March 14, 2008
March 12 Becomes the Official “Online Free Expression Day”
Internet users from around the world gathered yesterday to virtually protest government censorship of the Internet.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a media regulator crusading for global freedom of press, announced that March 12 will be “Online Free Expression Day” with virtual protests aimed at ending Net censorship.
Nine virtual renditions of public spaces were created to allow all Internet users to protest in places where demonstrations are not usually permissible. Participators were encouraged to place messages on banners, voicing their opinions on “Internet enemies” during the 24 hour cyber-protest.
This year, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia have made the list as “Internet enemies”, joining the ranks of 13 other scorned governments including: Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
According to RSF’s website, “at least 62 cyber-dissidents are currently imprisoned worldwide, while more than 2,600 websites, blogs or discussions forums were closed or made inaccessible in 2007. A response of this kind is needed to the growing tendency to crack down on bloggers and to close websites."
Over 17 million US citizens and politicians express themselves through blogs, using the Internet as an instrument and outlet in voicing democratic opinions and concerns. The power of the Internet in influencing politics is not overlooked by dictators and governments who seek ways to reign in the Internet for fear of political reform.
Download RSF’s Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents
Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
December 14, 2005
MIT Picks Maker of $100 Laptop
Taiwan's Quanta will manufacture the MIT media lab $100 Laptops. Quanta hopes to have the computers in the hands of children around the world by the fourth quarter of next 2006.
MIT Picks Maker of $100 Laptop
Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 03, 2005
Democratic Divide
Dr. John McNutt just passed on a very interesting article he came across at First Monday.
The article "Democratic Divide" is not too optimistic about the internet's impact on democracy. But, it does have cool charts and graphs.
Here's the abstract:
Remote Internet voting has been proposed as a solution to low voter turnout. It is tempting to see the use of Internet technology by a large segment of the population as a quick fix for making the voting process more accessible to a larger number of people. This argument, however, demonstrates a disconnect with the reality of Internet use; that is, that it happens in a place. Internet use is not an ethereal, boundary–less activity, it is situated in a spatial/geographic context. Reviewing this geographic context using Geographic Information System technology can reveal the serious limitations of a "point and click" solution to improving political participation.
Did you know about First Monday?
First Monday is one of the first peer–reviewed journals on the Internet, solely devoted to the Internet. Since its start in May 1996, First Monday has published 598 papers in 107 issues; these papers were written by 705 different authors. First Monday is indexed in Communication Abstracts, Computer & Communications Security Abstracts, INSPEC, LISA, PAIS, eGranary Digital Library, and other services. In the year 2004, users from 835,768 distinct hosts around the world downloaded 6,728,893 contributions published in First Monday. In March 2005, users from 73,086 distinct hosts around the world downloaded 861,675 contributions.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
January 12, 2005
UN To Address Transparency Concerns With New Online Resource
GUEST: Jack O'Toole
According to this piece in today's Financial Times, the UN plans to "head off criticism that its [disaster relief] activities are unaccountable and lack transparency" by creating a new Internet tool that will allow people to follow the flow of money "from pledge to project."
Needless to say, that's a good idea. And one that other charitable institutions in the US and around the world might wish to consider.
Posted by Jack O'Toole at 12:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
November 18, 2004
Democracy On Three Wheels
I’m not real fond of just posting excerpts of other people’s articles. But isn’t that what blogging is all about? This story out of India was just too good for me to ruin by hacking it apart.
From Hindu.com
We always like our democracy to be dressed up in funky garbs, with loads of make-up. But the mode of publicising the same can really be down to earth. Or that's what two websites, www.indiademocracy.com and www.JantaRaj.com show us.
Both websites are touted as attempts to add the advantages of Information Technology to the `rights' of democracy and extend the same to the masses. The point, however, is the way the creators of these sites have chosen to advertise the sites.
Clueless drivers
Well, next time you are on the streets of Hyderabad, keep an eye on the rear of the auto-rickshaw before you. Crudely scribbled in white on the black tops of over 100 three-wheelers, these websites invite you to the virtual realm of democracy.
The joke of the `online democracy', however, is not just that. Ask any of these auto-drivers, and a majority have no inkling of what they are advertising on their vehicles. Says Nagaraju, one of them waiting near Walden: " I don't know, sir. I bought this auto from a friend and this was already there. He told me to let the ad remain there. Nobody has asked me about it in the last one year," he says nonchalantly.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
