Fliers - I'll be canvasing campus all day Monday with a few of the student groups!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Editors & Publishers, Information & Entropy
A publisher increases entropy by reproducing information. An editor decreases entropy by introducing new information.
Take the example of a bookshelf full of books:
After reading the books, an editor would process their information, and create a new book. A publisher on the other hand would select their favorite book and merely replicate it.
While in both cases the entire shelf has expanded, only the editor decreases entropy by introducing new information. (Note: this example is of a closed system)
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
The Peoples Estate
Last night (10/20/11) I watched 23 Occupy Cincinnati protesters be arrested and have their camp torn down by the state (Cincinnati Police Department). As a photographer I’ve become selectively numb to visual information, trained to record and not react. What pierced my senses was the audible voice of the scores of supporters marching up and down the streets singing and chanting in solidarity. Without the benefits of digital technology the rabble would only have echoed a few city blocks before disappearing into the din of the interstates bounding our downtown district; but with cameras rolling and laptops streaming, our unified voice was heard round the world.
Throughout the past few years I have studied to be an effective member of the 4th estate, to be a photojournalist. As I watched the collapse of our financial systems through the lenses of both traditional and social news, I began to ask myself just what the difference is between a journalist and a citizen. I found myself confronted with the fact that both have equal ability for their bias to be heard across the nation. Having grown up along side the Internet I was entirely incapable of distinguishing one from the other, and to differentiate between the two I had to take a step back from what it means to live in a digital nation.
Traditionally, the 4th Estate has been viewed as the processes responsible for keeping a citizenry informed of information they need in order to vote in their best interests. More broadly, it controls a democracy’s means of information production. Over the past century these means had centralized into major newspapers chains and broadcast networks: if a citizen wanted their opinions to be heard by the rest of the nation, they had to go through the editors of this 4th Estate.
The Internet has freed the process of mass-publication from the corporation owned editorial bottleneck. Collaborative media sites such as Wikipedia allow the people to assemble their own records of information, and social news sites like Reddit and Digg allow a population to decide for themselves what information is most relevant through daily democratic processes.
Institutional whistle-blowers no longer need to pass information through a corporate censor before the people can access it, and activists such as Jullian Assange have revealed important information relevant to our elected officials. All of this has been possible through an entirely decentralized system of communication and control. Every single laptop and smart-phone has near equal opportunity for its signals to be heard across the nation, and every signal’s message is equally as insignificant when compared to the roar of the digital crowd.
Nearly two and a half centuries into its existence, the problems we face through our experiment in democracy run deeper than just the economic. The types of reforms we are capable of instituting are those where the people are able to address a problem before it gets so bad as to drive us into the streets by the millions. What our citizenry needs is a way to give direct feedback to our elected officials. Today every citizen has the ability to directly communicate with the entire nation, and we are all becoming members of the 4th Estate.
We have the technology, we have the infrastructure, and we have the cause to peacefully unite the digital roar of the citizenry under a single flag. We have the ability to embody the voice of the 99% as a force louder than any lobbyist or corporate donation. We the People have the potential to develop a system with which to steer our representative democracy through the coming century. Without control over the leash of our People’s Estate, our representative democracy will continue to drag us in whichever directions those in power decide.
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson
Saturday, October 22, 2011
We are a peaceful movement.
Order to disperse, before 23 arrests. The police were very professional.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Soap box
Watching the confusion unfold in the past few days through our out-of-order general assemblies and a very suspicious mass-texting service (no one who I've talked to knows who created it) makes my head spin.
We dont have time for this. We ended yesterday's assembly with hardly the numbers we began with.
It doesnt matter if those causing confusion are the big-business plants or the criminally insane; it shouldn't matter whether they have the time to say it, it should matter whether we have the time to listen to it.
Instead of going down a list of speakers in the stacks of a general assembly we have the technology to socially multitask conversations in an online forum. We dont have to put up with the bullshit in general assembly: disorderly speakers or passing sirens. With multiple ongoing conversations in an online forum we can speed up the entire process of peaceful general assembly by orders of magnitude.
Smiles and laughter
Citations were issued last night for staying in the park past 10pm. The police were great to us!
Here, demonstrators line up for their citations.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Guess who took Fountain Square?
