I got some interesting email this week from the "U.S. Committee for the U.N", an organization that : "supports the work of the United Nations to improve the quality of life for millions of people around the world by promoting democratic governance, poverty reduction, rural development, crisis prevention and recovery, energy and environmental issues, and…
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“Book Signing” on April 12 at National Model UN Convention
My friend Walter Hoffmann has convinced me to do a "book signing" for the little study I did called e-Democracy and the United Nations (2004) for his group the Center for UN Reform Education . The event will be on April 12 at the National Model United Nations convention, which is taking place at the…
TV Networks Reject “Controversial” Church Ad
I just got word that the United Church of Christ’s recent TV ad promoting inclusion and welcoming of people from all walks of life was deemed too "controversial" to air on TV networks and Viacom cable. The UCC has created a campaign to protest Viacom’s refusal to air a paid advertisement for reasons that strain…
Reporters as Shills for the Industry Roll Fake News
Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy are running a new campaign called "No Fake News" that is already starting to create a buzz in the media. So much so that I have had trouble accessing their site this morning: An exposé by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Free Press…
Republicans Defeat “Net Neutrality” Amendment
ZDNet and Ars Technica are reporting that Republicans defeated a Net Neutrality amendment to a current piece of telecom legislation. According to ZDNet: A Republican-controlled House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Wednesday defeated a proposal that would have levied extensive regulations on broadband providers and forcibly prevented them from offering higher-speed video services to partners…
UNSG Approves the Global Alliance for ICT & Development
Sarbuland Khan, of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the UN, announced today in an e-mail that the UN Secretary General has formally approved the creation of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development. I have blogged in the past about the Global Alliance as an interesting idea that was still ill-defined. It…
A Planetary Early Warning System?
The United Nations recently concluded an international conference on early warning in Bonn, Germany. Over 1,200 participants from 140 countries participated in the gathering, that concluded that a "people-centered" approach was needed to build effective early-warning systems to prevent the loss of human life from natural disasters such as floods, tsunamis and pandemics. As a…
Yehoodi Talk Show Episode 315 (podcast)
For those who don’t know, I help run a nation-wide community website for swing dancers called Yehoodi.com. Among our many services, I co-host a podcast with my pal Manu “Spuds” Smith featuring news and talk about the national (and increasingly international) swing scene. You can hear us clowning around if you download episode 315 of…
Democracy Player: Roll Your Own TV Channel
I have been playing around with the Democracy Player, a nice little program that aggregates various online videos into “channels” that you can easily surf through, view and subscribe to. They bill themselves as “a new kind of browser for watching videos– grab webpages with video and video RSS feeds (including podcasts, video blogs, and…
Green.tv: the first broadband TV channel on the environment
Today was the launch of Green.tv, the first "broadband TV channel" on environmental issues. Sponsored by the UN Environment Programme and a host of other sponsors, the site will carry films from around the world produced by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community filmmakers, public sector bodies and companies with a firm interest in protecting the environment….