Last year I mentioned Americans Elect twice as part of other posts. Since I am still typing mostly with my left hand, I am simply pointing everyone to Fred’s post about Americans Elect today. Americans Elect has the potential to be super important but only if more people know about it. I am particularly excited about the potential to have a campaign finance reform only candidate. In fact, Larry Lessig himself has been proposed as a candidate.

Last year I mentioned Americans Elect twice as part of other posts. Since I am still typing mostly with my left hand, I am simply pointing everyone to Fred’s post about Americans Elect today. Americans Elect has the potential to be super important but only if more people know about it. I am particularly excited about the potential to have a campaign finance reform only candidate. In fact, Larry Lessig himself has been proposed as a candidate.

I have written about cybersecurity legislation, covering the House bill called CISPA. This week it’s the Senate’s turn with the Cyber Security Act of 2012 (PDF). One thing that always jumps out at me when looking at these bills is that they get away without a problem statement and without explaining how the bill is supposed to solve the problem. When you look at the text of the bill all you get for motivation is “To enhance the security and resiliency of the cyber and communications infrastru...

I have written about cybersecurity legislation, covering the House bill called CISPA. This week it’s the Senate’s turn with the Cyber Security Act of 2012 (PDF). One thing that always jumps out at me when looking at these bills is that they get away without a problem statement and without explaining how the bill is supposed to solve the problem. When you look at the text of the bill all you get for motivation is “To enhance the security and resiliency of the cyber and communications infrastru...

Last week’s posting of a video to Youtube that resulted in violence and killings presents an interesting challenge for the open Internet. The whole incident illustrates that the design and capabilities of the Internet are fundamentally at odds with many existing social and cultural structures, such as the nation state and different religious sensibilities. This is not the first time though that we have encountered such a situation as print previously played a similar role. In fact, it almost ...

Last week’s posting of a video to Youtube that resulted in violence and killings presents an interesting challenge for the open Internet. The whole incident illustrates that the design and capabilities of the Internet are fundamentally at odds with many existing social and cultural structures, such as the nation state and different religious sensibilities. This is not the first time though that we have encountered such a situation as print previously played a similar role. In fact, it almost ...

Yesterday (Wednesday, January 18), has a good chance as being remembered as the day that the Internet first truly showed its political clout in the US. So far we have largely pointed at events abroad when discussing the Internet’s potential to shift power. Web sites and services large and small (including Continuations) either forcefully alerted their users to the problems with SOPA/PIPA or blacked themselves out entirely. At the 12th hour even Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg took a (by now very s...

Yesterday (Wednesday, January 18), has a good chance as being remembered as the day that the Internet first truly showed its political clout in the US. So far we have largely pointed at events abroad when discussing the Internet’s potential to shift power. Web sites and services large and small (including Continuations) either forcefully alerted their users to the problems with SOPA/PIPA or blacked themselves out entirely. At the 12th hour even Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg took a (by now very s...

I have been spending a lot of hours driving in the last couple of days as we are on a road trip to the kids’ summer camps. Inevitably when driving long distances my mind starts wandering. In particular I have been thinking about how political change has become so incredibly difficult. We have big issues that we need to address but the political systems here and elsewhere mostly seem in a kind of stasis. Historically there were several opportunities for a new start as people migrated to new te...

I have been spending a lot of hours driving in the last couple of days as we are on a road trip to the kids’ summer camps. Inevitably when driving long distances my mind starts wandering. In particular I have been thinking about how political change has become so incredibly difficult. We have big issues that we need to address but the political systems here and elsewhere mostly seem in a kind of stasis. Historically there were several opportunities for a new start as people migrated to new te...

I have long been a fan of the UK’s Guardian. They have embraced the internet like no other newspaper publisher. One of my favorite examples of the many great things they have done was the crowdsourced investigation of the expenses of Members of Parliament. Now they are kicking off a seven day series titled “Battle for the internet” that will cover many of the same topics that make a regular appearance here on Continuations. The series kicked off with a summary of an interview with Sergey Brin...

I have long been a fan of the UK’s Guardian. They have embraced the internet like no other newspaper publisher. One of my favorite examples of the many great things they have done was the crowdsourced investigation of the expenses of Members of Parliament. Now they are kicking off a seven day series titled “Battle for the internet” that will cover many of the same topics that make a regular appearance here on Continuations. The series kicked off with a summary of an interview with Sergey Brin...

Very short post as I am about to get on a plane to fly back from London to New York (and Virgin Atlantic does not yet have wifi on its flights). Reading the papers in London and talking to people it is clear that the European debt crisis is very much on everyone’s mind while we at home seem to be enthralled with either the latest startup valuations, or Rush Limbaugh and maybe the Republican Primary. Here the discussions are about Greece and Spain and the fact that the European Central Bank (E...

Very short post as I am about to get on a plane to fly back from London to New York (and Virgin Atlantic does not yet have wifi on its flights). Reading the papers in London and talking to people it is clear that the European debt crisis is very much on everyone’s mind while we at home seem to be enthralled with either the latest startup valuations, or Rush Limbaugh and maybe the Republican Primary. Here the discussions are about Greece and Spain and the fact that the European Central Bank (E...

In 2010, I wrote about ACTA several times. Essentially, ACTA was a behind the scenes effort to create a global copyright framework that would significantly strengthen rightsholders’ enforcement options. The initial ACTA process was held in secret for several years before drafts of the agreement leaked and finally the finished version was published. Somewhat belatedly the citizens of several European countries have woken up to the extent to which ACTA tries to influence domestic laws. The resu...

In 2010, I wrote about ACTA several times. Essentially, ACTA was a behind the scenes effort to create a global copyright framework that would significantly strengthen rightsholders’ enforcement options. The initial ACTA process was held in secret for several years before drafts of the agreement leaked and finally the finished version was published. Somewhat belatedly the citizens of several European countries have woken up to the extent to which ACTA tries to influence domestic laws. The resu...

During the 2008 crisis, I argued that we should take over the big banks and restructure them. Instead, we bailed out the banks with tax payer money and with an unprecedented increase in the Fed’s balance sheet. We did nothing to get rid of banks that are “too big to fail” or to severely restrict their activities (which might lead them to break themselves up). So yesterday, JP Morgan Chase had to announce a $2 Billion trading loss from what they claim was a hedge gone wrong in Credit Derivativ...

During the 2008 crisis, I argued that we should take over the big banks and restructure them. Instead, we bailed out the banks with tax payer money and with an unprecedented increase in the Fed’s balance sheet. We did nothing to get rid of banks that are “too big to fail” or to severely restrict their activities (which might lead them to break themselves up). So yesterday, JP Morgan Chase had to announce a $2 Billion trading loss from what they claim was a hedge gone wrong in Credit Derivativ...

Peter Thiel was interviewed by Francis Fukuyama (he of the “End of History”). The interview is well worth reading as it contains a lot of provocative thoughts. I agree with Thiel that the US government has lost its ability to achieve the kind of progress represented by the great public works projects or the Apollo program. I disagree though on the causes for this believing that it is primarily due to the pervasive influence of special interests and money in politics. I also don’t agree that w...

Peter Thiel was interviewed by Francis Fukuyama (he of the “End of History”). The interview is well worth reading as it contains a lot of provocative thoughts. I agree with Thiel that the US government has lost its ability to achieve the kind of progress represented by the great public works projects or the Apollo program. I disagree though on the causes for this believing that it is primarily due to the pervasive influence of special interests and money in politics. I also don’t agree that w...