Pinboard (paulmdavis)

Shareable/Utne Reader - Culture is Not a Crime: Ten Years of Creative Commons

paulmdavis — 2012-12-08T23:54:03+00:00

A decade in, the cultural commons remains threatened, but stands on somewhat firmer ground. The record industry abandoned its futile efforts to lock music to users or devices, a costly lesson movie studios and book publishers seem determined to learn for themselves. An emerging generation of cultural producers acknowledge that “good theft,” as Austin Kleon puts it, is a fundamental part of the creative process. And Creative Commons — a once heretical notion to develop a copyright system for cultural works based on the principles of open source software development — is celebrating its tenth year.

Pivotal Labs: Transparency, Clarity, and Focus: How Pivotal Tracker Enables Agile Collaboration

paulmdavis — 2012-11-15T00:15:40+00:00

An easel. A marker. Sometimes the most effective and immediate way to capture thoughts and collaborate is also the most tactile, visual, and simple. But easels and markers have their limitations: information is difficult to digitally preserve, and they don’t scale to large teams.

The 2012 Code for America Summit: Democracy Behind and Beyond the Dashboard | Datastream

paulmdavis — 2012-10-13T02:46:37+00:00

During the 2012 Code for America Summit, forward-looking technologists, policy wonks, and activists reflected on the movement’s progress, and discussed questions of access, effectiveness, scale, and building a data-driven democracy.

Shareable: Can Big Data Revitalize Public Transit in Los Angeles?

paulmdavis — 2012-10-09T16:35:40+00:00

NETWORK_LA Transit is a bold data-driven proposal to get the city's denizens out of their cars and redefine how we think about public transit.

Catster: Cats from Beyond! Tales of Feline Aliens, Ghosts, and Beasts

paulmdavis — 2012-09-24T19:48:36+00:00

Kitty extraterrestrials? A D.C. demon? A U.K. feline "bigfoot"? Here are three from the outer limits.

Shareable: Can Trust Systems Build a New Economy From Ruin?

paulmdavis — 2012-09-05T17:08:34+00:00

The sharing economy offers a higher quality of life at dramatically lower economic and environmental cost. But in an economy where we share houses, cars, money, and work with strangers, how do we decide who to trust?

Shareable: Diaspora: A New Beginning or a Crowdfunding Cautionary Tale?

paulmdavis — 2012-08-29T22:36:31+00:00

Diaspora's founders are handing the project over to the open source community to focus on a new startup. It's an open question whether this move will reignite interest in the project, or mark Diaspora as one of the most high-profile crowdfunding failures to date.

Datastream: The Answer Isn’t Less Data, It’s More Data Science

paulmdavis — 2012-08-29T22:35:50+00:00

Researchers have coined the term FOMO, or “fear of missing out” to describe the obsessive consumption of information, to the detriment of individuals’ relationships, personal well-being, and even rest. A number of prominent bloggers have even advocated for a “Slow Web” movement, urging a much more measured and restrained approach to web consumption. Fast Company’s Ron Friedman argues that it’s not merely FOMO that’s causing the sense of information overload, citing a 14 year old study to make the case that more information does not lead to better decision making.

SF Weekly: Street Beats

paulmdavis — 2012-08-27T18:33:14+00:00

It’s been half a decade since Two Gallants released their most recent album, What the Toll Tells, but the duo’s drummer Tyson Vogel hasn’t spent the hiatus drinking Mai Tais on a tropical beach. In addition to releasing the solo record Devotionals, Vogel is composing a series of sound installations inspired by San Francisco's urban aural landscape during a bi-yearly residency at Ever Gold Gallery.

Datastream: Facebook’s Data Team Challenges Fears of an Online Echo Chamber

paulmdavis — 2012-08-27T18:23:41+00:00

Online pundits and media critics warn that as social media increasingly becomes a dominant source of news, and aggregators like Google News develop algorithms to surface stories that are presumably more interesting to users, we’re participating in an echo chamber where self-selected social groups and online habits reinforce our existing beliefs. But a recently-released internal study of the behavior of 250 million Facebook users suggests such fears may be overblown.

Shareable: How to Rebuild the City as a Platform

paulmdavis — 2012-08-17T02:47:39+00:00

For cities to remain stable and vital in the decades ahead, government, local economies, and neighborhoods must radically change. Here's where to start.

bifurcated.me: Silence

paulmdavis — 2012-08-17T02:46:22+00:00

Is the Internet the source of malaise or an enabler? What I do know is that I fear silence.

Catster: I'm That Guy Who Gets Called "Cat Lady"

paulmdavis — 2012-08-17T02:44:40+00:00

I live alone, I work from home, and my cat Wimbledon and I have a special bond. What else do you call that?

