Links of the Week – April 22, 2006

People Only Change When It’s Their Idea: James Samuel links to a new paper comparing 24 tools for dialogue by Pioneers of Change, a youth organization committed to self-organized change. The tools include Appreciative Inquiry and Open Space Technology, plus a number you probably don’t recognize. The concept is that dialogue is necessary to bring about agreement to change. What underlies this concept, as James points out, is that a dialogue is a means to get people to collectively create a change vision, so that instead of being what they are told to do, it becomes their idea. Really compelling stuff, and the paper is a great resource for change activists.

Corporatism:

The Corporate Toll on the Internet: Farhad Manjoo at Salon elaborates on Doc Searls’ concern that Big Telecom plans to take control of the Internet from the people, starting by creating two-tier Internet service, one for the rich and a poorer one for the rest of us. This may only be available to Salon Premium subscribers (I am one, so I can’t tell) — if so it’s a good investment.

Big Ag-Bio’s War on Family Farms: A new film, Seeds of Change, viewable entirely online, by University of Manitoba students chronicles how Monsanto and other big Agritech/Biotech companies have polluted North America with their genetically manufactured, runaway Frankenstein seeds, and are now suing and jailing small farmers who don’t fall in line. What’s really telling is that it took three years of fighting with the Monsanto-sponsored University of Manitoba to get the film released.

Techie Stuff:

Google Makes Website Creation Easy: A new Google beta called Google Pages really cramps your style when it comes to design, but lets you set up acceptable quality websites in five minutes, and maintain them painlessly. A rough but promising start. My experiment with it is a Table of Contents of all my Business Papers. Available to anyone with a Gmail account.

But Google Missed the Boat with Calendar: Grant McCracken rightly criticizes Google for its lame and bland new Calendar app. Thanks to Candy Minx for the link.

A Simple Idea to Greatly Improve Productivity: Add a second screen to your computer set-up. And make sure it’s rotatable. Psst: widescreen is a hoax.

US Politics:

Party of the People?: An interesting editorial by Michael Tomasky in American Prospect suggests that the Democrats need to reestablish their image as the party that works with, rather than for people, and in the interest of the Common Good. Great stuff. My skepticism isn’t that the Democrats couldn’t get their act together and embrace this vision, it’s that even if they did they wouldn’t believe it, and act on it, themselves. Thanks to MakeThemAccountable for this link, and the one that follows.

Ex-NSA Director Assesses Dangers of Bush Policies: Former National Security Agency Director Lt. General William Odom tears into the folly of the Bush Administration in its foreign and security policy. This guy knows how things work on the inside, and his analysis is scary.

Mainstream Media Not Doing Their Homework: Salon points out that the MSM, notably the Washington Post, are still calling Patrick Moore, the long-standing right wingnut and corporatist whore, a “green”.

Environment:

Making Forestry Sustainable, Bottom-Up: Don Melnick and Mary Pearl in the NYT point out that a billion acres of forest has been felled in the world since 1970, most of it irreplaceable, old growth forest, that this is unsustainable, and that there are ways that, with a community-based focus, sustainable forestry is possible.

Green TV: A new website aggregates video clips on environmental issues.

International Politics:

Mexicans Plan Grassroots Boycott of the US: Blame it all on the illegal immigrant roundups by xenophobes in the US. From Common Dreams, still the best aggregator of progressive thinking online. The environmentalists are sitting on the sidelines: Cheer for the little guy, or realize that open borders ultimately mean importing overpopulation and the environmental degradation that comeswith it? (More on this next week.)

SCO Bloc Adds Mongolia, Iran, India and Pakistan as Members: The SCO bloc, set up by Russia and China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is quietly emerging as the Second Superpower. Nothing on this in the Western press. Thanks to Dale Asberry for the link.

Image: Inextricably Linked, by Jim Nollman — buy prints at Interspecies.com.