I did a short interview that was broadcast today on the KPFK Pacifica Radio program "Deadline LA" hosted by Barbara Osborn and Howard Blume. The whole program is very interesting, dealing with YouTube and human rights abuses. From the description: Is YouTube the new forum for human rights abuses? Could be. A Guantanamo detainee was…
Category: Civil Society
Machinima for Good: check out these cool fair trade machinima!
The machinima production group Strange Company has just released a couple sweet machinima videos intended to raise public awareness about fair trade issues using The Sims 2 and World of Warcraft. The Sims 2 machinima is probably easier to understand, but the WoW video is a more direct analogy comparing a virtual economy to a…
New additions at virtual Capitol Hill; a quick peek at Presidential hopefuls HQs in Second Life
Tonight I dropped in on virtual Capitol Hill (teleport SLURL) to check out the new interactive tools the owners have put in place. As much as I admire what the Clear Ink guys have done creating the faux government sim, I have been discouraged by the lack of interest in the sim, mostly due to…
Animal welfare group’s virtual HQ griefed: show some love, people!
Click To Play (I’m hesitant to post this, cause it just gives publicity to some anonymous griefer. But it’s for a good cause.) So tonight I was zipping by Progressive Island in Second Life, visiting the new space created for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, when I was immediately assaulted by obnoxious music and…
Profile of Tim Wu: intrepid Net Neutrality academic-activist
The Blue and White newspaper at Columbia University has done a nice profile of Tim Wu, the pioneering communications scholar who championed the cause of Net Neutrality back when no one was talking about it. Now of course Tim is a minor celebrity in the net activist community. But four years ago, he was virtually…
Can’t Stop Serenity: Feminists and Scifi Geeks reunite in June!
Apparently last year’s benefit showing of the scifi flick "Serenity" was such a huge success that they are doing it again this June. This summer, in movie theaters around the country, there will be special showings of "Serenity" with all the proceeds going to the women’s empowerment group "Equality Now." Apparently "Serenity" director/writer Joss Whedon…
UN Millennium Campaign wants your ideas for games for the $100 laptop
I got a nice message from Amil regarding the UN Millennium Campaign’s effort to create games for the $100 laptop (aka OLPC) that would educate children about the Millennium Development Goals. The Campaign has set up a wiki where anyone can submit ideas for computer games suitable for children that could run on the tiny…
Free Press is hiring
I just got word that Free Press, an amazing nation-wide advocacy group focused on democratizing the media, are hiring for 11 exciting positions: Campaign Coordinator for SavetheInternet.com, Policy Coordinator, Campaign Coordinator (two positions), Communications Coordinator , Campaign Director (Public Media) , Development Director , Outreach Coordinator, Development Coordinator, Office Manager, and Finance Assistant . Most…
Virtual activism for real world change
I was contacted recently by a Joshua Levy (that’s his avatar on the right), a new resident who is interested in creating a documentary about progressive activism in SL. Joshua has created a blog to track his project and his journeys in-world. He asked me to respond to some of his concerns that he raised…
Registration open for YearlyKos in Second Life
It looks like plans are moving fast in preparation for the first multi-verse YearlyKos Convention taking place both in Chicago and in Second Life in August. YearlyKos is an annual convention gathering a thousand or so people from "the Netroots community," a non-partisan grassroots political action community that uses the Internet and blogs for political…