Skip to main content

Home/ opensociety/ Group items tagged us

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
thinkahol *

The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality - Salon.com - 0 views

www.salon.com/...singleton

The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality - Salon.com

shared by thinkahol * on 09 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • thinkahol * on 09 Nov 11
     
    What amazes me most whenever I write about this topic is recalling how terribly upset so many Democrats pretended to be when Bush claimed the power merely to detain or even just eavesdrop on American citizens without due process.  Remember all that?  Yet now, here's Obama claiming the power not to detain or eavesdrop on citizens without due process, but to kill them; marvel at how the hardest-core White House loyalists now celebrate this and uncritically accept the same justifying rationale used by Bush/Cheney (this is war! the President says he was a Terrorist!) without even a moment of acknowledgment of the profound inconsistency or the deeply troubling implications of having a President - even Barack Obama - vested with the power to target U.S. citizens for murder with no due process. Also, during the Bush years, civil libertarians who tried to convince conservatives to oppose that administration's radical excesses would often ask things like this: would you be comfortable having Hillary Clinton wield the power to spy on your calls or imprison you with no judicial reivew or oversight?  So for you good progressives out there justifying this, I would ask this:  how would the power to assassinate U.S. citizens without due process look to you in the hands of, say, Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann?
thinkahol *

Things That Make Me Angry | Thinkahol's Blog - 0 views

thinkahol.wordpress.com/...things-that-make-me-angry

Things That Make Me Angry | Thinkahol's Blog

shared by thinkahol * on 12 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • thinkahol * on 12 Nov 11
     
    Wall Street Isn't Winning - It's Cheating The two-tiered justice system: an illustration 9/10/2001: Rumsfeld says $2.3 TRILLION Missing from Pentagon  The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality The Quiet Coup "the finance industry has effectively captured our government" What OWS is about + data behind the movement Data privacy is now extinct in the U.S. "The problem that confronts us is that every living system in the biosphere is in decline and the rate of decline is accelerating. There isn't one peer-reviewed scientific article that's been published in the last 20 years that contradicts that statement. Living systems are coral reefs. They're our climatic stability, forest cover, the oceans themselves, aquifers, water, the conditions of the soil, biodiversity. They go on and on as they get more specific. But the fact is, there isn't one living system that is stable or is improving. And those living systems provide the basis for all life." The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery? How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich: The inside story of how the Republicans abandoned the poor and the middle class to pursue their relentless agenda of tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent
thinkahol *

Occupy and anarchism's gift of democracy | David Graeber | Comment is free | guardian.c... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...ccupy-anarchism-gift-democracy

Occupy and anarchism's gift of democracy | David Graeber Comment is free guardian.co.uk

shared by thinkahol * on 17 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • thinkahol * on 17 Nov 11
     
    The US imagines itself a great democracy, yet most Americans despise its politics. Which is why direct democracy inspires them
Johann Höchtl

The Economics of Open Data - Mini-Case, Transit Data & TransLink | eaves.ca - 0 views

eaves.ca/...ni-case-transit-data-translink

economic impact open data

shared by Johann Höchtl on 23 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Being the monopoly holder of transit data does not benefit TransLink.
  • Consumers don't turn to who has the data, they turn to who makes the data easiest to use.
  • It should be focused on shifting the competitive value in the marketplace from access to accessibility.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The simple fact is that Google maps is radically easier to use for planning transit journeys than TransLink's own website AND THAT IS A GOOD THING FOR TRANSLINK.
Johann Höchtl

Facebook's friendship trap | Eleanor Mills - Times Online - 0 views

www.timesonline.co.uk/...article7139965.ece

SNS facebook socialmedia

shared by Johann Höchtl on 30 May 10 - Cached
  • Last week my vague feelings of unease about social networking were fanned by a fascinating study by the Mental Health Foundation, which blamed high levels of loneliness among young people on their use of virtual, rather than real, communication. Dubbed the “Eleanor Rigby generation”, those aged 18-34 (84% of whom use the internet regularly) are the most likely to be lonely, according to the report. And 31% admitted that they spent too much time online rather than face to face.
  • The psychologist Dr Aric Sigman says that social networking sites undermine social skills and the ability to read body language.
thinkahol *

The Usefulness of Anger: A Response - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com - 0 views

opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/...usefulness-of-anger-a-response

Philosophy

shared by thinkahol * on 29 Jun 10 - Cached
  • thinkahol * on 29 Jun 10
     
    The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless.
Johann Höchtl

fair-use-study-final.pdf (application/pdf Object) - 0 views

www.ccianet.org/...fair-use-study-final.pdf

fair open information copyright economy economic benefits

shared by Johann Höchtl on 09 Jun 10 - No Cached
  • Johann Höchtl on 09 Jun 10
     
    Studie, die den Mehrwert freier Information für die Wirtschaft bescheinigt. Auch auf http://orf.at/?href=http%3A%2F%2Forf.at%2Fticker%2F371308.html
Johann Höchtl

