Field Notes

I have been doing a lot of thinking  about Where We Live Now. The places between city and country, inner cities, suburban landscapes there are many versions of “here”, the classic city of our imagination is really that an imaginary place. No one can close their eyes and visualize their city or town with out seeing the “downtown”, the classic city center around which most cities radiate, but these city centers are just a very small part of the city we live in.

There are numerous ideologies and interest groups vying for  control of the future of where we live now, the developers, the speculators, businesses such as Wal-Mart, Costco, Home Depot, ecologists, neighborhood activist, governments. Each of these see where we live now differently, if where we live now is to succeed and to be a viable community we need to synthesize the disparate visions and work together. Community implies cooperation and harmony, finding ways to bring the different visions together is a great challenge, our politicians don’t seem up to the task.  We need new modes, new eyes, and a new appreciation of where we live now. The beauty and aesthetics of the in between places, the awareness of what is close, our neighbors, businesses, families, wild life, all these need consideration.

Planning is necessary,  local government is good at designing building codes, street safety and some transportation planning but where we live now transcends boundaries, the in-between places are seldom planned well and no group or government is taking responsibility for the WHOLE.

Sources:

 Where We Live Now: an annotated reader edited by Matthew Stadler

 Suddenly.Org

(image via: animatedGIF)

Social media  and the web are revolutionizing the way we get information. DAH! Jemima Kiss writes for the Guardian UK and she uses the social network Twitter. Today she dropped a comment in her Twitter Stream with a link to her conversation with  Michael Rosenblum . It is a short interview but very “to the point”.

Continued »

Google explains the current efforts by an industry coalition to free up a large part of the wireless spectrum. The FCC is currently looking at the spectrum that has been used by analog TV, in February 2009 this spectrum will be available for different uses.

From the Free The Airwaves Web Site:

Remember that fuzzy static between channels on the old TVs? Today more than three-quarters of those radio airwaves, or “white space” spectrum, are completely unused. This vast public resource could offer a revolution in wireless services of all kinds, including universal wireless Internet. The FCC will soon decide whether to open this unused spectrum for general usage, and your voice matters — a lot. So if you agree that freeing the white spaces represents a vote for the future of the Internet, please sign our petition and help spread the word about this campaign.

This is a very democratic initiative, it will need mass support from the public to succeed. There is no good reason why this spectrum should be given to or leased to a small group of businesses. Traditionally this has been a space a set aside for the public good and this initiative could continue that tradition.

It deserves your support.

In this video an English computer hacker, Gary McKinnon discusses his search for information in US government computers for evidence that the government has proof of UFOs. 

The gentleman seems intelligent and sane, he claims he has seen proof that secret government groups have alien technology. Crack pot ideas from a cracker. He seems very reasonable, he could be a con man, either way the story is very interesting. He is facing a 60 year sentence for breaking into and damaging government computer systems. He claims no damage was done and the US is trying to save face. Mr McKinnon’s lawyers  claim he could be sent to Guantanamo Bay if he is treated as a terrorist.

Near the end of the interview he offers advice to PC users on securing their computers. His top advice is do not use blank admin passwords. Finding PCs with blank passwords was his way in. McKinnons hacking was done in between February 2001 and March 2002; security has improved since then. We hope.

Thanks to Dean for the link to this interview.

More information:

• BBC Profile: Gary McKinnon
• Facing 60 years in US prison after hacking into Pentagon
• Free Gary McKinnon 

Here is an example of why I like social media, in this case a video site, Phreadz.com.

In this example we have Seth and Dave, both are writer and they both love books.  Here you can vicariously enjoy their asynchronous conversation about the books they are reading.  You can’t tell but the two parts of this conversation are separated by about eight weeks.

I have read some of the books they are discussing which makes the conversation even more meaningful for me.

With the wonderful technology of the Internet I can even share their conversation with you. Does it seem wrong that I would be able to share this with you? What do you think? One of the less talked about features of Social Media is the ease with which thinks can be copied and shared.

Deepak Chopra offers his thoughts on the global economic crisis. This is  video on Seesmic.com . A video based social media site. Chopra discusses the different types of wealth and there sources. He has optimistic point of view that sees opportunity in the current situation. We will see great opportunity and the possibility of great creativity.

Link