Category: Information Society

Oh fun, got a scam email today from the "National Conference Against Racism Discrimination and Safety." First off, how can you be against safety? LOL. It’s got the typical weirdness: bad English, a phone number that doesn’t correspond to the address, and an offer too-good-to-be-true-because-it-isn’t.  In this case, an all-expense-paid trip to Dubai.  The only…

Cindy and I saw “An Inconvenient Truth” last night. As someone who should be fairly well informed on these issues, with frequent contact with environmental activists and experts, I was surprised and appalled by the urgency of the ecological crisis facing our planet. It is indeed terribly “inconvenient” to face the reality that within our…

According to ZDNET, John Negroponte announced a couple of days ago that the first iteration of the “$100 laptop” from the One Laptop Per Child initiative will be closer to $130 to $140 dollars. Even at $130, this computer still comes in at a pricepoint that governments like China, Brazil and South Africa could consider…

I was honored to be invited to a one day strategic discussion today on a new human rights video hub being created by the non-profit WITNESS. Started at the initiative of Peter Gabriel, in 1992, WITNESS uses the power of video to open the eyes of the world to human rights abuses. Traditionally their work…

For the 40th anniversary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution Ah Q Weekly’s chinese blog re-designed an old poster from the Cultural Revolution to comment on Chinese government censorship of the internet, and bloggers in particular. According to Oi wan Lam of Global Voices, "The original poster depicts a worker using Mao’s tiny red book to…

Amnesty International launched today a new campaign called www.irrepressible.info to call public attention and pressure on governments that censor their citizens online and the companies that develop the surveillance software. To support the campaign, you can add censored content to your website or blog and sign their petition. Already 7,000 + people have done just…

This morning I saw yet another person using their Mac on the R train, from at least City Hall to 42nd street.  This guy looked like he was learning how to use a design app, playing with fonts.  He even had on headphones connected to his iPod nano.  It was after 9:30am, so the train…

New pics of the first working prototype of the $100 laptop have been posted by Pete Barr-Watson on Flickr. These laptops, produced under the coordination of the non-profit One Laptop Per Child, are designed to help kids in the developing world bridge the digital divide. There appear to be at least three flavors: orange creamsickle,…