Code for America: Hacking Like We Give A Damn

paulmdavis — 2012-07-26T20:58:01+00:00

Opinion piece for Code for America about civic duty, hacking the world, and the importance of local engagement rather than following the Presidential horse race.

Datastream: Can an Algorithm Beat Simon Cowell at His Own Game?

paulmdavis — 2012-07-26T14:12:46+00:00

Recap of the Music Data Science Hackathon held in London to develop a predictive algorithm capable of discerning whether a song will be a hit.

Shareable: Richard Nash on Storytelling's Read-Write Future

paulmdavis — 2012-07-26T14:11:27+00:00

The publishing futurist on how storytelling is evolving in a time when the distinction between reader and writer is collapsing.

Datastream: How Can Data Science Serve the Public Good?

paulmdavis — 2012-07-26T14:10:51+00:00

Reflections and takeaways from the Big Data for the Public Good series of talks held at Code for America in the spring.

Shareable: Owned by None and All: Stories Demand to be Shared

paulmdavis — 2012-07-26T14:09:37+00:00

By sharing stories, we come to understand ourselves and one another. Together we make sense of the world.

SF Weekly: Visions of the Future

paulmdavis — 2012-07-26T14:09:01+00:00

Science fiction author David Brin’s greatest claim to fame (or infamy) may be his book The Postman, which inspired the notorious Kevin Costner flop of the same name. But don’t hold that against Brin.

SF Weekly: Kierkegaard Meets LOLcats

paulmdavis — 2012-07-26T14:07:12+00:00

Art can be many things—revelatory, disconcerting, numinous, insert your preferred highbrow art critic adjective here—but it can also be really funny once everybody drops the pretenses the art world demands.

Greenplum: The Staging Ground for the Future

paulmdavis — 2012-06-08T20:12:49+00:00

At the Data Science Summit 2012, practitioners and thought leaders shared broad visions and deep discipline.

Code for America: The Ron Swanson Theory of Creative Disruption

paulmdavis — 2012-05-29T21:27:16+00:00

Guest post for the Code for America blog about when disruptive technologies meet resistant government workers.

Shareable Chicago: DataKind's Vision of a Data-Driven Social Change Movement

paulmdavis — 2012-05-17T05:50:02+00:00

The Chicago DataDive connected social organizations and geeks to build a civic data community to create lasting social change.

Greenplum: From Disruption to Insight at the Data Science Summit 2012

paulmdavis — 2012-05-17T05:49:13+00:00

2012 is proving to be the year of Big Data, demanding the attention of executives, thought leaders, academics, and tech journalists alike. But this influx of data is only valuable through dedicated and specialized analysis

Greenplum/Code For America: The Federated Corporation

paulmdavis — 2012-05-09T03:50:10+00:00

Recap of Wiki inventor Ward Cunningham's Big Data for the Public Good talk.

SF Weekly: Civil Wrongs Revisited

paulmdavis — 2012-05-09T03:46:42+00:00

Remembering Bayard Rustin, the fervid orator who served as a key figure in the civil rights movement for more than 60 years.

Shareable: Almere Oosterwold, a Vision of Collaborative DIY Urban Design

paulmdavis — 2012-05-08T12:20:09+00:00

Dutch architecture company MVRDV is betting urban design can go DIY with its the principle of "do-it-yourself urbanism."

Greenplum/Code For America: Bridging the Data Science Gap

paulmdavis — 2012-05-02T03:07:17+00:00

Data Without Borders connects data scientists with social organizations to maximize their impact.

Shareable: Hacking As A Civic Duty

paulmdavis — 2012-05-02T03:05:16+00:00

To build the P2P cities of tomorrow, we must hack how we organize, collaborate, and tell the stories of our cities.

Greenplum: Big Data For Public Good - Data Visualization

paulmdavis — 2012-02-27T21:42:28+00:00

Recap of a talk by Michal Migurski and Eric Rodenbeck of Stamen Design, who discussed how data scientists, designers and developers can make information relevant to broad audiences and inspire social change.

Shareable: Code For America's Vision for Peer-to-Peer City Governance

paulmdavis — 2012-02-25T22:13:21+00:00

With teams on the ground in eight cities, Code for America works to make city governments more efficient, accessible, and representative.

Shareable: The Walking Dead: SOPA and ACTA Will Rise Again

paulmdavis — 2012-02-17T00:31:19+00:00

SOPA and ACTA are nothing new. They're only the latest in an ongoing campaign to limit online freedom. The full story to date, and what can be done to fight future threats.

Emily Jane White: Bio

paulmdavis — 2012-02-08T19:27:03+00:00

A bio I wrote for my friend Emily Jane White, whose generous but unsentimental songwriting explores the gothic and the uncanny in American culture and literature.

