From Flickr User kimosorg
Digital Activism Daily: More Clashes in Egypt
The Digital Activism Daily is a round-up of interesting stories related to technology, protest, activism, and social entrepreneurship. In today's issue, following a weekend of protests, the Egyptian government is now cracking down on SMS, Liu Xia, the wife of Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo, is under house arrest, Chinese party elders call for free speech, and more.
Want to point something out? Send a note to tips@movements.org or Tweet it to @aym.
Human Rights and Technology: a No-Brainer
I was recently invited to participate in McGill University's Global Conference on Human Rights and Diverse Societies in Montreal, Canada, as a McGill-Echenberg Human Rights Fellow. The larger conference, which brought together academics, government officials, human rights professionals, and media leaders from around the world, focused on the legal constructs of human rights in today's increasingly complex world. In conversations during the forum and the conference itself with my fellow young leaders, who came from places like Bosnia, Belarus, Bhutan, Greece, Ghana, and Georgia, the application of technology in their human rights work was not considered even once.
Though there were certainly many accomplished practitioners included in the proceedings and presentations, technology's potential to aid in and enhance their efforts was not viewed as relevant, and in some cases, even possible. From a prime minister's office on gender equality in the Middle East to an organization working to connect young refugees across Europe, there was—and is—a technological black hole for my fellow young leaders.
What Do Facebook’s Revamped Groups Mean for Digital Activism?
Last week, Facebook overhauled how groups are created and managed. Now, any Facebook user can create a group on any topic and automatically add other friends to it. With this change, Facebook hoped to tweak the platform so that offline interactions would be better represented online. As digital activism is in large part about using online tools to promote and foster offline actions for social change, it makes sense that this alteration would have consequences for aspiring changemakers.
Are Late Adopters More Likely to Use Tech Actively?
After surveying more than 50,000 people in 46 countries, a new report claims to have made some definitive and surprising conclusions about the way people around the world are using digital technologies. Their findings suggest that citizens in the developing world are taking to the web (on both PCs and mobiles) in a completely different, and more active, way.
As Read Write Web reports, the study finds that 88 percent of online users in China and 51 percent of those in Brazil have their own blog, as compared to only 32 perecent in the U.S. Ninety-two percent of users in Thailand, 88 percent of users in Malaysia, and 87 percent in Vietnam have uploaded photos to social networks, as compared to only 28 percent of those in Japan.
Cyber Attacks Mark Third Anniversary of Burmese Saffron Revolution
On the third anniversary of Burma’s Saffron Revolution, news website the Irrawaddy and a number of other independent media outlets run by Burmese exiles were attacked and shut down. How does a cyber attack happen? Can it be stopped?
Digital Activism Daily: China Cracks Down as Dissident Wins the Nobel
The Digital Activism Daily is a round-up of interesting stories related to technology, protest, activism, and social entrepreneurship. In today's issue, responses to Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the intrigues of Libya's .ly top-level domain, climate activists warm to social media, (eesh...sorry about the pun), and it's even more clear that Facebook Groups are intended to make the site more relevant to your real (as opposed to online) world.
Want to point something out? Send a note to tips@movements.org or Tweet it to @aym.
From Flickr User k-ideas
Chinese Dissident Wins the Nobel: What Does It Mean for the Political Reform Movement?
Early this morning news broke that Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo had won the Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." Xiaobo was initially arrested in 1989 after staging a hunger strike at the Tiananmen Square protests and was most recently put in jail for circulating an internet petition, known as Charter 08, which calls for democratic political reform in China. Because Xiaobo has no access to a telephone in his prison cell, it is likely that he has not yet heard the news.
"What does it say about a country if its greatest writer and thinker is in prison?” asked Nick Kristof on Facebook when the news broke. Another question might be, how does the hoisting into the spotlight of one of China's most well-known (and most punished) dissidents bode for the nation's political reform movement? So far, it seems as if the event is causing the government to crack down further on freedom of speech.
Movements.org Debate Center
We've launched a new interactive space on Movements.org that we are pretty excited about: The Debate Center. Here, we'll be curating an online debate forum for all issues relating to digital activism. At the debate center you'll be able to easily find and read relevant thought pieces along with the responses they've elicited.
Once you've read the original piece and its responses- respond yourself! We'll publish it in the Debate Center- and if its a timely piece we'll publish it on the blog as well. Up this week is Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker article. You can read his original essay and responses from several critics including: Chris Hughes, Evgeny Morozov, and Scott Heiferman.
As always, we want to know what you think. Have an idea how to improve this space? Comment below.
Digital Activism Daily: Changes at Facebook Have Consequences for Activists
The digital activism daily is a round up of interesting stories related to technology, protest, activism and social entrepreneurship. In today's issue, information came out today about Facebook's new groups will likely have some pretty concrete repercussions for online organizing, Thai activist Chiranuch Premchaipoen(@Jiew) faces a possible combined sentence of 82 years, the World Bank's Apps for Development challenge has opened, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former British first lady Cherie Blair launch the mWomen initiative to help women in developing countries gain access to mobile phones.
Want to point something out? Send a note to tips@movements.org or Tweet it to @aym.
Cubans Lose Access to Twitter
Reports have been coming in that the handful of Cubans, mostly bloggers, who have been accessing Twitter up until this point using long codes on mobile phones, are now completely cut off from the micro-blogging site.
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