The rapid development of global communications today contains within its movement a far-reaching transformation of world society. ‘Anthropology’ in some form is one of the intellectual traditions best suited to make sense of it. The academic seclusion of the discipline, its passive acquiescence to bureaucracy, is the chief obstacle preventing us from grasping this historical opportunity. We cling to our revolutionary commitment to joining the people, but have forgotten what it was for or what else is needed, if we are to succeed in helping to build a universal society. The internet is a wonderful chance to open up the flow of knowledge and information. Rather than obsessing over how we can control access to what we write, which means cutting off the mass of humanity almost completely from our efforts, we need to figure out new interactive forms of engagement that span the globe and to make the results of our work available to everyone. Ever since the internet went public and the World Wide Web was invented, I have made online self-publishing and interaction the core of my anthropological practice. And recently I have stumbled into what may turn out to be the most powerful vehicle for this project yet: the Open Anthropology Cooperative.

It matters less that an academic guild should retain its monopoly of access to knowledge than that ‘anthropology’ should be taken up by a broad intellectual coalition for whom the realization of a new human universal – a world society fit for humanity as a whole — is a matter of urgent personal concern. Read in full.

I just discovered ScribeFire, and I am posting this from it. According to the website:

ScribeFire, an extension of Firefox ®, enables users to easily drag and drop formatted text from the Web into their blog(s), post entries, take notes, and optimize their ad inventory, directly through the Firefox browser.

You can try it out by installing the add-on here.

I decided this morning to quit Facebook. I agree that it has its uses, but it recently struck me that there are probably more people – my facebook ‘friends’ – who have access to information about me than I would normally want. So yesterday I started restricting access to my profile information. But then I got thinking about the things I have gained from being on Facebook. Yea, it has helped me find old friends whom I probably would not have found if there were no Facebook. But that that was about it… I don’t care so much for being slapped, turned into a zombie, getting sent pictures of small girls telling small boys about how they would control their lives with the thing inside their panties. So I set about looking for how to delete my account.

Hotel California
I remember someone likening Facebook to Hotel California, a place from which you can check-out but can never leave. Well, it was close to that once I decided to delete my account. I looked under the accounts tab but the only thing I got was a link to deactivate my account, but then there was this:

Note: Even after you deactivate, your friends can still invite you to events, tag you in photos, or ask you to join groups. If you opt out, you will NOT receive these email invitations and notifications from your friends.

But that was not what I wanted. I wanted to be off it so that I would not be tempted to log into it again. So I googled and I got these results. I clicked on the search result item from Facebook and it took me to a page where I could fill in a form for them to delete my account. I thought I should be in control of whether I want my account to be deleted or not; Facebook does not give me that kind of choice. I filled in the form and got this message:

Thanks, your inquiry has been forwarded to the Facebook Team.

That is how they treat a request to have ones account deleted – an inquiry.

Then I got this email in my mailbox:

Hi,

The Facebook Team has received your inquiry. We should get back to you soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to review our Privacy and Security Help page (http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=433). There, you’ll find answers to many common questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

The Facebook Team

I want to get my account deleted but it is an inquiry, a response to which might already be on the help page of Facebook. All I can do now is wait. I hope getting out of all the other social networking sites is not as long-winded and convoluted as this.