J. D. Fielder

(Video) The Internet in Society: Empowering or Censoring Citizens?

Been reading and writing my @$$ off to get my dissertation prospectus done! Hope to defend the prospectus ~17 January.

Anyways, have an interesting video for you, courtesy of one of my professors:

"Does the internet actually inhibit, not encourage democracy? In this new RSA Animate adapted from a talk given in 2009, Evgeny Morozov presents an alternative take on 'cyber-utopianism' - the seductive idea that the internet plays a largely emancipatory role in global politics.
 
Exposing some idealistic myths about freedom and technology (during Iran's 'twitter revolution' fewer than 20,000 Twitter users actually took part), Evgeny argues for some realism about the actual uses and abuses of the internet."

 

(Abstract) New Media and Internet Activism: From the ‘Battle of Seattle’ to Blogging

Kahn, Richard, and Douglas Kellner. "New Media and Internet Activism: From the ‘Battle of Seattle’ to Blogging." New Media & Society 6, no. 1 (2004): 87-95.

Disclosure: the article does not include an abstract. This is a truncation of the last paragraph on page 88. - JDF

The global internet...is creating the base and the basis for an unparalleled worldwide anti-war/pro-peace and social justice movement during a time of terrorism, war, and intense political struggle. Correspondingly, the internet itself has undergone radical transformations during this time.  We will briefly examine how the internet has become steadily politicized in recent times, and how internet developments themselves have furthered oppositional politics generally. However, while our analysis will look to chart what we believe are some of the most interesting and powerful expressions of a politicized sensibility occurring today in new media spheres, our analysis is anything but another paean to ‘cybergnosis’ and the digital sublime. Rather, we believe that the internet activism of today is best perceived as informed by the spirit of the EZLN, the ‘Battle of Seattle’, and the diverse amalgams of social movements and subcultures that have matured along with the new media over the last five years. This is the internet as a living, historical force and one of the keys to understanding and shaping the political and cultural life of the present age.

Available at:

Richardkhan.org

Sage Publications

Academic Earth: Curated Academic Lecture Site

As far as I can tell, Academic Earth is a free service (and "free" is one of my favorite words in the English language):

As more and more high quality educational content becomes available online for free, we ask ourselves, what are the real barriers to achieving a world class education?  At Academic Earth, we are working to identify these barriers and find innovative ways to use technology to increase the ease of learning.
 
We are building a user-friendly educational ecosystem that will give internet users around the world the ability to easily find, interact with, and learn from full video courses and lectures from the world’s leading scholars.  Our goal is to bring the best content together in one place and create an environment in which that content is remarkably easy to use and where user contributions make existing content increasingly valuable.

http://academicearth.org/

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On Communication, Mission Statements and the Occupy Movement

For my dissertation, I'm studying information and communication technology (ICT) effects on dissent within authoritarian states. I came up with the idea back in 2008, and must say the Arab Spring came at a good time for my research.  To build my argument, I've read widely in civic culture/social capital, democratization, collective action, state coercion, and computer mediated communication.  No surprise, then, that many existing theories apply just as well to democratic states.

I've poked through the Occupy Iowa City camp several times to see what's going on and drop the random "hello." It's a sedate affair in comparison to larger movements in New York and Oakland. No shouting, no jostling, no police in riot gear--indeed, it's steeped in Midwest politeness and sensibility.  I also have friends participating in, observing, or dismissing movements in New York, Denver, Seattle, Portland, and Eugene. And I follow all of it from the comfort of my recliner, thanks to the wonders of Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds.

ICTs are double-edged, however.  On one hand, the Internet (one ICT facet) is a real time, asynchronous and reasonably cheap communication medium. Indeed, while Web 2.0 tools permit richer experiences (plotting movements on Google Maps is a nice touch), text-enabled cellphones are often sufficient for information flows. ICTs also flatten organizational structures and thus decentralized decision and coordination processes. ICTs also mitigate the tyranny of distance, meaning geographic proximity is no longer a major obstacle.