Taken way to early in the morning. More to come, once I get some sleep :X
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Friction
In non-centralized/consensus collaborations like the Occupy Cincinnati movement, there will always be friction as individual pieces all move in their own direction. Thankfully so far there haven't been any major falling outs - just bickering over technicalities. Shit is going to change constantly. That is the nature of a group organized as fluidly as ours. Lets use this fluidity to our advantage by letting shit change and wait for the best combinations of chance and circumstance to reveal themselves to us on their own.
Our biggest problem is this: when we as a group cannot even manage to constrain our transfers of information to a single medium, a fracturing along the boundaries of our multiple media is inevitable. Half of our collaborations are being lost to email exchange while updates to the Facebook and OccupyCincy.org lag behind by hours. If we are to retain coherence as a movement we MUST constrain all forms of group communication to a single medium.
The subreddit assembly is the perfect medium for organizations like ours. We can have discussion. We can have votes. We have a search engine for the entire contents of our subreddit right there on the right side of the page. But most of all, we have a single point of information transfer between all members of our group.
There will be PLENTY of time to smooth out kinks as our movement grows and evolves through the oncoming weeks, months, and hopefully, years. Friction between individuals is inevitable. Friction between our means of communicating is.
Our biggest problem is this: when we as a group cannot even manage to constrain our transfers of information to a single medium, a fracturing along the boundaries of our multiple media is inevitable. Half of our collaborations are being lost to email exchange while updates to the Facebook and OccupyCincy.org lag behind by hours. If we are to retain coherence as a movement we MUST constrain all forms of group communication to a single medium.
The subreddit assembly is the perfect medium for organizations like ours. We can have discussion. We can have votes. We have a search engine for the entire contents of our subreddit right there on the right side of the page. But most of all, we have a single point of information transfer between all members of our group.
There will be PLENTY of time to smooth out kinks as our movement grows and evolves through the oncoming weeks, months, and hopefully, years. Friction between individuals is inevitable. Friction between our means of communicating is.
"Why I am dropping out of school"
A letter to the editor of the University of Cincinnati student newspaper, newsrecord.org
My name is Coulter Loeb, and I am a social-media manager for Cincinnati’s “Occupy Wall Street” solidarity group. As a political movement we are only three weeks old, and our objectives are not yet as clearly defined as most of us would like them to be. All we know is that we are fed up with the way our government has treated us. And so today I would like to tell you why I’m dropping out of school.
I’ve trained here at UC as a member of the 4th Estate, as a photojournalist, since 2006. As I watched our financial collapse through the lenses of both traditional and social news, I began to question what the difference is between a journalist and a citizen. I found that having grown up along side the Internet I was entirely incapable of distinguishing one from the other. To define the differences between the two I had to take a step back from what it means to live in a digital nation.
Using the language of cybernetic theory, the 4th Estate is the feedback mechanism of a functioning democracy. It would be impossible for citizens to make informed decisions in the voting booth without journalists constantly producing information about how the world is changing around us.
The 4th Estate controls our democracy’s means of information production. Through the past century these means have centralized into major newspapers and broadcast networks. If you as a citizen wanted your voice to be heard by the rest of the nation, you had to go through the editors of the 4th estate.
This is what the Internet is changing. In the era of Facebook and Wikipedia, the social media are evolving EVERYTHING. It is a matter of fact, not theory, that every single laptop on this campus has near equal opportunity for its signals to be heard across the nation, and that every signal’s message is equally as insignificant when compared to the roar of the digital crowd. We are all becoming members of America’s 4th Estate.
We have the technology to peacefully organize that digital roar into a cybernetic forum where the short-term interactions of individual feedback determine what issues are most relevant to the our nation in the long-term. We have the technology to force the separation of business and state to the forefront of the upcoming presidential elections.
A hundred citizens met last Saturday at Sawyer Point to plant the seeds of our movement, and our online assembly is growing constantly. The change I can make to this nation beginning this weekend is greater than any change a piece of paper, a diploma, will provide to me in a year. I don’t care if you are a democrat or a republican - if you are fed up with the way things are in the country then join our cybernetic assembly. March on the city with us this Saturday. Show your elected officials what it is YOU want. We are the 99%, and with the presidential debates already taking place, this is the season for our social revolution.
