Peter Ciccariello wrote:
> Walking downtown this morning in the rain, I couldn't help reflecting on
> our conversation of the present state of wild nature and the digital
> life. Certainly, the American Gold Rush could be analogous to the rush
> into unspoiled digital forests of the Internet. Fueled by the now global
> dream of instant wealth with the least amount of effort, we have clicked
> our way through to the end of the digital wild nature of our virtual
> imagination. So what is left of this wild nature, which is constantly
> being portioned off into ever smaller bits of private/personal eminent
> domains? Who were the indigenous inhabitants? What was the sound and
> majestic beauty of that vanishing landscape?
A key emergence, for me anyhow, of digital culture is the "creative
commons" movement. Perhaps the Manifest Destiny metaphor applies to the
digital world in this context as well. To whit: as the American West
was settled, divided, and deeded, people began to realize that despite
its size, the resources of North America were not limitless. Those who
enjoyed the open, wild spaces of 'nature' began to work to solidify
protections for that wild space. The national park system emerged.
Similarly, as the digital realm has been 'settled' and deeded, people
began to realize that a resource formerly taken for granted (the public
domain) was being eroded by the expanded copyright protections brought
into law as part of the digital age (see Lessig's FREE CULTURE for a
careful delination of this history). In response, the GNU public
license and the creative commons movement each work to secure a space in
which the public can still enjoy the 'natural wildness' of the digital age.
I'm certainly romanticising the National Parks system, but the analogy
works for me.
Best,
Brendan
--
Brendan Riley, Ph.D.
Technology & Pedagogy Coordinator,
Faculty, English Department
Columbia College Chicago
33 East Congress
Chicago, IL 60605
Ph: 312.344.8817
Fx: 312.344.8001
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http://www.curragh-labs.org/
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