The Open Utopia

Open Utopia reviewed in Public Books

srduncombe — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:08:29 +0000

Henry S. Turner reviews Open Utopia in the latest issue of Public Books.
Read the review HERE.

Open Utopia on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show

srduncombe — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:05:55 +0000

Open Utopia discussed on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show

Official Launch of Open Utopia Site

srduncombe — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:14:05 +0000

Stephen Duncombe and Bob Stein
Website Launch for The Open Utopia
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
5:30PM – 7:30PM
20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor

Join Stephen Duncombe (Gallatin and MCC, NYU) and Bob Stein (Institute for the Future of the Book) for the launch of The Open Utopia, anopen-source project based on Sir Thomas Moreʼs Utopia. Using the platform Social Book, users can add their own notes, criticisms, or anecdotes to the text which can be read by everyone. For more information, please visit: http://theopenutopia.org/. This is an NYU-DH (Digital Humanities @ NYU) event.

Stephen Duncombe is an Associate Professor at the Gallatin School and the Department of Media, Culture and Communication of New York University where he teaches the history and politics of media. He is the author of Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasyand Notes From Underground: Zines and the Politics of Underground Culture, and co-author of The Bobbed Haired Bandit: Crime and Celebrity in 1920s New York; the editor of the Cultural Resistance Reader and co-editor of White Riot: Punk Rock and the Politics of Race.

Bob Stein is founder and Co-Director of the Institute for the Future of the Book and founder of The Voyager Company. For 13 years he led the development of over 300 titles in ‘The Criterion Collection’, a series of definitive films on videodisc, and more than 75 CD ROM titles. Previous to Voyager, Stein worked with Alan Kay in the Research Group at Atari on a variety of electronic publishing projects. 11 years ago, Stein started ‘Night Kitchen’ to develop authoring tools for the next generation of electronic publishing. That work is now being continued at the Institute for the Future of the Book.

Click here to download poster. Please RSVP at http://hiopenutopia.eventbrite.com.

This event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Open Utopia in the News

srduncombe — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:09:12 +0000

Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Social-Reading-Projects/135908/

Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2012/oct/16/open-utopia/

Phase I of Redesign Complete

srduncombe — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:13:21 +0000

Phase I of the Open Utopia redesign is finally complete. The full text of Utopia is up and all design features are done. Phase II: Social Book And WikiTopia now begin!

Book Excerpt XI

srduncombe — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:23:42 +0000

One day, as I was returning home from mass at St. Mary’s, which is the chief church, and the most frequented of any in Antwerp, I saw him, by accident, talking with a stranger, who seemed past the flower of his age; his face was tanned, he had a long beard, and his cloak was hanging carelessly about him, so that, by his looks and habit, I concluded he was a seaman….. “But you are much mistaken,” said he, “for he has not sailed as a seaman, but as a traveler, or rather a philosopher.”

Book Excerpt X

srduncombe — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:20:26 +0000

…though it must be confessed that he is both a very learned man and a person who has obtained a great knowledge of the world, I cannot perfectly agree to everything he has related. However, there are many things in … More »

Book Excerpt IX

srduncombe — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:19:20 +0000

When Raphael had thus made an end of speaking, though many things occurred to me, both concerning the manners and laws of that people, that seemed very absurd, as well in their way of making war, as in their notions of religion and divine matters–together with several other particulars, but chiefly what seemed the foundation of all the rest, their living in common, without the use of money…

Book Excerpt VIII

srduncombe — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:18:54 +0000

Therefore I must say that, as I hope for mercy, I can have no other notion of all the other governments that I see or know, than that they are a conspiracy of the rich, who, on pretense of managing the public, only pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and arts they can find out; first, that they may, without danger, preserve all that they have so ill-acquired, and then, that they may engage the poor to toil and labor for them at as low rates as possible, and oppress them as much as they please…

Book Excerpt VII

srduncombe — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:15:33 +0000

…in Utopia, where every man has a right to everything, they all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full no private man can want anything; for among them there is no unequal distribution, so that … More »