Brazilian blogger and researcher Jose Murilo Junior posts an interesting set of questions regarding how to enable effective remote participation at the upcoming Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janiero in November. Jose references my thinking on this subject at the IGF in Athens last year. Here’s my new response to Jose: event blogging and…
Category: United Nations
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…
Teens to create machinima about child rights at virtual summer camp
Global Kids announces that they are organizing a virtual summer camp to help teens in the Second Life Teen Grid to create machinima videos related to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Running for a month from July 23 to August 23, campers will be expected to attend the camp five…
“Real Lives”: Learning about world cultures, one life at a time
My name is Manal. I am a six year old girl in Syria. I have an older brother and three older sisters. My mother and father are salespeople. We are sunni muslims. Tomorrow I begin school… So begins the life of my new character in the game "Real Lives" put out by Educational Simulations. A…
Learning from failure: NGOevents.org
A couple of years ago, while working for another non-profit at the United Nations, I proposed the creation of a community-based, multi-issue civil society calendar of events at the UN. This evolved into the website NGOevents.org. As of today, the domain name NGOevents.org has officially expired, marking the end of a mostly failed effort to…
Diplo Foundation launches Diplomacy Island
Chatting with Cobi Laval (left), an advisor for Diplo and an old friend from my WSIS days. The Diplo Foundation announces that they have launched a new Diplomacy Island in Second Life (teleport SLURL) to "explore new possibilities for diplomatic representation and interaction." I have known Diplo for years for their impressive work at the…
Reminder: Walk the world to fight hunger this Sunday!
Codelia sends out updated info on the "Fight Hunger: Walk the World" event taking place this Sunday, May 13. The UN World Food Programme every year organizes a "Walk the World" fundraiser / awareness raising event to draw attention to the problem of famine and hunger around the world. In towns and cities all over…
Avatars walk the world to fight hunger
The UN World Food Programme every year organizes a "Walk the World" fundraiser / awareness raising event to draw attention to the problem of famine and hunger around the world. In towns and cities all over the planet, people gather to walk in support of humanitarian aid and development assistance for the most needy. This…
UN Millennium Campaign wants your ideas for games for the $100 laptop
I got a nice message from Amil regarding the UN Millennium Campaign’s effort to create games for the $100 laptop (aka OLPC) that would educate children about the Millennium Development Goals. The Campaign has set up a wiki where anyone can submit ideas for computer games suitable for children that could run on the tiny…
UN Spam of the Week: UNICEF has a job for you!
It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten a spammish e-mail from someone purporting to be working for the United Nations. So I was delighted to find this "job offer" in the mail yesterday from Mr. "Patrick Evans": United Nation International Children and Educational Fund (UNICEF), a humanitarian organization under United Nation Organization (UNO) urgently needs you…