Writing

Stewart Brand is infamously reported as saying "information wants to be free"- the rallying cry against any limits on information ownership, the mantra for free content and ideas. Which obviously leads to scorn and mockery: "You'll often hear cypherpunk weenies [...]  Read more

My partner Brad Burnham appears in the wonderful video below which is called Innovation Blackout. Ostensibly it's about the proposed SOPA/PIPA legislation. And the video is about that, but it's about something more fundamental. A few minutes in Brad says [...]  Read more

I first read about "Cash Mobs" a few months ago. The idea is simple - a group of people organize themselves through social channels and get together at a certain time and go shop at a local business. Cash mobs: [...]  Read more

Normally, I'm against big things. I think the world's going to be solved by millions of small things - Pete SeegerOne of my favorite quotes, said with typical humility by Pete Seeger on the celebration concert in honor of his [...]  Read more

Generations is the title of a a fascinating (and dense) book by William Strauss and Neil Howe that theorizes that history advances cyclically based on repeating types of generational characteristics. Generally, history creates generations, and generations create history. More specifically, [...]  Read more

"Let the products sell themselves... fuck advertising, commercial psychology ... psychological methods to sell should be destroyed." - The Minutemen, Shit From An Old NotebookWe have enough data now to realize that display advertising on the Internet doesn't work. Some [...]  Read more

Today is American Censorship Day, so named because there is legislation working its way through Congress that would materially harm innovation and impede speech.You can read about why so many of us feel so strongly that this legislation is particularly [...]  Read more

My friend Mike White told me the other day that he uses the photo sharing service Instagram because it makes him happy. That stuck in my head.So I remembered that the mission statement for the Cheezburger Network is "5 minutes [...]  Read more