The Center for Creative Voices in Media has just issued an important report on broadband access in the United States entitled "The Case For Universal Broadband in America: Now!" The report notes that three years ago, President Bush promised universal broadband internet access "in every corner of America" by 2007. Meanwhile, the United States has…
Category: Information Society
Avatars and virtual world interoperability
Reuters has a story today about IBM and Linden Lab’s announcement that they are working together on creating interoperability standards so that avatars can cross from one virtual world to another. This is welcome and important news, given the likely enormous proliferation of virtual worlds in the coming 12 months. But the Reuter’s piece doesn’t…
National Archives asks for public comment on digitizing plan
The US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is asking for the public to comment on its draft Plan for Digitizing Archival Materials for Public Access, 2007-2016. This document outlines theirs strategy for digitizing and making publicly available the vast historic holdings of the National Archives. Imagine if anyone could access from their web browser…
Plone Conference streaming into Second Life Oct 10-12
Developers and users of the excellent Plone content management system will be converging next week at the annual Plone Conference happening in Naples, Italy. The event will feature trainings, programming "sprints" as well as lots of nerdy socializing with the 700 other anticipated participants from around the world. For those who can’t make it to…
Games for Change is looking for a community manager
I just got word that the super-cool non-profit group Games for Change is looking to hire a new "Online Community Manager" responsible for "fostering participation and providing leadership and editorial oversight for a variety of forums dedicated to digital media, learning, and social issue games." G4C is doing amazing bridge-building work between major industry players…
Enabling remote participation at the Rio Internet Governance Forum: blogging and virtual worlds
Brazilian blogger and researcher Jose Murilo Junior posts an interesting set of questions regarding how to enable effective remote participation at the upcoming Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janiero in November. Jose references my thinking on this subject at the IGF in Athens last year. Here’s my new response to Jose: event blogging and…
Handspring Visor Cell Phone and iPhone: old skool versus bleeding edge
In the midst of packing for my big move to Brooklyn, I ran into some interesting legacy technology that I’ve been lugging around with me everywhere — cassette tapes of 80s music, movies on VHS, film point-and-shoot cameras, and this blast from the past: the Handspring Visor with the cell phone attachment! Man, I loved…
1 million Flip video cameras to be given to non-profits around the world
Pure Digital Technologies has announced at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting today that they plan on giving away 1 million of their ultracompact Flip videocameras to non-profits and NGOs around the world to assist their work. “We believe video can help change the world,” said Jonathan Kaplan, Chairperson and CEO of Pure Digital Technologies in…
Buy 2 OLPC laptops — 1 for you + 1 for a poor kid
The One Laptop Per Child folks are offering a very special "twofer." If you buy two of their incredibly cute "XO laptops" for $400, one of them goes to you (or your kid) and the other to a child in the developing world. I would love to have one of these adorable little machines. Talk…
ISP ad from the non-Net Neutral future
Cool internet researcher dude Jeremy Husinger sent around a link to this brilliant fake ad for what our internet access rates might look like in a world without Net Neutrality public policy. The most effective illustration of what is at stake I’ve seen yet. Taken from Reddit.com. NOTE: No licensing or authorship information was available…