A4:20 Eastern (😏) I’ll be giving a talk about media ecology and McLuhan to the great group of folks at Libreplanet 2022, the annual convention organized by the Free Software Foundation! You can find my talk streaming in the Neptune Room (the third video tab). Come check it out!

Viewers interested in learning more about Media Ecology can visit:
The McLuhan Institute (run by Andrew McLuhan): https://themcluhaninstitute.com/
New Explorations Journal (academic journal): https://newexplorations.net/
The Media Ecology Association (annual conventions): https://www.media-ecology.org/
The McLuhan Foundation (educational resources): https://mcluhanfoundation.org/

Conversely, read more about free software at https://fsf.org!

In my talk, I am suggesting Free Software users and Media Ecologists alike delve into the rich past of computing, and uncover the “anonymous history” of our digital world. Here are three highly-recommended books, each available free online courtesy of their authors:

Those unfamiliar with the history of GNU, GNU/Linux, and Free Software ought to read Richard Stallman’s biography, “Free as in Freedom.”

The technically-minded reader will love the 1996 free ebook ‘Netizens’ for it’s rich history of computing and online communications, written collaboratively over USENET for many years through the labors of Micheal and Rhonda Hauben.

The less computer adept would equally enjoy Howard Rheingold’s 1993 book ‘Virtual Communities,’ also available as a free ebook.

In my talk, I mention the video ‘A Vision for a New Age – 1988 – Alan Kay‘—check out this entire channel for a rich store of history regarding the development of computer interfaces!

Also, from among the many excellent presentations at this years conference, two talks have stood out with exceptional relevance to my own. One from the folks at Hundred Rabbits, whose experience roughing-it with older, offline computing ‘off-the-grid’ gets precisely at the human-scale of computing. Also the keynote by Marleen Stikker from Public Stack lays out precisely the problems which our large, black-boxed modern computer stacks present to our humanity and to good, democratic governance. Links to their talks will be posted here when available.