Public Praxis

Our Bookshelf is a promising new project to create a social network which allows people to purchase and share DRM-free e-books. This is exactly the kind of project that libraries need to help get off the ground to preserve the genuine commons that libraries have always been. What I love most about this project is how pro-active it is. Libraries watched on the sidelines as Napster and file-sharing sites created library-like commons without critically engaging and shaping how these entities operate. Imagine using a time-machine to go back to the early 90′s and have public libraries lead the charge in how file-sharing sites got built. This would allow creators to deal directly with their fanbase, cutting out the corporate middle man, allowing artists, musicians and authors to make a living doing what they do, without outlawing sharing. We missed the boat on Mp3′s, but if Our Bookshelf gets the support it needs we don’t need to make the same mistake with e-books.

Please spread the word far and wide and consider making an contribution to their indigogo fundraiser.

We’ve got our first blurb in support of our Public Praxis class. It’s from Rolf Hapel, the head of the truly innovative Aarhus Public Libraries in Denmark.

I share the vision of Tom Gokey and Meg Backus of the public library of the 21th century as a “Democracy Machine”. One of the most important tasks for library enthusiasts and workers is to explore the many possibilities of that vision. I could think of no better way of doing so than attend one of Gokey and Backus’s library classes at [the Art School in the Art School].

Rolf Hapel
Head of Aarhus Public Libraries, Denmark
Currently engaged in creating the new main library “Urban Meidaspace Aarhus” and the Danish Digital Library

In class today we talked about Scraper Bikes as an example of a library that does not bear much resemblance to a library. By organizing a group around the bikes they own, they promote creativity (they style their bikes, they make their own music), education (both formal K-12 and P2P), responsibility, self-respect (you must ride in style), community–and together they’ve created a world for themselves that meets important needs. All of these needs can be understood as information, as can all of the resources that fulfill those needs. So this is not some lofty far-out library moon colony, this is library terra firma. The way that Scraper bikes engage the members opens up knowledge, values, and opportunities that individually, these Oakland kids may not find widely accessible.

Tina pointed us to a bike club made in the Scraper Bikes image that meets out of Mundy Branch library. The Post-Standard just covered it last month, and it looks cool enough that if you’re someone with spare money, bikes, time, or mechanical know-how, you might really want to contact the Mundy Library. Or see the blog one of its organizers keeps. Note the Ask Me Anything About Bikes post. That could be something to bookmark. Read the rest of this entry →

Register here for this class. No tuition required.

Public Praxis is an autonomous course offered through the Art School in the Art School (1003 East Fayette Street, Apartment 8, above the Spark Art Space) where we try to build the library of the future. We meet at 1pm (for about 3 hours or so) every Saturday starting Jan 28, 2012. If you’re interested in joining the class (or the work we’re trying to do) sign up here. Or send us an e-mail at backus [dot] meg [curly pig's tail] gmail [dot] com, or thomasgokey [curly pig's tail] gmail [dot] com.

We will post more info (syllabus, schedule, readings etc.) shortly.

For more on the need for a networked, autonomous accreditation system, see our Public School NY course description.

Spark is a CBC radio show and blog out of Toronto that is too excellent and thoughtful to be called a show about technology, but it’s about technology. And trends. And us.

Jon Kalish, who did the npr story on libraries and hackerspaces for Weekend Edition talked with Nora Young for a Spark episode on “Library Hacking, Niche Publications, and Enlisting Online Influencers.”

Go listen to this show

From the script for this segment:

JK TX 13: She is. Backus works at a public library near Syracuse, New York and she teaches a course with her artist husband at Syracuse University called Innovations in Public Libraries. And lest you think that she’s not serious about innovating, check this out. Backus brings her dog in to the library and let’s people in need of interaction with the animal kingdom check the dog out for a few hours as you would a book.

NY TX 13: Get out!

JK TX 14: Not only that, her library has a half-acre of open land, so she spearheaded a move to turn it over to the public, which now farms it.

NY TX 14: That’s too much.

I was interviewed as part of an NPR Weekend Edition story by Jon Kalish called libraries making room for hackerspaces (Saturday Dec 10).

A hackerspace is people owning something together, sharing resources, sharing knowledge, valuing curiosity and creativity, engaging in productive inquiry. If one can see beyond the specific tools populating the traditional physical space, libraries and hackerspaces look a lot alike. The resemblance is more than a resemblance; a hackerspace is really just a library by another name.

There’s nothing scary or criminal about the term hacker. A hacker is a person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and stretching their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. Using the science/engineering concept of a black box, where only inputs and outputs are visible, not the internal workings, the hacker wants to open the box. The hacker further insists that if you can’t open it, you don’t own it. So in the way that libraries have always existed to understand the world better, to explore how stuff works, to illuminate the inner components of any area of interest, they have always been hackerspaces. Furthermore, as institutions owned by the public, libraries should not be black boxes. We should all be able to look inside and collectively tinker with the inner workings of these places.

The message of the library is that we can learn, we can become aware. We are not forced to remain in the dark. And while becoming aware is an important achievement, I think the public space of a library affords much more; I think it can provide options for activity that can enhance human agency.
Read the rest of this entry →

Wouldn’t it be smart for public libraries to stop paying the rotten cable/telecom companies for Internet service, and start providing access through systems built to preserve privacy, net neutrality, etc.? Of course it would.

Isaac Wilder was one of the winners at ContactCon, blessed by Reverend Billy and given $10,000 to kick off an IndieGoGo campaign. He is one of the directors of the Free Network Foundation, an organization committed to the tenets of free information, free culture, and free society. The networks they build are distributed and decentralized: less spying, more resilience.

They needs startup funds.  Send a few dollars their way so that we can become customers of a better ISP.

Below I’ve copied what they mean by a free network. See their statements page for more. They’re good people; I’m cheering for them. Read the rest of this entry →

Douglas Rushkoff, hero to our Innovation in Public Libraries class for his book Program or be Programmed (among others) has called us ”pioneers” who ”have rolled up their sleeves and are demonstrating their vision for the 21st century library – not just a room full of dusty books, but a continuous learning center that utilizes technology and information to help communities thrive and businesses grow!”

Excited for CONTACT on October 20. Glad that Rushkoff has called attention to our projects like the LibraryFarm and the FFL fab lab, because I sure would like to talk with him about this stuff.

I love visiting the intro to librarianship class (511 at SU’s ischool), but the crop I got to visit today were more special than usual because today was their very first day of their first library class. So I think they were extra impressionable. Here’s as best as I can remember what I said or tried to say to them, for better or for worse. 511ers, if there’s something that you think I should know about or would find useful, comment with a link. Read the rest of this entry →

I cannot stay in my seat while reading architect NIkki O’Loughlin’s Book-ish Territory, about extending and distributing the library throughout the city, allowing residents to shape the form that non-commercial exchange takes. Libraries could turn its members into authors and designers of the commons. It’s all so exciting and brilliant, not to mention beautifully laid out.