To the best of my knowledge, the Occupy movement has no single leader, yet all the movement cells appear to function in good working order. Volunteers step up to cook, clean, post to-do lists, organize meetings, process information, and so on without a central headquarters. Thus, the movement captures the best of early American Town Hall politics and the type of civic engagement that makes de Tocqueville smile.

On the other hand, there are significant risks associated with decentralized control/decentralized execution. I must turn to my primary employer--the U.S. Air Force--as a comparison.  One of our mantras is "centralized control/decentralized execution," meaning the commander issues a unified mission intent but gives subordinates wide latitude in pursuing the objective. Under this construct, everyone starts on same sheet of music, and ideally, everyone down to the lowest ranking Airman will know--and can articulate--the objective.  Yet, every units has free reign to maximize their strengths during planning and execution, and can even pursue additional objectives of opportunity during execution.  After the dust clears, units then compile and send after action reviews up the chain of command and the commander uses the reviews to refine or change the mission intent. All in all, an elegant command and control solution for a chaotic environment.

In contrast, I assess the Occupy movement is well organized but poorly articulated. Is there as unified "commander's intent?" As an outside observer, I'll admit I'm not entirely sure what the movement's goals are. So far, I've read a heady mix of statements that punish the banks, big business, the rich, and Washington D.C. I've read calls for tax increases and decreases, wealth distribution, entitlement demands, and my fill of snarky statements scrawled on notebook paper, photographed, and shared on Facebook to generate support, angst, amusement, and schadenfreude. Basically, the noise to signal ratio is so high that I can't draw conclusions. Rather than reading information online, I'd be better off baking cookies for the Iowa City camp and talking in person (a few beers might help, too).

Also, if I may loosely invoke Michel's Iron Law of Oligarchy¹, without centralized leadership, each movement risks forming their own fiefdoms centered on local leadership and local demands. The result would be leadership struggles, a mish-mash of geographically dispersed mission statements, and potential squabbles between different movement locations (so far, though, egalitarianism has the upper hand). The Tea Party runs similar risks, too, but the TP Movement (heh, that sounds bad) appears to have more nationally known names, offices with nice desks, multifunction phones and maroon carpeting, and direct involvement in early presidential fisticuffs. The only big Occupy name that comes to mind is Cornell West, and he's getting arrested too much to articulate a statement. In other other words, there is effort, but not unity of effort.

The result? No one seems to give a s**t about the Occupy movement, except participants and sympathetic observers (to paraphrase Lemony Snicket, movements fail if the suit and slacks people in tall buildings with impressive views don't become patrons). In contrast, the Tea Party demands tribute and gets it. While flash mobs, hash tags and miles of ethernet cable are a nice touch, the Occupy movements at least needs a unified mission statement.

By the way, I lean more towards Occupy than Tea Party. Both share some common ground, though, notably the idea we've been collectively shafted.


¹ Michels, Robert. 1915. Political Parties: A Sociological Study Of The Oligarchical Tendencies Of Modern Democracy. Kessinger Publishing, LLC.  Iron Law of Oligarchy refers to the tendency of all complex organizations, including radical or socialist political parties and labour unions, to develop a ruling clique of leaders with interests in the organization itself rather than in its official aims.

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(Abstract) Six Provocations for Big Data

Boyd, Danah, and Kate Crawford. 2011. "Six Provocations for Big Data." Presented at Oxford Internet Institute’s A Decade in Internet Time: Symposium on the Dynamics of the Internet and Society.

Abstract: The era of Big Data has begun. Computer scientists, physicists, economists, mathematicians, political scientists, bio-informaticists, sociologists, and many others are clamoring for access to the massive quantities of information produced by and about people, things, and their interactions. Diverse groups argue about the potential benefits and costs of analyzing information from Twitter, Google, Verizon, 23andMe, Facebook, Wikipedia, and every space where large groups of people leave digital traces and deposit data. Significant questions emerge. Will large-scale analysis of DNA help cure diseases? Or will it usher in a new wave of medical inequality? Will data analytics help make people’s access to information more efficient and effective? Or will it be used to track protesters in the streets of major cities? Will it transform how we study human communication and culture, or narrow the palette of research options and alter what ‘research’ means? Some or all of the above? This essay offers six provocations that we hope can spark conversations about the issues of Big Data. Given the rise of Big Data as both a phenomenon and a methodological persuasion, we believe that it is time to start critically interrogating this phenomenon, its assumptions, and its biases.

