A Longer Road
British, Finnish, American. 26. 5371 miles traveled. History, Politics, Literature, Music and Pictures along the way.
How Internet Access Can Boost The Economy And Social Equality
This post originally appeared in Forbes
Fast and affordable Internet access will be this generation’s greatest leveler. Access to the Internet means access to information, and access to communication networks: access that will improve education, health, and career outcomes.
In Internet “wealthy” communities, children are born connected and access is taken for granted. All members of this new generation are called “digital natives,” but some young people and their communities – as many as 19 million Americans – are being left behind.
The government has a duty to provide basic access that could then serve as a foundation for private initiatives and public-private partnerships to build on. What better way to serve the underserved than to empower the institutions often at the center of these communities: schools and libraries?
Why Tech Can And Should Play A Role In Communities
This post was originally published in Forbes
The geographic separation of business from the rest of the city in a “downtown” area does not wall-in its impact — and nor should it. Businesses benefit from being close to their community of customers and employees, and we must make sure that our community is benefiting from our presence too. A 1926 Supreme Court decision (Euclid vs. Ambler) popularized the idea of zoning in cities; aren’t we overdue a rethink on the way city inhabitants interact?
We have collectively discussed — ad nauseum — what is happening in San Francisco today. High real-estate prices, gentrification, alienation, and at the extreme — a new sense of class identity in a country that historically shrinks from such distinctions. But rather than bemoan the movement of some of the world’s most innovative technology companies up from the valley to the city, we should see it as an opportunity. Just as the technology community is waking up to the reality that we need government, let’s not forget that when our community needs us we have the power to make a positive impact.
Businesses rightly want to be close to their community (largely because their highly educated employees want to benefit from all the city has to offer) , so we — as businesses and employees of those businesses — should challenge ourselves to play an active role in this community. This relationship should recognize that we are all part of the same community, we all have at least equal responsibility in shaping the society we want to live in, and as far as tech is concerned, we need to realize that we are the best equipped to provide innovative solutions to social transformation.
No, The Constitution Doesn’t Protect You: Piers Morgan and the First Amendment
I’ve always had a fascination with America. The American Dream, the American West or the American Constitution, I’ve thought about it all. Born from the Republican radicalism of the English Civil War in the 17th Century, I always saw the Constitution of 1787 (with the BIll of Rights of 1789) as both a legal document and a social contract — a vision, in writing, of what American society would look like and how it would function. While legal constitutional rights are available only to American citizens, so much of the Constitution, like the 10 Commandments, is a code for living. This is the spirit of the American Constitution.
This is why the petition to deport Piers Morgan (a Brit) for his opinions on gun control is in opposition to what I would call the spirit of the constitution.
What are the rules for Super PACs?
In what looks like unlimited spending by corporations on domestic American elections, the corruption of the American democracy, and loud declaration of “corporations as people”, there do appear to be rules regulating the behavior of the hated “Super PACs”. But what are these rules? Are they being followed? And more importantly, are they being enforced?!
Read on to find out.
“There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment”
Best 23rd Birthday Ever !
A “Right to be Forgotten” on the Internet?
Being forgotten is not usually something people wish for. At the moment, however, a debate is raging in Europe about the right of citizens to be forgotten when it comes to information stored on the Internet.
Like SOPA and PIPA earlier this year, new provisions in the EU’s Data Protection Directive are raising questions about speech, privacy, censorship and what it means to publish on the web.
Phil Lynott from Conor Ryan on Vimeo.
Yes Internt, Yes Thin Lizzy, Rock On!
Can Presidents Ignore the Supreme Court?
As president, Newt Gingrich vows to defy Supreme Court decisions he does not agree with, and make justices testify before Congress. But can he do it? And is he right in believing that the judiciary is the least accountable branch of government?
Take a read and let me know what you think. I’d love to get some reasoned historical perspective on this issue.
Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas.
Who’s Afraid of a Little Adventure?
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
- T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding
Was 2011 the year when nothing worked?
From Congress’ partisan battles, to the toppling of Middle-East dictators, the near collapse of the European Union and the response of “Occupiers” to a growing global economic disparity, 2011 has been a year mostly of high-stakes drama and front-row tragedy.
Texan band with an English twinge. Maybe I hear it everywhere I can, so far from home.
Roscoe – Midlake
A time-lapsed, tilt-shifted day in California