Building Community
This knol presents ideas first introduced in 1994 on a three-stage model of community building that I call “Communitas”. For the past 20 years, I have been building online educational communities for...
View ArticleSolving Systemic Problems Requires Systems Thinking
As many of my colleagues and online acquaintances may know, my professional work has largely been grounded in the application of systems theory, to analyze and solve problems calling for a systems...
View ArticleOrin Kerr on Engineering vs Law
Orin Kerr is a legal scholar specializing in cybercrime law. He is a Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School. Before transitioning into the Law, he majored in Mechanical...
View ArticleContagion
Elsewhere in recent conversations, we’ve been talking about “mirror neurons” in the context of empathy. But imitation (or mimesis) is not limited to the brain’s ability to echo or reflect emotional...
View ArticleGoing to Hell in a Hand-Basket
“Where are we, and what are we doing in this hand-basket?” ~Bumper Sticker When I was a graduate student at Stanford University, laboring toward a degree in Systems Theory, one of the technical courses...
View ArticleOur Place In the Cosmos and the Role of STEM in the Advance of Civilization
Symphony of Science Our Place In the Cosmos Two years ago, Wired Magazine reported that Neil deGrasse Tyson would host a sequel to Carl Sagan’s Cosmos which aired on PBS three decades ago. The...
View ArticleGaming the System
Politicians, lawyers, and well-heeled lobbyists are uncommonly gifted at gaming the system. To that list, you can add sheriffs, prosecutors, judges, and other local and state law enforcement officials....
View ArticleMathematically Defined Crypto-Currencies
There has been a lot of attention on BitCoin of late, and a number of my correspondents have been digging into the topic. I was looking for some good analogies through which to understand the idea and...
View ArticleAdventures in Escalation
A while back, I was given a hand-me-down iPad Mini as a thank-you gift for doing some pro-bono technical work for a cash-strapped professional colleague. This iPad Mini has WiFi, GPS, and cellular...
View ArticleIntegrated Systems and the Phenomenon of System Disintegration
In Psychology, there is a diagnosis known as Dissociative Identity Disorder, which is the new name for Multiple Personality Disorder. The lay public often conflates Dissociative Identity Disorder with...
View ArticleLawfare: King John, Stephen Langton, and Donald Trump
“Lawfare” is a term of art that refers to the selective application of the law to persecute a disfavored demographic group while protecting a favored group. The relevant analogy is a chess game, where...
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