Explaining hacktivism // #infographic

Posted on | March 30, 2012 | No Comments

We’re getting really big on infographics (actually, we’ve been for a while). This time we’re presenting the work of the Frugal Dad blog that have produced a beautiful and visually appealing infographic explaining the new hacktivism buzz that is sweeping the globe. Hacking has really been taking a new activist role in society in recent years and this infographic explains it well.

Source: frugaldad.com

We’re getting really big on infographics (actually, we’ve been for a while). This time we’re presenting the work of the Frugal Dad blog that have produced a beautiful and visually...

Hypocricy in Hollywood // #piracy #lobbyism

Posted on | March 4, 2012 | No Comments

Paralegal has made this brilliant infographic highlighting the hypocricy in the movie industry when it comes to piracy. One of the things worth noticing the most is how their most profitable source of income – box office sales – are continuing to grow, but still they are spending over 120 million dollars annually (equal to sales of more than 15 million tickets) on lobbying for political initiatives such as ACTA, SOPA and PIPA that seeks to censor the Internet and jeopardize netneutrality and even basic human rights of free expression – simply to increase their revenue.

Paralegal has made this brilliant infographic highlighting the hypocricy in the movie industry when it comes to piracy. One of the things worth noticing the most is how their most...

The sharing economy as faciliated by Uniiverse // #commons

Posted on | February 28, 2012 | No Comments

Uniiverse is a new portal devoted to harnessing the vast resources of unused commodities in each of our homes by linking people together to share these commodities either for free or for self-determined fees. Quite interesting idea, which – if the crew behind the site can manage to get enough people on board – could really make a difference.

Go ahead and watch the teaser below – and sign up at uniiverse.com. I did.

Uniiverse is a new portal devoted to harnessing the vast resources of unused commodities in each of our homes by linking people together to share these commodities either for free...

Everything Is A Remix pt. 4 // #sharing #copyright #ip

Posted on | February 20, 2012 | No Comments

The brilliant Everything Is A Remix-documentary series by New York-based filmmaker Kirby Ferguson has reached it’s fourth chapter, which carries the headline “System Failure” – and as usual it is highly worth a watch. One of the highlight quote goes:

“Our system of law doesn’t acknowledge the derivative nature of creativity. Instead, ideas are regarded as property, as unique and original lots with distinct boundaries. But ideas aren’t so tidy. They’re layered, they’re interwoven, they’re tangled. And when the system conflicts with the reality… the system starts to fail.”

Watch the full episode:

Everything is a Remix Part 4 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Read more about the documentary series here.

The brilliant Everything Is A Remix-documentary series by New York-based filmmaker Kirby Ferguson has reached it’s fourth chapter, which carries the headline “System Failure” – and as usual it is...

The Future Belongs to the Curious: A Manifesto for Curiosity // #inspiration

Posted on | January 15, 2012 | No Comments

The people at Skillshare has crafted a video that is simply irresistible and immensely inspiring – about the need for us to stay curious:

Brought to me by the wonderful curators at Brainpickings.

The people at Skillshare has crafted a video that is simply irresistible and immensely inspiring – about the need for us to stay curious: Brought to me by the wonderful...

Copying as religion – P2P as in Priest2Priest // #lulz #copyright #religion

Posted on | January 8, 2012 | No Comments

Brokep aka. Peter Sunde of Flattr (ao.) writes on his blog (with reference to the recent news that “Kopimistsamfundet” – “The Society of Kopimism” – was officially accepted as a new religion in Sweden) that he’s “been following the church up closely and wanted to post my views on why this is an important move.” This turns out to be quite funny and enlightening.

He goes on to specify that it made him “think that it might be beneficial to look at what we (as, in this editor’s rendition, a broad term for technology libertarians, hackers, nerds, open culture activists etc.) do as a religious movement. One of the fun things working with The Pirate Bay has always been that we’ve started lots of fun crazy projects. Some work, some (most) fail. I started researching what kind of angle it would give us if we registered a religion.”

The key thing here is that as a religious group in Sweden, it turned out, you actually have more privacy (legally) than other assemblies and organisation. In other words, religious groups are more protected constitutionally than other types of groups. The idea behind this is that the laws allowing for, for instance, surveillance of groups and individuals may not legal if they’re members of an officially religious group.

