The Knight Foundation recently announced that they are launching a new $5 million fund for innovative community journalism in cyberspace called the ‘Knight Brothers 21st Century News Challenge.’ The grant program will provide funding for "new ideas, prototypes, products and leadership initiatives that use innovative news methods to help citizens better connect within their communities."…
Category: Information Society
Correlation between griefing and violent game play?
The excellent Game Politics blog recently did a little investigating of claims by Louisiana attorney general Jack Johnson and other anti-game violence politicians. Apparently Johnson has been touting an American Psychological Association study that he said had found that violent video game play causes real world violent acts. I happen to know the current chair…
Human Rights Video Hub launches – fighting impunity with technology
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the human rights group WITNESS is piloting a new "Human Rights Video Hub" in association with international blog aggregator Global Voices Online. Their first efforts focus on a police shooting in Malaysia and a series of protests in China. After participating in some of the initial consultations on…
Chinese protestors take to YouTube: You can’t stop the signal!
Global Voices Online reports that the Chinese police recently cracked down hard on a large protest in Rui’an, spurred by the mysterious death of a young school teacher ruled a suicide by authorities. Nothing new there: Chinese citizens protest, they get a beat-down. The twist is that now cameraphones are common accessories among Chinese citizens,…
China’s broadband soars, America’s sucks
A couple of recent reports from Free Press and Ovum consulting reveal a couple dramatic trends in broadband penetration and access. Ovum issued a report on September 4 which shows that within a year China will soon be the largest broadband market, with 79 million users in 2007 and 179 million in 2010. No wonder…
Harvard Law class taught in Second Life this Fall
In May I had the honor of hearing Dr. Charles Nesson, head of the Berkman Center at Harvard, map out his conception of educational institutions in an internet era: From Harvard’s point of view, this is a new world of education we are entering. Stressing open access to knowledge. The core value of a university…
Fake conference scam: “International Conference on Child Labour, Abuse and Neglect”
It’s been awhile since I got a decent scam email from a UN or NGO pretender. These burn me because they play upon people’s good hearted nature, wanting to do something about racism or the environment or child labor. Today I got one ostensibly from the "YCIO," a group who’s acronym was never spelled out…
Governor Warner speaks on Iraq, Democratic Party, Abortion in Second Life
As some predicted, it wasn’t more than a publicity stunt, but Governor Mark Warner’s appearance in virtual form in Second Life still was a historic occasion. When a possible contendor for the US Presidency makes a pit stop in a virtual world, you have to think that something new is in the air. Others, particularly…
“Play Money” and the ethics of MMORPG cheating
I just finished Julian Dibbell’s informative and entertaining new book on virtual economies Play Money. If you will recall, I purchased both the virtual and real world versions of the book last month, opting to read the dead tree edition. It’s a quick read, told from the wry and clever personal perspective of the author,…
“Virtual Poetry Slam” for the environment: Win $500!
My friends at Citizens for Global Solutions have created a number of innovative campaigns and contests on various global issues. Their last effort to come across my in-box was a "Better than Bolton" home video campaign, urging people to send in short videos saying why they oppose the re-nomination of UN-basher John Bolton to the…