U.S. unveils plan to make online transactions safer - Technology & science - Security -... - 0 views

www.msnbc.msn.com/...echnology_and_science-security

identification USA web sites online security ID

shared by Johann Höchtl on 27 Jun 10 - Cached
  • In a draft plan released Friday, the White House laid out an argument for a yet-undeveloped, voluntary identification system and set up a website to gather input from experts and everyday Internet users on how it should be structured.
  • In a draft plan released Friday, the White House laid out an argument for a yet-undeveloped, voluntary identification system and set up a website to gather input from experts and everyday Internet users on how it should be structured.
  • Ari Schwartz, vice president at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the unfettered openness of the Internet is what allowed it to grow and prosper but also created security gaps that need to be addressed.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • the opportunity is there to make things more interoperable and more uniform
  • The draft plan is part of an administration effort to promote cyber security both within the government and among society as a whole.
Parycek

Economic and Social Return on Investment in Open Archiving Federally Funded Research Ou... - 0 views

www.cfses.com/FRPAA

open government opendata study opengov

shared by Parycek on 13 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Parycek on 13 Aug 10
     
    ...to measuring the impacts of the proposed US Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) on returns to public investment in R&D. The aim is to define and scope the data collection requirements and further model developments necessary for a robust estimate of the likely impacts of the proposed FRPAA archiving mandate. 
thinkahol *

YouTube - A Look at an American Propaganda Program. - 0 views

www.youtube.com/watch

american propaganda program DoD defense

shared by thinkahol * on 16 Aug 10 - Cached
  • thinkahol * on 16 Aug 10
     
    April 22, 2008 Democracy Now! Pentagon's Pundits: A Look at the Defense Department's Propaganda Program The New York Times has revealed new details on how the Pentagon recruited more than seventy-five retired military officers to appear on TV outlets as so-called military analysts ahead of the Iraq war to portray Iraq as an urgent threat. The Times reported the Pentagon continues to use the analysts in a propaganda campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration's wartime performance. We speak with Col. Sam Gardiner (Ret.) and Peter Hart of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. (excerpt)
Johann Höchtl

The Government 2.0 Forecast For 2010: 7 Predictions | SocialComputingJournal.com - 0 views

socialcomputingjournal.com/viewcolumn.cfm

dion Hinchcliffe­ forecast 2010 gov20 gov2.0

shared by Johann Höchtl on 25 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Social computing will continue to grow in government, but won't hit critical mass in 2010.
  • Don't forget that there was some clamping down on social media in government during 2009 including the Marines restricting access to services such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter. Progress in 2010 will be better in state and to a lesser extent local government. The federal government will also struggle with a consistent policy and approach for internal and external social computing, which probably won't emerge next year.
  • Open data goes back to the drawing board. I've been bullish on open data and APIs for years and the government got religion in 2009 with data.gov. But the usage is down as government workers and businesses realize that the data is often far out-of-date and not in forms that can be used operationally.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Cloud computing will go big. While many agencies will just use the technologies internally for now in order to have public options later, there is tremendous interest in the cloud
  • Government portals (rightly) continue to incorporate social media, but deep engagement will be elusive for now. I've seen many overhauls of government portals this year, including Utah.gov and the Department of Defense, prominently incorporate social media right on their home pages. To be clear, these are major advances for the government to make on the internal/external boundary and I encourage them.
thinkahol *

FDL Book Salon Welcomes Bruce Fein, American Empire Before the Fall | Book Salon - 0 views

fdlbooksalon.com/...mes-bruce-fein-american-empire

FDL Book Salon Welcomes Bruce Fein American Empire Before the Fall |

shared by thinkahol * on 18 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • thinkahol * on 18 Sep 10
     
    There's no doubting the conservative bona fides of Bruce Fein. A high-level Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration in the 1980s and previously a resident scholar with the Heritage Foundation, he is a long-time advocate for uncompromising right-wing political principles. Yet paradoxically, Fein has been, and remains, one of the most eloquent and incisive political voices over the last decade. He was one of the earliest and most emphatic critics of Bush and Cheney's radical abuses of executive power. Two weeks after The New York Times revealed in December, 2005, that Bush had ordered the NSA to illegally eavesdrop on Americans without the warrants required by law, Fein used his column in the right-wing Washington Times to warn that "Mr. Bush has adamantly refused to acknowledge any constitutional limitations on his power to wage war indefinitely"; to scorn as "war powers nonsense" the theories assembled "to defend Mr.
Johann Höchtl

