Heather Marsh
| Heather Marsh | |
|---|---|
Heather Marsh, Cuba, 2016
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| Occupation | Author, Software Developer, Human Rights |
| Known for | Technology and philosophy around mass collaboration |
| Notable work | Binding Chaos, Autonomy, Diversity, Society |
| Website |
georgiebc |
Heather Marsh is a human rights and internet activist, programmer and philosopher. She is the author of Binding Chaos, a study of methods of mass collaboration and the founder of Getgee, a project to create a global data commons and trust network.
She has been primarily associated with political theories which relate to horizontal collaboration such as approval economy, stigmergy as a system of mass collaboration, and concentric circles with knowledge bridges for epistemic communities. She has also written a great deal about global power structures and what she sees as the "ponzi schemes" of power, celebrity and wealth, how they are created and upheld and the roles which contribute to oligarchy. She advocates governance by user group and local autonomy supported by international networks and research and information provided by open epistemic communities. She advocates an economy based on societal approval and calls for a rejection of the trade economy. She calls the transition from social approval to currency a form of dissociation which removed societal inter-dependence and discourages collaboration.
She has advocated for both transparency for actions and organizations that affect the public and privacy for individuals. She is against control and ownership of knowledge by copyrights and patents but writes "Privacy and ownership of personal stories are closely related to human dignity" and credit (although not ownership) for ideas and intellectual labour is essential in an approval economy.
Since 2015 she has been working to initiate a global data commons project with Getgee, a universal database and trust network. Getgee seeks to allow global collaboration on research and information without control by a specific platform. This is a continuation of her earlier viral project called the Global Square. and a continuation of years of writing about mass communication including open journalism and scientific and academic research.
Her own journalism has covered investigations of leaked material and individual human rights cases as well as breaking coverage of global events. In one unpublished interview with Guantanamo defence attorney Dennis Edney, the two discuss blackmail attempts of witnesses by the FBI and the possibility that Omar Khadr's plea deal was signed without legal counsel. The interview was subsequently leaked to Cryptome. The interview discusses the delaying of publication until after Edney returns from Guantanamo; when he returned from Guantanamo he was fired from the case and forbidden to speak of it.
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