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cc-eyebeam - Re: [cc-eyebeam] Quote from MLK Jr.

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Subject: Creative Commons-Eyebeam Forum 2003 November 12-19

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  • From: Joline_Blais AT umit.maine.edu
  • To: cc-eyebeam AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [cc-eyebeam] Quote from MLK Jr.
  • Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 23:47:56 -0500 (EST)


"We must rapidly begin to shift from a thing-
oriented society to a person-oriented
society. When machines and computers, profit
motives and property rights are considered
more important than people, the giant
triplets of racism, materialism and
militarism are incapable of being conquered."
Martin Luther King Jr.


Thanks, Neeru, for the MLK quote.

This is a reminder of a common misperception
in the field of new media, especially among
academics and theorists: that new media is
about information, "bits not atoms", "the
medium is the message" "information
revolution" "data transfer".

What is most revolutionary about these
technologies is their ability to:

1)organize people into communities that work,
in the sense of taking action (rtmark
projects, Gallery of CSS descramblers,
Phillipine text-messagers forcing
President Estrada to step down).

2)developing models of real reciprocity
rather than simulated "interactivity".
Playing Vice City 20 hrs/week vs attempting
to engage in real political interaction, as
proposed in Natalie Bookchin's Agora.

Most overlooked is the power that ordinary
citizens might have if they were able to
organize around issues of interest to them.
When wikis, blogs, e-mail, text messaging,
and cell phones are used by groups of people
with a single focus, we change a passive
consumer-driven society into an active
participant-engaged society.

This will not happen automatically: it is not
a given in the technology. Just as creating a
common space for creativity will require an
assault on the current legal system that
protects corporate profitmaking more than
artist enterprise, so will the potential
powers of ordinary citizen only be realized
if we can tell the differnce between
"interactivity" and "real reciprocity".

The shift needs to happen not only from
thing-oriented to people-oriented, but from
tech-oriented or information-oriented to
people-oriented.

Addressing copyright issues is one way to
begin this shift. When ordinary citizens
regain control of a cultural commons, they
will have more power to shape their desires,
dreams, aspirations, as well as addressing
their failures and shortcomings.

/joline




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