Author: Geoff

Matt Sweeney: The Geek Culture Manifesto

The Geek Culture Manifesto

Creator: Matt Sweeney, database programmer and author of free_geek (because cool kids are boring)

Purpose: Promotion of geek culture as a separate and distinct culture.

The Geek Culture Manifesto

To whom it may concern,

This is ours. It is by us, for us, and about us. You are more then welcome to indulge in our world if you want, but you must understand that it is our world. There is no use in ridiculing our actions. If you do not understand what we are doing, then you are not one of us, and so this is not for you. Your ridicule only proves just how out of step you are with us. It only serves to show that you don’t get it.

What we do is not a joke, except when it is. It is not parody, except when it is. It makes sense to us and that is all it needs to do. This is not something that we will translate for you. We will not explain it to you. Not out of spite, but because it is something that you can only understand if you are one of us.

If you can not understand why we do what we do, then that is fine. This is not meant for you, it is meant for us. We do not ask you to understand. We do not ask you to come to terms with what we are doing. We simply ask that you leave alone those things that you do not understand. Pretend that we do not exist, that is fine with us. Do not try to explain us though. Do not try to understand where we come from or what motivates us. If you are not one of us, then you will never understand these things.

This is ours. It will always be ours. You will never grok it, unless you become one of us. Do not try to make it yours. Do not try to co-opt it for your own ends. If it inspires you to create your own thing, then fine. The thing that you create though is not the thing we have created. Do not pretend otherwise.

You are welcome to join us. Otherwise, leave us alone.

The Geek Community

Source

Website: http://tsuibhne.net/the-geek-culture-manifesto/

Stephen Johnson: The Third Place Manifesto

Stephen Johnson: The Third Place Manifesto

Creator: Stephen Johnson, Director – Social, Community Engine.

Purpose: To highlight the shift to the ‘third place of discovery’ and the importance of community as capital.

The Third Place Manifesto

The ‘Third Place’ Manifesto: Discovery of Community and Contextual Value Within a Persistently Disruptive, Emergent Social Ecosystem.

We find ourselves today confronted by an overwhelming frequency of radical transformation and information overload.

Extracting meaning from this paradigm and accordingly, addressing opportunities and challenges which arise through ubiquitous connection and socialisation, has become the conversation of our time.

Here, community has become currency, exercising great power and influence over the way we build brands, innovate products and services, solve complex problems and manage, or destroy reputations.

These signals usher us toward a world where knowledge, power and productive capability may be more dispersed than at any time in our history.

This white paper posits that we are on a trajectory toward another sociological tipping point – the paradigm of the ‘third place of discovery’; an ecosystem which demands context and meaning and is represented by overlapping communities of passion; a mix of semi-public, semi-familiar social and commercial transactions, wherein value creation will be fast, fluid and persistently disruptive.

Source

Download the white paper: http://www.communityengine.com/the-%E2%80%98third-place%E2%80%99-manifesto-discovery-of-community-and-contextual-value-within-a-persistently-disruptive-emergent-social-ecosystem

Dmitri Shapiro: The Anti-Facebook Manifesto

The Anti-Facebook or Alty Manifesto

Creator: Dmitry Shapiro, the founder of Veoh and former CTo of MySpace Music has just received startup funding for Altly, an alternative to Facebook.

Purpose: To overcome feeling pressured to ‘friend’ someone on Facebook, Altly will be an alternative social network to Facebook. At it’s core is a different set of beliefs around privacy and the use of our personal information.

The Altly Manifesto

Altly (name may change before we launch) is building a Facebook alternative.  Think of it as a social network for Facebook graduates!

We believe :

• Privacy is ULTIMATELY important.

• We should know EXACTLY who can see what information about us.

• Control of our information should be in OUR hands, and it should be EXTREMELY easy for us to control it.

• WE should choose what information is stored, how long it is kept, and who it is available to.

• Our digital life, our personal information is EXTREMELY valuable, and each of us should not only control who has access to it, but BENEFIT from it.

• Advertisers should be part of our community, but should NOT have an unfair advantage over us.

• All of our data should be OURS, and no one else’s.  If we choose to leave our social network, we should be able to easily take ALL of our data with us, and COMPLETELY delete all data if we choose.

• If other social networks should be developed, they should be able to interoperate with one another.

Source

Author’s complete Blog Article: http://blog.altly.com/2011/05/the-need-for-an-alternative-to-facebook/

Article about Alty Funding: http://www.socaltech.com/altly_posts_anti_facebook_manifesto_gets_funding/s-0035969.html

Jeff Gailus: The Grizzly Manifesto

The Grizzly Blog

Creator: Jeff Gailus, Journalist and Conversations and author of The Grizzly Blog.

