The United Nations website is filled with a wealth of useful information and news about the world we live in, from on-the-ground updates on conflicts and security crises to statistical data on every country on the planet. And yet it tends to hoard that information to be mostly consumed by a small population of diplomats…
I am the ruler of Panganibania
I recently surfed across NationStates.net, a huge online community of people role-playing as nation-states. The site was created by author Max Berry to complement his novel Jennifer Government. The idea of thousands of people engaging in virtual statecraft in real-time online is so strange and cool. To play the international politics simulation, you first have…
UN fan proposes to girlfriend on General Assembly podium
In contrast to the typical litany of wars, famines and human rights violations, the UN News service sent out a bit of soft news at the end of the year, reporting that a UN fan proposed to girlfriend in General Assembly. It’s a very cute story about Alan Daly, an American, proposing to his German…
Happy new year! Happy old archives!
I finished the laborious task of porting over my old blog from last year, which are now safely ensconced in the archives of this site. Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to enable or create a search function, so you’ll have to go by date or category to find something you’re interested in. Bummer.
Old blog still available
While I am transitioning over to this new system and backing up my old posts, you can find my old posts still at rikomatic.python-hosting.com/blogomatic. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to port my old blog posts over to this new system on Typepad, so I’ll have to do it manually. Sigh.
Welcome to Rikomatic.com
Hi folks, welcome to my new blog, “The Click Heard Round the World.” I’m porting over my old blog that was developed using the Plone-based Quills blog software. The company that developed Quills went under a couple of months ago, so it seemed like a good time to move on. This blog focuses on international…
Civil Society is Dead, Long Live Civil Society
Robert Guerra of CPSR asked on the WSIS plenary email list whether or not the plenary list should continue to exist or not. I will re-state what I said at the close CS plenary in Tunis. All the structures and modalities that were developed over the course of the last four years in the WSIS…
WSIS Civil Society Statement released… 4 weeks after Tunis
A couple of days ago, civil society groups finally finished drafting of a huge omnibus statement on the WSIS. Full text of the statement can be found here. In principle I have no problem with the idea of civil society groups coming out with a statement in response to the World Summit on the Information…
WSIS adds the Internet to UN’s agenda
Lots of folks have been asking me what was the main result of the World Summit on the Information Society. My answer is that the WSIS affirmed emphatically that the Internet and other information communications technologies fall firmly within the domain of the United Nations as a policy-making forum. Different actors wanted different outcomes from…
GA President asks for reforms for Christmas
We’ll see which governments were naughty and nice pretty soon. Jan Elliason, the current President of the General Assembly, is cracking the whip on government delegations to get them to finish their work on several UN reform issues before the end of the year. In a December 5 letter to all UN Missions, Elliason urged…