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."
The Copyright Problem: a broken record?
I just got my ArtsJournal email summary of arts-related news in my inbox. And inside, they called a piece in the Valentines Day New York Times “The Copyright Problem.” They often link to articles with a phrase of their choosing rather than the author’s, so I quickly clicked over to see what the problem with [...]
New Net Neutrality Negativity News
A quick note on the news: The FCC voted in new “Net Neutrality” rules on Tuesday, that have been criticized from many angles: Why everyone hates new net neutrality rules—even NN supporters. Regulation should serve to create the sort of marketplace that incentivizes innovation and the improvement of services for the public. Neutrality rules that [...]
A Sustainable Metabolism for Open Education
This week’s Open Education Conference in Barcelona will be focused on sustainability of open ed projects and OERs (open educational resources). I’m not able to be there in person this year, but I am making an effort to try to participate and learn along with the live crew. Here are my preliminary thoughts on the [...]
Is Accreditation working?
Accreditation for DIY learners has long been a recognized stumbling block in open education circles. At the 2009 Open Education Conference, it came up frequently in presentations, questions, and talk among participants. How can DIY education earn the same esteem granted to learning that is verified by a university diploma? Despite people asking the question [...]
Happiness on the Rise
http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/happiness-is-on-the-rise-thanks-freedom-20761 Here’s an interesting finding I read about yesterday: according to one global measure, happiness has increased in modern times. The researchers proposed a hypothesis that happiness expanded along with increasing democracy, equality and political freedom, based on greater increases in democratizing countries as opposed to stable figures in Western Europe and America. The hypothesis [...]
My goals, for posterity.
I just updated my LinkedIn profile for the first time in forever. They asked me to put up a summary of my goals, so I wrote this. I’ll post it here as well to look back on some years down the line. I will certainly specialize in one particular area, but for now my goals [...]
Can Democrats Change and chew gum at the same time?
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 [...]
The Liberal plan for economic growth
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 [...]
Is Old Spice Guy a success?
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 [...]
The Republican side of the Table
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 [...]
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