Purpose: Highlight the need for Grizzly Bear conservation in North America.

The Grizzly Manifesto: In Defence of the Great Bear

The following is an extract from the authors blog (source below):

Jeff Galius: The Grizzly Manifesto bookThe grizzly bear, once the archetype for all that is wild, is quickly becoming a symbol of nature’s fierce but flagging resilience in the face of humanity’s growing appetite for natural resources — and of the difficulty our wealth-addicted society has in changing its ways.

North America’s grizzlies survived the arrival of spear-wielding humans 13,000 years ago, outlived the short-faced bear, the dire wolf and the sabre-tooth cat—not to mention mastodons, mammoths and giant ground sloths the size of elephants—but a growing wave of urbanization and industrialization continues to push the Great Bear further north and west, just as it has since Europeans arrived in its home 400 years ago.

Despite their relatively successful recovery in Yellowstone National Park, the bears’ decline in Canada continues largely unchecked. The front line in this centuries-old battle for survival has shifted to western Alberta and southern BC, where outdated mythologies, rapacious industry and disingenuous governments continue to push the Great Bear into the mountains and toward a future that may not have room for them at all.

Source

Article: http://www.canmoreleader.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3139322

Author’s Blog: http://grizzlyblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/grizzly-manifesto.html

Michael Widenius: The Hacking Business Model

Creator: Michael Widenius, one of the founders of the MySQL database, co-wrote this manifesto.

Purpose: “…Rules for running a company based on egalitarian and sustainable principles.” (Jansson)

Manifesto

Purpose

• Create a sustainable business model that can be adopted and adapted by others.

• Create a fair and democratic company that is owned by the workers.

• Have long-term, trustworthy and meaningful relationships with our staff and customers.

 

Principles

• Egalitarian: The belief that all people should be treated equally. This includes equality, non-discrimination and inclusivity.

• Sustainable: We have a long-term view on our business. We watch our profits & spend wisely, we take care of each other, we support the things we depend on.

• Transparent: We communicate in an honest and genuine way. Any information or process that can be made open, will be made open.

• Fun: Create a workplace where people can have fun and want to work.

• Agile: Be flexible, receptive & adaptive, especially when dealing with staff and customers.

 

Methods

Concrete tools for helping us live according to our principles, including:

• Consensus-based decision making.

• Corporate transparency – any information or process that can be made open, should be made open.

• Licensing that helps benefit our company, our staff, our customers, our partners and society at large.

• Profit-sharing with staff, contributors and worthy causes.

• Don’t try to change people. Focus on getting the best from their strengths. Develop ways to work around their weaknesses.

• Prefer to work with people who share our values.

• Work against patents and other legislation that harms individual rights.

 

Additional Sections

Default Employee Rules

The Rules of the Company

 

Source

Blog Post by Mattias Jansson: http://altdevblogaday.org/2011/05/21/the-hacking-business-model/

Originally posted on Zak Greant’s Blog: http://zak.greant.com/

Woodland Trust: The Forest Manifesto

Woodland Trust: The Forest Manifesto

Creator: Woodland Trust is a UK based organisation with a vision to see a country rich in native woods and trees enjoyed and valued by everyone

Purpose: This manifesto is to tell the Government what is needed to manage England’s forest and drum up public support to make it happen.

The Forest Manifesto

• Our ancient woods are fully protected

• New woods are created to provide a complete life support system for people and wildlife

• Public support for trees and woods inspires a new connection with the natural world.

Our objectives:

• New and strengthened forms of protection for ancient woodland (it’s astounding that there are no protective legal designations to prevent damage and development for 85% of this irreplaceable habitat, our equivalent of the rainforests)

• A government commitment to restore all 35,000 hectares of planted ancient woods in their ownership (their restoration would be one of the most important contributions to nature conservation in England)

• A government commitment to woodland creation and a target of 15,000ha per annum in the Natural Environment White Paper (planting rates in England declined from 6,500ha in 1992 to just 2,300ha in 2010 and with only 8% of England covered by forests, we are almost at the bottom of the European league table on forest cover)

• Every child should have the chance to plant a tree as part of their education.

Source

Reference Article and source of Manifesto pdf: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2072672/woodland-trust-calls-government-backed-carbon-scheme-grow-trees

Organization website: woodlandtrust.org.uk

Ted Kaczynski: The Unabomber Manifesto

Ted Kaczynski: The Unabomber Manifesto

Creator: John ‘Ted’ Kaczynski is also known as the Unabomber is most famous for engaging in a mail bombing campaign in the US from 1978 to 1995.

