"...David Bollier will speak about the themes of his new book, Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own (New Press)..."

"In the beginning, there was Stallman.Richard Stallman, Biblical in appearance with long beard, could be mistaken for a long-ago prophet.Self-righteous, obstreperous and outspoken Stallman and his rebellion against the centralized world of computer software, is the jumping-off point for Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own, by David Bollier, one of the co-founders

"David Bollier will discuss the rise of the commons paradigm in the digital environment, the subject of his new book, Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own (New Press). The book traces the origins of free software, the Creative Commons licenses and the online “sharing economy” ..."

«Now out: my new book about “how the commoners built a digital republic of their own.” ...»

"...Having originated from the Free Software movement in the 1980s, the digital commons has meanwhile found widespread support in arts, culture, scientific publishing and research. It will neither bring 'cyber-communism' nor is it an alternative version of the public sphere.

"...«Creative Commons founder and Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig is giving his final presentation on Free Culture, Copyright and the future of ideas at Stanford's Memorial Auditorium on January 31st, 2008 from 1pm-2pm. After 10 years of enlightening and inspiring audiences around the world with multi-media presentations that inspired the Free Culture movement, Professor Lessig is moving on from the copyright debate and setting his sites on corruption in Washington.»

I don't usually write book reviews, but this one is special. My friend and colleague Daniel James has written an introduction to the world of media production with Linux, or as the subtitle describes it, "A manual for creative media on a modest budget". I'll put the spoiler right up front: This book is wonderful and is an essential read for all artistically-inclined Linux users.

"The Swedish legal system - running errands of Hollywood and the recording industries - have decided that helping people to share their digital data across the Internet is illegal. They might be guilty in the eyes of a corrupt court of law and in the corporate press, but in my book they are fine people, caring and sharing.

Media that spy on and data-mine the public are capable of destroying humanity's most precious freedom: freedom of thought. Ensuring that media remain structured to support rather than suppress individual freedom and civic virtue requires us to achieve specific free technology and free culture goals.