Wei tang wrote a poem to memorize the 15 years girl who “were suicided” by the Weng'an police report. ESWN has the background about the Weng'an mass incident, thousands of people went out to protest against the police's investigation of the suspected rape and murder case.

At 14:00 local time (19:00 UTC) in a press conference, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos announced that former presidential candidate Íngrid Betancourt, American contractors Thomas Howes, Marc Gonçalves, and Keith Stansell, Colombian National Army soldiers Juan Carlos Bermeo, Raimundo Malagón Castellanos, José Ricardo Marulanda, William Pérez, Erasmo Romero, José Miguel Arteaga, and Armando Flórez; and Colombian National Police members Julio César Buitrago, Armando Castellanos, Vianey Rodríguez Porras, and John Jairo Durán had been rescued from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas in an audacious operation (”without firing a shot”) known as Jaque (”check” as in “checkmate” in Spanish). Hours later, the former hostages were taken to a military airport in Bogotá, later joining President Álvaro Uribe Vélez in a press conference which ended minutes before midnight. Of course, most Colombians, including myself, celebrated, as well as a lot of people in the region. It was some of the biggest news in Colombia in years. It was so big news that even widely popular gossip blogs “reported” it.

There is no doubt that 2008 has been one of the worst year for the Marxist guerrilla founded in 1964. Just 5 weeks ago it was confirmed that Pedro Antonio Marín, aka Manuel Marulanda Vélez or Tirofijo (”Sureshot”), its top commander, had died on March. The death of FARC's number 2, Édgar Devia, aka Raúl Reyes, unleashed a diplomatic crisis which caused the breaking of diplomatic relations with Ecuador and Nicaragua (the latter restored since). Other top bosses have been captured, killed or delivered themselves. On February 4 a huge demonstration against FARC was held.

Adam Isacson, from Plan Colombia and Beyond, writes about the “anti-FARC strategies” that have and have not worked:

[W]hat has worked over the past few years?

• Putting a much greater focus on intelligence aimed at the guerrillas’ top leadership (and hostage captors). This includes both signals intelligence to intercept their communications, and human intelligence in the form of informants and infiltrators.
• Making clear to the guerrilla rank-and-file, through public-relations campaigns and the testimonies of previous deserters, that those who surrender to the government will not only not be tortured or disappeared (as too often happened in the past), but they will get job training, perhaps a stipend, and the promise of a new life.
• Increasing the security forces’ presence in population centers and main roads and (though there is much room for improvement here) making these forces’ main mission protecting citizens instead of treating them as suspects.

What is interesting about these strategies is that, with the exception of increasing manpower and protective presence, they are relatively inexpensive. Compared to big-ticket items like fumigation and “Plan Patriota”-style military offensives, these efforts make up only a sliver of Colombia’s defense budget (and only a sliver of U.S. assistance). Planners of future aid packages to Colombia should take note.

Journalist Jaime Restrepo writes on Atrabilioso [es]:

Sin duda, el rescate militar de 15 secuestrados en poder de la estructura militar de las FARC es el más duro golpe propinado a los áulicos y servidores del totalitarismo “humanitario” en Colombia. La operación Jaque demostró con hechos que un rescate militar exitoso es posible y que las cacareadas justificaciones, según las cuales eso equivalía a condenar a muerte a los secuestrados, eran solo arengas que buscaban que las FARC, y sobre todo sus socios políticos, obtuvieran ganancias del secuestro. Quedaron sin argumentos aquellos servidores de las FARC que cada día se consagraban a presionar al Gobierno para que cediera a las condiciones que imponían los terroristas para liberar a los secuestrados: son 15 seres humanos que han sido rescatados sin despejes que dejarían a miles de colombianos a merced de los terroristas por cuenta de los intereses de los “humanitarios”.

Undoubtedly, the military rescue of the 15 kidnapped held by FARC's military structure is the hardest blow given to the aulics and servants of the “humanitarian” totalitarism in Colombia. Operation Jaque demonstrated that a successful military rescue is possible and that the widespread justifications, of those claiming that it was a death sentence for those kidnapped, were just harangues seeking that the FARC, and above all their political partners, wanted to profit from kidnapping. Those FARC servants who everyday pressured the Goverment to give in to the conditions imposed by the terrorists to release the kidnapped ended without arguments: there are 15 human beings rescued without safe havens which would have let thousands of Colombians at the mercy of the terrorists because of the interests of the “humanitarians”.

Ricardo Buitrago Consuegra praises President Álvaro Uribe and his administration [es]. He writes that the rescue raises the possibility that Uribe will be reelected as president. However, the rescue also draws attention to the role of Colombia's neighbors.

Alejandro Peláez attacks [es] the “Bolivarian coalition”:

El Ministro de Defensa ecuatoriano celebra el rescate, pero se lamenta que no fuera realizado dentro de un proceso de paz y, como cereza del postre, la maquinaria de propaganda chavista empieza a circular la versión de que a Ingrid la libretió el Gobierno colombiano. Estuve buscando la reacción de los “comités de solidaridad con Ingrid” y no dicen nada. Se quedaron sin jueguito ahora que la liberaron y van a tener que encontrar una nueva causa para subir al Mont Blanc. Paradójicamente, las palabras de Ingrid fueron el más duro golpe para los opositores que usaban su imagen y dolor para mover una agenda política.

The Ecuadorian Defence Minister celebrates the rescue, but regrets it was not carried out within a peace process and, as the cherry on the top, the Chavista propaganda machine begins to pass around the theory that Íngrid was “scripted” by the Colombian government. I was searching for the reaction of the “support committees for Íngrid” and they say nothing. They were left without nothing to play now that she was released and they will have to find a new cause to climb Mont Blanc. Ironically, Íngrid's words were the hardest blow for the opposition leaders and supporters which used her image and her pain to promote a political agenda.

Italian blogger Doppiafila gives his two cents [it]:

Da questa gioia deve nascere qualcosa di buono. Il 2 Luglio del 2008 é un grande giorno. Chissá che Ingrid Betancourt non possa essere per la Colombia come Nelson Mandela per il Sudafrica: ha pagato il prezzo della credibilitá ed a quanto pare é riuscita a mantenere la luciditá; chissa.
Le FARC hanno perso una grande occasione, e si staranno mangiando le mani. Il loro ciclo é finito, non saranno loro a cambiare il futuro del Paese. Speriamo non puntino al “colpo di coda”, magari con qualche attentato urbano da centinaia di morti - sarebbe inutile. Per Uribe, Santos, i Generali e compagnia una grande vittoria: hanno mantenuto la promessa della “mano dura”, e questo la gente lo capisce - e lo premia. Ora devono solo decidere come “passare all'incasso”.

From this joy something good should be born. July 2, 2008 is a big day. Maybe Íngrid Betancourt could not represent for Colombia the same thing Nelson Mandela for South Africa: she has paid the price of credibility and from what it seems she has achieved her lucidity; maybe.
The FARC lost a big chance, and they must be eating their hands. Their cycle is over, they will not be the ones who will change the future of the country. We hope they don't aim a “last attempt” -probably with an urban attack with hundreds of victims - would be useless. For Uribe, Santos, the generals and company it's a great victory: they have kept their promise of “hard hand”, and this is understood -and rewarded- by the people. Now they just should decide how to “to charge for it.”

