Some great articles over at Shift Magazine right now.

One is a review of current ‘eco-tech’ innovators:

“Technology has enormous potential to clean lakes, purify the air and soil, reduce our landfills, reverse climate change, even revitalize our economy. But more of us need to step up to the karmic plate and demonstrate its umpteen green applications.

Thankfully, some of us already are. “

Somewhat related to this, Phil is blogging his experiences at the World Future Society’s conference in Philadelphia, USA over at his site Overmorgen, starting here.

The other article that caught my eye on the Shift site, was a ‘future of ideas’-meets-adbusters style piece on the bleak prospects that current thinking and action by commerce on copyright and interllectual property are making possible.

“Let’s not be any more naïve than we have been already. Copyright will not go away in our lifetime. Neither will trademarks and neither will patents. But consider this: As new technologies undermine the business models of the big intellectual property owners, those big intellectual property owners are seeking new ways to defend and enlarge their turf, and this is not a done deal. New and odious bits of IP statute and regulation are showing up in our legislatures and our Parliaments all the time, but they can be stopped, the same way anything else ugly and stupid can be stopped.

They can be stopped by vigorous and sensible public debate, by people who know their culture is under seige and who are committed to helping their fellow citizens understand. This is not pretty or simple, but making law and influencing public policy have never been pretty or simple. Our culture is private because the law has allowed it to become so, and the law can begin to swing the pendulum back, but making it so will require a delicate and persistent effort in the backrooms, in the courts, and in the streets. “

» Shift magazine: “THE PRIVATIZATION OF OUR CULTURE”