I got an interesting email the other day from Amil Husain of the UN Millennium Campaign regarding a new series of educational games they wish to produce to run on Negroponte’s $100 laptop: My agency at the United Nations is entering into a partnership with the NGO, One Laptop Per Child who have produced a…
Category: United Nations
My expired UN badge: why access matters
I just noticed on my dresser that my United Nations access cards have expired. It’s been nearly a year since I was last working for an NGO at the UN. I get a bit nostalgic for those times, rushing off to a General Assembly debate on the Digital Divide in Africa or an NGO strategy…
Turn out the lights, shut down the computer, log out your avatar for five minutes today
In about a couple of hours, my office will be turning off all of the lights in response to the "Five Minutes for the Planet" effort launched by the Alliance for the Planet. Here’s the announcement, briefly translated: The Alliance for the Planet [a group of environmental associations] is calling on all citizens to create…
Global Kids and UNICEF team up for virtual children’s festival (video)
Barry and Rafi over at Global Kids sent out news that UNICEF just featured a cool little video on their joint project "A World Fit for Children" festival. It’s a nice demonstration of the potential of virtual environments to bring people from all over the world together, in ways that would not be possible on…
Kofi Annan giving last major address today (webcast)
Just got this notice from the Better World Campaign: Today, at 11:30 a.m. EST, Secretary-General Kofi Annan will deliver his last major speech as leader of the United Nations. The speech will explore issues of global governance and the role of the United States in international affairs. Click here to watch the webcast from the…
Bye-bye, Yosemite Sam: John Bolton to leave as US Ambassador to UN!
Just saw this on the news wire, John Bolton is stepping down as US Ambassador to the UN, in the wake of strong bi-partisan Congressional opposition. Woo hoo! Last week I had blogged that Bush was re-nominating the UN-bashing "diplomatic" to the top ambassador slot. With the incumbent Democrat-dominated Senate, Bolton was going to face…
Bush renominates abrasive nationalist John Bolton for UN top slot
In a brazen display of partisanship, President Bush recently renominated the abrasive, staunch nationalist neo-conservative John Bolton to the post of US Ambassador to the United Nations. The Economist and The New Yorker both reported on Bolton’s tenchy relationship with the rest of the diplomatic community. As Hendrik Hertzberg at The New Yorker reports: At…
My post on “Our Common Humanity” blog
I was invited to contribute to a new blog associated with a UN-affiliated meeting on "Our Common Humanity" taking place from November 28-29 in New York. I decided to do a general "best practices" post pointing to innovative uses of ICTs to promote positive social change, including some of my favorites like WITNESS, Global Voices…
Remote participation at the IGF: so remote that no one knows about it
The Internet Governance Forum has done an admirable job setting up in very short order a number of means for remote participation at the meetings, which conclude tomorrow. These include webcasting, a discussion forum, live text chat, email, SMS, blog aggregation, and even submissions via video! All admirable and welcome to see. The question being:…
Chinese rep: “we don’t have software blocking Internet sites.”
Yesterday, during the "openness" session at the Internet Governance Forum, there was a fascinating interchange among the panelists, the audience, and finally a member of the Chinese government delegation on the question of Chinese censorship of the Internet. The controversy kicked off with a representative of Rapporteurs Sans Frontieres, a group legendary for their media-stealing…