Paul's Web Space 2.1

Steve Cisler RIP

Steve Cisler passed away this week. He was an early pioneer in the community networking movement, and our paths crossed in the early 1990s, while he was working at Apple Computer and collaborating with CPSR on its Local Civic Networks initiative, and I was on the CPSR Board of Directors, contributing what I could to the movement.

I found this page from our old web site, which contains pieces he wrote for CPSR. It was funny to see a grad school paper of mine appear beside two that Steve wrote for CPSR; may a small bit of his genius have rubbed off on me. Actually, the first is a very good overview of the space as of 1993, and the second is his report from a 1992 CPSR roundtable meeting. Reading that report really brought back memories - I was lucky enough to have been at the meeting Steve described and hung out with many of the people who's work he chronicled.

A true leading light has rambled on.

Paul Jones from ibiblio broke the news on Twitter, and posted a thoughtful tribute on his blog. Andy Carvin tweeted confirmation, and later posted a link to a condolences blog set up to commemorate Steve's life. I'm still trying to figure out the significance of the fact that I learned of this loss via my new community of social media geeks on Twitter, where Andy Carvin's tweets provided a vivid, real-time commentary on the unfolding story (and are the extent of his public posting on the topic that I've seen). Then, digging deeper, I found other fellow travelers using the Tweetscan search engine.

Community networking meets Web 2.0? The light burns on.

Labels: apple, community, community networking, cpsr, internet

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CPSR Technonogy in Wartime Conference

If I were in California this weekend, I would definitely be going to the Technology in Wartime Conference at Stanford Law School, sponsored by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR). This conference hearkens back to the the founding of CPSR almost 30 years ago, as an organization concerned about the growing threat of nuclear war and how the application of computer technology increased this threat through battlefield automation and the flawed (and still under development) Star Wars missile defense system. CPSR has since broadened its portfolio of issues to include election systems, privacy, and freedom of expression, among other issues, but the excesses of the national security state continue to require our diligent attention.

Another highlight of the event is that CPSR will present its Norbert Wiener Award for Social and Professional Responsibility to Bruce Schneier, who will then give the conference keynote talk on dual-use technologies. Bruce is my favorite security expert, computer and otherwise, for both his wide-rangining knowledge and his ability to puncture security myths and facades; I'm a long-time subscriber to and avid reader of his e-newsletter CRYPTO-GRAM.

Instead of the CPSR conference at Stanford, this weekend I'm doing something cool in DC. I'm attending the WidgetDevCamp, a day-and-a-half BarCamp-style meeting at a downtown marketing firm. It looks like a really interesting time, lots of cool people, ideas, even some dirty hands. I'm hoping to come out of there with a widget for edweek.org, or maybe some better ideas for measuring social/web2.0 efforts like widgets. At any rate, I'm sure to learn something, meet some cool peeps, and blog about it here later.

Labels: activism, cpsr, surveillance

   Link: http://www.technologyinwartime.org

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