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."
More on cost control in education reform
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 [...]
Book review: DIY U by Anya Kamenetz
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 [...]
Oregon Republicans-No room for the environment?
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 [...]
Reputation Online
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 [...]
CCK09: On the difficulty of the Connectivist revolution.
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 [...]
What is the effect of government competition on the health care market?
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 [...]
The new way to listen to music is “on demand.”
I think there has been a change in how people experience music in the last couple years, brought on by the buildup of services that offer streaming songs. This follows up in the vein of the previous trend in music discovery, illegal downloading, which the music industry labeled “piracy.” The new streaming paradigm avoids the [...]
Knee-Jerking neutrality
I’m on a ton of political email lists from different sides. I saw Dick Armey’s big push to have his anti-big-government rally on 9/12 from both angles, I get ACLU’s updates, environmental letters, NYT news summaries, the whole gamut. I agree and disagree with each source some of the time, but am usually interested to [...]
Transparency, Objectivity and News Curation
What is the value of a journalism outlet that abandons objectivity? Eric Odom, founder of American Liberty Alliance (ALA), the group that launched and organized the tea party movement across the country, announced Friday what he calls a movement-minded news portal and his answer to the the Huffington Post. Read more at Dawn Teo’s blog [...]
Re-Vision of Earth paper (Metaphors of Scientific Advancement)
The class I wrote this for was a unique colloquium in the honors college. It was called “Re-Vision of Earth” and was about the process of scientific revolutions. I continued my exploration of metaphors, trying to pin down what metaphors we use to describe humanity’s process of scientific advancement. Is it a matter of increasing [...]
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