Cory Doctorow's Blog, page 59

Outstanding critical review of Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free in the LA Review of Books

McKenzie Wark, author of the classic Hacker Manifesto, has written a long, smart review of my book Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free (now in paperback) for the Los Angeles Review of Books. It’s a genuinely excellent piece of critical writing — I think it’s my favorite review of this book so far.

A number of writers — including Douglas Rushkoff and Astra Taylor — have published useful books on similar issues recently, but Doctorow comes closest among these authors to understanding the in...

Authors Alliance guide to Open Access

The Authors Alliance, a nonprofit writers’ organization, conducted a wide-ranging piece of research on the experience of authors with open access publishing, including my own experiences with Creative Commons and commercial publishing.

That said, most of the essay focuses on academic and scientific authors, who may be institutionally bound to publish under open access, or who may wish to open their work as part of their ethical commitment to peer review and access in scholarship.

THIS GU...

I won the Comment Awards prize for Technology and Digital Commentator of the Year!

I woke this morning to the delightful news that I won Editorial Intelligence’s 2015 prize for Technology and Digital Commentator of the Year for my work on the Guardian. I’m honoured and delighted — thank you to the jury and the organisation, and to Martha Lane Fox for her presentation of the award!

Turns out that “unsubscribing” from spam actually works

After my spam hit a point where I couldn’t actually download my email faster than it was arrivingI spent a month clicking the unsubscribe links in all the spams in my inbox. Weirdly, it worked.

What’s weirder is that I discovered that most of that spam was coming from organizations I knew, even ones I supported and had worked with, but whose mailing lists I’d never asked to join. The growth of proprietary platforms — cough Facebook cough — that charge businesses to reach customers who’ve a...

The Internet will always suck

Have you ever wondered why the Internet is always just a little bit too slow to support the kind of activity you’re trying to undertake? My latest Locus column, The Internet Will Always Suck, hypothesizes that whenever the Internet gets a little faster or cheaper, that unlocks a bunch of applications that couldn’t gain purchase at the old levels, and they rush in to fill in the new space that’s been opened up. The good news is that new ways of connecting with one another are always being ope...

Scholarly article on activism and technology in my YA novels

Anika Ullmann, a graduate student in Cultural Studies Leuphana University in Luneberg, Germany, has published a paper on the relationship of my young adult novels to political radicalism, the hacker ethic and the “First Days of a Better Nation.” I found it a great and insightful read, and Annika kindly made a copy available for you to read, too!

Come see me at Santa Monica’s Diesel Books on Thursday

We’re launching the new paperback edition of “Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free, my book of practical advice and theory for artists trying to make sense of the net (it features intros by Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer, too!) at Santa Monica’s Diesel Books.

I’ll be there (225 26th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90402), from 6:30 to 7:30, talking about the book’s subjects, taking questions and signing copies.

The paperback features several updates, including a new essay I wrote for this edition.

How a mathematician teaches “Little Brother” to a first-year seminar

Derek Bruff teaches a first-year college writing seminar in mathematics, an unusual kind of course that covers a lot of ground, and uses a novel as some of its instructional material — specifically, my novel Little Brother.

Bruff’s written up an excellent and fascinating description of the unit that uses the novel, which he’s just taught again. After students read the novel and blog brief reactions to the book, they come to class where they participate in an exercise in comparing argumen...

Korean edition of Little Brother

It hits shelves today, featuring an essay I wrote specifically for this edition, tying together Korean politics — especially surveillance and censorship — with global mass-surveillance and the themes in the book.

See me in Utah, Boston, Toronto and Waterloo!

This/next week, I’m speaking in events in Park City, Utah (Future in Review); Boston (The Freedom to Innovate Summit, the Berman Center and Suffolk University); Toronto (Seneca College); Markham (In Conversation and Storytellers); and the University of Waterloo! Come say hi! (Image: Terri Oda, CC-BY)