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Twitter’s abuzz with news of the #walk2work protests staged by Ugandan opposition leaders Kizza Besigye and Norbert Mao on Monday. Ndesanjo Macha’s round up of tweets provides an excellent overview; my latest Global Voices post continues the story: Rather than backing down after the arrest of two Ugandan opposition leaders for staging a “Walk to Work” protest against high fuel and food prices on Monday, Ugandan activists have responded by announcing a hunger strike and planning more demonstrations.
FOIA…and Rick Astley posted on April 8, 2011 - 10:35pm
As I’ve talked to technology for transparency activists over the past year, one thing that’s repeatedly come up is the importance of traditional transparency tools — partnering with the mainstream media to get the word out tends to be more effective than going it alone with phones and websites, for example. One key aspect of this “old school” activism is the use of freedom of or right to information laws (FOIA/RTI) in different countries — officially requisitioning information from the government. This doesn’t always work, of course; bureaucratic processes often draw out the process interminably, and some governments simply don’t have the capacity to keep track of the kinds of data transparency activists would like.
Thoughts from the Al Jazeera Forum posted on March 14, 2011 - 11:26am
I’m spending this weekend at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, where I was asked to participate in a seminar on the role of the blogosphere in bringing social and political change. The question posed to us — Hisham Almiraat, Mohamed Najem, Georgia Popplewell, Ramsey Tesdell, Nasser Weddady, and myself — revolved around the article Malcom Gladwell published in the New Yorker last month claiming that online connections are purely weak ties and that social media are therefore incapable of creating or sustaining a social movement.
things I am appreciating today posted on March 4, 2011 - 5:03pm
From David Weinberger’s “Copyright’s Creative Disincentive”: It takes culture. It takes culture to build culture.
SIPA Shushing Students over CableGate. Seriously? posted on December 3, 2010 - 10:55pm
Yesterday a friend forwarded me a link to a blog post about Wikileaks. Not surprising, given the number of Wikileaks-related blog posts that are floating around the Internet in the wake of the organization’s release of a quarter of a million U.S. Embassy cables. But this blog post was different: this blog post referenced the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), from which I graduated six months ago. The author reposts an e-mail sent from SIPA’s Office of Career Services to all current students. It reads: From: “Office of Career Services” Date: November 30, 2010 15:26:53 ESTTo: Hi students,
Tech for Transparency: New Interviews Posted posted on November 17, 2010 - 5:48pm
Avid readers of my blog (here’s looking at you, Rev) may remember that several months ago I announced that research was beginning for the second phase of the Technology for Transparency Network. The first phase consisted of interviews with over 30 projects around the world who are using technology to promote transparency and accountability in the government and/or private sector. Our goal in the second phase was twofold: to double the number of case studies on the site and to expand the geographic regions we covered.
Juliet Schor on “Post-Industrial Peasants” posted on November 16, 2010 - 9:29pm
Liveblogging Juliet Schor’s presentation “Using the Internet to ‘Save the Planet’” at the Berkman Center. Please excuse misrepresentation, misinterpretation, typos and general stupidity. *****
Much better than M7: Sylvester & Abramz posted on November 15, 2010 - 7:07pm
I felt a bit guilty leaving M7?s attempt at a musical career as my most recent post all weekend. To make up for it: two songs by Sylvester & Abramz, a Ugandan hip-hop duo who also run Breakdance Project Uganda.
M7 Launches Campaign, Rap Career posted on November 12, 2010 - 5:21pm
I somehow missed this, though it’s all over the New Vision, as well as the BBC, Reuters, NPR, and the Washington Post: For those of you not hip to the East African political scene, that’s Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who apparently also goes by M7 Cent. It’s surprisingly catchy, no?
Linda Raftree on “Activism vs. slacktivism” posted on September 28, 2010 - 7:59pm
Still wrapping my head around Malcolm Gladwell’s recent New Yorker piece on Twitter, Facebook and social activism. In the meantime, Linda Raftree’s response — “Activism vs slacktivism: it’s about context not tools” — offers some good bits to chew on: US-based ‘activism’ campaigns are often more about cause marketing or branding an organization or collecting emails than they are about changing a serious social issue at home or abroad. This is not the fault of the social media tools or of ‘digital activism’, it’s a reflection of US culture, our current values, the organizers behind the causes, and the sociopolitical moment we are living in.