[iDC] Introduction (part 2)

[Michael H Goldhaber]

Further Introduction:

Since other have done so, I’ll say a little more about myself than I  
did on the first go ‘round of intros. My professional education was as  
a theoretical physicist. This was during the Vietnam war, and I became  
increasingly uneasy with the connection of science and arms. In ’68 I  
was one of the founders of what became “Science for the People” which  
was quite active through the ‘70’s, but now has  a ghostly presence  
only as a small listserv (which I moderate). I couldn’t square my work  
in physics with my political views and eventually decided to leave the  
field.

In the late ‘70’s I was mostly doing abstract painting and  teaching  
at a small socialist school in Oakland. I spent most of the 80’s at  
IPS in Washington, DC, where I worked on technology policy and on ways  
of recasting science to be more open to non-experts. (I can’t say that  
second program really crystallized.) Relevant to things said on this  
list, I wrote “Microcomputer Networks: a New Workers’ Culture in  
Formation”,(Chap. 10 of The Critical Communications Review, Volume I,  
Vincent Mosco and Janet Wasko, eds.)   in which I discussed how such a  
network might help revitalize labor unions. Also a book “Reinventing  
Technology:Policies for Democratic Values” ( Routledge  ‘86) which  
takes the view that technological  decisions have the force of law and  
so should should be decided democratically, and I sketched out how  
that could be done. I had already published “Politics and Technology:  
Microprocessors and the Prospect of a New Industrial  
Revolution” (Socialist Review, 52, 1980) , which led me to explore the  
“information economy.” Out of that work developed my theory that it  
should really be viewed as an attention economy. For a while I   
published a sort of zine called “Post-industrial Issues”. I continue  
to develop the attention economy theory on my blog goldhaber.org.  
Other recent work can mostly be found online.

I live in Oakland, Ca.,  am writing a novel , and somewhat involved in  
local progressive Democratic politics.

Best,

Michael



Michael H. Goldhaber

michael at goldhaber.org
mgoldh at well.com
blog www.goldhaber.org
older site, www.well.com/user/mgoldh




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