What to say?

My name is Paul B. Hartzog. I am a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan. I am pursuing an interdisciplinary degree in both the School of Information as well as Political Theory. I have an NSF IGERT fellowship from the Center for the Study of Complex Systems and an M.S. in Political Science for which I wrote “Panarchy: Governance in the Network Age.” I am currently working on a book manuscript about panarchy (http://www.panarchy.com).

I blog for Howard Rheingold’s SmartMobs.com, Many-to-Many, and MindJack on occasion. I work with Howard Rheingold off and on as well as do some consulting for The Institute for the Future.

I spent years working in the internet technology arena, and I’m fascinated by the notion that network technology is reconnecting the world. After a long period of distance and separation human civilization is returning to its tribal origins. Technologies that allow us to work together in new ways make possible an era of “do it yourself” cooperation. That means people being able to help each other without relying on hierarchies do things for them. These anarchical networks are best understood within the framework of complex adaptive systems.

So, this means we have to study new phenomena like open source, wiki, and social software, but it also means that we have to look back to the roots of civilization: tribes, gift economies, communities, and political theory.

I am also an electronic musician and drummer. I released a CD “Faces” and have a webpage on MySpace at http://myspace.com/paulhartzog. I am the drummer for 23rd Hour, makers of “Immortal Coil“, and that MySpace is http://myspace.com/23rdHourBand.

I also am an member of the AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego) community. I like to play lego with my son, Ian. My lego stuff is on MyBrickShelf.
I do a lot of other stuff too, but who knows how much of it will actually end up here.