I just uploaded a few pictures I took in Barcelona in February 2006. Barcelona is officially one of my favorite cities in the world — beautiful architecture, warm people, amazing food and lots of culture. The buildings and interiors designed by Antoni Gaudi — from the unfunished cathedral the Sagrada Familia to Casa Milla and…
UN Human Rights Council close to agreement?
Last Thursday Jan Elliason, president of the General Assembly, issued a new draft resolution on the proposed UN Human Rights Council that he and the UN Secretary General hope will be adopted by the General Assembly this coming week. Several NGOs, including the group I work for CONGO as well as the International Federation of…
More discouraging advice on job hunting at the UN
I realize that my previous blog entry pre-supposed that you are interested in working for an NGO. You might really just be committed to human rights or peace or women’s rights and want to work for an organization that defends those principles. So the obvious route is to seek work at the United Nations. The…
How to find a job at an NGO at the UN
I’ve been working in the United Nations NGO (non-governmental organization) universe for more than ten years. Over that time I have run into many, many eager young people wanting to find a way to break into the NGO business. Many of them have come to me after fruitless searches for any available openings in their…
Happy Geeky Valentines
Me and my girl don’t make a big deal out of Valentines Day. Still, I couldn’t resist getting a couple of presents for my nerdy girlfriend. The first was a crystal “Fuze” necklace that has a lovely pendant that glows with occillating colors. Or as the Fuze website describes: Fuze™ gems radiate an iridescent aura…
Verizon and Time Warner want to break the Internet
I’m listening to Free Press’s latest conference call on “network neutrality” policy issues, and I have to say it’s scary stuff. Laurence Lessig, Ben Scott and Jeff Chester outlined the machinations of the nation’s cable and telephone companies to challenge the fundamental “end-to-end” principle of the Internet. As I understand it, the Internet as we…
More on the UN Secretary General Non-race
I posted a couple of weeks ago about the UN swapping out Secretary General’s by the end of the year. Just found out about another website devoted to the mostly hidden race for the UN Secretary General seat at http://www.UNSGselection.org. It’s run by my old crew at the World Federalist Movement, an organization convinced that…
Using the Net to share our mental maps
I was playing around with the cool website wayfarer.com and I created a map of swing dance venues in Manhattan. Wayfarer uses the Googlemaps system to allow anyone to create their own custom maps, and allow others to add and edit them at will. You simply name your map (“Haunted Places in Dartmour,” “Great Lakes…
Υποδοχή στην Ελλάδα: Internet Gov Forum meeting in Greece this October
I heard from Prof. Wolfgang Kleinwachter that the dates of the first meeting of the Internet Governance Forum have been set. Wolfgang passes on the info that the IGF is scheduled for October 24-26 in Greece. No firm location, but he says probably Athens or Rhodos. Sounds like a fine place to talk about spam…
FON wants to “revolutionize” broadband access
A new Spanish company called FON intends to upset the traditional broadband access model by creating a global network of linked hotspots. FON is a member-based service that piggy-backs their software onto existing wifi hotspots being operated by regular home users. At the most basic level, anyone with a wifi transmitter can be a “Linus”…