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Writings and rehearsals by Nathan Schneider
Welcome. I’m a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where I direct the Media Economies Design Lab and teach and learn from our students. I’ve written a book each on online democracy, cooperative enterprise, the Occupy movement, and God, and I’ve edited ones about solidarity economies, crypto, and co-ops. Reporting articles for both magazines and academic journals keeps my notebooks filled. Working with others to build a democratic economy keeps me accountable.
Direct Democracy | The Paper Pilot
The Paper Pilot's digital garden of thoughts on philosophy, politics, and sociology
We Need To Rethink Democracy
Webinar Recording: Making Effective Third Spaces (Sarah Stein Lubrano)
Offering a “third space” — somewhere that is neither work nor home where people can encounter others — is already central to many bookstores’ missions. But what steps can you take to create a third space that is as impactful as possible? What determines whether a third space is effective in promoting social good? And how do you overcome the difficulties of making a social space for book people — many of whom are introverts? Sarah Stein Lubrano, author of Don’t Talk About Politics, will answer these questions with booksellers in mind. Drawing from social and political theory, cognitive psychology, and contemporary activism, Lubrano studies how third spaces can help strengthen a weakening public sphere and revitalize community. (In conversation with Philomena Polefrone, Associate Director of American Booksellers for Free Expression.)
Democracy as a Scaled Collective Intelligence Process: Points of Vulnerability and Augmentation
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Governable spaces: a feminist agenda for platform policy
A proposal, informed by feminist theory, for a policy agenda of “governable spaces” across the domains of social media, gig economies, and network infrastructure.
Computational Public Space
Chapters — Intro, Communal computing, This presentation, Physicality — Globalization, Centrally-planned, Isolating, Private property, Surveillance, Consumption, Hidden — Summary, Outline
The Case for a Public Social Media Platform - JSTOR Daily
Artist and writer Joshua Citarella explores why corporate platforms corrode democracy—and what a postal-service-style digital commons could do differently.
How’s That Open Source Governance Working for You? | HackerNoon
Isn’t it weird that the radically democratic miracle of open-source collaboration is so full of monarchical dictatorships?
Interoperable Sovereignty: The Democratic Alternative to Digital Authoritarianism
A Democratic Architecture for the Digital Age Digital sovereignty has become a central concern for governments worldwide, yet its meaning remains contested. Too often it is framed as...
"Collective Power: Patterns for a Self-Organized Future by Ted J. Rau" [english edition] (ebook) - Sociocracy For All
by Ted Rau Preorder Ebook
Toward a durable writing stack – Writings and rehearsals by Nathan Schneider
I have benefited over the years from others who have documented their writing setups, and so I feel some obligation to pay the favor forward by doing so with my own. The stack I’ll describe here is one I’ve been iterating on for about twenty years, starting from when I began discovering the pleasures of plain-text writing. Every aspect of it has changed over that period, but the some basic goals and flows have been with me through the writing of my college thesis, five books, and hundreds of articles. I am quite happy with where I am, and others might benefit from what I’ve come up with.
We Are Civic Media
A discipline-crossing introduction to civic media via accounts from grassroots practitioners “Civic media” is the use of contemporary technologies to connect communities, inspire action, build civic capacity, and sustain social change efforts. Written by artists, creators, storytellers, organizers, and others working at the intersections of technology, social justice, and culture, this book summons civic media through the lived experiences of its contributors. Latoya Peterson delves into the therapeutic power of gaming; Akilah Hughes discusses identity and community through the lens of her campaign to change her high school's racist mascot; and Tyree Boyd-Pates emphasizes the potential power of museum curation to challenge power dynamics and bridge digital and physical realms. Through the experiences of these grassroots practitioners and many others, We Are Civic Media offers accessible insights for those interested in understanding, respecting, and practicing civic media.
The Networked Leviathan: For Democratic Platforms
The Networked Leviathan is a book by Paul Gowder, Professor of Law at Northwestern University, which offers a case and a roadmap for democratizing major internet platforms.
Consensus Democracy | The Paper Pilot
The Paper Pilot's digital garden of thoughts on philosophy, politics, and sociology