Shareable: Don't Believe the Hype: The Entertainment Industry is Growing, But...

paulmdavis — 2012-02-03T21:25:20+00:00

Don't believe the hype from either side: the entertainment industry is growing, not shrinking, despite the claims of large media conglomerates and politicians. But things remain hard for DIY creators of all stripes.

Santa Cruz Weekly: Rachel Fannan & Only You

paulmdavis — 2012-01-30T20:26:58+00:00

An interview with former Santa Cruz musician and Sleepy Sun member Rachel Fannan about her new project, Only You.

GOOD: Dealbreaker: My Wife Is Gay

paulmdavis — 2012-01-30T20:25:50+00:00

"She lives in Chicago and thinks she's a lesbian," my friend told me. "She's perfect for you." I have never actively pursued queer women who live half a continent away. But let’s just say this wasn’t the first time I’d found myself in this situation.

Shareable: Seven Shareable Ways to Deal With Depression

paulmdavis — 2012-01-19T23:00:21+00:00

Whether you’ve got the winter doldrums or a more severe case of depression, one of the best ways to improve your mood is to connect with your community to eat better, get more exercise, and learn new things.

Shareable: Facebook Poses a Far Greater Threat to the Web than apple

paulmdavis — 2012-01-03T16:42:08+00:00

For all the talk about apple's walled garden, a far greater threat to the open web is the invasive species that is Facebook.

Shareable: To The Stars! A DIY, Open Source Manned Spacecraft

paulmdavis — 2011-12-10T18:30:01+00:00

Can space travel be democratized? Kristian von Bengtson and Copenhagen Suborbitals think so, and are building a DIY manned suborbital spacecraft to prove it.

Shareable: Who Are The 99%? Occupy Research Aims To Find Out

paulmdavis — 2011-12-10T18:29:21+00:00

"Research is something that needs not be done by powerful people—the 1%—to the rest of us." Occupy Research is a project to give the movement demographic research tools to better understand itself online and on the ground.

SF Weekly: Slaughterhouse Revisited

paulmdavis — 2011-12-10T18:28:42+00:00

Kurt Vonnegut isn’t merely the foul-mouthed author perennially popular among surly, booksmart teenagers. He was also a humane political satirist cut from the Mark Twain cloth, assuring him bogeyman status among the Fox News commentariat, and ensuring that his novels would remain the continued targets of book-banning campaigns.

SF Weekly: Shooting the Debris

paulmdavis — 2011-12-10T18:28:06+00:00

Anyone who has taken a road trip across the country knows that remnants of “that old, weird America” Greil Marcus referred to are plentiful if you take time to look. Minnesotan photographer Alec Soth has traversed the nation several times, and he possesses a keen eye for the peculiar oddments that scatter the heartland’s landscape.

Shareable: Recap From SHARE NY

paulmdavis — 2011-12-10T18:27:33+00:00

SHARE New York investigated the failing economy and what can be done to address it. A collection of ideas, discussions, photos and short videos from the event.

Shareable: Skip Grad School and Make Your Thing: An Interview With Kio Stark

paulmdavis — 2011-12-10T18:26:03+00:00

An interview with Kio Stark about Don't Go Back To School, her handbook for independent learning that shows readers how they can learn almost anything without grad school.

Shareable: Authors, Publishers and Supporters React to the Seizure of the People's Library

paulmdavis — 2011-12-10T18:25:07+00:00

Responses from authors, publishers, artists, zinemakers, and other Occupy Wall Street supporters whose books were seized during Bloomberg's raid.

Shareable: Mappsing a World of Human Activity

paulmdavis — 2011-12-10T18:24:17+00:00

A Cartography of the Anthropocene maps the various ways that global humanity connects and is interdependent.

Shareable: Crowdfunding Nation: The Rise and Evolution of Collaborative Funding

paulmdavis — 2011-10-14T02:40:30+00:00

A look at the state of crowdfunding — its history, growth, evolution, and its wide variety of apps for creators, makers, entrepreneurs and social movements.

SF Weekly: Being Invisible Lets You Get Really Close to People — Ask Chuck Klosterman

paulmdavis — 2011-10-14T02:39:40+00:00

Whether you admire him, despise him, or are one of the few cultural omnivores who doesn't give a damn, Klosterman's sharp wit and restless mind ensure his work is always worthy of attention.

12 Pt. Plan: Steve Jobs Is Dead, And So Is My Dad: Two Very Different Silicon Valley Stories

paulmdavis — 2011-10-09T19:49:38+00:00

Long essay about Steve Jobs' impact, my Dad's life and death, the unforgiving tech industry, social media, having a social conscience, and fear of hypocrisy, among other things

Santa Cruz Weekly: Wild Beasts Let Out The Dogs

paulmdavis — 2011-10-09T19:46:17+00:00

English four-piece Wild Beasts has successfully resisted indie rock's sexlessness, penning a body of unconventional work that is preoccupied with the tense power dynamics and negotiations of the bedroom

Shareable: Mappsing a Shareable World

paulmdavis — 2011-10-09T19:44:12+00:00

How interactive maps are transforming the way we understand and change the world.