Meanwhile, journalist Víctor Solano states that Ms Betancourt necessarily “overshadows” the others' rescue [es]:

Haciendo un barrido por todos varios medios de comunicación vemos con ‘alborozo’ la noticia del rescate producto de una astucia de los cuerpos de inteligencia de Colombia para ‘robarse’ a los secuestrados y llevarlos a la libertad. En prácticamente todos los medios se establecen tres niveles de importancia y hasta se señala textualmente: “Ha sido rescatada Ingrid Betancourt; también los tres norteamericanos y 11 militares”. La forma en que se revela la información a la opinión pública es normal, mas no significa que sea la forma ideal. A la hora de la verdad, cualquiera de los 15 rescatados tiene tanta importancia como ser humano. Pero resulta absolutamente normal dadas las formas de la noticiabilidad/espectacularidad con que se ha cubierto este drama. Para muchos, el drama del secuestro en Colombia y otras partes del mundo solo ha tenido un rostro: el de Ingrid.

Doing a quick check through all the mass media we see the ‘rejoice' for the news of the rescue with the shrewdness of Colombian intelligence agents to 'steal' the kidnapped taking them to freedom. Practically all the media have established three levels of importance and even textually headlining: “Íngrid Betancourt has been rescued; as well as the three Americans and 11 soldiers.” The way the information is revealed to the public opinion is the usual one, but it does not mean it is the ideal one. Actually, any of the 15 rescued has the same importance as a human being. But it turns absolutely normal given the forms of noticeability / spectacularity this drama has been covered. For a lot of people, the drama of kidnapping in Colombia and other parts of the world has only had one face: Íngrid.

Paola Vargas, a new blogger at equinoXio [es], writes, among other things, about the media coverage of the arrival of the released to Bogotá [es] (she also does not seem very convinced by the rescue operation):

El cubrimiento mediático no podía desligarse del sentimentalismo que mueve este país desde hace unos años. Noticias Caracol no resistió la tentación de hacer sonar las letras de nuestro himno nacional, el segundo mejor del mundo después del francés según el mito urbano (¡qué ironía!), cuando Íngrid (y solo ella) salió del avión que transportaba a los otros once uniformados. El canal RCN, por su parte, lucía orgulloso la bandera colombiana. Sin embargo, unos y otros convencían con el mismo discurso: las fuerzas militares han triunfado gracias a la pericia del presidente Uribe y del ministro de defensa, la guerra se acabará pronto, etc.

The media coverage couldn't separate itself from the sentimentalism that has been part of this country over the past few years. Noticias Caracol couldn't resist the temptation to play the lyrics of our national anthem, the second best of the world after the French one according to the urban legend (what an irony!), when Íngrid (and just her) came out from the plane carrying the other 11 soldiers and policemen. RCN TV, on the other hand, was proudly wearing the Colombian flag. Nevertheless, both were convinced with the same discourse: the military forces have prevailed thanks to President Uribe's and Minister of Defense's skillfulness, and that the war will soon be over, etc.

The blog Colombia Hoy [es] comments [es]:

Las FARC reciben un nuevo golpe político y militar. Si es cierta la versión oficial, lo que hay detrás de la liberación es una operación de inteligencia impecable. Inteligencia militar habría manejado el engaño con gran maestría. Está por verse cuál fue el papel jugado por los emisarios de Francia y Suiza que llegaron al país hace dos días, y si estos gobiernos formaron parte del engaño. Como sea, lo cierto es que queda en evidencia una vez más la fragilidad militar de las FARC y su vulnerabilidad frente a las infiltraciones y el engaño. Pareciera más que una coincidencia que tanto en el bombardeo al campamento de Reyes como en este caso, existe el antecedente de la visita de un agente de inteligencia francés a los campamentos guerrilleros.

FARC received a new political and military blow. If the official version is true, what lies behind the release is an impeccable intelligence operation. [Colombia's] Military intelligence handled the plot with great mastery. It remains to be seen the role of the French and Swiss envoys who arrived two days ago, and if these governments took part on the plot. Anyway, the truth is again FARC's military fragility and its vulnerability toward infiltrations and deceptions have become evident. It seems more than a coincidence that both in the bombing of Raúl Reyes camp and this case, there's the precedent of the visit of a French intelligence agent to the guerrilla camps.

There are still around 3,000 kidnapped people in Colombia, around 700 of them being held by FARC. We want all of them free and safe.

Lots of photos, text and comments on Michael J. Totten's second installment from his travels in Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo.

Edward Lucas writes about the investigation of Georgi Markov's 1978 murder.

Dr Sean's Diary writes about the meaning of the Prague Spring.

BERKMAN BUZZ:  A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations.  If you'd like to receive this by email, just sign up here. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University

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Berkman's Cyberlaw Clinic is seeking a resident Clinical Fellow for the academic year 2008-09. If you are passionate about working with students and internet/IP law, here is your chance to closely mentor and supervise Harvard Law students as they pursue fascinating, cutting-edge cases in our Clinic.

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Although the U.S. embargo against Cuba remains fixed, President Bush recently announced a slight, although not insignificant, change in policy. It appears that Americans are now permitted to send mobile phones to relatives in Cuba. Although U.S. citizens are barred from visiting family members inside the closed island country, it may now be easier to communicate with them. Bush’s announcement follows the recent change in Cuban domestic policy, whereby President Raul Castro eased restrictions on “luxury electrical goods.” This move has allowed Cubans to purchase mobile phones, computers, DVD players, and other goods. Already, one can find Cubans in Havana lining up outside telephone centers for a chance to purchase mobile devices. In fact, cell phone service is expanding in portions of the country.

Purportedly, the younger Castro’s purpose in easing these restrictions is to improve Cuba’s trade relations across the globe and, thereby, strengthen their stagnant economy. But a policy change like this has the potential to domino into something greater, namely democratic reform. Connecting the population to the global discourse, and more importantly to each other, may bring with it calls for change. Expatriates, situated outside of Cuba, have already made these calls in the global blogosphere. We can ponder if an internal movement will develop in the future, given the improved mechanisms of mobilization that digital communication provides.

This, of course, is only a thought. In reality, access to cell phones is decidedly limited, as contracts sell for nearly six times the average state salary. Even for those Cubans who can afford means of digital communication, we must think about issues of censorship. The Internet and Democracy Project touched on this issue at a Budapest session led by Gwendolyn Floyd and Joshua Kauffman. They gave an interesting presentation on the Internet in Cuba and other authoritarian regimes. As they mentioned, Internet access and activity remains highly monitored in Cuba and is usually reserved for state elites or other persons of privilege. Any discussion of technological proliferation in Cuba will include such topics as the nation’s Intranet or black market, a clear sign of the regime’s digital repression.

Even still, I cannot help but hang onto my Utopian thoughts and consider the recent policy developments as promising. Blogger Rich Basas has been following Cuba’s transition and has recently posted his musings about their foreign policy changes and the possibility of a Cuban Perestroika. I remember an old college professor of mine, speculating that MTV helped to bring down the Soviet Union. He said that MTV provided a window into a world where people enjoyed a wealth of material goods and had the freedom to make their own choices. Today, the Internet may fulfill this role. If Castro permits a degree of Perestroika and Glasnost and Cubans take the opportunity to “get connected”, the Internet will undoubtedly provide them with an endless number of possibilities. At its most fundamental level, the Internet epitomizes the notion of choice. And, for all intents and purposes, the freedom to choose is the most basic characteristic of any democracy.

According to several news sites Iran's parliament is set to debate a draft bill which could see the death penalty used for those deemed to promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the Internet. According to this draft bill bloggers can face the death penalty too.

I thought I was. I was born January 9th, 1980. I missed the 70s by just nine days.

I love technology. I was luckiest 6 year-old kid in he world when my uncle gave the family a Commodore 64 for Xmas. I programmed in BASIC. I was in chat-rooms on Prodigy and CompuServe. I played in Multi-User Doors (MUDs) on local direct dial-up bulletin board systems before I even knew what the Internet was.

I thought that I was a Digital Native.

