Tag Archive | "governance"
Iranian social media police
On passing through the immigration control at the airport in Tehran, she was asked by the officers if she has a Facebook account. When she said "no", the officers pulled up a laptop and searched for her name on Facebook. They found her account and noted down the names of her Facebook friends.
Continue reading...Terrain Vague, Citizen Engagement & the Open City: The Roerich Garden Project
Monday, July 13, 2009
My first Artefatica project is coming along. Sooooo slowly. A draft of the website for our first book — Terrain Vague, Citizen Engagement & the Open City: The Roerich Garden Project — is up! Check it out, send some feedback, add your story or your vision.
Continue reading...Michael Thompson: Algae fighting over the surface of a ping-pong ball
Friday, July 3, 2009
We've been stuck swinging back and forth between the hierarchical and individualistic, the old public versus private debate. This model is inadequate and misleading. Instead we should imagine four different colours of algae competing over the surface of a ping-pong ball. When one gets bigger the others shrink. The edges are constantly changing.
Continue reading...ParticipationCamp: Just like being there
Saturday, June 27, 2009
I wanted to attend ParticipationCamp in New York. Apparently I can. From Montreal. They have live video feed with great quality: Of course social reporters can use add the #PCamp09 tag to their tweets, which are aggregated on front page of their website. Great use of social media and attention to virtual participants: livestreaming video, twitter, skype. [...]
Continue reading...Digital revolutionaries: What’s your Plan B?
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Farhad Manjoo wrote an article in Slate: The Revolution Will Not Be Digitized: How the Internet helps Iran silence activists. Consider this: According to the Wall Street Journal, Iran has one of the world’s most advanced surveillance networks. Using a system installed last year (and built, in part, by Nokia and Siemens), the government routes all [...]
Continue reading...Ushahidi: Crowdsourcing Crisis Information
Monday, February 2, 2009
Ushahidi (“testimony” in Swahili) is an experimental web platform that crowdsources crisis information. People can submit reports via text messaging using a mobile phone, email, or the web. Looks like it can be deployed (sorry, geek speak) for a specific crisis. It was most recently use to track events in Gaza and was also used [...]
Continue reading...The Community Manifesto
Thursday, January 22, 2009
I just posted the first draft of the Station C Community Manifesto to our blog. Would love your feedback. Here’s the meat of it: Station C is a space that fosters community, collaboration, innovation. People come here to work and connect. We are a hub for creators and innovators: entrepreneurs, geeks, artists, social activists. Station C is [...]
Continue reading...Omar Azfar
Thursday, January 22, 2009
There are certain people I don’t maintain relationships with. Haven’t seen them in years; don’t keep in touch. But I like them. Fiercely. I respect what they do. And I know that we’re all working toward the same goal: repairing the world. My friend Karim Kasim, in his lovely poetic and Egyptian way, says that [...]
Continue reading...Reflections on “I Believe in Open” candidate responses
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
I was just browsing through the results section of the ibelieveinopen.ca campaign website. Candidates can respond yes or no to each of the five commitments and post comments, some of which give nice insights into the sort of people you may be voting for. I noticed two things: Andrew Graham, the NDP candidate from New Brunswick Southwest, [...]
Continue reading...I believe in open: Take a stand for government transparency
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
I recently joined the advisory board of VisibleGovernment.ca, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that promotes online tools for government transparency in Canada. We’ve just launched our first project — ibelieveinopen.ca — a site that collects pledges from Member of Parliament (MP) candidates to commit to making five improvements to government transparency. The site also collects signups from [...]
Continue reading...Blogging for Good Governance
Saturday, June 28, 2008
This week I was in Kampala and had the opportunity to meet a friend-of-a-friend, John Gattorn, a super-cool dude who does human rights and democracy work. As I’m obsessed with finding practical ways to use technology for social change, I told him about Global Voices Advocacy and their guide to blogging anonymously. Two days later, [...]
Continue reading...Audio 
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Early in his career, professor Mark Rowlands had two loves: philosophy and Brenin, a wolf he was forced to bring along to his lectures. Through their relationship, Rowlands started examining his work and life. Listen on CBC’s Ideas, via EarIdeas.
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Every month, The New Yorker’s fiction editor, Deborah Treisman, hosts a reading and conversation with a well-known writer. August 2009 featured Joshua Ferris reading George Saunders’s “Adams.” The rhythm is magnificent.
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Beth Kolko, User, Hacker, Builder, Thief: Creativity & Consumerism in a Digital Age. “If I’m a hacker, I’m thoughtful about how I negotiate the world, I think about how I can make use of objects and systems rather than allowing the object or system to make use of me by slotting me into a pre-arranged role… hacking embodies the notion of agency and resistance.” #UrsulaFranklin
Images
- Omar Azfar
- Consulting for US clients is illegal if a non-US citizen performs the work
- An open letter to Bluehost: Your values matter
- Consulting for US clients is illegal... Or is it? (Part 2)
- (B)log On at the Canadian Centre for Architecture
- Blogging for Good Governance
- Rite of passage for Liam as he turns 13
- For my American friends: the Elite Escape Plan
- Television and creativity
- WordPress: Blog not on home page
- Naada Yoga: Something for my nothing
- Sherman Williams paints has worst logo ever
- A comic annual report
- Designer wanted for book on urban ecology, activism, local history
- Jim Jarmush: Nothing is original
- tt: By any means. I'm american and you are not replacing our jobs. American companies are. How are they ...
- Asher Isbrucker: This is amazing on so many levels....
- Christine Prefontaine: Hi Lauren — You're not the only person who's asked. I'll start compiling the list. Ohhhh... so much ...
- Lauren Thompson: Hello -- I found your blog as I was researching books to give to MY boy as part of a rite of passage...
- Maren: What a fantastic idea & such a loving, thoughtful gift! (And a great name.) I'd love to know wh...
- Christine: This turned out so lovely. Liam was thrilled. And Chris found a name for it: The Book Mitzvah. Brill...
- James: Russ Blanc has been comment spamming any site he can. He is a major affiliate for Blushost and make...
- Kawika: Hey, if you are still looking into how to hide the page name in your menu, check out this link: http...
- Cheryl Mansfield: I was one of the first to buy the original Kindle, and quite frankly found it to be a big nuisance. ...
- Christine: Putting a note here so I remember as I think this through some more to look at Tonya's theory of cha...
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Monday, July 13, 2009
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