• What is the International Network of E-Communities?

    Also see the ‘Delclaration of Open Networks’. The INEC Declaration on Open Networks outlines the imperative need for Open Networks and the benefits they are to provide to communities. In ten articles, the open networks are presented as the network which best caters the needs of signatory communities. Open networks must be operator-neutral, symmetric, are…

  • What is the Virtual Knowledge Studio?

    Recent transformations in communication and information exchange have created new opportunities for researchers in the humanities and social sciences. It is not self-evident, however, in what ways scholars can best use these possibilities while maintaining and further developing their specific roles in academia and society. This new KNAW programme, The Virtual Knowledge Studio for the…

  • Victoria’s ‘Connected Communities’ project

    Connected Communities is a project from the Victorian Government with the ambition to (funny enough) ‘connect communities’. It appears to be driven by the ‘digital divide’ thesis (here are the details link). But I have never really understood what a ‘community’ is. The term has become so ‘normalised’ that it is rarely discussed critically. It…

  • What is the Deliberative Democracy Consortium?

    Central to our work is the conviction that the outcomes of deliberation result in qualitatively better, more lasting decisions on policy matters. Participation in such forums is a central to democratic renewal. Essentially, our view is that democratic deliberation is a powerful, transformational experience for everyone involved–citizens and leaders alike–which can result in attitudinal shifts…

  • Lovink interview with Ken Jordan on Nettime

    This interview with Ken Jordan of the Aumented Social Network initiative by Geert Lovink is really good. In fact; it is excellent. And I thought that Lovink was a libertarian! It is on the list Nettime (2004) and is about a model for a Augmented Social Network that facilitates qualty online deliberation partly through ‘interoperability’…

  • Network Publics at the Annenburg Centre at USC

    This is a good school that does good stuff.. netPublics explores the roles of audiences, activists, citizens, and producers in maturing networked media ecologies. These changes include but are not limited to the changing relationship between production and consumption, viral and peer-to-peer distribution, and networked lateral political mobilization. Although the Internet is clearly a central…