Two weeks ago I played a role in a terrific local festival called Taste of Wellington West whose centrepiece is a massive public gifting event. This year 36 different independent local restaurants, bakeries and food shops gave out tens of thousands of free food samples to thousands of visitors throughout the afternoon. It is partly... Continue Reading →
Wall Street is Fort Monologue. It is an epicentre of literate capitalism, an ivory tower without ears to hear. It is a paper palace divorced from all experience, from suffering and compassion, from love and joy. It is rule of ledgers. Rule of policies and laws. Rule of dividends and debt, all defined on and... Continue Reading →
Not many people know that cows are killers. Or rather, cow milk. But yes, according to the Canadian Government, the milk that comes out of a healthy cow is toxic and we must at all costs be protected from it. Welcome to the OS2 world. Farmer Michael Schmidt of Durham Ontario is just one of... Continue Reading →
Just got back from cheering on 100 or so people getting arrested for protesting the Harper government's pro-oil anti-earth policies, preceded by powerful speeches by elders and youngsters demanding justice and respect for the earth. I salute their courage and wisdom. They are trying to save all our asses. Among the many memorable speakers was... Continue Reading →
In a previous post and in my recent book, You Are Your Media, I describe the brutal impact of strapping an OS2 (literate) application like debt to the hyper-efficient rocketship that is OS3 (networked) technology and letting greedy self-interested financiers light the fuse. In post-literate capitalism - as in all networked culture - history ceases... Continue Reading →
As previously mentioned, I post regularly to the terrific Institute for Distributed Creativity listserv, and have started cross-posting my contributions there to this blog. Here is yesterday's post, in response to George Siemen's post titled: DIY: nightmare for humanities, social sciences, media. The entire thread can be found here: https://lists.thing.net/pipermail/idc/2011-September/thread.html Hi George, well, first of... Continue Reading →
Last night I was speaking with Moses, a visitor from Kenya, about the difficulty young people have finding jobs in his homeland, even when they have a degree. Because, he said, "It is not what you know that matters but who you know." Now this is a phrase I have also heard used to describe... Continue Reading →
"It is better to give than to receive" goes the old adage, and today I feel it is very much true. Although I hope that tomorrow - or whenever these books I am sending out today arrive on your doorstep - that you will be equally pleased to receive! For today I am sending out... Continue Reading →
Today's BBC.com has an article about a lab in Germany that has for the first time successfully created artificial blood vessels on a 3D printer. They will apparently be very helpful in organ transplants. One of the scientists involved is quoted saying: "We are establishing a basis for applying rapid prototyping to elastic and organic... Continue Reading →
YOU ARE YOUR MEDIA 