fetal diagnosis when the pregnancy is less than 20 weeks, and of women failing to bond with babies they were compelled to deliver after being denied abortion by the committee. Read the Department of Health and Department of Justice’s Review of the Amendments (.pdf document 369 KB).
Access to abortions is frequently expensive and difficult to obtain. In March 2008, the Council of Europe invited all member states to decriminalise abortion on the grounds that “A ban on abortions does not result in fewer abortions, but mainly leads to clandestine abortions, which are more traumatic and more dangerous". See their full report Access to safe and legal abortion in Europe (.pdf document 123 KB).
FACTS from ProChoiceNSW
The story that has put abortion back in the dock | Article | The Punch
Abortion needs to be removed from the NSW Crimes Act too!
ProChoice NSW is a collection of individuals and organisations formed in response to the law reform process currently underway in New South Wales.
We believe that all women have a right to safe and legal abortion.
Become Facebook Fan http://www.facebook.com/pages/prochoiceNSW/95662462275?v=wall
or follow on Twitter! @prochoiceNSW
We are committed to achieving a law reform outcome for New South Wales women that:
* maximises their reproductive rights and freedoms
* fosters their dignity
* respects their moral agency by putting the decision in their hands.
Pro Choice NSW supporters include:
Family Planning NSW
ProChoice NSW welcomes new supporters. If your organisation would like to join, please contact Jillian Wolfe: jwol8303@gmail.com.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Sand artist Kseniya Simonova, winner of Ukraine's Got Talent, becomes internet hit
She is summoning spirits.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Structural Cyberbullying
In “Critical Mass, how one thing leads to another”, Philip Ball says, “I want to suggest that, even with our woeful ignorance of why humans behave the way they do, it is possible to make some predictions about how they behave collectively.”
Bullying. Cyberbullying. Structural cyberbullying. The situation where the revolutionary new network society is structurally opposed to equality, and is relatively stable and thus unlikely to change, or to reach a tipping point without radical measures.
“The network society is less inclusive than the mass society. You may be a member of some part of the mass society by birth or ascription. In the individualized network society you have to fight for a particular place. You have to show your value for every network. Otherwise you will be isolated in, or even excluded from, the network. In the network society, you have to stand firm as an individual. You are not that easily taken along in solidarity by proximate people.” (Van Dijk, 2006 p 36)
“By specifying precisely how connected systems are connected, and by drawing explicit relationships between the structure of real networks and the behavior (like epidemics, fads, and organizational robustness) of the systems they connect, the science of networks can help us understand our world.” (Watts, 2004, p303)
Barabasi believes that we are not far off a scifi-like ability to predict and influence human behaviour. Will this be used for the good of mankind?
Women in Computing
“Around 75% of girls and 60% of boys say they would consider work normally done by the opposite sex, but many types of work are still highly segregated. With more support, things could be different.“ from the Gender Agenda UK
In March 2009, Dr Maria Klawe joined Microsoft’s board, bringing the representation of women to 2 out of 10. Said Klawe:
“The underrepresentation of women in the fields of science and engineering is one of the critical issues facing the computing industry….I’m looking forward to helping the company continue to make progress on this important issue.”
Dr Klawe has a background in mathematics and computer science including functional analysis, discrete mathematics, theoretical computer science, and the design and use of interactive multimedia for mathematics education. She has written widely on Women in Computing. I can’t help but wish it was in network theory and social analysis.
