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…
Category: Information Society
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…
MTV launches beta version of “think” youth activism site
I got an invite to join the beta version of MTV’s new youth activism site "think" yesterday. Looks like an another way to facilitate activist social networking, group blogging, calls for action, volunteer matchmaking, and awareness-raising about various issues. Non-profit organizations can use "think" to try and reach out to a younger demographic for their…
Free Press Action Network seeks media activist bloggers
The media reform group Free Press announces the launch of a new "Action Network" community blog service. They invite bloggers and citizen journalists to join them in chronicling how people in their communities are working toward more democratic, just media. Registered users can post to their own blog, comment on other posts, rate, and share…
“Ruckus Nation” offering $300K to get kids off their fat asses
Remember all those news stories about how schools were installing "Dance Dance Revolution" machines in their rec rooms because it got their students exercising? Or blog entries about a guy who lost a bunch of weight playing WII sports? Here’s a new competition to come up with the next DDR that gets kids butts in…
New APC book argues that WSIS was costly and irrelevant
Closing Ceremony of WSIS Summit in Tunis, 2005 My friends at the Association for Progressive Communications have published a new book on the lessons learned from the UN World Summit on the Information Society, particularly for developing countries and civil society organizations/NGOs. Entitled, Whose Summit, Whose Information Society, the book is available as a free…
Gather.com creates “People’s Press Corps” to cover 2008 Elections
The "social media site for adults" Gather.com announces that they are launching a search for six bloggers to be their "People’s Press Corps" to cover the 2008 US elections. The winning bloggers (2 Dems, 2 Reps, and 2 Independents) will report on the 2008 presidential election, receiving "exclusive access to candidates, experts, and events." The…
Justice Department poo-poo’s Net Neutrality, tells telecoms to start charging for tiered Net access
Yahoo News is reporting that the Justice Department has given approval for telephone and cable companies to start charging different rates to customers based on the particular websites and services they visit. Internet service providers in the US have been seeking to change their fee and technical structure so that they can change customers more…
Cyrus Huffines leading online community program at Interfaith Youth Core
Congrats to my friend Cyrus Huffines (RL: Bryan Campen) for getting recently hired as Online Community Coordinator for the Interfaith Youth Core. About the Core: There are millions of religious young people in the world interacting with greater frequency. That interaction tends either toward conflict or cooperation. Where so many of these interactions tend towards…
The Cannery Art Gallery: merging Web2.0 and virtual world communities
As I write this, 50-some avatars are busy partying away in the new Cannery Art Gallery (Teleport SLURL), created by SL developer Rezzable. This is unremarkable in itself — there are parties going on 24/7 in Second Life. But what it represents for me is the coming together of Web 2.0 and virtual world platforms…