From Jeremy Turner:

Patrick (Lichty), I was wondering if you could
retrieve and post an annotated list of all the
websites that you mentioned in your earlier post
that reference Tibetan Buddhism and Technology.

I am sure a bulk of them would be very useful to
the audience of this forum (including other
participants).

Even a short list would be fantastic and will
provide more conceptual fuel for our topic of the
week.

That being said, I agree with you that there is a
much broader way to view Karma than something
that merely revolves around notions of
credibility and legitimacy. You have my
agreeable nod there.

I was wondering if you can think of examples
where certain individuals spewed their polemics
but were still in the "good books" across the
board karma-wise?

Some people give out many blessings to certain
individuals primarily because they are polemical
and controversial.

Yes, your case with Rhizome is very well noted.
When the subscription fee was introduced, it
changed the public face of their organization.
While legitimacy and prestige accelerated for
those artists who decided to stay officially
affiliated with Rhizome, those who decided not to
pay (or couldn't) felt increasingly alienated.
I think one possible solution was if all the
officially affiliated Rhizome members donated a
bit of extra money to expand the network back to
where it was before and so, people from poorer
countries could participate and make the whole
Rhizomatic art scene that much more dynamic and
richer.

There are going to be some very tough choices for
Rhizome in the near future but I would agree that
their progression into the subscription world is
a natural one. But, it goes to show that for all
the pretense and hype that the internet is a
truly open-ended and inclusionary medium; all
sites eventually have to find ways to narrow
their borders so as to allow their system to
thrive. Every Highway, even the Information
Superhighway needs at least one toll-booth
somewhere along the route.

In this way, Online Networks are becoming much
more like nations than utopian communal
settlements (like Virginia along time ago).
In fact, the most Utopian and Optimistic Avatars
I have met seem to come from that region. The
legacy lives on.

In terms of the maturation of cyber-nationhood,
the best example of such a nation that I know of
is www.ladonia.net On this site, people can
become nobility by paying a one-time subscription
fee - citizens, however, are still free to join
and even allowed to run for cabinet in the
parliament, start a party and make the headline
news in the Ladonia Herald (the most important
perk).