Category: software politics

Dystopian edtech and the future of software supply chain security

Getting the middle finger from your audience isn’t typically a desired outcome for a talk, but it was exactly the type of reaction I was hoping for during…

Design@Large talk: Networks for us, by us

Networks for us, by us: Participatory design for a San Diego Digital Commons It’s often taken for granted that everyday users should have little say in the design…

Social Paper: Retooling Student Consciousness

A global commons for students to network in-progress writing and feedback across disciplines, institutions, and publics. The following is a grant proposal written in October 2015 soliciting funding from…

participatory infrastructure: why we need the masses in the control room

I use “participatory infrastructure”  here to signify digital infrastructure whose mechanisms are transparent to its user community, whose user community is able to critically assess the ways in which it affects and mediates their community, and which is designed to invite continued development by that user community. Participatory infrastructure requires open technical protocols and social organization that encourages all users, regardless of expertise, to participate in discussions regarding that infrastructure’s ongoing development.

Pushing the joy of FOSS at the university

Could a free software movement within higher education enlarge freedom for software culture and the global student body alike? Here I suggest one possible path and make a plea for support.