XPost: gnu.misc.discuss 
  
  
  
  Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:32:35 -0500 (EST) 
  From: Evan Korth  
  To: Computers_and_society_announcements@cs.nyu.edu,ACM chapter 
 acm@cs.nyu.edu>,women-in-computing ,discuss@iso 
 -ny.org,colloq@cs.nyu.edu 
  Subject: [Computers_and_society_announcements] Douglas Rushkoff, Wednesday, 
 November 5th, 3:30 
  
  The next Computers and Society talk is on Wednesday, November 5th from 
  3:30-4:30 in room 109 Warren Weaver Hall (251 Mercer).  It will feature 
  author, thinker and professor Douglas Rushkoff.  His talk is entitled, 
  "Open Source Democracy."  A flyer is attached. 
  
  Following is the foreword, by Douglas Alexander, to his paper on the same 
  topic: 
  
  The internet has become an integral part of our lives because it is 
  interactive. That means people are senders of information, rather than 
  simply passive receivers of 'old' media. Most importantly of all, we can 
  talk to each other without gatekeepers or editors. This offers exciting 
  possibilities for new social networks, which are enabled - but not 
  determined - by digital technology. 
  
  In the software industry, the open source movement emphasises  collective 
  cooperation over private ownership. This radical idea may provide the 
  biggest challenge to the dominance of Microsoft. Open source enthusiasts 
  have found a more efficient way of working by pooling their knowledge to 
  encourage innovation. 
  
  All this is happening at a time when participation in  mainstream 
  electoral politics is declining in many Western countries, including the 
  US and Britain. Our democracies are increasingly resembling old media, 
  with fewer real opportunities for interaction. 
  
  What, asks Douglas Rushkoff in this original essay for Demos, would happen 
  if the 'source code' of our democratic systems was opened up to the 
  people they are meant to serve? 'An open source model for participatory, 
  bottom-up and emergent policy will force us to confront the issues of our 
  time,' he answers. 
  
  That's a profound thought at a time when governments are recognising the 
  limits of centralised political institutions. The open source community 
  recognises that solutions to problems emerge from the interaction and 
  participation of lots of people, not by central planning. 
  
  Rushkoff challenges us all to participate in the redesign of political 
  institutions in a way which enables new solutions to social problems to 
  emerge as the result of millions interactions. In this way, online 
  communication may indeed be able to change offline politics. 
  
  e. 
  
  
  
  
 Distributed poC TINC: 
  
 Jay Sulzberger  
 Corresponding Secretary LXNY 
 LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization. 
 http://www.lxny.org 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)