December 14, 2009
"Be a Man" Campaign In Iran
Photographs of men donning women's clothing have been posted on Facebook by Iranian opposition supporters to mock authorities.
Majid Tavakoli, a student who was arrested after he gave a speech urging fellow students at Amir Kabir university to reject "tyranny" was reportedly captured wearing the chador, the dress favoured by the most devout Iranian women.
Photographs released by the Iranian state media of Tavakoli wearing a black chador, and a blue scarf around his unshaven face, were seen as an attempt to humiliate him by opposition supporters. In a mockery of what opposition supporters feel is a "crude attempt by the authorities to humiliate and discredit" Mr. Tavakoli, hundreds of men have donned chadors and posted the photographs on the Internet.
The Independent reports "men taking part in the "Be a Man" web campaign draped their heads with colorful scarves in hundreds of mocking self-portraits. Some were bearded, others smiled for the camera, while some covered their mouths. Many wore green, the adopted colour of the opposition and flashed "V for victory" signs."
Men turn tables on regime by donning headscarves and dresses
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December 09, 2009
Virtual Astroturfing...Fake Money Buys Real Support
U.S. Health insurers have been exchanging fake money with Facebook gamers in return for anti-reform letters.
BusinessInsider.com reports that health insurance industry trade group "Get Health Reform Right" is paying Facebook gamers fake money called "virtual currency" if they submit a form to their Congressional representative protesting President Obama's health care reform bill.
In order for a Facebook gamer to rapidly progress inside a game, they must buy "virtual goods", such as a machine gun for "Mafia Wars", with virtual currency. BusinessInsider gives the three ways a gamer can gain virtual currency:
- Winning it playing the games
- Paying for it with real money
- By accepting offers from third-parties -- usually companies like online movie rentals service Netflix -- who agree to give the gamer virtual currency so long as that gamer agrees to try a product or service. This is done through an "offers" provider -- a middleman that brings the companies like Netflix, the Facebook gamemakers, and the Facebook gamemaker's users together.
It is the third method that is being used by "Get Health Reform Right". The anti-reform group prompts gamers to complete a survey and immediately sends the following email to their representative:
"I am concerned a new government plan could cause me to lose the employer coverage I have today. More government bureaucracy will only create more problems, not solve the ones we have."
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Open Government Directive
The Office of Management and Budget released the Administration's long-awaited Open Government Directive plan on Tuesday.
The Open Government Directive describes the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration as the cornerstone of an open government. The Obama Administration has highlighted on the idea of government transparency since taking office, with the belief that the federal government must break down the barriers between it and the people it's supposed to serve in order to bridge the gap between the American people and government.
The Directive establishes and requires deadlines for government agencies to meet in order to comply with the objectives set by President Obama. It specifically calls for agencies to share information with the public through online, open, accessible, machine-readable formats, and requires each agencies to publish at least three "high-level" data sets online within 45 days. It also requires agencies to create an "Open Government Webpage" within 60 days, which will outline their activities online. After that, the must create an "Open Government Plan" within 120 days, which will outline how each agency will improve their transparency and integrate public participation.
The introduction of the Open Government Directive demonstrates the seriousness of the Obama Administration's commitment to data transparency and citizen engagement, two things that were key points in the campaign and are priorities for his presidency.
Related Articles:
(AFP) White House Outlines Government Transparency Plan
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December 07, 2009
An Open Data Movement in the U.S.
Local governments hand over data to programmers and the public in an effort to harvest citizen-fueled software that can lead to better Web sites and mobile apps.
By utilizing citizen-empowered software programs, local governments are hoping to improve accessibility and create a new way of accessing data. By allowing citizens to vote on what data sets they want to be released to the public, governments are taking it a step further in an effort to make the process of data-sharing more transparent.
Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco and an early proponent of the open data movement, says that the open-data efforts will "change the way citizens and government interact, but perhaps most important, it's going to change the way elected officials and civil servants deliver programs, services, and promises."
Over at Data.gov, the federal government has approached Web developers to create more useful ways of using the data that has been collected. The effort to make government data public started in the 1960's, but today's technology has opened the door for an open data movement. The White House is about to make data disclosure an official policy for federal agencies and local governments are jumping on board as well.
There are concerns over the amount of information that is being released and whether or not governments will be forthright enough to hand over data that casts them in a poor light. Others fear that people might misinterpret what the data is telling them. There are issues over the rights to data and how far local governments have to go in order to provide "the data flow for entrepreneurs."
Local Governments Offer Data to Software Tinkerers
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December 04, 2009
Iranian Internet Crackdown Extends Abroad
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Iran's leadership is crossing national borders in an effort to silence online critics.
While Iranians at home are being silenced online, according to a recent Wall Street Journal investigation, the Internet crackdown is extending to Iranians abroad as well. ’s leadership is also crossing national borders in an effort to silence critics. Iranian government is targeting world-wide dissidents with harassment techniques created to silence their global critiques.
The WSJ reports that a 29-year-old Iranian-American engineering student was sent an email warning him to cease his critiques of the government in Tehran on Facebook or else his relative in
According to the investigation, “dozens of individuals in the U.S. and Europe who criticized Iran on Facebook or Twitter said their relatives back in Iran were questioned or temporarily detained because of their postings…Five interviewees who traveled to Iran in recent months said they were forced by police at Tehran’s airport to log in to their Facebook accounts.” Several reported having their passports confiscated due to the harsh criticisms against the Iranian government that they had posted online regarding the handling of the presidential election in June.
A German intelligence report indicates that Iranian intelligence operatives are monitoring about 900 critics of the Iranian regime in and try to intimidate the protestors in by videotaping them.
On November 14th, a new Iranian police unit was formed to fight “insults and the spreading of lies” on the Internet called the “Internet Crime Unit”. Internet laws in are purposely kept vague so that the regime can arrest people and bloggers for any reason.
The suppressive president understands what a powerful tool the Internet is in disseminating information and seeks to harness the Net to spread his own message. Ahmadinejad is himself a blogger. Ahmadinejad is said to allot 15 minutes a week to writing on his blog, “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Personal Memo’s”.
Related Articles:
(WSJ) Iranian Crackdown Goes Global
(WSJ) Ahmadinejad, the Blogger
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December 01, 2009
Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers
Zahra Rahnavard made the list as the brains behind Iran's Green Revolution and for having organized supporters through rallies, Facebook, Twitter, and text messages.
In Foreign Policy Magazine's first annual list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers, Iranian political scientist and reformer Zahra Rahnavard is listed as number three, having performed a criticial role in the 2009 Iranian presidential election.
Rahnavard is credited with creating the Green Revolution in which Iranian protesters draped themselves in green attire and changed their social networking profiles to green in a display of support for Rahnavard's husband, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.
The List, 2020 Edition - Thought leaders for the Internet era.
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