Tag: lessig

Read These Remarks and Then Act

Micah Sifry of Tech President published the text of his remarks at the As Darkness Falls conference. You should, by all means, go and read the full text. If bite-sized morsels are more your thing, I present some highlights below. Micah and I have had occasion to meet a few times, and I admire his work tremendously. He mentions the Sunlight Foundation, and their tools should find their way into any classroom.

On the goals of openness:

Somehow, we have to be for open government and against the deep state at the same time. One might say that this isn’t a contradiction, that actually these are two sides of the same coin. And indeed, I think we are all seeking to expand the power of citizens to watch their government, and shrink the government’s ability to watch us back.

On the importance of networks and horizontal organizing:

Reed’s Law, which says that the power value of a network increase as you add more nodes to it, requires nodes in the network to have full capacity to play all the networking roles, including lateral ones. But at least in the US we have not had nearly enough horizontal organizing, with the result that our well known online political groups actually have much less power than it appears. They have big lists and the ability to make a quick splash in the media, raise money fast, and thus they appear to wield power. But for the most part their members don’t know each other, and thus there is a very thin level of engagement hidden by those huge numbers.

And something that felt good to read:

Changing the world is hard. There are no shortcuts.

Now, go read the full text.

It’s Game Time

If anyone follows me on twitter and was paying attention last night, they’ll know I schlepped my way to NYC last night for the opening event of the New York Public Library’s Live series. I’ll write more about what Lawrence Lessig and Shepard Fairey had to say as they were moderated by Steven Johnson later. This post is about something else.

As I watch Lessig’s opposition to Prop 8 or read about his newest effort to end corruption, something strikes me. He’s got a system. It’s what’s lacking in the discussion of what people are looking for, as far as I can see.

In wanting to change Congress, Lessig calls on candidates to do three things:

  • Abolish earmarks
  • Refuse lobbyist/PAC contributions
  • Promote publicly financed campaigns

Many get close. But let’s get closer. Will writes of the use of stimulus money in education:

But if you really want to use that money to improve learning, use it to help the teachers in the schools understand how to help the kids in the classrooms become the readers and writers and mathematicians and scientists that will flourish in a networked world.

Yes, agreed. All for it. Now, let’s talk about how. Not standards or targets or the like. Ideas. Steps. We don’t need a report or a study. We know what we’re unhappy about. Let’s move on.

Here’s the charge, blog or comment with the three shifts, changes, movements we should demand at the national level to move education somewhere. These should be basic, actionable, transparent steps that are taken or not taken. Don’t just blog it, though, talk about it. Bring it up in department meetings, faculty meetings, podcasts, dinner table discussions, the dog park. Take the conversation outside of the echo chamber. Talk about it with people inside and outside of education (we’re all inside, btw). If you put it online, tag it 3steps4ed. If you like, re-post this to your online space, do that.

Follow the tag, write about what feeds your reader. From there, we’ll move forward. If you’ve already written your three down, go back and re-tag it.

Recap:

  • Think of the three actionable steps that need to be taken at the national level to move education.
  • Talk about them with others. Ask for others’ thoughts first.
  • Post, tweet – heck – even photograph you thoughts and tag them 3steps4ed.

More later.