Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy are running a new campaign called "No Fake News" that is already starting to create a buzz in the media. So much so that I have had trouble accessing their site this morning: An exposé by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Free Press…
Republicans Defeat “Net Neutrality” Amendment
ZDNet and Ars Technica are reporting that Republicans defeated a Net Neutrality amendment to a current piece of telecom legislation. According to ZDNet: A Republican-controlled House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Wednesday defeated a proposal that would have levied extensive regulations on broadband providers and forcibly prevented them from offering higher-speed video services to partners…
UNSG Approves the Global Alliance for ICT & Development
Sarbuland Khan, of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the UN, announced today in an e-mail that the UN Secretary General has formally approved the creation of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development. I have blogged in the past about the Global Alliance as an interesting idea that was still ill-defined. It…
A Planetary Early Warning System?
The United Nations recently concluded an international conference on early warning in Bonn, Germany. Over 1,200 participants from 140 countries participated in the gathering, that concluded that a "people-centered" approach was needed to build effective early-warning systems to prevent the loss of human life from natural disasters such as floods, tsunamis and pandemics. As a…
Yehoodi Talk Show Episode 315 (podcast)
For those who don’t know, I help run a nation-wide community website for swing dancers called Yehoodi.com. Among our many services, I co-host a podcast with my pal Manu “Spuds” Smith featuring news and talk about the national (and increasingly international) swing scene. You can hear us clowning around if you download episode 315 of…
Democracy Player: Roll Your Own TV Channel
I have been playing around with the Democracy Player, a nice little program that aggregates various online videos into “channels” that you can easily surf through, view and subscribe to. They bill themselves as “a new kind of browser for watching videos– grab webpages with video and video RSS feeds (including podcasts, video blogs, and…
Green.tv: the first broadband TV channel on the environment
Today was the launch of Green.tv, the first "broadband TV channel" on environmental issues. Sponsored by the UN Environment Programme and a host of other sponsors, the site will carry films from around the world produced by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community filmmakers, public sector bodies and companies with a firm interest in protecting the environment….
My new favorite blog: Re-imagineering
I am unashamedly a diehard Disney theme park fanatic, having visited all of them at least once (Walt Disneyland, Walt Disneyworld, Eurodisney and Disneyland Tokyo). I get totally immersed in the Disney magic just like I was nearly 30 years ago when I went to my first Disney theme park. For me, it’s an irony-free…
My cat’s scarf obsession deepens (video)
My cat Mole Negro continues to attack all knitwear in my closet. Is he telling me it’s time to move on from wool blends? Is he acting out some psycho-drama with the scarf representing his mother abandoning him as a kitten? Or is he just nuts? Maybe if you watch this video you can tell…
Send us your interns and research requests!
The media and democracy project I coordinate "Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere" is about to launch its online "Media Research Hub." To get folks ready, we are asking groups that are looking for graduate student interns to email us their needs for this summer. And we also want media justice groups to get…