Purpose: The Unabomber Manifesto is titled ‘Industrial Society and its Future’ and it speaks to the “erosion of human freedom necessitated by modern technologies requiring large-scale organisation.” (Wikipedia)

The Unabomber Manifesto

Introduction

(Opening Sentence only of the Five Points in the Introduction)

1 The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

2 The industrial-technological system may survive or it may break down.

3 If the system breaks down the consequences will still be very painful.

4 We therefore advocate a revolution against the industrial system.

5 In this article we give attention to only some of the negative developments that have grown out of the industrial-technological system.

The Manifesto contains 232 Points in Total

Here are the headings within the Manifesto

  • The psychology of modern leftism
  • Feelings of inferiority
  • Oversocialization
  • The power process
  • Surrogate activities
  • Autonomy
  • Sources of social problems
  • Disruption of the power process in modern society
  • How some people adjust
  • The motives of scientists
  • The nature of freedom
  • Some principles of history
  • Industrial-technological society cannot be reformed
  • Restriction of freedom is unavoidable in industrial society
  • The ‘bad’ parts of technology cannot be separated from the ‘good’ parts
  • Technology is a more powerful social force than the aspiration for freedom
  • Simpler social problems have proved intractable
  • Revolution is easier than reform
  • Control of human behavior
  • Human race at a crossroads
  • Human suffering
  • The future
  • Strategy
  • Two kinds of technology
  • The danger of leftism
  • Final note

Source

Complete Manifesto: http://cyber.eserver.org/unabom.txt

About Ted Kaczynski: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski

 

John Schumann: I Was Only 19

Vietnam War - I Was Only 19

Creator: John Schumann, songwriter and member of Australian folk-rock band Redgum. The song was recorded in 1983.

Purpose: To draw attention to the experience of Australian soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War.

Manifesto

I Was Only 19 (A Walk in the Light Green) John Schumann: Universal Music Publishing Pty Ltd


Mum and Dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal,

(It was long march from cadets).

The Sixth Battalion was the next to tour and it was me who drew the card…

We did Canungra and Shoalwater before we left.

 

And Townsville lined the footpath as we marched down to the quay;

This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean;

And there’s me in my slouch hat, with my SLR and greens…

God help me, I was only nineteen.

 

From Vung Tau riding Chinooks to the dust at Nui Dat,

I’d been in and out of choppers now for months.

But we made our tents a home, VB and pin-ups on the lockers,

and an Asian orange sunset through the scrub.

 

And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can’t get to sleep?

And night time’s just a jungle dark and a barking M16?

And what’s this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?

God help me, I was only nineteen.

 

A four week operation, when each step could mean your last one on two legs:

it was a war within yourself.

But you wouldn’t let your mates down ’til they had you dusted off,

so you closed your eyes and thought about something else.

 

Then someone yelled out “Contact”‘, and the bloke behind me swore.

We hooked in there for hours, then a God almighty roar;

Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon:

– God help me, he was going home in June.

 

I can still see Frankie, drinking tinnies in the Grand Hotel

on a thirty-six hour rec.leave in Vung Tau.

And I can still hear Frankie lying screaming in the jungle.

‘Till the morphine came and killed the bloody row

 

And the Anzac legends didn’t mention mud and blood and tears,

and stories that my father told me never seemed quite real

I caught some pieces in my back that I didn’t even feel…

God help me, I was only nineteen.

 

And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can’t get to sleep?

And why the Channel Seven chopper chills me to my feet?

And what’s this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?

God help me, I was only nineteen.

Recorded under Redgum’s name in 1983 but from Redgum only Hugh McDonald and John Schumann performed on the track. Other instruments were played by Brian Czempinski, Trevor Lucas and Peter Coughlin.

Sources

John Schumann’s website and lyrics: http://www.schumann.com.au/john/lyrics.html

The story behind the song: http://www.schumann.com.au/john/articles.html

Song Promo Video: http://youtu.be/Urtiyp-G6jY

Image: Australian Soldiers at Nui Dat, http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/veterans-chance-for-vietnam-peace/story-e6freuzr-1225860405938

Nick Legan: The Cycling Mechanics Manifesto

Cycle Sports Manifesto

Creator: Nick Legan, Pro Cycle Teams Mechanic.

Purpose: For those of you aspiring to join the pro ranks as a bicycle mechanic…

The Cycling Mechanic’s Manifesto

• Focus on the things you can control and do them well. For the rest, go with the flow.
• Pay attention and learn to listen. You’ll earn respect and improve more quickly.
• Work hard, really hard. But make sure to have some fun.
• Pack light.
• Remember that it’s not about you, it’s about the bike racers.
• There isn’t much room ego among staff members (nor is it helpful).
• Above all else look out for your riders’ safety and your sponsors.

Source

Article: http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/05/tour-of-california/ask-nick-the-mechanics-manifesto_174269

Thanks to Tony Fahkry for submitting this manifesto!