The sleeping giant, American workers, have awakened, an emotional Michael Moore on the Rachel Maddel show:
Date archives "March 2011"
Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 now available under CC license
Digital Scholarship has released the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010. This 466-page book presents over 3,800 selected English-language articles, books, and other textual sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. It covers digital copyright, digital libraries, digital preservation, digital rights management, digital repositories, economic issues, electronic books and texts,… Continue reading
Rebuilding Egyptian Media for a Democratic Future
Reforming the media is an urgent part of the democratisation called for by Egypt’s 25 January revolution. Cairo University’s Faculty of Mass Communication has therefore made it a priority to assess different options for a democratic system of media and communication in Egypt. In order to develop a model that enables a free flow of… Continue reading
Journal of Community Informatics: Call for Papers for Special issue on Open Data
Call for Proposals The Journal of Community Informatics (http://ci-journal.net) is a focal point for the communication of research that is of interest to a global network of academics, Community Informatics practitioners and national and multi-lateral policy makers. We invite submission of original, unpublished articles for a forthcoming special edition of the Journal that will focus… Continue reading
The play struggle of the hackers, and capitalism
These are excerpts from the draft version of Johan Soderbergh’s book, Hacking Capitalism. Johan Soderbergh: “The skirmishes between the hacker movement and corporations and governments have deeper roots than is shown by the confrontations over treacherous code, hostile legislations, and public smear campaigns. More fundamental is that the norms and aspirations motivating people to be… Continue reading
Activism before and after social media: the case of Jordan
From Sohail Dahdal, Jordanian activist, based on his own experiences: “Two decades ago, 23 years to be precise, there was an increase in the price of bread and oil in Jordan. I was then living in a poor neighbourhood in Amman and I remember waking up to spontaneous demonstrations in the streets outside my house…. Continue reading
Book of the Week (2): Jay Walljasper on how commonism is replacing neoliberalism
This book crystallized for me the understanding that a healthy economy, like a healthy ecoystem, is based upon rich diversity. The economics chapter of All That We Share enthusiastically points to worker cooperatives, state-owned businesses, capitalism 3.0, privately-run trusts, government-run trusts, regulation in the public interest, and entrepreneurship in the public interest as models of… Continue reading
Media Piracy in Emerging Economies: the report
Media Piracy in Emerging Economies is the first independent, large-scale study of music, film and software piracy in emerging economies, with a focus on Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Mexico and Bolivia. Based on three years of work by some thirty-five researchers, Media Piracy in Emerging Economies tells two overarching stories: one tracing the explosive… Continue reading
The history and future of internet-enabled activism
Excerpted from Adbusters, by Micah White. This is a must read article about political tactics and mobilization for social change. In the first part of the original article, Micah describes the revolutionary wave of 1848, driven by the invention of the barricade, and how that new tactic was defeated. Then, he moves to Seatllle, where… Continue reading
Internet and organizing: the example of Coalswarm
In the continued debate on the role of the internet in organizing activism, Mark Engler intervenes in the debate by mentioning a few examples, such as Coalswarm: ” The CoalSwarm site documents and supports efforts around the country to close coal-fired power plants, which are leading sources of CO2 emissions. Nace has persuasively argued, in… Continue reading
Platform Politics Conference
Michel Bauwens will participate in this conference through a pre-conference evening lecture:
Madison in Egypt (2): Stopping the financial coup d’etat and the greatest heist in democratic history
Great and inspiring speech by Michael Moore, to the workers in Madison, Wisconsin. It shows what a tipping point this event is for world labor history. It is followed by an excerpt from Ellen Brown, focusing on the importance of setting up public banks. Ellen Brown on the need for public banks: “Wisconsin could draw… Continue reading
Digital Opportunities for Democratic Governance in Latin America
The German Development Institute (GDI) and the Swiss Center for Research on Direct Democracy (C2D) are seeking paper submissions for a joint panel to address the topic of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) and democratic governance in Latin America. At the beginning of this century, publications analyzing the link between Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)… Continue reading
The new International Environmental Communication Association
“The International Environmental Communication Association (IECA-provisional name) is a newly formed network of environmental communication professionals and supporters. Our launch web site can be found at http://environmentalcomm.org. We sponsor the professional journal Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, the biennial Conference on Communication and the Environment, and promote other educational and practical opportunities…. Continue reading
Characteristics of the digitalized youth leaders of recent uprisings
Excerpted from an editorial by Paul Mason in the Guardian : “At the heart of the movement is a new sociological type – the graduate with no future. They have access to social media that allow them to express themselves in defiance of corporately owned media and censorship. With Facebook, Twitter, and Yfrog truth travels… Continue reading
Book of the Week: All That We Share – A Field Guide to the Commons
As soon as you realize that some things belong to everyone—water, for instance, or the Internet or human knowledge—you become a commoner, part of a movement that’s reshaping how we will solve the problems facing us in the twenty-first century. * Book: All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons, by Jay Walljasper…. Continue reading