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…
Category: Information Society
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…
Creepy but cool Motion Portrait technology animates photos and pets
Pink Tentacle blogs about a cool and somewhat creepy new technology created by Japanese company Motion Portrait that takes any photo and converts it into an animated image that blinks, makes facial expressions, and even speaks. Supposedly lightweight enough for portable devices like phones and PDAs, the technology is apparently already being used for animating…
Many Eyes: Cool community-based data visualization tool
A few weeks ago a colleague sent me a link to IBM’s data visualization project called "Many Eyes." Basically its a community-based website that enables anyone to upload data, examine existing datasets,…
Civil society activists from Global South sought for Oxford Internet research program
The Oxford Internet Institute is looking for civil society activists from the developing world to participate in their new Civil Society Practitioners Programme: This visitor programme is intended for Civil Society Practitioners of distinction or outstanding promise who wish to visit the Institute for a period of six weeks between February and December 2008, to…
Submit a question to the Dem Presidential debate via YouTube
YouTube and CNN are inviting citizens to submit questions to presidential candidates via YouTube video this summer. Get your video in by July 22 so it can be considered for the July 23 Democratic candidate debate on July 23 in Charleston, South Carolina. If your question is selected, you may be flown to Charleston to…