I’m an active participant in “online culture”. I can name every YouTube reference in Weezer’s “Pork and Beans” video. I get ALL of my news online and I own a television almost exclusively for the purposes of watch media that comes to me across the Internet. I conduct 80% of my professional life online and maintain only the fuzziest of boundaries between my work and play time. I multi-task. I transition between IM, SMS, email, telephone, and face-to-face seamlessly. I Facebook. I Myspace. I Flickr. I LinkedIn. I Wiki. I YouTube. I twitter (sort-of). I code a little.

I thought that I was a Digital Native, but I am not.

When I twitter, I often do it alone. (I’m more enamored with the concept than the practical application.) Although IM has become an indispensable tool for getting work done and telecommuting, most of my friends and family are not usually logged in. Aside from email, most forms of online communications never gained enough a critical mass in my age bracket to endure past our extended adolescence. My Skype window sits idle, displaying a grey-out contacts displaying ghostly reminders of my fleeting online social life.

With much enthusiasm and the best of intentions, I try to co-ordinate social events and camping trips with friends using online calendars, forums, social networks, or email lists. But more often than I think is reasonable, I need to resort to the phone to really make things happen. Most of my people just don’t live online.

I am not a Digital Native, but I would like to be.

I’ve had a lifelong love affair with technology and it’s potential for creating change. My age bracket, generally speaking, has not shared this interest with me. True Digital Natives have a mainstream culture of online connectivity. My interest in digital technology has been exploratory and forward thinking, and placed parts of my life-style on the geeky fringes of American culture.

I’m probably more tech-savy than most Digital Natives today, yet I am not one of them. The Digital Natives around me have been shaped by a totally mainstream digital lifestyle, a norm that enables allows them to digitally communicate and collaborate with their peers with ease. Their habits have been formed by their lifetimes of digital communication and complete immersion in digital spaces.

In contrast, my lifetime has been a lifetime of waiting. Waiting for the digital spaces held in the collective imagination to come online. Now that the early, early alphas of the meta-verse are here, I am shocked that my peers aren’t rushing in to them as I always imagined. It’s too late for me. I missed the 70s by nine days. I just realized that I missed the life-style I’ve always imagined would come by about a decade.

I adore the Internet. The possibilities that are provided for by massive digital collaboration and open access to information are the single biggest factor in my having any hope of a brighter future for the human species. (Clay Shirky’s talk on excess cognitive capacity gives me chills.) I wish that my generation was going to play a major role in that imagined future. …But sadly, I will have to go it mostly alone because their embrace of life-changing technological innovation seems to have stopped at Tivo.

-John Randall

In a seminar on human rights in Iran, held in San Jose last weekend, one of the panels explicitly discussed how the Internet has emerged as a major social network structure in Iranian society. The panel director, Alireza Azizi, opened the discussion by explaining the growing role and importance of the Internet among different Iranian political activists and how it has affected their social networking practices. He argued that based on social statistics, Iranians trust the information on the Internet more than the official media in Iran.

The discussion continued on how some Iranian networks have been created based on the Internet and it was argued they could not exist without this networking tool. Parastoo Forouhar argued that Internet allows new ideas and movements to break the boundaries of governments and to spread around the world. Particularly in a society like Iran, where the Government suppresses the media and social life has been limited to private platforms, the role of the Internet as an important rival platform needs careful consideration.

Soheila Vahdaty argued that the international reactions towards some of the human rights violations and arrests in Iran have been a significant constraint for governmental actions. Considering the media environment in Iran, these reflections would have been impossible without the Internet. The major advantage in these cases is that the Internet is extremely fast and networking is widespread. Once news on human rights violation is released online, the UN immediately reacts to it by contacting Iran’s ambassadors in European countries, putting the Government under pressure to consider international opinion. The Internet has been extremely effective at mobilizing international networks particularly in cases of capital punishment of children.

The panel then discussed the limitations and disadvantages of the Internet. Arsham Parsi argued that there is no control on the publication of news on the Internet and this allows for a great deal of spam and misuse of the platform for false news and statements. Azarm Fanni raised an interesting issue about how the Internet limits network activities to the virtual world. When Iranians rely on the Internet as the primary forum for political expression and protest, it is easy to forget other alternatives for dissent in the real world. This is a concern we’ve heard from a number of Iran watchers, that an unintended consequence of the Internet’s use in Iran is that it allows individuals to complain and let off steam online, inadvertently preventing action in the real world.

Posted by Mahsa Rouhi

LJ user tapirr posts Masha Novikova's documentary about Anna Politkovskaya: “Anna, Seven Years on the Frontline” (RUS, with English subtitles).

“Photography is not a crime, it’s a First Amendment right,” proclaims the title of photojournalist Carlos Miller’s blog.  Nonetheless, a jury found Miller guilty of obstructing traffic and resisting arrest without violence during his encounter last year with five Miami police officers that he photographed on a public street.  As a result, Miami County Court Judge Jose Fernandez sentenced him to one year of probation,100 hours of community service, anger management lessons, and over $500 in court fees, well in excess of the three months probation the prosecutor had been seeking.

Miller was arrested on February 20, 2007, after he saw the police questioning a man "in a gravel construction area between the road and the sidewalk," according to a post Miller made a few days later on Democratic Underground, a liberal online forum.  (The post does not indicate how the construction affected traffic along the street.)  When Miller, who was also standing in the gravel area, started to photograph the police, they told Miller to move along.  Miller said he refused, arguing that it was a public street, and continued to shoot photos of the police.  The police then escorted him across the street and, according to Miller, forcibly arrested him.

In contrast, the police said that Miller began taking pictures of them while standing in the street blocking traffic, according to an officer’s report which Miller has posted online.  The officer wrote that the five police present told Miller to cross to the other side of the street, but Miller refused and continued to take pictures.  When the police attempted to escort Miller across the street, the report said that he resisted, so they arrested him.  (Contrary to the police report, however, the photos that Miller took of the police, one of which appears at the top of his blog indicate that he was not in the street.)

The police initially charged Miller with nine counts, but they were later reduced to four: disobeying a police officer, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest without violence, and obstructing traffic.  The jury found Miller not guilty of disobeying a police officer and disorderly conduct.

The original incident prompted Miller to start blogging, and as the name of his blog makes plain, photographers' rights are his main subject.   “I started this blog to document my trial,” he wrote in the About section, “but as it languished, I began documenting First Amendment violations against other photographers throughout the country, which occur on a shockingly regular basis.”  In particular, he focuses on violations committed by law enforcement; his blog entries feature incidents all over the U.S. of cops confronting people taking pictures or recording videos. He also covered his trial's progress, with which Judge Fernandez expressed irritation during Miller's sentencing.

The verdict against Miller drew "disappointment and concern" from the Society of Professional Journalists ("SPJ"), according to an SPJ press release.

“The fact that Mr. Miller was arrested for taking pictures in a public place was the first violation of his First Amendment rights,” SPJ President Clint Brewer said. “Those rights were violated again when Mr. Miller’s statements in his blog became factors in Fernandez’s sentence. The Society fully defends Mr. Miller’s right to speak freely in his blog.”

The SPJ also took the opportunity to post a guide advising reporters how to avoid confrontations with police while gathering information.

Miller is appealing his conviction for resisting arrest, according to a post on Miller's blog by his trial attorney, though it appears that Miller will have new counsel on appeal.

Unfortunately, it's hard to see how Miller can show that the trial court erred in finding him guilty of resisting arrest without violence.  Of the elements of the crime listed in Fla. Stat. § 843.02, the one most susceptible to challenge would appear to be the requirement that the officers were acting "in the lawful execution of any legal duty." If Miller could show that the officers' arrest for obstruction of traffic was bogus, that would topple the charge of resisting arrest.  But looking at the little evidence available online, the case appears to be Miller's word against the officers' word, and the jury evidently felt the officers' word was sufficient to prove obstruction of traffic.  Without any more evidence, it's difficult to see grounds for overturning the criminal conviction.

