1) In Paulina Boorsooks Book "Cyberselfish" she contrasts the development of technologies that were group efforts and thus stand in stark contrast to the myth of the lone 'hero' entrepreneur. Name two such more group-based technologies. (Under the heading "Closer to the Machine")
a) Wikileaks: Press tries to label it as a one man enterprise, but that man is really just a moderator. All the information comes in from many different collaborators.
c) World Wide Web Consortium: community that develops the standards for web development tools and protocols.
2) In the section labelled "Human, Too Human" Boorsook describes one type of technolibertarian - the "Extropians". What do extropians want or yearn for?
The Extropians are a group of “radical optimists” that want to maximize human potential by becoming more like cyborgs or partially machine in some way.
3) In her film BIT PLANE, Natalie Jeremijenko describes Doug Englebart as being a pioneer - of what? (view film via VIMEO link in separate post)
Natalie Jeremijenko describes Doug Englebart of being a pioneer of personal computing. Very early he saw the potential the pc had to “extend and improve the human condition”.
4) In "Silicon Valley Mystery House" writer Langdon Winner compares the Silicon Valley to the Winchester Mystery House. In what way does he consider them similar?
He compares the entire area from San Jose to Palo Also to the Winchester Mystery House because of the blending of cities. You can’t tell where one ends and another begins. The businesses wealth and a power allow them to “transform and absorb” the area’s around them, very similar to what Sarah Winchester did.
5) In Langdon Winner's essay "Silicon Valley Mystery House" he describes East Palo Alto as a very different kind of place from areas such as upscale Stanford and downtown Palo Alto. What type of area is East Palo alto, "just across highway 101"?
East Palo Alto is a poor area with high unemployment and poverty rates. To Langdon Winner, it seems an area forgotten by its technologically wealthy neighbor. Test scores in East Palo Alto schools are in the lowest 10th of the country, compared to Central Palo Alto’s scores usually in the top 1%.
6) In her Processed World article "The Disappeared of Silicon Valley" Paulina Boorsook's "Deep Throat" (inside information source) describes some unpleasant realities of most Silicon Valley startups and how they end up. List two.
a) End up in deep debt
b) Most are unsuccessful, or get bought out by a larger company with most of the proceeds going to the people that didn’t necessarily to all the work.
7) What is the Long Now foundation and why was it formed?
The Long Now Foundation is an organization formed to foster and grow long-term thinking. Its members attempt to give an alternative to the “faster/cheaper” mindset that has been growing with the growth of technology.
8) In the documentary DOCUMENTARY - SILICON VALLEY - A HUNDRED YEAR RENAISSANCE (1997) Steve Jobs describes the joy of successfully making "blue boxes" which let he and his friends make free phone calls. What aspect of this experience does he say was so important to the creation of Apple computer?
The creation of blue boxes taught them the power of ideas and the understanding and confidence that they could influence the world.
9) List three aspects of the work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - (see the "Our Work" section of their website)
1. Free Speech
2. Intellectual Property
3. Privacy
10) According to Richard Stallman's website, what is his status in relation to the social media site Facebook?
You won’t ever find him on facebook. Facebook threatens your privacy and they permanently record everything you do.
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