Available at SSRN

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The Netizen Report

First edition of The Netizen Report, a new series at Global Voices Advocacy:

"This is the first post in a new series on GVA called “The Netizen Report”: A regular overview of recent global developments related to the power dynamics between citizens, companies and governments on the Internet. I hope that these regular reports can provide netizens around the world with useful information about who is seeking to influence and shape the digital platforms and networks we increasingly depend upon, and how.

Armed with information, we are in a better position to defend our rights, and to make sure the Internet evolves in a manner that is compatible with free expression and dissent. The format and content of the report will evolve over the coming months based on reader feedback and author experimentation."

CONTINUED AT GLOBAL VOICES ADVOCACY

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Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

Nice site--I downloaded a few papers for my dissertation literature review (my APSA paper is uploaded there, as well). As far as I can tell, you don't need to register to search for and download works. I also haven't tried any of the additional research links on the left-hand frame:

"The SSRN eLibrary consists of two parts: an Abstract Database containing abstracts on over 356,400 scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers and an Electronic Paper Collection currently containing over 290,700 downloadable full text documents in Adobe Acrobat pdf format. The eLibrary also includes the research papers of a number of Fee Based Partner Publications.

The Networks encourage readers to communicate directly with authors and other subscribers concerning their own and others' research. To facilitate this we publish detailed author contact information including email addresses for authors of each paper. We also provide electronic delivery of the papers when authors wish us to do so from the SSRN eLibrary."

Continued at SSRN

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Libya and Armchair Social Media Analysis

21 August 2011 was my daughter's 17th birthday. It was also the day Libyan rebels poured into Tripoli and sent Qaddafi skulking off to a currently undisclosed hidey hole.

Thanks to the latter, I burned the hamburgers. I couldn't break away from the real-time Libya updates. Couldn't, I tell you. I ran back into my office one too many times for another hit at the Twitter pipe, and before you know it the burgers were on fire (I thought they tasted fine, but the wife still beat me over the head with a rolled up newspaper).

For an old intel junkie like me, watching a crackpot regime unravel in real time from the comfort of my favorite chair was a splendid afternoon's entertainment. I had tabs open for Twitter, a Tripoli Google Map with attacks geolocated, a Sky News audio stream, and a separate twitter tab dedicated solely to a gentlemen posting open-source signals intelligence (tracking flights around the Mediterranean). I even did my best to contribute "new" information to the stream, although I couldn't verify everything I found. If beggars could be choosers, I'd of loved to have had an order of battle chart on the Libyan military, since at one point there was concern Qaddafi would launch ambushes on rebel rear areas.

In sum, social media and broadband Internet gave me access to sufficient open source information that I could build an operational picture of battlespace. Five to ten years ago I'd of needed on-the-job classified sources to do so.

But, with almost a week's distance between me and the rebel offensive, I've had time to reflect on what real-time access actually meant at the time. First, for me it was entertainment--a dopamine squirt in the brain for every rebel victory sign. But what barbaric entertainment it was: people dying, hospitals filled with the wounded, the heady scent of victory tainted by the acrid smell of burning tires, spent rounds, and the fear of locals trying to evade gunfire. And there I was, popping open a "Fat Tire" in between Twitter updates. Keeping score on social media makes one forget that gunfire isn't a sport. A Tripoli hospital photo spread in yesterday's print New York Times certainly brought me back down from the social media ether.

Next, information access made me feel as if I was there, in downtown Tripoli, a rebel standing against Qaddafi and his crazy 1970's hair. But let's get serious: I did nothing but act as a conduit of information for other chair-bound observers. Access to real-time information from multiple sources simply created the illusion of in-person participation; an illusion broken when I disconnected from the datastream to take my daughter's birthday cake out of the oven (thankfully, the cake turned out perfect).

