Sitting in an ouzo bar late at night in Athens last Friday, I got asked by a colleague out-of-the-blue what my "vision" was. Never an easy question to answer whether enebriated or not (I wasn’t.) I think I replied something along the lines of, "Hey, how about that Acropolis!" Sitting on the subway this morning,…
Category: Civil Society
My talk on e-democracy and the IGF
I prepared a statement for the panel on "Internet Governance for Participation," which I just finished speaking at. Time was running short, so I gave the abridged version of this session. Here’s the complete presentation, which is entitled “Top-down, Middle Layer and Bottom-up e-Democracy”…
Internet Governance Forum06: Day 1 Wrap-up
So the first day of the first Internet Governance Forum is over, thank goodness. I clearly look like hell, cause all my old friends from the WSIS walk up to me and say, “Hi Rik, good to see you! Man, you look like hell.” Here are some of my highlights that I can summon from…
Internet Governance Forum, uh, Forums
Rushing rushing rushing to put together the materials I’m going to need for my presentations at the Internet Governance Forum next week in Athens. The main focus of my talks will be on creating new modalities for broadbased participation in internet policy through various communications and information technologies. What is interesting is that there are…
First gubernatorial e-debate in Minnesota
e-Democracy guru Steven Clift has done it again, organizing the first gubernatorial e-debate in Minnesota. His site smoothly brings together streaming videos posted by each of the candidates, daily blog posts and rebuttals, RSS feeds, flickr photos, and email updates. Taking place from October 9-19, several issues important to Minnesotans have already been debated, including…
I’m standing up against poverty – are you?
Today I’m doing my part to stand against poverty. Head over here for more info on how you can participate today and tomorrow.
Off to Athens for Internet Governance Forum!
It looks like I will be going to Athens, Greece for the inaugural meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, from October 30 to November 2! The IGF is a UN-organized body devoted to supporting "multi-stakeholder policy dialogue" on the Internet and its governance and regulatory policies. I believe that I am being invited to speak…
Techsoup profiles three non-profits in Second Life
Techsoup, that super ICT resource for non-profits, has a nice article profiling three youth organizers that work within Second Life. Entitled "Change the World by Working in a Virtual One," the piece features quotes from Dave Pentecost, Technology Director of the Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York; Barry Joseph, Director of the Online Leadership…
Avatars and humans stand up against poverty
In my previous job, I was responsible for promoting civil society activity on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, a set of development targets agreed to by the governments of the world in 2000 at the UN General Assembly. It’s an important list of commitments to combat some of worst social ills — including poverty,…
Virtual Non-profits: Profile of Boomer Esiason Foundation
A couple of months ago I did a popular "Second Life Do-gooders" tour of how various non-profits were setting up shop in the virtual world. I focused on non-profits featured in the Tech Soup non-profit HUD, which the Tech Soup folks had recently launched. I neglected to visit one of the featured groups though, the…