But even if Miller's arrest was legal, his sentencing is problematic and merits appeal.  According to another post on Miller's blog, Judge Fernandez seems to have taken personal exception to Miller's lack of remorse, saying that it "appall[ed]" him. While Judge Fernandez is welcome to his personal opinion about Miller, under Florida law, he cannot use Miller's lack of remorse to impose a harsher sentence.

While a sentencing court has wide discretion as to the factors it may consider in imposing a sentence, it is constitutionally impermissible for it to consider the fact that a defendant continues to maintain his innocence and is unwilling to admit guilt. Although remorse and an admission of guilt may be grounds for mitigation of sentence, the opposite is not true.

Ritter v. State, 885 So.2d 413, 414 (Fla. App. 2004) (citations removed). Considering the rather stunning discrepancy between the sentence that the prosecutor sought and the sentence that Judge Fernandez gave, it sure looks like the judge let his feelings about Miller's lack of remorse color his sentencing.  In Ritter, the Florida District Court of Appeal overturned a sex offender's sentence, which went above and beyond that the prosecutor asked for, because the trial judge took umbrage at the offender's continued claims of innocence.  Miller's case seems directly on point with Ritter, and if so, Miller's sentence should be vacated and remanded to a new judge.

(Arthur Bright is a second-year law student at the Boston University School of Law and a CMLP Legal Intern.)

On May 12, the Los Angeles Times ran a story on illegal construction in Kyiv, “an epidemic” that is causing much harm to the city - but is also stirring numerous grassroots protests. One of the activists interviewed for the story was Artem Chapaye - aka LiveJournal (LJ) user chapeye:

[…] Like many of his peers, Chapeye took to the streets in 2004 demonstrations that captivated international imagination and ushered President Viktor Yushchenko into power. Today, he and his friends use that experience, with the help of the Internet, to stage demonstrations against deals cut by people they helped elevate into office.

“The state itself is destroying the city, so we have to fight with our own fists,” Chapeye said. “The bulldozers come and we fight.” […]

Chapaye re-posted the LA Times' story on his blog, adding this sarcastic remark (UKR):

Yes, yes, yes, these damn activists are now ruining Ukraine's international reputation.

This, of course, is an overstatement. Ukraine's image abroad, boosted by the 2004 Orange Revolution, remains largely intact, as the Western media rarely focus on purely domestic matters, such as the vehement public opposition to Kyiv's illegal construction - even though, according to Chapaye, “all foreign journalists working here are perfectly aware of the issue.”

The publication of the LA Times' story is nevertheless a victory for the activists, as well as a reflection of the fact that many ordinary Ukrainians, fed up with a culture of lawlessness that is flourishing in their country, are becoming increasingly involved in grassroots activism.

One of the latest rallies - Velonayizd (”Bicycle Attack”) - took place in Kyiv on June 21, when nearly 500 cyclists, bikers and pedestrians gathered in front of the municipal police headquarters for a Critical Mass-type event, prompted by the recent deaths of at least two cyclists and the authorities' failure to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Velonayizd (”Bicycle Attack”), Kyiv, June 21, 2008 - photo by Alex Kleimenov

On June 7, Anatoly Perepadya, a prominent Ukrainian literary translator, was hit by a car as he was riding to the Writers' Union in Kyiv; he died at a hospital two days later. Born in 1935, Perepadya was held in high esteem for his translations of the works of Marcel Proust, Albert Camus, Francesco Petrarca, François Rabelais, Michel de Montaigne, Antoine de Saint Exupéry and many others. An avid cyclist, in one of his interviews (RUS) Perepadya mentioned that his bicycle was something of an alternative office for him:

Every day, I tried to translate two sonnets [of Petrarca]. […] When things weren't going smoothly, I'd get on my bike and ride around for a long time, and the verses would then come together in my mind.

LJ user dnistrovyj posted a note (UKR) on Perepadya's death in the literatura_ua LJ community, and here's one of the comments (UKR) he received:

terrykoo:

Judging by the statistics and publications on high-profile traffic accidents, what's taking place on Ukrainian roads today is a total nightmare! I don't know anything about the circumstances of Anatoly Perepadya's accident, but a high-ranking official has to be found who will not only “take control” of the investigation, but will also make sure that it results in something; otherwise, WE will have to self-organize and seek justice!.. Because if we don't, our “young” culture may literally not survive into adulthood…

On June 9, Oleksiy (Alesha) Bashkirtsev - LJ user alesha-kiev, a 22-year-old Kyiv musician and performance artist - was killed by a 20-year-old drunk driver.

The following text (RUS) by LJ user arizona_ - about the tragedy and the outrageously inadequate police response - has been re-posted by many bloggers and online media outlets, making it into the Top 30 at Yandex Blogs portal at some point:

[…] While everyone is recovering from the shock and saying good-bye to [Alesha], the man who caused the tragedy is doing all he can to escape justice

[…]

The tragedy took place near Lukyanivska metro station, by the “Sekunda” store. [Alesha] was riding his bicycle, and was hit by an absolutely drunk driver. [Alesha]'s friend Fedor, who was riding together with him, witnessed it all. According to him, he heard the screeching of the wheels behind him, and, as he turned around, he saw a car driving at full speed right at them. It was moving very fast [as it hit Alesha].

[…]

The ambulance arrived 20 minutes later.

[Alesha] was still conscious for a while after being hit, he was in the state of pain shock. The car driver - Khomutovsky Stanislav Olegovych, b. 1988 - got out of the car and started yelling that he's gonna be killed for having ruined the car. According to witnesses, he was absolutely drunk. He never approached the victim of the crash.

The ambulance took [Alesha] to the Pechersk district hospital, where he died several hours later.

The car driver was also taken away by an ambulance, because he seemed to have something like a concussion. Under such circumstances, they usually do blood tests at hospitals, forcefully. It is known that the driver was given a paper ordering him to have a blood test, but, of course, he never did it. A medical conclusion certifying that the driver was drunk DOES NOT EXIST.

[…]

The driver was detained for three days, and then, in accordance with the prosecutor's decision, he was let go on bail. According to the investigator, they wanted to keep him longer, but they got orders from the prosecutor to let him out on bail for the time evidence is being gathered.

Also, according to the investigator, investigation will last for two months. And once they have the results of this investigation, they'll set a date for the trial.

Two months is enough time to prove that driver is not guilty and, moreover, is a victim himself. Knowing how the system works, it's not necessary to explain why it's so simple, right?

[…]

Omitted from the translation above are mentions of a video from the scene of the accident: it was made public somewhat later. Among other things, it features the driver of the BMW that killed Alesha Bashkirtsev. Taras of Ukrainiana, like many other Ukrainian bloggers, embedded the video (UKR) on his blog - and supplied it with a translated transcript:

In the comments section, Taras wrote about some of the recent deadly car accidents whose perpetrators have gone unpunished. One of the obvious conclusions:

[…] Riding a bike in a place where people who drive luxury cars kill with impunity can be very dangerous. […]

But this relative impunity of some inspires protest on the part of others.

Victor Zagreba (aka LJ user viktoza) wrote this (RUS) on his other, non-LJ, Russian-language Bicycle Blog:

[…] All this is forcing Kyiv residents to… no, not to take out their guns (not yet) - but to come out to protest rallies. […] Beginning this Saturday [June 21], we plan to hold street protests regularly, every week or every other week. Until complete victory. […]

Below are links to photo reports from the June 21 rally of Kyiv's cyclists:

- LJ user andriyko (20 photos)

- LJ user my-soul-rebel (14 photos)

- LJ user eagle_x (7 photos)

Cambridge, MA – The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University today formally announced a Request for Technical Submissions as part of the work of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force.

