Making large volunteer-driven projects sustainable. Lessons learned from Drupal by Dries Buytaert, original creator and project lead of Drupal :: May 29, 2012; 12:30 pm :: Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor, Cambridge, MA (RSVP required) + webcast live.

In this talk, Dries shares his experiences on how he grew the Drupal community from just one person to over 800,000 members over the past 10 years. Today, the Drupal community is one of the largest and most active Open Source projects in the world, powering 1 out of 50 websites in the world. The concept of major projects growing out of a volunteer, community-based model is not new to the world. Volunteer networks and communities exist in many shapes and sizes. Continue reading

In this Medea Talk, Jeannette Ginslov discusses the developmental stages of the AffeXity project, the interdependence of the collaborators, the relational and dynamic formation of technical and human intervention, the encounters of the carnal and the digital, the dialogic and temporal scaffolding of encounters of techne and the hands that attempt to capture affect. Read more here.

Going Feral on the Net: the Qualities of Survival in a Wild, Wired World :: May 15, 2012; 12:30 pm (ET) :: Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA + webcast live :: RSVP Required.

How do we balance the empowering possibilities of the networked public sphere with the dark, unsettling, and even dangerous energies of cyberspace? Matthew Battles blends a deep-historical perspective on the internet with storytelling that reaches into its weird, uncanny depths. It’s a hybrid approach, reflecting the web’s way of landing us in a feral state — the predicament of a domestic creature forced to live by its imperfectly-rekindled instincts in a world where it is never entirely at home. Continue reading

Click on image to go to video. Transcription of talk here. Related: James Bridle’s The New Aesthetic and Bruce Sterling’s An Essay on the New Aesthetic. Continue reading

Berkman Luncheon Series: Dalida Maria Benfield: Unexpected Development: Decolonial Media Aesthetics and Women’s ICT4D Video :: April 17, 2012; 12:30 pm :: Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor, Cambridge, Massachusetts + webcast :: RSVP required for those attending in person via this form.

ICT4D (Information Communication Technology for Development) powerfully frames women’s grassroots video production in the Global South, much of which is distributed widely through YouTube. Often, these videos reproduce racialized and gendered discourses — legacies of colonialism — in their narratives of economic, social, and technological progress. Continue reading

Jer Thorp’s work focuses on adding meaning and narrative to huge amounts of data as a way to help people take control of the information that surrounds them. Continue reading

Discourse and Discord: Architecture of Agonism from the Kitchen Table to the City Street — A Public Symposium co-presented by Northern Lights.mn and the Walker Art Center :: April 12-14, 2012 :: Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN + webcast on channel.walkerart.org. Continue reading

This Is Not A Protest Song! Art, Civic Engagement And Networking :: Lectures: March 21, 2012; 9:30 am - 2:30 pm (open to all) :: Workshops: March 21-22 :: Wissenschaft & Kunst, Bergstraße 12, Salzburg, Austria.

This symposium covers questions of art, political engagement and activism by focusing on practical working methods.

Throughout history, art has been assigned a range of roles. Aside from the beautification of life, distraction or representation, the acquisition and transfer of knowledge and experiences are still seen as highly important. Continue reading

In The Urban Crisis: To celebrate the launch of its two new graduate programs focused on urban transformation, Parsons The New School for Design has organized In the Urban Crisis, a lecture series featuring leading voices shaping the global dialogue about city development. Organized by Miguel Robles-Duran, the series highlights core themes of the MS in Design and Urban Ecologies and MA in Theories of Urban Practice, both launching fall 2012, which explore the ways cities are shaped and reshaped through planning, public policy, development, and architecture.

All In The Urban Crisis events will be held at 6 p.m. in the Kellen Auditorium, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, 66 Fifth Avenue, and is free and open to the public. Speakers include: Continue reading