Announcing Google Refine 2.0, a power tool for data wranglers - Google Open Source Blog - 0 views

google-opensource.blogspot.com/...ogle-refine-20-power-tool.html

google refine data sets data.gov.uk opendata

shared by Johann Höchtl on 11 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Google Refine is a power tool for working with messy data sets, including cleaning up inconsistencies, transforming them from one format into another, and extending them with new data from external web services or other databases.
  • you can read how the Chicago Tribune, ProPublica and data.gov.uk have used it
  • Johann Höchtl on 11 Nov 10
     
    Refine 2.0, a tool for data wranglers
Parycek

Guidance: Representing EPA Online Using Social Media - 0 views

govsocmed.pbworks.com/...-EPA-Online-Using-Social-Media

socialmedia guidance participation

shared by Parycek on 07 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Parycek on 07 Nov 10
     
    Steps for representing EPA online in an official capacity Great Decison Flow Chart
Johann Höchtl

How do we get government to share data? - O'Reilly Radar - 1 views

radar.oreilly.com/...toppers-in-local-governme.html

opendata crime value force

shared by Johann Höchtl on 19 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • How, then, does the public get access to data, and ideally, to raw data streams?
  • Using force, by changing the laws or creating new regulations
  • Using intimidation, by enlisting the news media to pressure the agency
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • By creating value for agencies to entice them to share the data.
  • So what, exactly, is public data? Is crime data actually public data, and do agencies have to provide it? If so, why don’t they provide it as a raw data feed? The answer is this: while crime data concerns the general public, it is not exactly public data per se
  • Johann Höchtl on 19 Nov 10
     
    Drivers for open data
Johann Höchtl

Open Knowledge Foundation Blog » Blog Archive » Rethinking Open Data: Lessons... - 0 views

blog.okfn.org/...from-the-open-data-front-lines

knowledge OKNF opendata types groupie

shared by Johann Höchtl on 19 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • You can build it but they won’t come. All successful open source projects build communities of supportive engaged developers who identify with the project and keep it productive and useful.
  • Ongoing maintenance and distribution of the data hasn’t been budgeted for almost all the data sets we have today. This attitude has to change, and new projects give us the chance to get it right, but most existing datasets are unfunded for maintenance and release.
  • there are at least five different types of Open Data groupie: low-polling governments who want to see a PR win from opening their data, transparency advocates who want a more efficient and honest government, citizen advocates who want services and information to make their lives better, open advocates who believe that governments act for the people therefore government data should be available for free to the people, and wonks who are hoping that releasing datasets of public toilets will deliver the same economic benefits to the country as did opening the TIGER geo/census dataset.
Johann Höchtl

Why Open Source is the New Software Policy in San Francisco - 0 views

mashable.com/...open-source-san-francisco

egov san francisco mashup open data open government

shared by Johann Höchtl on 08 Mar 10 - Cached
  • We face many challenges today, none more urgent than the economic crisis, but with it comes an opportunity to seek new ways of governing. In San Francisco, like other cities, we are using this opportunity to engage our greatest resource, the public, to build a government that works better for all of us.
Parycek

Crowd-sourcing is not empowering enough - 0 views

www.deliberations.com.au/...-is-not-empowering-enough.html

deliberation Crowd-sourcing edem

shared by Parycek on 08 Mar 10 - Cached
    • Parycek
      Parycek on 20 Mar 10
       
      It invites individuals to foist and endorse (or not) ideas with no pressure to consider the full public consequences of them, including whether they can be sustained across ideological or partisan lines, or how practical they are, or how insulting of public officers. There is the published intention to attract a full range of public perspectives, but instead it tends to attract enclaves of people with committed strategies (eg. embarrass public officials) or perspectives (eg. technology is the answer). While national initiatives attract noise, in more local applications of such ideation, participation is often too thin to be meaningful. This all comes down the question of representativeness. If a governing body is going to legitimately use these ideas, and be compelled to do so, then there has to be good evidence that the contributors do actually form a descriptive representation of the public being governed. I think if you have a technical problem that requires particular expertise, then such ideation processes can find the needle in the haystack. Those of us who subscribe to technical forums know how well that works. I think some people feel that public policy ideation works the same way, but it doesn't because in a contested political environment, what "should be done" is claimed on normative rather than technical grounds. Another metaphor for the ranking in ideation is consumer selection, which many in political science would model as rational choice, privileging private over public interests. Should that be the motor for the selection of public policy? I write all this knowing full well that I risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I just think we can do better. Some ideation processes should invite people randomly, to ensure full demographic spread on relevant dimensions (eg. age, education, political leaning). Let's have multi-stage processes, where contributors do more than just introduce and rank ideas--to their credit, thi
  • Parycek on 20 Mar 10
     
    I fear that ultimately crowd-sourcing is damaging the enterprise of dialogue and deliberation (D&D).
« First ‹ Previous 61 - 80 of 175 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page