Douglas Rushkoff

Douglas Rushkoff (born 18 February 1961) is a New York-based writer, columnist and lecturer on technology, media and popular culture.

Biography and ideas

Rushkoff graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University. He moved to Los Angeles and pursued a Master of Fine Arts in Directing from California Institute of the Arts. Later he took up a post-graduate fellowship from the American Film Institute.

Today, he teaches media theory at New York University's (NYU) Interactive Telecommunications Program. Rushkoff is known for being an active member of the cyberpunk movement and was the online associate of Timothy Leary. His views on cyberculture and the media made him a sought after advisor and consultant with many organizations and companies, including the United Nations Commission on World Culture and the Sony corporation.

He is an advocate for new technologies, especially open source uses of technology. He is also a founding member of Technorealism. This extends to his broader philosophy as the founder of an online community for discussion of Judaism and related issues, called Open Source Judaism. In the book Media Virus, he expounds on various terms such as meta-media and tactical media especially in relation to popular culture media such as television.

In 2003 Rushkoff was keyboard player for a short-term line-up of Psychic TV.

Works

Books

• Stoned Free -with Patrick Wells (Loompanics Unlimited, 1995) - ?Original Publication?
• Cyberia:Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace (Clinamen Press Ltd., 1994)
• The GenX Reader (Ballantine, 1994)
• Media Virus: Hidden Agendas In Popular Culture (Ballantine, 1994)
• Playing the Future: What We Can Learn From Digital Kids -Children of Chaos in the UK (Riverhead Books, 1996)
• Ecstasy Club A Novel (HarperEdge, 1997)
• Coercion: Why We Listen To What "They" Say (Penguin Putnam, 2000)
• Exit Strategy (Bull, in the UK) (fiction) (Soft Skull Press, 2002)
• Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism (Crown Publishers, 2003)
• Open Source Democracy: How Online Communication is Changing Offline Politics (Demos, 2003)
• Club Zero-G (graphic novel, with artist Steph Dumais) (The Disinformation Company, 2004)
• Get Back In The Box: Innovation From The Inside Out (CollinsBusiness, 2005)

• He is currently writing an on-going comic book series for DC Comics Vertigo imprint entitled Testament with art and cover by Liam Sharp.
• In addition to Testament, he recently revealed on the Get Illuminated podcast that he is going to be work on another comic series, as well as another non-fiction book under the supervision of John Brockman, which he stated will be "The book!".

Documentaries

• The Persuaders
• The Merchants of Cool

See also

• Open source religion
• Technorealism
• Screenager
• Viral marketing
• Richard Metzger
• The WELL

External links

Articles by Rushkoff

• Archive of Rushkoff's Articles On Line
• Back In The Box 11/05,
• Social Currency 9/03,
• A Brand By Any Other Name 2000,
• The Third Culture,
• Open Source Currency

Other links

• Rushkoff's Blog
• Frontline: The merchants of cool was a report by Rushkoff on marketing and teen culture. Available for online viewing.
• Frontline: The Persuaders was a report by Rushkoff on branding, advertising, and marketing. Available for online viewing.
• Rushkoff Featured in one of Errol Morris's Apple Computer Commercials
• "Renaissance Prospects" Podcast of Rushkoff at Pop!Tech 2004 on IT Conversations
• Large Interview with Rushkoff about debut graphic novel CLUB ZERO-G @ PopImage
• Large Interview with Rushkoff on comic series TESTAMENT and more
• Preview of TESTAMENT with Commentary from Rushkoff @ PopImage
• I'm No Authority: Ten Questions with Altculture Spokesman Douglas Rushkoff.
• Douglas spoke about how the role of hackers in society has changed at H2K2.
• Newsarama interviews Douglas Rushkoff about his debut graphic novel, Club Zero-G.
• Open Source Judaism, a religious discussion blog inspired by the ideas in Nothing Sacred.
• The New Zionist Interview: Douglas Rushkoff
• CNN Special Report: Welcome To The Future, featuring Rushkoff and others
• Works by Douglas Rushkoff at Project Gutenberg
• Interview With Rushkoff about Get Back In The Box
• 2006 IMNO Interview with Rushkoff
• Rushkoff talks about Testament, comics, novels and science fiction (12/06)
• Peer Review Rushkoff's regular Discover Magazine column examining pop culture through a scientific lens.
• "Is the Internet Good for Writers?"