My name is Coulter Loeb, and I am a social-media manager for Cincinnati’s “Occupy Wall Street” solidarity group. As a political movement we are only three weeks old, and our objectives are not yet as clearly defined as most of us would like them to be. All we know is that we are fed up with the way our government has treated us. And so today I would like to tell you why I’m dropping out of school.
I’ve trained here at UC as a member of the 4th Estate, as a photojournalist, since 2006. As I watched our financial collapse through the lenses of both traditional and social news, I began to question what the difference is between a journalist and a citizen. I found that having grown up along side the Internet I was entirely incapable of distinguishing one from the other. To define the differences between the two I had to take a step back from what it means to live in a digital nation.
Using the language of cybernetic theory, the 4th Estate is the feedback mechanism of a functioning democracy. It would be impossible for citizens to make informed decisions in the voting booth without journalists constantly producing information about how the world is changing around us.
The 4th Estate controls our democracy’s means of information production. Through the past century these means have centralized into major newspapers and broadcast networks. If you as a citizen wanted your voice to be heard by the rest of the nation, you had to go through the editors of the 4th estate.
This is what the Internet is changing. In the era of Facebook and Wikipedia, the social media are evolving EVERYTHING. It is a matter of fact, not theory, that every single laptop on this campus has near equal opportunity for its signals to be heard across the nation, and that every signal’s message is equally as insignificant when compared to the roar of the digital crowd. We are all becoming members of America’s 4th Estate.
We have the technology to peacefully organize that digital roar into a cybernetic forum where the short-term interactions of individual feedback determine what issues are most relevant to the our nation in the long-term. We have the technology to force the separation of business and state to the forefront of the upcoming presidential elections.
A hundred citizens met last Saturday at Sawyer Point to plant the seeds of our movement, and our online assembly is growing constantly. The change I can make to this nation beginning this weekend is greater than any change a piece of paper, a diploma, will provide to me in a year. I don’t care if you are a democrat or a republican - if you are fed up with the way things are in the country then join our cybernetic assembly. March on the city with us this Saturday. Show your elected officials what it is YOU want. We are the 99%, and with the presidential debates already taking place, this is the season for our social revolution.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
A list of digital OccupyCincy resources
(From Sean D. in IT)
Good Afternoon Everyone!
First off I want to say thank you to everyone for all their hard work and dedication to Occupy Cincinnati, I am honored to be part of this! The IT and PR committee has been hard at work and we have the following services and websites available to everyone. Also, please make sure to pass on all this information to anyone not on this mailing list.
1.) OccupyCincy.org - The website is up! When you visit the website you are given a Login Page on the left hand side. If you make an account you will then be able to post in the forums and in the future post pictures. The website should be your first stop for Occupy Cincinnati information everything posted on here is official and is moderated. You will also see a chat link in the top menu, this is the best way to talk realtime to other Occupy Cincy members. Once connected to this Chatroom you will be able to talk to everyone instantly and discuss, share and work with others! I would like to send a big thanks out to Jorge Newberry, Julie Ladd and Kristin Brand. Without these individuals hard work this website would not exist.
2.) Facebook - The Facebook group is a great place to communicate with others, but use with caution. I have heard reports of people who are not friendly already causing problems on there. If you ever have any issues contact jslamka5685@gmail.com, fr0punk@gmail.com or aileenbrand@gmail.com. These people are administrators on the Facebook page and will be able to help you if you have any issues.
3.) Twitter - fr0punk@gmail.com and aileenbrand@gmail.com are the admins on the twitter. Make sure to watch Twitter for breaking news and other information relating to Occupy Cincinnati!
4.) Reddit - Reddit is a great resource! At this time it is invite only so it keeps it secure and all the information there is ONLY available to approved members. Coulter.Loeb@gmail.com is the administrator and he has given some great documentation located here
5.) Contact Emails - We also have the following emails available to everyone.
media@occupycincy.org - For Media Contact
video@occupycincy.org - Send us your videos to post on youtube!
Also feel free to contact me at SeanDer13@gmail.com at any time for help!
