Here’s an unsurprising story of curtailing free speech: The Fijian military junta has targeted anti-regime web logs (blogs), and threatened to arrest the people behind them. On May 17, army commander Colonel Pita Driti announced that blogs “critical of the army and members of the government” would be shut down as they posed a “threat […]
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Webchat on: Threats to Journalists and Media Professionals
Webchat on: Threats to Journalists and Media Professionals. Threats to journalists’ safety remain a very real concern all over the globe. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, seven journalists were confirmed killed in 2007 alone, with another seven deaths awaiting confirmation as of April 9. Although risks associated with war reporting are currently the […]
“The Assault on Reason” by Al Gore: Comments on the internet and democracy
So the remedy for what ails our democracy is not simply better education (as important as that is) or civic education (as important as that can be), but the re-establishment of a genuine democratic discourse in which individuals can participate in a meaningful way—a conversation of democracy in which meritorious ideas and opinions from individuals […]
US Army bans blogging
Now here’s a terribly progressive story – new orders from the U.S. Army direct soldiers to stop posting on personal blogs or sending email messages without the permission of a superior officer. Incredibly, as Wired reports “Active-duty troops aren’t the only ones affected by the new guidelines. Civilians working for the military, Army contractors — […]
Draft Paper on Mobile Phones and Activism
Ethan Zuckerman has a thought-provoking draft paper on Mobile Phones and activism that echoes much of my earlier writing on this blog. He notes, Ask an activist from the developing world the same question and you’ll get a different answer: the most important activist technology of the last five years is the mobile phone. The […]
Remixing the web for social change
NetSquared has a very impressive collection of websites that in one way or another seek to secure and support social transformation. A PDF file lists all of them, but far more convenient and useful is to browser through the projects on the site itself. There are a couple of known gems such as Martus, TakingITGlobal […]
Reuters AlertNet: Interactive maps on conflict, humanitarian crises and more
Reuters AlertNet is a humanitarian news network that aims to keep relief professionals and the wider public up-to-date on humanitarian crises around the globe. It’s an almost daily visit for me to catch up on global crises, and according to its site, attracts over 3 million users a year. Complementing initiatives such as Crisis in […]
Second Life, Justice and Peace
Came across this eloquent passage whilst doing some background research for a presentation on Second Life and its potential for ODR and ICT4Peace. I personally think that SL is indeed a part of what will bring about world peace, through greater communication and understanding. But it cannot be the peace of the graveyard, the peace […]
Soldiers and State-Building
I was introduced to, and first wrote about, civilian – military interactions at Strong Angel III and in particular on a series of meetings between (largely US) military actors and humanitarian actors during the event. My interest in SSTR continued after SA III and led to in particular my involvement as an author of Stability, […]
I’m making a difference initiative: Help or hypocrisy?
From a fellow Sri Lankan blogger came the tip about Microsoft’s ascendant social consciousness – i’m™ initiative. i’m is a new initiative from Windows Live™ Messenger. Every time you start a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of the program’s advertising revenue with some of the world’s most effective organizations dedicated to social causes. […]
