I saw this amazing Grand Theft Auto-like ad for Coke at a movie theater last night. I love how it re-imagines the ultra-violent video game as a new kind of FPS — a First Person Samaritan. So awesome. Sadly, I think this…
Category: Information Society
Eventful.com: your personal event coordinator
I’ve been experimenting with the cool calendaring website Eventful.com. It’s an impressive online community-based calendar service with lots of Web2.0 goodness built into it. What’s innovative about Eventful is that any user can add events, tag them, and share them with others. Even better, you can export the events to all sorts of other scheduling…
Davos in Second Life: public engagement, Flavor of the Week or damage control?
Coming out of the first of many in-world interviews with some of the major personages attending this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, I am left with the question, What’s the point? The WEF is an annual gathering of 2,000 of the most influential business and political leaders in the world to discuss important…
Pioneering legal scholar Jerome Barron on the First Amendment and the Internet
“Ideas matter and they have enduring power.” – Jerome Barron Today, Jerome A. Barron, legal scholar at the George Washington University School of Law, delivered a lecture to mark the 40th anniversary of a groundbreaking Harvard Law Review article he wrote in 1967 entitled “Access to the Press – A New First Amendment Right.” In…
ARIN: you read the RFC, now read the comic book
In Memphis I chatted with Richard Jimmerson of the American Registry for Internet Numbers . ARIN is a Virginia-based non-profit that "allocates Internet Protocol resources; develops consensus-based policies; and facilitates the advancement of the Internet through information and educational outreach" for the US, Canada and parts of the Caribbean. I already knew a bit about…
State Department sponsors Net Freedom conference on January 30
According to CNET, the US State Department is planning to hold a "Net Freedom" event on January 30 in DC. The goal of the event is to "preserve the Internet as being a conduit for the free flow of information," according to US Ambassador David Gross . The State Department already has a "Global Internet…
What the Dorgan-Snowe Net Neutrality bill means for gamers and virtual worlders
Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) have recently introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act in an effort to legislate the principle of Network Neutrality. The bill would prevent any broadband internet service provider from "privileging bits" and blocking traffic on the basis of Internet content, application, or service, codifying Net Neutrality as part…
Call for papers for Conf on “Young People, New Technologies and Political Engagement” in July, Univ. of Surrey
Just got this Call for Papers for an academic seminar on "Young People, New Technologies and Political Engagement" at the University of Surrey from July 24-25. Here’s the seminar description: Against the backdrop of increasing concern about the disengagement of youth from politics and the public sphere, the relationship between new technologies and young people’s…
Toolkits & Online Resources for Media Activism: Show & Tell
I’m speaking this morning at a side-event on "Toolkits & Online Resources for Media Activism: Show & Tell" featuring : Hye Jung Park, Funding Exchange Drew Clark, Center for Public Integrity Anthony Mazza, Prometheus Radio Project Elisha Miranda and Sophia Quintero, Chica Luna Productions Jeff Smith, Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy TBA, Youth Media…
Andrew Puddephatt on media reform from a human rights perspective
This morning I attended a very broad and interesting side-event on “Global Information and Communication Policy” organized by Consumer’s Union. The event featured an international panel of speakers including : Luiz Fernando Marrey Moncau, Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor, Brazil Rosemary Okello-Orlale, African Woman and Child Feature Service, Kenya Bjarne Pedersen, Consumers International Andrew…