Shareable: The World-Changing Potential of the Maker Movement

paulmdavis — 2011-10-09T19:43:43+00:00

Hobbyists are nothing new: many of us had a cool uncle with a meticulously-managed model train set in his garage, or an eccentric relative who was perpetually hatching plans for some get-rich-quick invention. Those early hobbyist-hackers were only precursors to the Maker Movement that is now thriving.

Shareable: Are Bike Lanes Expressways to Gentrification?

paulmdavis — 2011-09-14T00:57:17+00:00

A plan to widen a Portland bike lane has reignited an ongoing debate over whether bicyclists serve as the front line of gentrification.

SF Weekly: Stranger Than Fact

paulmdavis — 2011-09-14T00:56:49+00:00

Naco Es Chido goes heavy meta by placing a real-life band at the center of a fictional mockumentary; it’s something like Anvil! The Story of Anvil by way of Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Shareable: A Low-Cost, Low-Power DIY Cellular Data Network

paulmdavis — 2011-09-14T00:56:05+00:00

The Village Base Station is a low-power, easy to deploy tool to create a GSM cellular data network in areas with limited power and network resources.

SF Weekly: Don’t Forget the Motor City

paulmdavis — 2011-09-14T00:54:56+00:00

Our fascination with Detroit’s decline is so prevalent that there’s even a term to describe it — disaster porn. Yet while there are plenty of Holga-wielding rubberneckers luxuriating in Detroit’s exquisite decay, other artists see in the wreckage of the once-great city an opportunity to rebuild.

Shareable: Hacking the Final Frontier: An Interview With Ariel Waldman

paulmdavis — 2011-08-21T16:58:06+00:00

As NASA refocuses and private research projects emerge, Spacehack.org is a promising way for citizen scientists to contribute to the brave new world of space exploration.

Shareable: Building a DIY Civilization with the Global Village Construction Set

paulmdavis — 2011-08-06T18:09:12+00:00

Bringing together farmers, engineers and industrious DIY'ers, Open Source Ecology is an effort to build low-cost, sustainable and self-contained machines that could build and power a small-scale society.

SF Weekly: Something to Dü

paulmdavis — 2011-08-06T18:08:17+00:00

Bob Mould is more than the legendary onetime frontman of Hüsker Dü and and a punk rock icon. He's also one of the rock world's foremost practitioners of Real Talk.

SF Weekly: Abbott's Habit

paulmdavis — 2011-08-06T18:07:42+00:00

Classy cocktails meet adolescent angst at this reading and martini social to celebrate the release of Megan Abbott’s new novel The End of Everything.

Shareable: Collaborative Consumption: It's Not About the Money

paulmdavis — 2011-07-20T16:10:45+00:00

Shareable: Is Open Government Dead?

paulmdavis — 2011-07-20T16:10:31+00:00

With the departure of open data evangelist Vivek Kundra from his position as the nation’s Chief Information Officer, and massive federal budget cuts for open government projects, the movement has experienced some significant recent setbacks.

Greenplum: 2011 Data Hero Awards Use Cases

paulmdavis — 2011-06-07T13:27:04+00:00

Big data use cases for Greenplum, coinciding with their 2011 Data Hero Awards.

Grist: The iPhone is the new Prius

paulmdavis — 2011-05-10T23:44:06+00:00

With smartphone in hand, it's easier than ever to ditch the car and lead a carless lifestyle.

SF Weekly: This One's Going Straight to the Bottom

paulmdavis — 2011-05-10T23:41:34+00:00

On Cinematic Titanic, the live-riffing movie parody show by a number of former Mystery Science Theater 3000 cast members.

Shareable: Can Data.gov Be Saved?

paulmdavis — 2011-05-10T23:40:05+00:00

The Obama Administration's largest open data initiatives are on the chopping block after the contentious 2011 battle over the federal budget.

SF Weekly: Words Have Meaning

paulmdavis — 2011-05-10T23:38:52+00:00

On autistic artist John Patrick McKenzie’s new exhibition “They Are Full of Holy Nonsense”.

SF Weekly: New Graf

paulmdavis — 2011-05-10T23:37:48+00:00

Capsule on the Lords vs CoBraS exhibition of SF and LA graf art.

Shareable: Become an Armchair Cartographer

paulmdavis — 2011-05-10T23:36:41+00:00

Services like Google Map Maker and OpenStreetMap empower citizens to become their own mapmakers.

Santa Cruz Weekly: Bridging The Santa Cruz Digital Divide

paulmdavis — 2011-04-06T22:02:58+00:00

Follow-up to my feature on the Computer Kitchen co-op for the Santa Cruz Weekly.