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…
Category: Information Society
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:…
MacArthur online discussion on philanthropy and virtual worlds
Today on the MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Blog, Lucy Bernholz has begun an online dialogue with grantmakers on what philanthropists can accomplish in virtual worlds and how to measure success. As preparation for the real world panel discussion that will take place at the Second Life Community Convention this weekend, Bernholz has asked…
YouDecide2007: Australian project puts election coverage in the hands of the voters
At the end of the year, Australia will be holding their next round of parliamentary elections. A new initiative called "You Decide 2007" is challenging Australians to become citizen journalists covering the elections, uploading their own reports, photos, audio and video. It looks like the site is splitting the difference between an unfiltered community site…
Knight Foundation offers up to $5 million for the next killer community media app
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced the second year of their "Knight News Challenge," awarding up to $5 million to projects that use new media to deliver news and information to a particular geographic community. Last year they funded a range of interesting projects, from open source software to video blogs…
Keep ICANN out of the morality business
ICANN is the global regulatory body charged with coordinating the Domain Name System, the global address book of the internet that ensures that you can surf to the site you plugged into your browser and send email to any address. There are some good people at ICANN doing a very difficult job — what with…
UN website pwned by hacktivists over weekend
CNET, Wired and the hackademix blog are reporting that the United Nations website was briefly hacked over the weekend by an international team of hackers exploiting a well known SQL weakness. Apparently, these hackers weren’t out to do damage or extort the UN, but simply to spread a pretty nice, if mis-spelled, peace message. They…
Is the iPhone honeymoon over?
So about six weeks ago, I plopped down $500 for the "Jesus Phone." Now that the new phone smell has faded, has it lived up to the hype? In short: absolutely. I am a bit overwhelmed simply because I haven’t had a smartphone since my ancient VisorPhone back in 2001. So lots of the bells-and-whistles…