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News reports (here, here) indicate that New Jersey Superior Court Judge Jamie S. Perri dismissed Barbara Bauer's defamation lawsuit against the Wikimedia Foundation yesterday. In what appears to have been an oral ruling from the bench, the court relied on section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230), which protects providers and users of interactive computer services from state-law tort liability for publishing the statements of third parties, to dismiss Bauer's claims. (For more on CDA 230, see our Primer on Immunity and Liability for Third-Party Content Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act).

According to court documents, the dispute revolves around statements made on a large number of websites and blogs describing Bauer as being among the "20 Worst Literary Agents" and claiming that she has "no . . . significant track record of sales to commercial (advance paying) publishers." With regard to Wikimedia, the complaint alleged that Wikipedia published an entry stating that Bauer was "The Dumbest of the Twenty Worst" literary agents and that she has "no documented sales at all." Although Wikipedia initially declined to remove the material (at least according to the complaint), a Wikinews article indicates that "Bauer's Wikipedia article was deleted some time during the course of the proceedings, along with the edit history of her article and its talk page as a 'courtesy.'"

The court's conclusion that CDA 230 barred Bauer's claim is not terribly surprising because she did not make concrete factual allegations suggesting that anyone other than an ordinary, third-party Wikipedia user posted the allegedly defamatory statements. There are some potentially tricky issues that arise in applying CDA 230 to Wikimedia's operating model, at least in the hypothetical case where a relatively high-level admin or sysop creates the offending content. Ken S. Meyers does an excellent job of examining these issues in his article, Wikimmunity: Fitting the Communications Decency Act to Wikipedia, 20 Harv. J. L.  & Tech. 163 (2006). In the lion's share of cases, like this one, however, there should be no question that Wikipedia is entitled to CDA 230 immunity for statements posted by users.

The court only dismissed the claims against Wikimedia, leaving ninenteen individuals and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America still in the case. For more information and links to court documents, see our database entry, Bauer v. Wikimedia.

Identi.ca, an open source/free software + open content = open service microblogging service launched today. From the FAQ:

How is Identi.ca different from Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Plurk, others?

Identi.ca is an Open Network Service. Our main goal is to provide a fair and transparent service that preserves users’ autonomy. In particular, all the software used for Identi.ca is Free Software, and all the data is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, making it Open Data.

The software also implements the OpenMicroBlogging protocol, meaning that you can have friends on other microblogging services that can receive your notices.

The goal here is autonomy — you deserve the right to manage your own on-line presence. If you don’t like how Identi.ca works, you can take your data and the source code and set up your own server (or move your account to another one).

Identi.ca is a project of Evan Prodromou, featured at Creative Commons previously for his work on Wikitravel and other open content initiatives.

Now you can microblog with less guilt. Follow Evan.

Creative Commons’ Jon Phillips is quoted in the press release:

Response from initial testers has been enthusiastic, both for the software’s design and functionality, as well as the site’s openness. “It makes me feel alive again to see the resurgence of free/open on the web,” said Jon Phillips, Community Manager with Creative Commons in San Francisco, CA.

Over the last week we’ve noticed at two instances where editors from mainstream newspapers have confused whether a particular image is licensed under Creative Commons, is in the public domain, or is all rights reserved. In one case, Technology Editor Charles Arthur of The Guardian blogged about a dust up between some photographers and eBay:

Last Thursday we ran a piece about a new (to us) wrinkle on copyright infringement, detailing how some people who had put photos on Flickr under a Creative Commons non-commercial licence (oops - they weren’t) found that they were being sold on eBay by someone who was claiming the rights to them.

Fortunately Mr. Arthur was quick to correct his error (the strike through is his, not ours) as we could find no evidence that the original photos were licensed under CC. While some of the CC licenses would explicitly allow someone to resell the work on eBay (Attribution, Attribution-ShareAlike, and Attribution-NoDerivatives), the default rule of copyright, all rights reserved, however, prevents such transactions.

In other news, The New York Times’ Lede Blogger Mike Nizza improperly associates a public domain image by Henry Holiday as being licensed under Creative Commons:

The Holliday illustrations are from the original 1876 version of Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony, in Eight Fits which is available from Project Gutenberg for download here. Project Gutenberg is able to host the book as the work is in the public domain and not subject to copyright due to its creation date being prior to 1923.  Since copyright is a precondition for Creative Commons licensing (and any other licensing for that matter), it is meaningless to say that a public domain work is licensed under Creative Commons.

The New York Times’ link points to a version of the file hosted on Wikimedia Commons which functions as the media ‘backend’ for all of the Wikipedia projects. Wikimedia Commons only contains images and media which are freely licensed or are in the public domain and is an excellent resource for those looking for media that they they can use freely.

Taking a step back, we are excited to see mainstream media using and attempting to understand free works while properly attributing them.  But it remains clear that paying attention to not only the provenance, but the copyright (and sometimes lack thereof) of images found online is an increasingly important aspect of being a digital publisher.

Switch your name on Facebook, and the New York Times will declare a national movement.

Maybe that’s not exactly how it happens, but a recent Times article suggests that changing your Facebook moniker may actually be far more significant than, say, uploading a new batch of photos. The June 29th piece, which made the front page of the Times website, traces what appears to be a trend among young Obama supporters, some of whom have informally adopted the middle name Hussein to show loyalty to their candidate. Their object is twofold: first, to reject opponents’ attempts at making Obama’s middle name a campaign issue and second, to demonstrate that, in the words of blogger and Obama supporter Jeff Strabone, “We are all Hussein.” This statement is meant to be a declaration of solidarity in the vein of “I am Spartacus,” a 1960 film in which Roman slaves attempt to protect one of their number from solitary execution by declaring that they, too, are Spartacus. To this end, some Obama acolytes have not only adopted the name on Facebook, but have also begun to sign their checks with it or to have their friends append “Hussein” when addressing them. The trend only goes so far, however. As the Times reports, “Legally changing names is too much hassle, participants say, so they use ‘Hussein’ on Facebook and in blog posts and comments on sites like nytimes.com, dailykos.com and mybarackobama.com, the campaign’s networking site.”

What’s to be made of all this unofficial renaming? Is it a revolution, as the tone of the Times article seems to imply? Or is it, as the title of one critical blog suggests, only so much hot air? It’s hard not to be skeptical. The article consists mainly of testimonials from those who have already adopted the name Hussein, omitting any alternative viewpoints that might lend some perspective on the trend. To be fair, reporter Jodi Kantor does throw in one mitigating phrase about halfway through — “The movement is hardly a mass one, and it has taken place mostly online, the digital equivalent of wearing a button with a clever, attention-getting message” — but because she presents no sources or statistics to buttress it, the statement seems like an afterthought. And really, what does changing a username prove, other than the fact that you have internet access?

My initial fear in reading the article was that Kantor’s coverage only substantiates what Mark Bauerlein and others have already alleged – that today’s youth are the “Dumbest Generation,” a demographic that equates activism with fashion items and the Facebook causes everybody puts on their profile but never actually contributes to. Indeed, responses to a handful of blog posts critical of the article include such choice lines as “What a bunch of dillweeds” (at HotAir Headlines) and “Just stoopid kids” (on Sweetness and Light). The piece itself does little to counter this impression: the five newly-minted Husseins in the accompanying photo are posed more like a rock band than a group of political volunteers, and the arrangement of the subjects suggests the photographer was particularly concerned with showcasing the most photogenic members of the group. The article also dodges a more significant point – that adoption of the name among young people reflects both growing acceptance of Muslims and a rejection of the anti-Islamic sentiment often promoted by critics focused on Obama’s middle name (and yes, to say it again, Obama is Christian, not Muslim).