P.S - Please sign up for the website. Once we have everyone there we can easily send out alert emails and make sure to keep everyone updated on the Occupy Cinci movement.
Good Afternoon Everyone!
First off I want to say thank you to everyone for all their hard work and dedication to Occupy Cincinnati, I am honored to be part of this! The IT and PR committee has been hard at work and we have the following services and websites available to everyone. Also, please make sure to pass on all this information to anyone not on this mailing list.
1.) OccupyCincy.org - The website is up! When you visit the website you are given a Login Page on the left hand side. If you make an account you will then be able to post in the forums and in the future post pictures. The website should be your first stop for Occupy Cincinnati information everything posted on here is official and is moderated. You will also see a chat link in the top menu, this is the best way to talk realtime to other Occupy Cincy members. Once connected to this Chatroom you will be able to talk to everyone instantly and discuss, share and work with others! I would like to send a big thanks out to Jorge Newberry, Julie Ladd and Kristin Brand. Without these individuals hard work this website would not exist.
2.) Facebook - The Facebook group is a great place to communicate with others, but use with caution. I have heard reports of people who are not friendly already causing problems on there. If you ever have any issues contact jslamka5685@gmail.com, fr0punk@gmail.com or aileenbrand@gmail.com. These people are administrators on the Facebook page and will be able to help you if you have any issues.
3.) Twitter - fr0punk@gmail.com and aileenbrand@gmail.com are the admins on the twitter. Make sure to watch Twitter for breaking news and other information relating to Occupy Cincinnati!
4.) Reddit - Reddit is a great resource! At this time it is invite only so it keeps it secure and all the information there is ONLY available to approved members. Coulter.Loeb@gmail.com is the administrator and he has given some great documentation located here
5.) Contact Emails - We also have the following emails available to everyone.
media@occupycincy.org - For Media Contact
video@occupycincy.org - Send us your videos to post on youtube!
Also feel free to contact me at SeanDer13@gmail.com at any time for help!
P.S - Please sign up for the website. Once we have everyone there we can easily send out alert emails and make sure to keep everyone updated on the Occupy Cinci movement.
What is the Cybernetic Assembly?
So some of you may be wondering where the idea for our cybernetic assembly came from.
(To view an updated copy of this post, click here)
I am a 6th year journalism and communications student at the University of Cincinnati. Over the past year my studies have focused on defining just what exactly "the 4th Estate" is to the democratic system, and the designs of our online assembly are the fruit of this research.
Using the language of Norbert Wiener, the father of cybernetic systems theory, the 4th Estate is the feedback mechanism of a functioning democracy. Without it, we would have no idea what was going on in the world, and it would be impossible for us to make informed decisions in the voting booth.
For hundreds of years, the biggest hindrance to this feedback mechanism has been the centralized control of the means of information production. For as long as anyone can remember, the voices of the major broadcast stations and newspapers have dominated the information network we know as the 4th Estate.
The online social media are changing everything, and the means of information production are becoming entirely decentralized. We are all becoming members of the 4th Estate’s feedback processes. On sites like Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia and Reddit, everyone with a service provider has equal opportunity to be heard, and everyone’s voice is equally as insignificant when compared to the roar of the crowd.
Applying the principle of ‘one-person one-vote’ to this decentralized system allows an assembly of individuals to organize that roar into a direct cybernetic democracy, where everyone has equal say in deciding what information is most relevant to the group. People vote for whichever pieces of information or items of business are most relevant within a public Forum (our Reddit community), and the results are recorded in a public Journal (currently, the OccupyCincy IT blog).
The result of this organization is my model of the Social Reasoning Machine; a directly democratic system scalable to any size group of more than +2 individuals. With this system, we can quantitatively measure just how much of America is fed up with Wall St.
For more background on what information theory really means to the digital culture, Kevin Kelly (freakin’ genius of a man) has a few talks on TED.
- What is the ‘Machine’ (2007)?
- What does information theory have to do with ‘technology’ (2009)?
- How can we utilize technology to promote liberty ('hacking' the system)? (2005)
(To view an updated copy of this post, click here)
I am a 6th year journalism and communications student at the University of Cincinnati. Over the past year my studies have focused on defining just what exactly "the 4th Estate" is to the democratic system, and the designs of our online assembly are the fruit of this research.
