I tried out the World Food Programme video game “Food Force” this weekend. I have to say, it’s a really fun game. And you do learn some interesting things about the challenges of delivering humanitarian aid, from dealing with rival factions in a rebel war to calculating the right quantities of rice, beans, oil, salt…
UN launches “feed-em-up” video game
In the “News of the Strange But True” category, the World Food Programme has come out with a videogame called “Food Force” where instead of shooting prostitutes to get a high score you have to feed hungry people. Interspersed throughout the game are videos where you learn about the plight of hungry people around the…
Personal Safety and Electronics in Public
I was on the subway the other evening and noticed a young man pull out of his messenger bag what looked like a small laptop. I watched him plug in a set of headphones, drop in a silver disc, and then settle in to his seat. I realized that it was a portable DVD player…
Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe
David Bearman corrects me on my reference to the principle of “Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe” (which I incorrectly called “Keep Lots of Copies of Stuff Everywhere”). The LOCKSS principle is more than 10 years old, credited to Sun Microsystems Laboratories’ David Rosenthal and Stanford University Library’s Vicky Reich. The technical details of the…
Pick me! Pick me! Who will speak at the GA hearings?
The process for nominations of participants to attend the first General Assembly hearings with civil society and the private sector have been announced, with an extremely short deadline for groups to nominate individuals to speak. It’s going to be a hairy process choosing who from among all of civil society and the private sector worldwide…
How do you translate “Multi-stakeholder Partnerships” into Russian?
At this WSIS conference in St Petersburg it seems clear to me that “multi-stakeholder partnerships” are very much a foreign notion still. Various Russian participants explained how difficult was to gain entry into the policy-making processes of their own government, whether they be businessmen, activists or ICT experts. Indeed, the Soviet legacy appears to be…
Civil Society has Trust Issues
I am finalizing the points that I will be making during my session on “ICT Partnerships and Civil Society” at the UNESCO WSIS conference I attending now in St Petersburg. I have gone around and around on this, and think that I would like to focus on building confidence of NGOs in partnership arrangements. Here’s…
Where’s a Militsiya when you really need one?
Well I had hoped to be able to write something in my first entry from St. Petersburg about how wonderful it is here. On the positive side, it’s a lovely city full of cultural and artistic treasures like the Hermitage, numerous palaces and cathedrals, and a rich artistic tradition from Doestoevsky to Kandinsky. I was…
Gearing up for the GA Civil Society Hearings in June
We have an audience with the king, so to speak, so we better practice our speech and get our best clothes laundered. From June 23-24, only six weeks away, the General Assembly President will be convening “interactive hearings” with civil society. It’s difficult to keep your eye on the prize as we slog through the…
Why I Love Thee, CSI
I must admit, I am hopelessly in love with the television program “CSI” (Crime Scene Investigators) and its spin-off “CSI:Miami.” The show is just the perfect equation of nerdiness, mystery, and sex appeal that’s impossible to resist. Why do I love it so? you ask. The reasons are simple: Really Hot Nerds: The show features…