The open source method used for evil.
CIA invests in software to monitor social media… Bloggers beware!

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 [...]

Today there was a flurry of activity on the listserv for the Association of Internet Researchers around using Wikipedia as a source. Mostly the response was negative. A sampling of comments:
It’s not that I don’t like Wikipedia: it’s that I don’t find it appropriate to cite any dictionary and/or encyclopaedia at all in any kind [...]

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications  Commission (CRTC) has finally decided to deal with the prickly subject of internet regulation in Canada. Until recently, Canada’s Internet was an open, neutral network – a level playing field for free speech and innovation. All that is now threatened by a handful of corporations that want to control a [...]

I feel like this is what I do a little bit everyday.
Anyhow, I’m giving at talk tonight at the Vancouver Linux Users Group monthly meeting, titled: Open source and the knowledge factory hack. It’s a mildly revised version of the talk I gave at Open Web last April. I’ve incorporated some new reading, specifically McKenzie [...]

One of my Skype contacts had this URL as their  status. I know there’s been talk in the non-profit/social change tech sector about building an open source social networking site like Facebook. I’m not sure (because I haven’t really been following along) how sites like Change.org fit into the picture. So I can’t really say [...]

I will be attending the International Communication Association conference, which takes place later this week in Montreal. I am participating in a pre-conference workshop entitled Bridging the Scholar/Activist Divide in the Field of Communication – exactly up my alley. I wrote the abstract last fall sometime, and haven’t really looked at it since then. [...]