geof

My name is Geof Glass. I'm studying for my Masters in Communication at Simon Fraser University. My background is in software: I have been a professional software developer since 1991. You can find some of the software I have developed in the code section of this site.

My interest in communication arises from my experience with computers. I had high hopes that personal computers and computer networking would improve people's lives; that they would help build connections that have been lost. Our society is fragmented: people wash across cities spread thin by the dominance of the automobile. We live much of our lives isolated, each in our own house, cubicle, our own car. The connections we do build are often short-lived as we are pulled from place to place by the demands of work in a globalized world.

The Internet offers to help reconnect our physical communities. Equally important, it gives people the power to express themselves and to share - what I believe are two fundamental human drives. Against this stands the entrenched logic of industrial hierarchies and the mass media fighting to control this new vector of change. They are rewriting laws - such as copyright, trademark, and patent law - and redefining norms in order to transform ideas into property. Their successes defeat not only the potential of the Internet, but the freedoms we have fought for since the Enlightenment. The defence of community and democracy requires technology, but it also requires understanding and politics. It must go beyond these to build a positive space for sharing and expression - a commons.

My interests of course extend beyond this, from role-playing games to photography. Some of these topics show up in my blog, a whole minute, named after a passage in Dhalgren.