Geek As Citizen: More On Writing And Reposting

Paper And Stars

As I’ve hinted at before, once I finish rewriting Way With Worlds over at Seventh Sanctum (and republished here) I plan to wrap it up into a book. Admittedly this could be quite a ways away since it is not just a rewrite but adding everything I learned in the last ten-fifteen years, so my guess is I may be doing this for up to a year longer. However, at some point I want to take it, re-edit it, maybe add a bit more, and do it as a book.

(Also possibly to take a break as this is pretty intense).

Anyway the reason I plan to turn this into a book:

  1. I think it’d be pretty useful.
  2. People who read the column in the past had commented on the value they got from it, and one had even printed it out.
  3. It helps preserve knowledge, which I wrote about previously.

I was discussing this with Serdar, and mentioning some of his past reviews and writings, and future plans. He’s quite adept at reviews and writing, and I thought maybe he should consider something similar. He noted he wouldn’t, as some writing is appropriate for a book, some isn’t, some things are good to put in print, for others being on the internet is enough. Plus some things aren’t appropriate to charge for.

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Geek As Citizen: A Statement Of Hope

Sunrise

So, as I’ve been writing on Geek Citizenry, I’ve been focusing on areas we can be good citizens, and areas that we as geeks (both in general and as that ephemeral mass of geek culture) can improve in as citizens. It’s been awhile, and I’d like to make a statement.

I have hope, great hope really, that we Geeks, we technophiles and makers and cosplayers, can be really great citizens of our cities and countries and indeed the world. Many of us are already pretty good at it, and it seems that we’re trying to improve who we are. I catch that improvement in geek charities, in discussions of our culture and its problems, in reflections on the importance of technology.

I guess I believe inĀ us on a gut level.

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Geek As Citizen: Disrupting Disruption

Planetary Collision

We hear about disruption a lot, especially in techgeekery. Disrupt this. Disruptive technology. Disruptive disruption. If by now you’re anywhere in technology and aren’t sick of hearing about it you have an issue that probably needs to be disruptied because the buzzword is everywhere.

I’m getting a bit concerned about it actually and its use – or frankly misuse. The term “disruption” is getting a bit omnipresent, and that’s a bit of a warning flag that having hammers and seeing nails is starting to happen – and in the case of the hammer of disruption, I’m not sure everyone even agrees what it is.

So since this is part of the technosphere of geek culture,it’s something I’d like to address because it’s something that affects how we relate to our work and what we do.

Because I think it’s distorting our perspectives – disrputing them if you will, and not in the cool-innovative way.

In fact, I wonder if we’re even all talking about the same thing . . .

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