The Wealth of Networks

I have a lot to catch up on …but this just rose to the top of the list!! I went to see a lecture by Yale Professor Yochai Benkler yesterday.  He has a fantastic way of conceptualizing and presenting the ideas of peer-production and a commons based culture! What is even BETTER is the fact that he makes his publications available on his website…including is book The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom.  DEAR READERS, YOU MUST DOWNLOAD THIS BOOK…I know most of you and I know you would enjoy having this on your hard drive.  For a shorter starting point you may also want to try Common Wisdom: Peer Production of Educational Materials….let’s start a discussion on this…or a book club or chapter club or something…it’s really good stuff from a different perspective!!!

McKenzie Wark

Link: FM Interviews – McKenzie Wark

I went to a lecture this afternoon featuring McKenzie Wark…very interesting…and of course exactly what I was trying to do for my TE paper! I just have to remind myself that I don’t have a lifetime of studying Marx under my belt, so how COULD I speak that eloquently?   He had a VERY intersting use of Powerpoint…at first, I was saying to myself "who is this guy?" because he was reading off of the slides…however they were designed so well (black background, white serif text, with some text in red, each slide numbered) that it worked…it worked really well! (I think it’s how Wittgenstein would use ppt!)  McKenzie wrote A Hacker ManifestoEven though I may not agree with everything he said, I reallly liked his writing style and the way he constructed and supported his arguments.