Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Christopher Stewart, from The Daily Poligraf, sporting the Mediaburn Surfer's Decal. 9:20:32 PM

8:21:19 PM

Dynamics of a Blogosphere Story. [Elwyn Jenkins: MicrodocBlogger] 6:32:03 PM

Wittgenstein rules. Most software is built today using procedural languages, from which stems many of software's current problems. ... [Loosely Coupled weblog] 6:15:40 PM

Cool visualizations need a home. Visualization of flows in social networks. Thomas Burg points to Visualizing Flows In Social Networks. Follow the links, they worth it! Frederico Casalegno, Roberto Tagliabue, and Marco Susani presented an intriguing visualization of flows in social networks at last November's Doors of Perception [Smart Mobs] [Mathemagenic] 2:57:45 PM

Emergentism and the Augmented Social Network. Emergentism Mitch Ratcliffe is working on a book to flush out the political ideology of Emergent Democracy, hence, an -ism: Emergentism's principles can be described briefly: Because the lower cost of communications and the logistical infrastructures available around the world allows groups to address their own needs or the needs of others in more efficient and targeted ways, it is no longer necessary for majority rule to dominate all social, economic and political decisions. Instead, we are at the beginning of a collaboration of many minorities. Power can be used for good or evil, regardless of the system that wields it, so emergentism strives to bring all perspectives and parties to every issue to the table in a world where the cost and complexity of making connections has fallen by orders of magnitude since the founding of the United Nations and, even, World Trade Organization. Every decision must be representative of the concerns of people impacted by the results. Every individual has the right to participate in any decision that will have an impact on their lives and, since the global environment is a single complex system, each person has the right to express their opinion and vote on every issue. Every individual has an absolute right to free speech and freedom and the responsibility to own the consequences of their words and acts of expression. Debate and compromise, not violence, are the preferred means of resolving differences of opinion. Violence carried out by any individual or force against a significantly weaker opponent is a crime against humanity; violence in general, while a human habit, should be reduced and ultimately eliminated from society. Every individual, in the interest of expediency and the greater good, may assign their individual vote on any or all issues to a proxy who, in turn, may federate with other proxies to represent the interests and opinions of self-organizing communities. Each person is accountable for their votes and may not sell them, even if they are disinterested in a particular issue; they may only abstain in a case of disinterest. Each individual may have multiple proxies representing their interests on different issues, but no individual may, by their own action or through a proxy, cast two votes on the same issue. Every individual has the right to reclaim their vote from a proxy if they wish to participate directly or believe the proxy has misrepresented them, on any issue at any time. Emergentism recognizes that modern institutions will continue to exist and shall not be violently overthrown but eroded by obsolescence as more efficient and fair alternatives emerge; Emergentism seeks to create social decision-making environment where ad hoc and trans-national organizations can interact and coexist with existing institutions, with which it may share many values while simultaneously being in sharp conflict with those institutions. Emergentism is politics for the people by the people that transcends national boundaries, cultural and ethnic differences, religious dogma and personal prejudice by identifying shared interests and facilitating collaboration using modern communications and transportation. It is virtual community embedded in a physical world with its eyes wide open to the realities of emerging global and local identities that have less to do with people[base ']s locations and more to do with what they care about than the past. [Ross Mayfield's Weblog] The combination of grokking all this and reading the 70 page Augmented Social network treatise - is keeping my ism - jisms busy. [Marc's Voice] 1:42:25 PM

George Burns. "I'm going to stay in show business until I'm the last one left." [Quotes of the Day] 1:33:02 PM