It has been a ridiculously busy last bit, but I thought I’d try to get a few things down.
My research on social justice activists’ experience of and response to cybersurveillance in the lead up to the G20 is proceeding apace – I’m slowly gathering the stories of folks who’ve been followed [...]

Some rad folks have been organizing, lobbying and generally raising a ruckus around the corporate-sponsored push to close down the internet, commodify internet travel (using surveillance and discriminatory practices) and generally mess with net neutrality. The work is largely volunteer-driven, natch, and donation-funded. That’s why the SaveOurNet cats are hosting a fundraiser – a film [...]

I am a supporter and user of free software (though I admit I have not migrated entirely). I research and write about the social movement aspect of free software, and its potential as a model for alternative social organization beyond the realm of software development. I am inspired by the future envisioned by free software [...]

It is a well known fact that hackers – the original MIT hackers, anyhow – love Chinese food. In truth, I think it’s because the only restaurants open when they’d come to after 7, 13 or 24 hours of straight programming, only to find it was 4am and they were about to faint from hunger. [...]

Richard Stallman, otherwise known as rms or the founder of the free software movement, will be in town for a series of lectures at UBC and BCIT. I have been reading Stallman’s stuff since I wrote my master’s thesis in 2003. Although he has sometimes passed off as a crank, much of Stallman’s work has [...]

Just arrived at BarCamp – taking place on Granville Island instead of Workspace for the first time. I cycled along the seawall and it was lovely – cool and fishy and seaweedy smelling.
I popped in late to Joe Bowser’s session, on the new Vancouver Hacker Space. This is a really exciting project and I’m glad [...]

Apologies for my unannounced (and unplanned) summer hiatus…
Last night I attended my first Net Tuesday, at Workspace in Gastown. Let me first say that Workspace is a cool place. I first visited it for the inaugural Vancouver BarCamp in 2006. The place was new and the idea underlying it fresh: a gathering space and workplace [...]

My first panel of the day was entitled The Intersection of Culture Jamming, Hacking and Hactivism. On this, the last day of the conference, attendance had reached capacity. Literally thousands (I heard estimates of 2,000 and 3,000) of every nerd imaginable: The stereotypical anti-social, disempowered, tech freak expressing his barely concealed rage and marginality through [...]

On Sunday I attended the final day of Last H.O.P.E. It was pretty much the coolest conference I’ve ever attended. The Hackerspace Village was awesome. Welcoming you as you ascended the escalator was the multi-coloured LED dildo sculpture; I turned away instinctively, burning with that ingrained Catholic shame, and only near the end of the [...]

Things are wrapping up here at Open Web Vancouver 2008. It’s been an informative (dare I say fun-filled) couple of days here on Raincity’s beautiful corporate waterfront. No one’s commodified the breath-taking view yet, so that’s something…
I have to say, any misgivings I had about speaking to a hardcore geek audience have been dispelled. I [...]