EDCMOOC discussion

Homeland is available online at http://craphound.com/homeland/download/

The paperback is out in September. It is also available in hardback.

Twitter chat: Saturday 5th October - 21:30-22:30 (UK time).

Please post any thoughts for discussion questions...

CAN ANYONE PLEASE HELP HERE to create Questions for this weekend's chat!

I read the book last month, so although I have a pdf copy to refer to, it's no longer immediately fresh in my mind.

Themes:
1. technological surveillance & privacy
2. hacktivism
3. dysfunctional economies
4. corporate corruption
5. election strategies
6. geek teen cultures
etc

Contemporary relevance:
eg. hacktivist Aaron Schwartz, Wikileaks & Jacob Appelbaum & Julian Assange (in the afterwords)...etc

Some suggestions to start the ball rolling:

1. Which idea from Doctorow's Homeland grabbed your attention the most & why?

2. How realistic to you is Doctorow's portrayal of the world in Homeland?

3. What would you do if you were given access to a trove of sensitive data secrets of state/international impact?

4. What measures would you advise to safeguard Internet/tech-use privacy?

5. What's the biggest barrier to 'freedom of the people' (and what does this mean?)? & What can be done to protect it?

PLEASE HELP! Change / Add / Remove / Elaborate / Enhance ...
so Qs can be confirmed by before-24hrs-before-#edcmchats (yes, let's try using this new hashtag so #edcmchat is clear for November+ edcmooc2's use).

podcast of interest:
Cory Doctorow on the Themes of “Homeland”
http://huffduffer.com/jessewillis/105248
about an hour
(i haven't listened to it all, just the start; insightful background material)

Thanks Ping, these are great questions. I will have a think more later on, but I was also interested in:

1. References and language: I found these a bit of a barrier, certainly to start with. I found it hard to connect with the place and the characters partly due to their speech which felt inauthentic to me but also it came across as 'over cool' in a self conscious way (an age thing maybe? do people really speak like that?). This fits with Ping's question 2.

2. The book split between story and educational manual and perhaps more of a focus either way would have been better -the descriptions didn't feel like they naturally fit with the story. Despite that however, I did find it informative, and was drawn into the story eventually.

3. Are the methods used actually happening in the US? have they borrowed from other countries/the past? - pretty scary. This also fits with Ping's question 2.

So, to confirm, we are now #edcmchats !

Thanks, Kirstie

Meaty Questions ~ Thanks Kirstie!

Always a delight when the ground for discussion grows, expands, is enriched.

Let's composite them; will look into this by 24 hours before #edcmchats.

MORE please, anyone?

In response to Rob's thoughts
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/9...

we could continue using #edcmchat this weekend

and get feedback from who's there about whether we should continue using #edcmchat, as well as who might give feedback in the poll mentioned above (in this comment).

What do you think?

I think continue using #edcmchat - it's consistent and established and means that the growing edcmooc community may be interested and want to see what we're up to!
K

Righty-ho ~ #edcmchat lives on!

Q1 Which idea(s) from Doctorow's Homeland grabbed your attention the most & why?

Q2 How did find Doctorow's storytelling style? (eg use of (hacker?) language/references, story couching educational manual, etc?)

Q3 Did you find Doctorow's portrayal of the world in Homeland realistic? (Does it reflect real-life situations in particular countries?)

Q4 What measures would you advise to safeguard/protect (your/others') Internet privacy & freedom?