ottonomy
Nate Otto is a 2008 graduate of the University of Oregon, pursuing a future in political science research, education, and activism. “I believe the Internet has opened up the public sphere so broadly that we are hardly beginning to explore the potential for democratic participation in government. I want to use new tools to fight for true accountable democracy.”
By ottonomy on August 19, 2010
When I first heard the kerfuffle about the “Ground Zero Mosque,” I figured it would blow right over. Lower Manhattan is a big place, and there are plenty of establishments within a half dozen stone’s throws from Ground Zero. But American intolerance for Islam always does seem to sneak up on me. The story just [...]
Posted in Politics | Tagged 1st Amendment, mosque, obama, religion |
By ottonomy on July 18, 2010
I keep seeing Christopher Hayes’ “Deficits of Mass Destruction” article from The Nation pushed among my contacts. This isn’t a surprise, because I follow the magazine’s editor Katrina vandenHeuvel on Twitter. But now it also popped into my email from MoveOn, the progressive lobbying group. It’s an example to me of the failure of the Democrats [...]
Posted in Politics | Tagged economy, growth, sustainability |
By ottonomy on July 16, 2010
Old Spice’s new advertising campaign has gotten Proctor & Gamble a lot of attention in the attention economy. But will the hype sell body wash? One of the old rules of the Internet is that pageviews are currency. When trying to make money on the open Internet, money is scarce and thinly spread. The Internet [...]
Posted in Technology | Tagged advertising, future, old spice, social media |
By ottonomy on June 19, 2010
I watched Bill Maher’s show and the “overtime” extended discussion from Friday (Guests: Bill Frist, Jon Meacham, Rachel Maddow, Queen Noor, Oliver Stone so you know it’ll be a heckuva debate). Bill Frist’s point on health reform that Republicans didn’t have a place at the table on reform and so they would be justified in [...]
Posted in Politics | Tagged health_care, oregon, Politics |
By ottonomy on June 10, 2010
After writing a review of Anya Kamenetz’s book on education reform, DIY U yesterday, in which I mentioned that I thought it was a larger issue than cost control, I woke up this morning to a BBC article specifically about reducing costs in higher ed. I don’t disagree when people say this is a huge issue, and I [...]
Posted in Free Culture | Tagged education, Open Education Blogs |
By ottonomy on June 9, 2010
Anya Kamenetz’s book on education reform, DIY U, was a worthwhile read. In the first half of the book, she discusses the problems confronting America’s higher ed infrastructure. Her perspective here is useful, bringing in information about spiraling student debt loads and increasing tuition. As a 2008 college graduate, I experienced many of these problems [...]
Posted in Free Culture | Tagged books, education, Open Education Blogs |
By ottonomy on May 11, 2010
I watched the replay of KATU’s Republican gubernatorial debate recently. The stage was packed with nine candidates vying for the chance to challenge Kitzhaber or Bradbury in this fall’s general election. Their answers to a question about what the governor’s role in climate change left me wondering: Several candidates’ main response to the global warming [...]
Posted in Politics | Tagged 2010 election, environmentalism, oregon, republicans |
By ottonomy on April 8, 2010
Recently, Michael Arrington posted on TechCrunch to suggest that as more and more details of our lives are discoverable online, “indiscretions” would become less damaging. His basic point was that Trying to control, or even manage, your online reputation is becoming increasingly difficult. And much like the fight by big labels against the illegal sharing [...]
Posted in Uncategorized |
By ottonomy on October 24, 2009
This post is for assignment #1 for Stephen Downes and George Siemens Connectivism and Connective Knowledge course, 2009. Connectivism represents a new way of knowing. But if it is correct, it is the way we have been knowing all along, and may not require a leap across an enormous gap to adapt to the new [...]
Posted in Uncategorized |
By ottonomy on October 9, 2009
I was recently asked to describe how the proposed government competition in the health care market (represented by the “public option” would affect health care costs. I wrote the following to illustrate that the issue is not a simple question of free market vs. government control. Theoretically competition would encourage private insurers to reduce their [...]
Posted in Politics | Tagged health_care |
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