It appears to me that the Mark Bauerleins and Jodi Kantors of the world, despite their divergent impressions of young people, are all guilty of the same thing: oversimplification. Their portrayals of Digital Natives gloss over the legitimate and difficult work youth are doing to address a variety of international and domestic issues — whether launching NGOs like TakingITGlobal, which promotes youth activism in various social and political arenas, or running national grassroots organizations like ObamaWorks, which organizes community-oriented service projects.

Teenage frippery, which usually involves toying with identity, has always gone hand in hand with youthful idealism and achievement; nowhere is this combination more pronounced than online. As danah boyd notes, young people today are no different from the youth of generations past, and much of what they do online (hanging out, listening to music) is normal, real–life behavior that has simply been transferred to a digital space (albeit with additional opportunities and risks presented by the new medium). Just as these activities take place both online and off, so too do youth activism and political engagement. It seems that both Kantor and the advocates of the “Dumbest Generation” argument have been misled by the blurring of young people’s private and public faces, confused, perhaps, by the fact that teenagers’ shallow and serious tendencies are expressed simultaneously in the enduring public space of the web.

Kantor and reporters like her would do well to acknowledge this balance and to cover stories in a way that reflects what young people are really doing in the world today: defining themselves, determining their loyalties, and doing much more to bring about change than just tweaking their usernames.

– Nikki Leon

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif says seven writers and website administrators have been arrested in a bid to silence them in Bahrain.

A recent Chinese Internet Research Conference in Hong Kong has inspired much discussion about the myths surrounding the Internet in China. In his paper titled The Great Firewall as Iron Curtain 2.0, Lokman Tsui argues that U.S. communications policy towards China is still primarily based on the traditional broadcasting model of the Cold War, and the belief that freedom of information in regimes like China will eventually erode communist rule. However, Tsui warns that “our use of the Great Firewall metaphor leads to blind spots that obscure and limit our understanding of Internet censorship in the People’s Republic of China.”

In traditional broadcasting systems, freedom of information and censorship are a zero-sum game: an increase in one leads to an automatic decrease in the other. But in the Internet realm, according to many empirical studies about the Internet in China, both access (the rise of the Internet population, blogging, instant messaging, and social networking sites) and control (See the OpenNet Initiative’s report) appear to both be on the rise. Although WikiPedia, Bloggers, and Typepad are blocked in China, Chinese Internet users can still have blogs, and wiki service hosts are also available, including Blogbus, Sina Blog, and Wiki.cn. However, as former Berkman fellow and co-founder of Global Voices Rebecca MacKinnon has noted, “the system that filters or blocks external websites from internal view is only one part of a complex set of mechanisms of China’s Internet control.”  The social behavior of users online is as important, if not more so, than access to information when determining the level of online free speech in China.

According to one Chinese blogger

We live in a strange society in which de-politicization and pan-politicization co-exist… The fates of certain democratic fighters have a cautionary effect on the people, who become politically indifferent. But when political incidents keep occurring inside and outside China to the point where cover-up is impossible, the repressed political demands and discontent are released and the people become politically passionate.

Unfortunately, China’s Internet surveillance and internal censorship regimes discourage and limit citizens’ online political expression. For example, many bulletin board systems do not allow individuals to discuss political issues, and many measures (such as real name registration policy) create a Foucault’s panoptic surveillance environment where participation in sensitive political discussion is highly risky. My empirical study of Chinese Internet users’ online political participation revealed that the perception of government surveillance is an important predictor of individuals’ online political expression, both in local and foreign online forums.

Although China’s online political space is limited, chaotic, and sometimes even nasty, internet scholar Zheng Yongnian believes it is enabling greater political liberalization and forcing the leadership to be more responsive to public opinion. For evidence of this one could look to Chinese President Hu Jintao  online chat with netizens via the People’s Daily online forum. He argued that “the web is an important channel for us to understand the concerns of the public and assemble the wisdom of the public.”  According to Hu’s webcast, online public opinion is considered by the government as a cooperative tool to improve the Party and the bureaucracy’s progress. In other words, China limits public online expression and the development of the Internet to the Party’s interests—not exactly a great harbinger for democracy.

However, Zheng says that most unsuccessful online movements in China tend to advocate the “exit” option (i.e. the Chinese people should exit one-party communist rule), while successful online movements tend to use what he calls the “voice” option, where the Internet provides the state with feedback from social groups to improve its legitimacy (see Rebecca MacKinnon’s blog on this topic).  Jiang Min has dubbed the public deliberation in Chinese cyberspace as “authoritarian deliberation.” Compared with the deliberation in democratic countries, authoritarian deliberation is akin to political liberalization 1.0. Min says that due to one-party rule, the goal of the deliberative process is to improve policies and create more accountable government, as opposed to Zheng’s “exit” option. Indeed, this is part of the process of political learning, where people can learn anew how to contemplate politics and make their own judgment and choice—a critical democratic process.

Just one week after the big release of the Case Studies project, things are doing great!  The project has garnered a lot of attention as can be seen from this example list. Some of the things said about the project include these two excerpts.

Ruth Suehle from Red Hat Magazine said:

Despite having just launched, the site is already full of studies.

And Marshall Kirkpatrick from ReadWriteWeb echos the sentiment with:

If your organization is interested in making your content easier to distribute, this database is a great place to learn from the experiences of others. … The breadth of examples already available is very commendable and many of them are quite well developed.

All of the support and positive reviews of the projects are great, but what is really showing us how much this project is appreciated is the fact that people are adding and editing Case Studies!  If you haven’t found your favorite photographer, filmmaker, musician, or writer who uses CC licenses on the list, take a moment and add them.

We have also started to put together some Professions pages to be used to help people find examples of case studies and other information for their discipline more easily.  Right now the pages include a featured list of case studies per profession and even some links to notable works in those areas.  There is a page for Photographers, Musicians, Writers, and Filmmakers. Be sure to check them out.

And, like any other part of this project, if you find anything missing, incorrect, or out of date, feel free to change it.  If you have any suggestions as to what can be added feel free to mention that as well.

Thank you everyone for making this project so successful!

ImageStamper is a free tool “for keeping dated, independently verified copies of license conditions associated with creative commons images.” You can see an example of how it works here. From ImageStamper:

ImageStamper can act as your witness when you inspect the copyright license of an image that you want to download and use. You can ask ImageStamper to look at the web page with the image to independently verify what exact license conditions apply to that image. ImageStamper will visit this webpage from one of its servers and produce an image ‘timestamp’ — a dated record of image contents and of the license conditions that apply to that image. This timestamp will then be permanently stored in your account and you can present it as evidence that you were given appropriate rights to use the image.

You can help with the development of the project (still in BETA) by giving feedback at the ImageStamper forum.

Wordle is an awesomely fun new tool (read what the TEDBlog had to say about it) that makes aesthetically pleasing text-images out of any block of text, a site’s RSS feed, or a user’s del.icio.us bookmarks. Check out a ‘wordle‘ we made of CC’s “Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally” text found on the front page of our website:

All of the images created by Wordle are released under a CC BY license, meaning that you can reuse them as you see fit as long as you provide proper attribution. Some seriously cool ideas are sure to follow - for instance one great idea (UPDATE: link fixed!) for using MOO, Wordle, and Flickr to create some eye-catching business cards.