Now comes the funny and compelling crux of the post: “In some religions (I don’t know about Kopimistsamfundet yet, maybe they can answer) there’s a Seal of Confession – which means that when you talk to a priest in the congregation, the priest have to keep what you say confidential. This is respected in some countries as law, where the courts can not make the priest testify against the individual. And some religions – at least the Mormons as far as I know – consider all members of the church to be a priest. This is probably the thing that I love the most with kopimism as a religion – we can have yet another form of P2P communication – Priest2priest. With no legal right for anyone to listen in to the conversation perhaps. This must be researched.”

Indeed it must. Read the full blog post here.

Brokep aka. Peter Sunde of Flattr (ao.) writes on his blog (with reference to the recent news that “Kopimistsamfundet” – “The Society of Kopimism” – was officially accepted as a new...

The ACTA threat to the Internets // #acta #freedom

Posted on | November 5, 2011 | No Comments

The magnificent La Quadrature du Net – an advocacy group that promotes the rights and freedoms of citizens on the Internet – has just released three videos to inform Europeans about the ACTA agreement that is currently being lobbied in the EU Parliament.
ACTA is presented as a trade agreement, but is in fact a threat to Internet users’ fundamental freedoms and to EU Internet companies’ competitiveness and free competition. It gives Internet service providers the responsibility to police what their customers do online and gives them the right to ban users without legal proces. The European Parliament will soon decide whether to give its consent to ACTA, or to reject it once and for all.

Watch all three films on the La Quadrature Du Net website.
Find more information about ACTA from the same source here - or from Wikipedia.

The magnificent La Quadrature du Net – an advocacy group that promotes the rights and freedoms of citizens on the Internet – has just released three videos to inform Europeans about the...

Opportunity for communication: Occupy Big Banks with Their Own Junk Mail // #activism #pranks

Posted on | November 2, 2011 | No Comments

In the more pranksy division of the political activism spectrum comes this fun suggestion from the good people over at GOOD, where Wylie Overstreet has a suggestion for a pretty easy and fun way to occupy banks from within; through their own junk mail – or, as he puts it: “Using it as an opportunity for communication”.

From the GOOD blog: “We all receive junk mail; it’s a universal constant, like gravity. And many of the envelopes clogging your mailbox are things like credit card offers and checking account deals from large financial institutions—the same ones whose irresponsibility and greed catalyzed the economic crisis we’re currently enjoying. Those banks’ actions have sparked the “Occupy” protests around the world and a wave of people moving their money to credit unions, but there’s another way to voice discontent. Enclosed with each credit card application is a prepaid weapon for a small protest: a business reply mail envelope.

The banks pay for these in advance, but only if they’re sent back.”

Read the entire article here.

In the more pranksy division of the political activism spectrum comes this fun suggestion from the good people over at GOOD, where Wylie Overstreet has a suggestion for a pretty...

Six Famous Thought Experiments, Animated, from the Open University

Posted on | October 23, 2011 | No Comments

As found on the brilliant Brain Pickings blog:
“From the fine folks at the Open University comes 60-Second Adventures in Thought, a fascinating and delightfully animated series exploring six famous thought experiments.”

See the rest here.

As found on the brilliant Brain Pickings blog: “From the fine folks at the Open University comes 60-Second Adventures in Thought, a fascinating and delightfully animated series exploring six famous thought experiments.” See...

Danish Designs Centre bullying Danish design talents

Posted on | September 20, 2011 | No Comments

Bureau Detours, a talented Danish architecture-, design- and building studio, recently launched the humorous Dennis Design Center initiative; a temporary design center owned by “Dennis”, a fictitious art-enthusiast character (supposedly from Rotterdam in the Netherlands), who set out to change public space in and around Prags Boulevard as part of the recent Metropolis festival.
The name of the design center paid respectful and (typically Danish) humorous wordplay-homage to the Danish Design Centre institute, that serves as a point of entry to the Danish design industry.

Only the Danish Design Centre appearently couldn’t see the fun, because only a few days after Dennis Design Center had entertained the crowds at Prags Boulevard with the creativity of “Dennis” throughout the festival, Bureau Detours received a seize-and-desist letter from Danish Design Centre’s lawyers, claiming trademark infringement and demanding that the exhibition be cancelled from further display and the affiliated website be taken offline right away.

The case has now reached Danish media (Politiken, in Danish) and serves as another perfect example of a national institution that has failed to understand the true nature of creativity and natural branding; namely that such sampling serves to promote their trademark rather than infringe it.

As of writing, the site is still up and the exhibition recently visited the Netherlands.

Bureau Detours, a talented Danish architecture-, design- and building studio, recently launched the humorous Dennis Design Center initiative; a temporary design center owned by “Dennis”, a fictitious art-enthusiast character (supposedly...