Users and Consumers are Not Wearing the Pants
Sure lots of women are blogging, but are any of them making a living? Some of the most high profile bloggers have found the cost too high. Kathy Sierra, the game developer, tech blogger and author of “Code Like A Girl”, one of the few female voices in the technology sphere quit after becoming the target of death threats. (“Cyber threats against well-known blogger” David Louie, ABC)
“A new social system starts, and seems delightfully free of the elitism and cliquishness of the existing systems. Then, as the new system grows, problems of scale set in. Not everyone can participate in every conversation. Not everyone gets to be heard. Some core group seems more connected than the rest of us, and so on. Prior to recent theoretical work on social networks, the usual explanations invoked individual behaviors: … We now know that these explanations are wrong, or at least beside the point. What matters is this: Diversity plus freedom of choice creates inequality, and the greater the diversity, the more extreme the inequality. … The very act of choosing, spread widely enough and freely enough, creates a power law distribution. “ (Shirky, 2003) “Power Laws, Weblogs and Inequality”
The Digital Divide is Divisive
I was shouted down in my second class for expressing my view that women haven’t exactly achieved equality… even if and when we have equal access! I think the answer might lie in quotas in order to reach the percolation threshold. (Watts, 2003 p235)
“Indeed, it is a considerable irony of the network society that, for most of its members, securing the minimum condition of inclusion (and thereby averting complete exclusion and the radical powerlessness it would bring) simply grants them access to the infrastructure of their own continued inequality and relative domination.” (Castells, 2004 P 31)
I suggested a simple gender analysis like the number of women cited in the reading 7/58 vs the ratio in the class 18/23 should give pause to think. But I do not apparently make a convincing argument. Is that me or is that the network?
The Gender Agenda, website from Equal Opportunities Commission UK, suggests 200 years to impossible to achieve equality in some areas at the current pace.
The Australian Census on Women in Leadership is reporting a gradual decline in women’s participation in Australian business and government. (Australian Government Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency)
“Women still trail in pay stakes” Dan Harrison, the Age
“Women urged to sue to fix pay gap” Kirsty Needham, Sydney Morning Herald
“Fewer women holding top company jobs” Adele Horin, Sydney Morning Herald
crochet coral reef - iff - margaret wertheim
The crochet reef project is an interdisciplinary marriage of non-euclidean geometry, marine ecology, environmental activism, feminine handicraft and collective feminist practice. Just as living reefs propagate by sending out spawn, so too the crochet reef reproduces through an almost organic process - inspired by the efforts of the IFF, citizens of Chicago and New York have created their own Sister City Reefs, another of which is currently under construction in London.
See and download the full gallery on posterousTuesday, September 22, 2009
Girl/Green team robotics club
The Green Team (aka the girl's team as opposed to the blue/boys team) gave me this robot as a thank you for getting them to RoboCup Nationals 09 in our first ever year of competition. I am so happy!
We outperformed most of NSW and will kick the rest of Australia's butt next year, but mainly, I am overjoyed that I had a Green Team cause the girls really weren't interested to start with. But once I found a way to get them involved they were amazing!
I hope that everyone can find a Green Team.
Robogals
This is Robogals - started in Melbourne and going global! I love it!
* Robotics Lessons
University students volunteer to give LEGO robotics lessons to school girls using the LEGO Mindstorms NXT kits. For every five girls in the class there will be one Robogals volunteer. Lessons may be held at the school or at a participating university.
Lessons are typically taught in 3-hour sessions, over 2 sessions, (though this may vary depending on your location). Girls participate in small groups ranging from 2-4, depending on the number of NXTs available. The lessons include:
* An introduction to science, engineering and technology
* Building a robot using LEGO Mindstorms NXTs
* Adding and testing electronics (motors and sensors) to the robot
* Programming the robot to move, use the sensors and perform specific tasks
Following the lessons, if the girls and the school are interested in participating in the FIRST LEGO league (FLL) international competition, Robogals will help train the students for competing in the FLL. More details about FLL may be found here.
Lessons are held throughout the year. Please contact us for more information.
Monday, September 21, 2009
concept robots
Sorry, I am SO steampunk somedays! This is amazing flash from plaguedog via conceptrobots artzine.
Posted via web from AmIArt
art : concept robots
Sorry, I am SO steampunk somedays. This is amazing flash from plaguedog via conceptrobots artzine.
The Further Evolution of the Revolution 1
The internetworked society remix of the revolution will not be televised, by andragy.
There needs to be further evolution of this revolution unfortunately! My memes of production are limited by my means of production.