About Virtual Democracy

Virtual Democracy is the private blog of Bruce Caron. All opinions here are his own. Virtual Democracy explores the cyberSOCIALstructure to support democratic (i.e., REAL peer to peer) conversations and organizations as integral features of the social networking and social media software platforms we all want to use. Virtual democracy is about governance over  the content and the contexts where we increasingly spend our time. Who gets to govern these virtual kingdoms? How can we push for a greater say in the way our words and media, our attention and our passions, are used  for a common purpose?

About Bruce Caron:

I was recently the Community Architect for the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (please remember: this blog is my personal blog). At this moment, I am writing a monograph on doing open science. Since the late 1990s I have been working with Earth scientists and data providers to improve data access and visualization tools and techniques. As an independent social scientist, I have be fortunate to attain leadership roles in several science virtual organizations. I have gained experience as a volunteer leader and staff member from three NSF funded efforts: DLESE (The Digital Library for Earth System Education), the NSDL (National Science Digital Library, where I was elected to the governing Policy Committee), and, very recently, EarthCube, where I was the program office manager. I managed an early online science effort, DigitalOcean, with support from the Paul Allen Family Foundation, and looked into K-12 social issues on a project supported by the MacArthur Foundation. With the support of the NSF, NIH, and NASA, I have managed software development efforts to connect server-side data resources with rich clients on desktop computers and on the internet. And with the confidence of my peers (who elected me President in 2001), I have helped to build the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) into a vibrant community of purpose. In 2010, ESIP awarded me its highest lifetime achievement award (the Martha Maiden Award). Before returning to complete my PhD, I was the Director of Development for the College of Engineering at UCSB.