In considerable detail, Lévy describes the ways in which cyberspace will help promote the growth of democracy, primarily through the participation of individuals or groups. His analysis is enlivened by his own personal impressions of cyberculture-garnered from bulletin boards, mailing lists, virtual reality demonstrations, and simulations. Immediate in its details, visionary in its scope, deeply informed yet free of unnecessary technical language, Cyberculture is the book we require in our digital age.

Cyberculture

His speech considers what is happening in the war against terrorism, and calls for a long-term strategy to address underlying problems in the countries involved. During the lecture ex-President Clinton revisits the themes of his speech at Warwick University in December 2000.

The full transcript of Clinton's speech is available in "printer-friendly" HTML.

Bill Clinton: The Struggle For The Soul of The 21st Century

Google's newly restored and expanded Usenet archive offers up (among other things) the original announcement for the first PhreakNIC in 1997. Curiously, it appears to have been published *on* the day of the conference.

Anyway, Usenet has saved for Posterity this record of my fabulous presentation: (what, you don't remember it? :)

"Reputation Capital: Digital Currency for the 21st Century and Beyond" Talk by Jeremy Mineweaser, with audience Q&A/discussion. The success of large-scale digital communications networks ultimately depends on security among untrusted parties. Widely-deployed reputation systems will revolutionize the way information is exchanged over digital communications networks."

That would have made for a great talk in 1997 ... and would still make a great talk today.

Recalling the Good Old Days ... with a little help from Google

Relevance: Identification, authentication, privacy, and security of personal information are key issues for the information society. The misuse, either by individuals or organizations, of sensitive personal data that touches on our sense of identity has potentially far-reaching social impacts."

Cyber-Security and the Future of Identity

Salon's Andrew Leonard interviews author, semiotician, and Feed Magazine co-founder Steven Johnson about his latest book, _Emergence_, which I logged a few months ago when it hit stores.

The lead-in: Feed magazine founder Steven Johnson explains how self-organizing systems are made to order for ants, cities, software and terrorists. The article is a quick read -- just a brief Q&A. Johnson says that the Web needs editors, and that US SecDef Rumsfeld seems to be giving seminars on chaos theory.

The emergent new order: Steven Johnson interviewed in Salon

Abstract: The organismic view of society is updated by incorporating concepts from cybernetics, evolutionary theory, and complex adaptive systems. ... In society ... increasing productivity, decreasing friction, ... and increasing cooperativity, transnational mergers and global institutions. ... [are] accompanied by increasing functional autonomy of individuals and organizations and the decline of hierarchies. The increasing complexity of interactions ... necessitate a strengthening of society?s ... nervous system.

This is realized by the creation of an intelligent global computer network ... the "global brain". Individuals are being integrated ever more tightly into this collective intelligence. ... [T]he superorganism model points ... towards increasing freedom and diversity. The model further suggests ... the emergence of an automated distribution network, a computer immune system, and a global consensus about values and standards.

The Global Superorganism: an evolutionary-cybernetic model of the emerging network society [PDF]

Exploring phenomena such as the world wide web, WAP telephones, multi-channel television and email, "Tyranny of the Moment" examines this new, nonlinear and fragmented way of communicating to reveal the effect it has on working conditions in the new economy, changes in family life and, ultimately, personal identity. Eriksen argues that a culture lacking a sense of its past, and therefore of its future, is effectively static. Although solutions are suggested, he demonstrates that there is no easy way out.

Tyranny of the Moment : Fast and Slow Time in the Information Age

Drawing on resources from information theory and evolutionary biology, Taylor explains the operation of complex adaptive systems in natural, social, and cultural processes. To appreciate the significance of emerging network culture, he claims, it is necessary not only to understand contemporary scientific and technological transformations, but also to explore the subtle influences of art, architecture, philosophy, religion, and education. The Moment of Complexity, then, is a remarkable work of cultural analysis on a scale rarely seen today. To follow its trajectory is to learn how we arrived at this critical moment in our culture, and to know where we might head in the twenty-first century."

On the book's dust jacket, you'll find praise from: John L. Casti, of the Sante Fe Institute; James Gleick, author; William Mitchell, MIT Dean of Architecture; Stephen Jay Gould, author (with multiple guest appearances on _The Simpsons_!); Charles Vest, president of MIT; and others.

_The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture_, by Mark C. Taylor

Manuel Castells, author of the contemporary classic _The Information Age_ trilogy, has a new book published by Oxford University Press. It's based on his 2000 Clarendon Lectures in Management at Oxford.

Editorial description:

"A stunning insight into the impact of the Internet and communication technologies on society in the beginning of the twenty-first century. Manuel Castells - one of the world's leading social scientists - puts forward the case that the Internet is not just a technology, but the very fabric and backbone of the New Economy, and of the Network Society. It is essential that we understand its language, its logic, its constraints, and its freedoms in order to manage and to change our reality."

Praise for the book:

"Manuel Castells has proved once again that he has an unmatched synoptic capacity to make sense of the complexities of a networked world, and here writes with clarity and insight about everything from the history of the technology to the subcultures that have done so much to shape it." -- Geoff Mulgan, author of Communications and Control and Connexity Director of the Performance and Innovation Unit, The Cabinet Office and head of the Prime Minister's Forward Strategy Unit

Here's the table of contents:

1. Lessons from the History of the Internet
2. The Internet Culture
3. E-business and the New Economy
4. Virtual Communities or Network Society?
5. The Politics of the Internet (I): Computer Networks, Civil Society and the State
6. The Politics of the Internet (II): Privacy and Liberty in Cyberspace
7. Multimedia and the Internet: The Hypertext beyond Convergence
8. The Geography of the Internet: Networked Places
9. The Digital Divide in Global Perspective
10. Conclusion: The Challenges of the Network Society

Manuel Castells: _Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society_

Newman shows that his approach gives better estimates than conventional network-tracking methods by looking at scientific collaborations. ... "The most important moral to this story", says Newman, "is that your friends just aren't normal. No one's friends are."

Friends are stranger than strangers