"I was recently asked to help celebrate “One Web Day” an event I admit I had never heard of. So I googled it, naturally, and discovered that it was roughly “earth day for the internet,” an opportunity to celebrate what the world wide web means to humanity. How could I not be tickled pink? Much of my waking life is guided by the faint glow of the internet, and when not actively “participating” in web culture, I am often studying its dynamics like an anthropologist (a la danah boyd)

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As an NPR aficionado, I was intrigued by a recent series on Morning Edition entitled “In the Internet Age, a New Cultural Revolution” in which correspondent Laura Sydell detailed how Chinese artists have found a creative niche on the Web. Electronic musicians and authors such as B6 or Zhang Shuyu are not only using cyberspace as an outlet through which to display their unique talents, but to make a living as well – “skirting censors” to liberate themselves from China’s harsh censorship practices. Chinese online artists are an example of how the internet has become a hub for authors, musicians, and entertainers globally not only to promote their individual work, but more importantly, to evade and challenge restrictive state policies.

The Internet is not only helping artists create virtual studios or encourage new forms of art education, however, it is also promoting the tradition of activist-art. Some electronic artist-activists are more obvious about their objectives. For example, Freemuse.org revealed that Zimbabwean protest singer Viomak launched the Voto Radio Station on the internet in opposition to Zimbabwe’s censorship policies. And others, such as British collector Charles Saatchi ,are more subtle: In an attempt to break down cultural and language barriers, he created an online art gallery site for the Chinese public not only to learn more about art, but also to display their work.

Whether their purpose is to challenge government policies and practices or break down cultural barriers, these online artists have used the Internet to facilitate the democratization of mainstream art. Artists have always been an active group in social movements across the world: contributing to calls for collective action, making powerful political statements, and challenging popular beliefs all through creative methods that touch a broad audience.

Now, whether consciously or not, they have changed the way we use the Internet: not simply as a tool for gathering information, but as an expressive space in which people from across different spectrums can combine their passions for art and social change. Ultimately, electronic artists have democratized cyberspace by continuing to perpetuate the relationship between art and activism – using the internet to propel socio-political movements and speak to the global community about the common struggle for freedom of expression.

I thought I might lose my Trader Joe’s Blueberry Muesli this morning, listening to Adam Davidson chat with Morning Edition co-host Ari Shapiro about free trade, Colombia and the US election. Their 4-minute conversation is ickily chatty (”Hey Adam, hey Ari”) and unbearably arrogant and US-centric. Adam contends that making a big fuss over trade agreements with Colombia is, in his words, “nutty” because Colombia is just too small to matter: “I did the math and… the entire Colombian economy is the size of Hollywood, Florida, not Hollywood, California” They both laugh. Indeed, what could be more entertaining than living in a country where the per capita gross domestic product is less than $20 a day?

So, Ari persists, why do US politicians care about this silly little country, since only “some people here and there” (Adam’s words) will be affected by any trade deals? Well apparently, unions are upset because a lot of union leaders get killed there, but as Adam goes on to observe in the same cheerful “gosh-how-silly” voice, “a lot of people get killed in Colombia, it’s a very violent society.” Wow, that’s even funnier than being poor!

The hilarity continues as Davidson notes that in some states “trade is a big, big deal” even though those foolish voters are just wrong about trade being the reason they lost their jobs. Davidson presumably thinks that American voters in those states may be almost as stupid as the people who choose to live in poor, violent Colombia.

I’ll leave union members and residents of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio to defend themselves against Davidson’s flip dismissal of their concerns. On behalf of the rest of the world, though, I urge NPR to make both Ari Shapiro and Adam Davidson spend a few hours learning something about Colombia. Wonderful place to start is on Global Voices, which will steer them to a heart-breaking series of short videos on the struggles of a brave group of women to fight back against the violence and economic hardship in the Barrancabermeja region, home to the country’s biggest oil refinery. Hey, did Davidson really fail to mention that petroleum accounts for almost 30% of Colombia’s exports? Yup, I listened one more time to be sure.

This offensive piece of “analysis” (perhaps that’s just another word for “filler” at Morning Edition?) added nothing to our understanding of trade issues or the election politics it was supposedly about, while actively encouraging the worst sort of American closedmindness. Which public is public radio aiming for?

Photo: Bogotá
2600m + montañas paisas…
Uploaded on December 27, 2006
by One*mandarino
Some rights reserved

You might have noticed that over the weekend, we’ve made a new addition to the Internet and Democracy blog’s normally static header. We’ve been hard at work behind the scenes and we’re happy to officially announce today that we’re launching the very first edition of the I&D Tools Database!

The Database is designed as an ongoing aggregation of the many established and emerging digital tools that we encounter in our research. In addition to cataloging the functions particular tool serves, it provides information on a tool’s user base and a brief description of its development history. Notably, it will also act as a log of the political uses (if any) that we’ve seen these tools used for in the wild. It’s hoped that that the database will be a useful resource for researchers, activists, and anyone else interested in the intersection of tech and politics.

Looking through it now, you’ll see that its a basic start, but we’re already working on some plans to expand the effort in the future iterations of the project with more entries and richer data. At some point, the I&D project is also considering relaunching the database as a wiki-based initiative to allow interested parties and some of the individuals who use these tools in practice to contribute new entries or enrich the descriptions that we have. If you’d be interested in getting involved with this effort, drop Tim Hwang a line at thwang@cyber.law.harvard.edu!

Adam Gnade, a musician based in Portland, OR, recently published his first book, Hymn California, through CC-friendly distribution group CASH Music (blogged earlier here and here). Released under a CC BY-NC-ND license, the book is being serialized online in PDF form, one chapter a month over the next year along with a piece of music by Gnade.

Hymn California’s characters witness a strange wide-sweeping, panoramic America unfolding before them, while its 200 pages examine having an abusive relationship with a place (California) rather than a person. It shows displaced characters scattered across the continent, burdened by fear and homesickness while fighting to live unencumbered by bourgeois ideology. Death stalks at every intersection and on every riverbank. Lives sway in the delirium of wartime. Says Gnade, ‘A friend of mine asked me if I was trying to write ‘American magic realism’ with the book and I didn’t really have an answer for him. If it is, it was an accident’.

You can get more info on ordering the book in primary physical form here - one recently found its way into the CC offices and we are comfortable attesting to its stunning nature. Outside of purchasing the book itself, CASH suggest you support Gnade by seeing him live or by leaving a small donation at his CASH music page. Similarly, you can read an excerpt from the novel at Drowned in Sound.

At age eleven, I experienced Disney at the movies or on VHS, nowadays Digital Natives are experiencing it online. Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, reports:

“Kids 2-11 viewed an average of 51 streams and 118 minutes of online video per person during the month, while teens 12-17 viewed an average of 74 streams and 132 minutes of online video. Those over 18 viewed an average of 44 streams and 99 minutes of online video”

The way I see it, it’s impossible to avoid this phenomenon, and if anything, these numbers will continue to increase in the near future. Digital Natives can find anything from “digital play for girls today” (everythinggirl.com) to “where the hell is matt” (wherethehellismatt.com) to the NBA Finals. As Michael Pond, senior media analyst, Nielsen online, states:

“Today’s youth don’t know – or don’t remember – a time when they weren’t going online, so their adoption of online video has been seamless”

For young Digital Natives online video seems to compliment their TV experience. Their top online video destinations include Disney Records, PBS Kids, Nick, and Barbie, among others. For DNs, ages 12-17, the demographic with the highest average of streams viewed, the most popular destinations include YouTube, MySpace.com, Google Video, Facebook, bebo, and funnyjunk.com, among others.