Using the language of Norbert Wiener, the father of cybernetic systems theory, the 4th Estate is the feedback mechanism of a functioning democracy. Without it, we would have no idea what was going on in the world, and it would be impossible for us to make informed decisions in the voting booth.
For hundreds of years, the biggest hindrance to this feedback mechanism has been the centralized control of the means of information production. For as long as anyone can remember, the voices of the major broadcast stations and newspapers have dominated the information network we know as the 4th Estate.
The online social media are changing everything, and the means of information production are becoming entirely decentralized. We are all becoming members of the 4th Estate’s feedback processes. On sites like Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia and Reddit, everyone with a service provider has equal opportunity to be heard, and everyone’s voice is equally as insignificant when compared to the roar of the crowd.
Applying the principle of ‘one-person one-vote’ to this decentralized system allows an assembly of individuals to organize that roar into a direct cybernetic democracy, where everyone has equal say in deciding what information is most relevant to the group. People vote for whichever pieces of information or items of business are most relevant within a public Forum (our Reddit community), and the results are recorded in a public Journal (currently, the OccupyCincy IT blog).
The result of this organization is my model of the Social Reasoning Machine; a directly democratic system scalable to any size group of more than +2 individuals. With this system, we can quantitatively measure just how much of America is fed up with Wall St.
For more background on what information theory really means to the digital culture, Kevin Kelly (freakin’ genius of a man) has a few talks on TED.
- What is the ‘Machine’ (2007)?
- What does information theory have to do with ‘technology’ (2009)?
- How can we utilize technology to promote liberty ('hacking' the system)? (2005)
Monday, October 3, 2011
Reddit Community Admission Process
The Occupy Cincinnati movement, the Queen City’s ‘Occupy Wall Street’ solidarity movement, is using the social networking site Reddit to help organize our efforts. Reddit is an amazingly powerful tool of democracy that allows us to both discuss and vote on different items of business, as well as coordinate other aspects of the Occupy Cincinnati movement by serving as a general discussion board.
Currently, the OccupyCincy subreddit is closed to the general public. In order to use Reddit to digitally supplement our general assembly we have to be able to keep track of the users and ensure that no one person has the ability to rig a vote (by registering multiple accounts and voting multiple times). To work around this, a moderator will have to meet you face to face to get your name and email. You can do this at any of our upcoming events.
We will need to see identification, something verifiable like a state, military or student ID. We dont care about anything but your name and email, and no other information will be recorded. This information will be added to our master email list, and you will then be able to access our democratic assembly by following the steps described in this public document
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pbX3kKNTNeMpjY_nHLPutLMrxv6xHPdnryOP9p_git8/edit?hl=en_US
The only things saved on this list are your name, email, and Reddit username.
Once registered, you’ll be ready to go do some real, direct democracy.
You can make your comments/suggestions for this process at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pbX3kKNTNeMpjY_nHLPutLMrxv6xHPdnryOP9p_git8/edit?hl=en_US
Currently, the OccupyCincy subreddit is closed to the general public. In order to use Reddit to digitally supplement our general assembly we have to be able to keep track of the users and ensure that no one person has the ability to rig a vote (by registering multiple accounts and voting multiple times). To work around this, a moderator will have to meet you face to face to get your name and email. You can do this at any of our upcoming events.
We will need to see identification, something verifiable like a state, military or student ID. We dont care about anything but your name and email, and no other information will be recorded. This information will be added to our master email list, and you will then be able to access our democratic assembly by following the steps described in this public document
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pbX3kKNTNeMpjY_nHLPutLMrxv6xHPdnryOP9p_git8/edit?hl=en_US
The only things saved on this list are your name, email, and Reddit username.
Once registered, you’ll be ready to go do some real, direct democracy.
You can make your comments/suggestions for this process at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pbX3kKNTNeMpjY_nHLPutLMrxv6xHPdnryOP9p_git8/edit?hl=en_US
RESULT of first order of business
At 16:02, the GA voted with a +2 majority to keep the OccupyCincy subreddit closed to the general public. New members will be admitted through direct contact with a moderator - a process to be established by IT. Details for this process will be posted soon.
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