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…
Category: Information Society
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…
The Media Research Hub: cutting edge tools for media justice, scholarship and policy
My program on Media and Democracy at the Social Science Research Council has publicly launched the Media Research Hub, a new online resource for researchers, advocates, practitioners, and policymakers working for a more democratic and participatory public sphere. Through the Hub, activists and researchers can find out about funding opportunities for research work, get access…
Global Voices gallery of national blockpages
Blog aggregator and blogger defender Global Voices recently summarized the bagillion things that they do to fight for the rights of freedom of expression for bloggers around the world. I was tickled by their new "Gallery of National Blockpages" that they have launched with the help of Citizen Lab’s technical research director, Nart Villeneuve. What…
Building the International Criminal Court, One Email at a Time
Me with Bill Pace, head of the Coalition for an ICC As I think more deeply about how non-profits can meaningful translate their work into virtual environments, I am reminded of when I as a young activist began using the internet and the web in the early 1990s. I was working for the World Federalist…
Global Warming adventure game coming to wii and Nintendo DS
Adventure Gamers has a great interview with Carsten Fichtelmann and Jan Müller-Michaelis of Daedalic Entertainment, a Hamburg-based game developer. Fichtelmann and Müller-Michaelis talk about Daedalic’s plans to release an adventure game on the issue of Climate Change called A New Beginning for the PC, Nintendo wii and DS . Here’s the synopsis from Adventure Gamers:…