Pirate Bay Judge Not Biased?

After the guilty verdict, the Pirate Bay challenged the decision with the allegation that the judge was biased. The Stockholm District Court was in charge of reviewing this allegation, and concluded that:

"-his membership in several pro-copyright groups was merely an educational tool that increased his knowledge of the issues."

This is sure to outrage the already angered population who support the Pirate Bay, and view this as a sweeping act of money, power and corruption talking over any sort of objective trial. For anyone unfamiliar with the Pirate Bay's case, and why it's pretty significant, I recommend taking a stroll down memory lane: The King Kong Defense

The Pirate Bay was brought to trial in Sweden due to heavy pressure from US lawyers (on behalf of Hollywood and other media business). They charged the Pirate Bay, a bit-torrent tracking site, of promoting and encouraging the act of "illegal filesharing." Do people have a right to share their music, their movies, if they are not making a profit off of them? Is Sweden being bullied into enacting laws that more powerful countries seek to be instated? Do US companies have the right to do this? And furthermore, to what extent will we lose our privacy in person-to-person sharing? As the internet becomes a vital role in society, big decisions like this one set precedents.

As people become more integrated and interconnected, the older, stricter legal and economic systems need to evolve. If you take a look throughout history, it seems clear that the system needs to evolve with and for the people, not the other way around. Luckily, this is being done at a smaller level. The Creative Commons offers a new legal system for sharing your media. So too does the Science Commons do for collaborative research. We're living in a new world, and it's high time governments and businesses learn they can't stop that from happening.

Sources: Court Review Says Pirate Bay Judge Not Biased

The Joy of the Commons

When have human beings ever been able to communicate with each other to such an integrated degree? Voices from all over the world can sing in unison, or compliment one another in different harmonies. For the first time in the history of our evolution, we are capable of organizing a living, breathing, global voice. A million minds all evolving and meshing together. This enormous potential and literal evolutionary leap is changing society from the ground up. It has enabled everyday behavior; talking, chatting, updating, communicating to be further enhanced by text messages, mobile phones, mobile internet. This blogosphere, mental sphere, or to coin a word from the philosopher Teilhard, noosphereis terraforming society.

Why shouldn't we then take this new territory, with all of its busy, chatting electronic and organic devices (mind, bodies and machines) and do something in the spirit of ever-evolving unification? That is, to simply communicate with each other. I urge anyone who stumbles across this little node to speak up, leave a comment, or write me back! And I'll do the same. Talk, and someone talks back. It starts with such a simple process of interaction.

Eventually, and given enough time to evolve, take root and spread its first leaflets, the "noosphere" will reach a new plateau of development. Imagine, if you will, a society of chatting, writing bloggers, where the majority of thoughts, feelings, ideas and projects all emerge from this rich ecosystem of minds. That reality is already here, sprouting up in this blog and that. So I urge you to do, whatever it is that you're doing! But whatever that may be, consider it in the words of Teilhard:

"No evolutionary future awaits anyone except in association with everyone else."

OSS Community, Network

Alright, it's done! Open Source Sociology now has a home on Ning. It's drafty in there, and definitely needs some more decorating. It's also quiet! I'm hoping folks will find there way there with the help of everyone spreading the word. Just pass the link to anyone you know who is 1) a sociologist, post-graduate, graduate or under-graduate, or 2) a social scientist of any kind. It'll be a great place for us to get situated, discuss, share knowledge and help the network spread. Also, it's a place to begin talking to each other!

Open Source Sociology.

If you or anyone you know is crafty with website design, or would like to assist in building the network (moderators, bloggers, etc), please contact me: shaman sun (at) g mail.

What is open source sociology?

The purpose of this blog, as well as other blogs that join the network, is to engage in a simple but growing medium of communication. Internet communication is becoming an integral part of social communication in modern societies. As the means to express ourselves enhances and evolves, this interconnected, networked social structure emerging in the 21st century has potential to revolutionize the way society works. Many have taken the networked, decentralized structure of the internet, and used it to develop the "open source" philosophy. Originally starting as a term for sharing programming source codes, "openly" in a collaborative atmosphere, open source has become a word for a growing collaborative way of creating content. Aside from operating systems and websites, pictures, music, writing, videos and film have all become an expression of this new idea. Websites like Creative Commons offer both a community and a means to license your work for a new internet age.

The latest aspect of society to be influenced by "open source," are the scientific fields. The power of sharing scientific knowledge with other researchers across the globe can revolutionize scientific development. Researchers can cross-examine each other's work, learn the pros and cons and more efficiently. Other new technological developments means departments and organizations, no matter where they are, can share their work and collaborate. This was never possible before. The latest and greatest example is Science Commons.

What "Open Sociology," means to do is begin applying this not only to the hard sciences, but the social sciences. We seek to create the beginning of a "social science commons." The internet offers us a powerful transformative tool for communication, research, and social activism. Why not take advantage of it? That's the purpose of this blog, and the blog network in a nutshell. We aim to plant the seeds for a grassroots network of sociologists, anthropologists and other social science professors, students and advocates, to share their knowledge, collaborate on research and activism, and help the social sciences take an updated and evolved place in an ever changing civilization.

"I believe that the world needs public sociology - a sociology that transcends the academy - more than ever. Our potential publics are multiple, ranging from media audiences to policy makers, from silenced minorities to social movements. They are local, global, and national. As public sociology stimulates debate in all these contexts, it inspires and revitalizes our discipline. In return, theory and research give legitimacy, direction, and substance to public sociology. Teaching is equally central to public sociology: students are our first public for they carry sociology into all walks of life. Finally, the critical imagination, exposing the gap between what is and what could be, infuses values into public sociology to remind us that the world could be different." -Michael Buroway