Ok, this is way strange. The hip-hop/pop group the Black Eyed Peas have teamed up with the candy bar Snickers for a web-based action series in which they star as super-heroes who fight against the corporatization of hip-hop. Got all that? Called “Instant Def”, only the trailer and the first episode of the series are…
Category: Media Reform
“God Save the Internet” rock anthem!
Here’s some great monday morning music provided by the Save the Internet coalition, entitled “God Save the Internet.” The folk-rocky song, available as a free download, is performed by “The Broadband” (get it!), which is Kay Hanley, Jill Sobule, and Michelle Lewis with a “special guest appearance” by Michelle’s mom, Annette, who “possesses a freakishly…
New Net Neutrality Video: This Land is Your Land
I just a tip from the Media Policy Blog about a new video on Net Neutrality called "This Land is Your Land" created by Robert Oschler. It’s based on the Woody Guthrie song of the same name, and uses video from a CC-licenced CGI animated short called "Elephant Dreams". Robert’s revised lyrics are hysterical: They’ll…
Virtual Net Neutrality Tees available
As my extremely modest contribution to the Save the Internet cause, I just created a “Support Net Neutrality!” tee-shirt in Second Life, which I am giving away to all who desire them. So whether you are a cyborg, flying monkey or fairy princess, you can now proudly show your support for a free and open…
Telling the media reform story better
I just went to the Spin Project and Opportunity Agenda strategic communications workshop at the New School, where they presented their “Opportunity Framework” model. The following are some thoughts I wrote down for myself, but upon reflection think might be of some use to others in the media reform and media justice advocacy fields. I…
Show your outrage over telcos attack on Net Neutrality
Just got the press release from Saveaccess.org, describing the "National Day of Out(R)age" happening tomorrow, May 24, in cities around the United States, to protest the efforts of telephone companies to win national franchising licenses to provide television content: On Wednesday, May 24th, thousands of people in cities across the country will protest the Telephone…
Beyond Broadcast towards Citizen Empowerment
Returning to my little universe after the Beyond Broadcast conference in Harvard this weekend, my take-away is that we all face the daunting challenge is how to re-invent our institutions in a digital age. For public broadcasting, this means incorporating new technologies to better serve their communities with relevant content and to better invite them…
Activist Tech: from listservs to virtual worlds
I went to a workshop on “Technology and Social Activism” at the Beyond Broadcast conference this weekend. I suppose it was ambitious to expect anything other than a quick fly-over of interesting initiatives in using technology for activism, since this could have easily been the subject of a three-day conference. As one participant Sean Coon…
Charles Nesson’s closing remarks at Beyond Broadcast
Charles Nesson, Weld Professor of Law and Co-founder and Faculty Director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School gave some closing remarks to today’s panels at the Beyond Broadcast conference. Here’s some flavor of it: We face large questions. We have the net in our hands. We are all capable…
Mark Cooper: “You can’t speak truth to power on Power’s nickel”
Mark Cooper, Consumer Federation of America, spoke this afternoon at Beyond Broadcast about creating new business models to support social media. He noted that everyone is presenting a business model based on charity or advertising. Mark contended that social media has to be based on civil society. Distribution is not the problem, attention is the…