Finally, as @acarvin, @blakehounshell, @timmathews, and others observed, how much of the information was truly new, let alone valid? Choking layers of rumor and exaggeration are seious pathologies of real-time intelligence gathering. Sources aren't verified, words such as CONFIRMED are applied liberally to make information sound factual. Spend enough time in front of the fire hose, and you'll learn to separate the wheat from the chaff; however, how many users have the time, training and experience to do so? I'll put it this way: I'm a professional geopolitical analyst, yet I undoubtedly retweeted information of dubious legitimacy. It's simply too easy to get swept up into the stream, where subjectivity is far more fun than objective and critical judgment.

Still, I prefer open access and its associated interpretive risks over informational blind spots. Next time, though, I should probably take my laptop with me to the deck instead of running in and out with my spatula.

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Software for Evading Internet Censorship?

NPR: China is stepping up Internet censorship, telling hotels and cafes they need to monitor public Wi-Fi usage or face fines and punishments. China is already one of the most heavily censored places in the world — along with places like Burma (Myanmar), Iran and many Middle Eastern countries.

Now, new software being developed at the University of Michigan may help Internet users find away around the blockages. Alex Halderman is an assistant professor of computer science at the university, and one of the developers of the new system, called Telex. CONTINUED

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Archiving the Printed Word

Internet archivist seeks 1 of every book written:

Brewster Kahle founded the nonprofit Internet Archive in 1996 to save a copy of every Web page ever posted. Now the MIT-trained computer scientist and entrepreneur is expanding his effort to safeguard and share knowledge by trying to preserve a physical copy of every book ever published.

"There is always going to be a role for books," said Kahle as he perched on the edge of a shipping container soon to be tricked out as a climate-controlled storage unit. Each container can hold about 40,000 volumes, the size of a branch library. "We want to see books live forever." CONTINUED

I love books: not just the printed word, but their feel, their weight, even their scent.  I like picking out an old volume in the University of Iowa library stacks, wondering if I'm the first person in years to crack the book's covers.  For me, there's no greater joy than stretching out in my favorite chair on a cold winter's day, coffee in one hand and paperback in the other (and in flannel pants, no less).  Thus, I shudder when I see bookstores close, big and small alike (a moment of silence for Borders).

Alas, I must grudgingly admit ebooks have their place: for example, my brother--a network security officer and Linux guru--keeps a Kindle filled with technical books at work.  Easier to bring the Kindle with him to a job site for reference than to lug around a dufflebag packed with arcane volumes.  eBooks also keep backlists in "print," meaning authors can continue to profit on older works (and I won't begrudge writers profiting from their work).

But I'm not ready to give up ink stains on my fingers, or allergy-inducing mold wafting off of old tomes.  I'm not ready to give up my bookshelves, where topics are sorted, spines are carefully arranged, and curated collections offer visitors insight on my personal and professional interests: my identity in book form, if you will. And no matter how well eBook readers mimic the look of paper, I'm not ready to stare at screens all day for all my entertainment needs.

Returning to the article, I will concede, though, that books are fragile things.  Even with the best climate control, how long can a given book ultimately live?

Then again, books have lasted for centuries, while various digital media have gone the way of the dodo in very short order.  In fact, I have some writings squirreled away on 3.5 floppies, which I can't open since I no longer have a 3.5 floppy drive (I'm keeping the disks just in case).

As awesome as digital storage is, perhaps bytes are just as fragile as paper--perhaps even more so, given rapid technological obsolescence, and people's usual failure to back up files and then trip over power cords. To put it another way, odds are I'll never lose my books, barring a home fire.  Yet, I could digitize my entire library onto a single beefy USB drive, and then lose every succulent word in an instant through mechanical failure or user error.  In the digital age, the delete key is far more dangerous than fire.

All that said, I'm signing off to go read a book--a real book, one made of paper, with the heady scent of pulp, imagination and Starbucks coffee.

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