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Interesting article about Kenneth Goldsmith. Includes some great quotes about his theories pertaining to originality and readability.

Lovink's latest book is all about social media. It addresses a number of the critiques we offered in class - which is not to say it answers or does away with them - but also reinforces that he offers less a theory than a report or journalistic take. (One example is the way he looks at the uneven use of blogging world wide, so that blogging becomes much less monolithic in this account.)

Kirby Ferguson's theory of creativity goes hand-in-hand with some of the concepts presented in Goldsmith's Uncreative Writing. Ferguson argues that copying is one of the key elements in creativity. Hunter S. Thompson, for example, retyped A Farewell to Arms and The Great Gatsby.

You can take or leave the comic, depending on your tastes, but the idea of Umwelt and its applicability to our subject matter is fascinating.

This RSA adaptation of Evgeny Morozov's 2009 talk illustrates (and examines) the concept of "cyber-utopianism": the theory that the internet "plays a largely emancipatory role in global politics." Morozov discusses whether or not the internet predominately empowers or censors citizens by facilitating activism and allowing individuals to disseminate information more effectively.