The 48 Laws of Power

<p>After reading the summary of the 48 laws of power (direct link <a href="http://www.tech.purdue.edu/Cgt/Courses/cgt411/covey/48_laws_of_power.htm" target="_blank">here</a> it strikes me that these "rules" are outmoded, written for a "closed source" society of zero-sum games, and while much of the world/society/economy does still function in a "closed-source" manner, they seem to run counter the trend towards open-source and to my "Open Source" philosophy which leads me to share resources and operate in an open and honest manner with my associates leading to greater cooperation and net gain for all involved. The sooner people leave these rules behind, the sooner we will fully realize the benefits of a "post-capitalist" structure built on information sharing.<br /> <a href="http://politicalwire.com/archives/2005/02/17/the_48_laws_of_power.html">The 48 Laws of Power</a> – <em>Here's a good summary of The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene….</em> [<a href="http://politicalwire.com/">Teagan Goddard's Political...

Democrats Push Voting Holiday

<p>Woah! There's an idea!<br /> <a href="http://politicalwire.com/archives/2005/02/17/democrats_push_voting_holiday.html">Democrats Push Voting Holiday</a> – <em>Sen. Hillary Clinton joined Sen. John Kerry "and other Democrats Thursday in urging that Election Day be made a federal holiday to encourage voting," the AP reports….</em> [<a href="http://politicalwire.com/">Teagan Goddard's Political...

Counterpoint: The Citizen and His Browser, Volunteering Alone – by Michael Turk

<p>Interesting and scary. The RNC "gets it" but unfortunately Zephr Teachout doesn't <a href="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/342" title="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/342">http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/342</a></p> <p>Distributed campaigning is obviously the wave of the future, Michael Turk takes aim at Zephr Teachout's call for "old-school" community building as an "end" in an of itself.<br /> <a href="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/355">Counterpoint: The Citizen and His Browser, Volunteering Alone – by Michael Turk</a> – <em> <p> I spent a good deal of time reading and digesting Zephyr Teachout’s article on the nature of society, the need to be a part of social groups and the desire to use that need to organize. It really is an interesting read – unfortunately, in my opinion, it’s wrong in almost all of its assumptions and conclusions about the nature of people, society and the transformative power of the Internet. </p> <p> Invoking Robert Putnam’s <a href="http://www.bowlingalone.com">Bowling Alone</a> and Peter Najarian’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1886434093/qid=1108222534/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-2319839-8751047?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">Great American Loneliness</a>, Zephyr seems to argue that people need societal collectives to be complete but ignores the fact that the trends they document stand in stark contrast to the Locke-esque belief she espouses. Everything she cites reinforces the notion that people are growing further and further apart, but there is little recognition given to the possibility – or probability – that this may be by choice. </p> <p></p></em> [<a href="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/blog/0">PDF...

Kerry Gives to DNC

<p><a href="http://politicalwire.com/archives/2005/02/10/kerry_gives_to_dnc.html">Kerry Gives to DNC</a> – <em>Sen. John Kerry "gave $1 million in campaign funds" to the DNC's "grass-roots organizing campaign, and is asking his network of political supporters to build on his donation to help Democrats compete at the state and local levels," the Boston Globe reports. "Kerry is earmarking the money for grants that…</em> [<a href="http://politicalwire.com/">Teagan Goddard's Political Wire</a>]</p> <p>Perhaps the DNC will use some of this money to develop a solid (opensource) voterfile and e-activist infrastructure that the state parties and local candidates can use? A perfect candidate for such deployment is <a href="http://www.advokit.net" target="_blank">AdvoKIT</a> and teh DNC could fold their Demzilla data project into this valuable opensource web ap. If Moveon can have 3 million "members" why can't the DNC have...

Share and Share Alike

<p>There is an interesting <a href="http://www.economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3623762" target="_blank">article in the Economist</a> about open-source as a movement and a model for the sharing of resources other than human technical skill in software development. The few that are raised are processing power, bandwith and hardrive storage space. What if these resources were used to make a distributed automated call...