Michael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the Mirrorshades anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre.
Technological convergence is the tendency for technologies that were originally unrelated to become more closely integrated and even unified as they develop and advance. For example, watches, telephones, television, computers, and social media platforms began as separate and mostly unrelated technologies, but have converged in many ways into an interrelated telecommunication, media, and technology industry.
In politics, emergent democracy represents the rise of political structures and behaviors without central planning and by the action of many individual participants, especially when mediated by the Internet. It has been likened to the democratic system of ancient Greece in the sense that people could publicly participate as much or as little as they please, although a form of representation exists which is based on personal trust networks instead of party affiliations. More recently, American writer and researcher Clay Shirky has referred to this as "the power of organizing without organizations."
Brad Templeton is a Canadian software developer, internet entrepreneur, online community pioneer, publisher of news, comedy, science fiction and e-books, writer, photographer, civil rights advocate, futurist, public speaker, educator and self-driving car consultant. He graduated from the University of Waterloo.
The EFF Pioneer Award is an annual prize by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for people who have made significant contributions to the empowerment of individuals in using computers. Until 1998 it was presented at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., United States. Thereafter it was presented at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference. In 2007 it was presented at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference.
Techno-progressivism or tech-progressivism is a stance of active support for the convergence of technological change and social change. Techno-progressives argue that technological developments can be profoundly empowering and emancipatory when they are regulated by legitimate democratic and accountable authorities to ensure that their costs, risks and benefits are all fairly shared by the actual stakeholders to those developments. One of the first mentions of techno-progressivism appeared within extropian jargon in 1999 as the removal of "all political, cultural, biological, and psychological limits to self-actualization and self-realization".
FringeWare Review was a magazine about subculture published in Austin, Texas. Many of the publication's writers and editors were associated with other publications such as Boing Boing, Mondo 2000, Whole Earth Review, and Wired. The last issue of the magazine was #14, published in 1998. The magazine had an international circulation, distributed primarily by Fine Print, an Austin-based company that focused on 'zine distribution.
Clay Shirky is an American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies and journalism.
Worldchanging was a nonprofit online publisher that operated from 2003 to 2010. Its strapline was A bright green future. It published newsletters and books about sustainability, bright green environmentalism, futurism and social innovation.
John S. Quarterman is an American author and longtime Internet participant. He wrote one of the classic books about networking prior to the commercialization of the Internet. He has also written about risk management.
EFF-Austin was formed in Austin, Texas by Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games shortly after the Electronic Frontier Foundation or EFF was formed. Jackson was pursuing a lawsuit, eventually successful, against the Secret Service with EFF's help, and suggested the formation of an alpha EFF chapter in Austin. Jackson organized a picnic and stood on a picnic table to sound the call for the new organization. He recruited a smaller group including John Quarterman, Jon Lebkowsky, Bruce Sterling, Smoot Carl-Mitchell, Lar Kaufman and Matt Lawrence to organize the group and serve on the first Board of Directors. The group formed a Texas corporation for EFF-Austin, and became active in discussions of potential chapters for the national organization. In January 1992, leaders of several potential chapters met with EFF in Atlanta, and learned that EFF had decided not to become a chapters organization. EFF-Austin continued as a separate organization and was active from 1991 through 1997, when it ceased operations following the Supreme Court Reno v. ACLU decision. The organization re-formed in 2001.
Aliza Sherman, also known as Aliza Pilar Sherman, Aliza Sherman Risdahl, and Cybergrrl is a new media entrepreneur, author, blogger, women's issues activist, and international speaker. She is known for her expertise in online marketing and networking. Her primary focus includes addressing women's issues on the Internet, while empowering women to expand their role and involvement in progressive technology and the new media industry. In 1995, Sherman was named by Newsweek magazine as one of the "Top 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet". She was one of only three women on the list. In 2009, she was named by Fast Company magazine as one of the "Most Influential Women in Technology", in the Blogger category. She is a native of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Bright green environmentalism is an ideology based on the belief that the convergence of technological change and social innovation provides the most successful path to sustainable development.
Paco Nathan is an American computer scientist and early engineer of the World Wide Web. Nathan is also an author and performance art show producer who established much of his career in Austin, Texas.
Rhizome is an American not-for-profit arts organization that supports and provides a platform for new media art.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet civil liberties.
The Open Wireless Movement hosted at OpenWireless.org is an Internet activism project which seeks to increase Internet access by encouraging people and organizations to configure or install software on their own wireless router to offer a separate public guest network or to make a single public wireless access point. If many people did this, then a ubiquitous global public wireless network would be created which would achieve and surpass the goal of increasing Internet access.
Mumbai Internet Exchange is a Mumbai-based Internet exchange point (IXP) founded on 15 August 2014 as Mumbai Convergence Hub is an Open Carrier Neutral Internet Exchange & Peering Hub. As of 30 March 2021 it interconnects more than 375 members, making it the largest IXP in India and surrounding region.
Cliff Figallo was an American planner, designer and manager of social media platforms. He was a member of The Farm, an intentional community founded in 1971, and helped create The WELL, one of the earliest online communities in America, the Table Talk online discussion forum for Salon.com and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