In many ways, online video is more engaging and interactive than conventional video sources such as TV or DVDs. For example, YouTube enables users to watch related videos, post video responses, and make comments about the videos viewed. This establishes a community where users are not only able to find videos but also network with others who share similar interests. PBS Kids, for example, allows users to color and play games with their favorite characters. One common theme in all of these websites is availability of related-video-links. This makes it more likely for users to spend longer periods of time online. We all know the way it goes, one link leads to another link, which leads to yet another link…the possibilities are endless.

And there’s video content for everyone. Some of my school friends who studied abroad became experts at finding sites that would enable them to watch American shows while abroad. When they came back to the states they were hooked on websites such as alluc.org or tv-links.cc. These are “link-sharing-website that catalogue links to TV shows, movies, music videos, sport, anime and cartoons to make them more easily accessible.” Not only do we have YouTube, where you can “broadcast yourself”, we also have websites that make it possible to watch all the episodes of all the shows you’ve ever loved watching, online. For those who love sports, there are websites such as rojadirecta.com, where soccer fans can watch matches for free. And my personal favorite, I recently started attending a church where they offer podcasts of the sermons, so if you spaced out for a second and did not pay attention to the youth pastor, no biggie, just watch the podcast.

Finally, I believe this development to be positive. From my own experience, I know I can sing Hakuna Matata better than I can recall the departments of Colombia – something I apparently learned in the 3rd grade. As a child I always loved learning through video. I learn about how babies come to the world at age five through a video my mom rented and to this day I remember clips from it. It is crucial that we learn and continue to harness the influence and power online video has on Digital Natives today. Video content online shouldn’t be just an extension of what young Digital Natives are experiencing in front of their televisions. It must continue to go beyond.

The Video Generation: Kids and Teens Consuming More Online Video Content Than Adults at Home, According to Nielsen Online

-DO.

The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2008 was held in Budapest, Hungary, June 27-28. As noted on the summit's website, the event brought together "the members of the Global Voices citizen media project and its wider community with a diverse group of bloggers, activists, technologists, journalists and others persons from around the world, for two days of public discussions and workshops around the theme 'Citizen Media & Citizenhood.'"

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LoHud.com, an online news site operated by The Journal News that focuses on New York's Lower Hudson Valley, reported on Friday that a Westchester County judge has ruled that it must turn over the names of three pseudonymous posters to former House Representative Richard Ottinger and his wife, June Ottinger. According to the report, Ottinger and his wife subpoenaed The Journal News asking for identifying information for posters to the site's Westchester and Mamaroneck community forums going by the psuedonyms "SAVE10543," "hadenough," and "aoxomoxoa." The posters allegedly made statements accusing the Ottingers of unsavory conduct in the course of a neighborhood dispute over their construction of a house in the Orienta, NY waterfront community. 

The Journal News moved to quash the subpoena,  but the court ruled that the newspaper had to turn over the requested information.  Although the details are still sketchy, the court appears to have applied the standard for protecting the First Amendment right to anonymous speech set forth in Dendrite v. Doe, 775 A.2d 756 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2001). We are trying to get the underlying court documents, and we'll update this post and our database entry, Ottinger v. The Journal News, when we have more information. 

Incidentally, this is the second subpoena issued to the Journal News over comments on LoHud this year. The Rockland County District Attorney's Office served a grand jury subpoena on the newspaper in April, demanding that it produce subscriber information for another pseudonymous user. The Journal News also moved to quash the subpoena in that case, but the court declined to adopt the Dendrite standard in the grand jury context and found that the District Attorney had made a heightened showing of need through in camera testimony. See our database entry, New York v. The Journal News, for details and copies of court documents.

This past week the Internet & Democracy Project was kind enough to sponsor my attendance at the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Budapest. It is an international gathering of the members and fans of the international blogging project Global Voices, which curates the world’s blogospheres in order to increase cross-cultural understanding.

This year, the summit focused on limitations of free speech online, both technical forms of censorship like filtering and offline forms of censorship like illegal imprisonment. This touches on the themes of the Internet & Democracy project in so far as freedom of expression is a key element of democratic societies. Without the ability to freely access information and discuss its relevance to public issues, it is impossible for citizens to make informed policy decisions and to determine where their own best interests lie. The online space, particularly blogs, present an opportunity for citizens to share and discuss information that is not available in the mainstream media, yet authoritarian governments are trying to close this loophole.

Also, as Egyptian digital activism Alaa Adbel Fatah mentioned during a Q&A session, the Internet is not only a place for citizens to share information and discuss its importance, but also to organize for action. Egyptians’ use of Facebook in organizing a general strike last month, is a vibrant example of the ability of the Internet to help citizens organize for collective action. The government’s reaction, which included the arrest and torture of activists involved in the online campaign, is a vivid example of the government’s desire to close off the democratic potential of the Internet to empower citizens.

The part of the conference which is most directly connected to the I&D project was the session on the wired electorate and emerging democracies. The session featured several cases about how bloggers are playing an important role in monitoring elections and providing reliable information to citizens when traditional media is shut down or censored. Panelists Onnik Krikorian from Armenia and Daudi Were from Kenya provided particularly useful case studies of this phenomenon. I will end by cross-posting Patrick Meier’s excellent post on that session, originally published on his blog iRevolution.

This panel included activists from Kenya, Armenia, Iran and Venezuela to discuss the following question: is citizen media having an actual impact on democracies in transitions? (more…)

Four Fingers and a Thumb 2.0 speaks out against political tyranny and the passivity that allows it to continue. “A dictator in the world,” she says, “is like the abusive father in the community that no-one wants to report.”

Law and Other Things comments on a situation, where an editor has been arrested, and describes it as a tussle between social justice and freedom of press.

While Day One of the Global Voices Summit focused on Advocacy, today focused more upon Global Voices proper, with information presented on the other GV projects of Rising Voices and Lingua.

The day began with an introduction by Georgia Poppelwell (GV Managing Director) and Solana Larsen (GV Managing Editor), in which our wonderful wonderful sponsors were thanked. David Sasaki (Rising Voices Outreach) spoke briefly about the latest ongoings of the Rising Voices project, and showed a short film that featured the current independent projects being funded by Outreach.

Session 1: Web 2.0 Goes Worldwide was moderated by Lova Rakotomalala, with Catalina Restrepo (HiperBarrio, Colombia), Collins Dennis Oduor (REPACTED, Kenya), Cristina Quisbert (Voces Bolivianas, Bolivia), Mialy Andriamananjara (FOKO, Madagascar) speaking. It was live blogged by Rebecca Wanjiku. This panel gathered leaders of cutting-edge Web 2.0 initiatives from Colombia, Kenya, Bolivia, and Madagascar who seek to make the global conversation more representative of the global population. Issues pertaining to their specific projects and the challenges that they have overcome.

Session 2: The Wired Electorate in Emerging Democracies focused on how the rise of blogging, social networking and micro-blogging services like Facebook and Twitter, video- and photo-sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr, and the spread of mobile technology have given ordinary citizens the means to participate more fully in the democratic process. Looking at the impact these tools have had on recent elections were Daudi Were (Kenya), Onnik Krikorian (Armenia), Hamid Tehrani (Iran), Luis Carlos Díaz (Venezuela). Solana Larsen moderated the session, while Jillian York livedblogged the proceedings.

When Biases Meet Biases was the topic for Session 3. Focusing on recent Tibetan protests against China with the Olympic Torch Relay Ceremonies, international sentiment towards the Chinese has been quite negative. What can be done to encourage dialogue in times of such heated disagreement? Panelists Isaac Mao (Entrepreneur and Researcher, China), Rebecca MacKinnon (University of Hong Kong and Global Voies), John Kennedy (Chinese Language Editor, Global Voices), aided by moderator Xiao Qiang, endeavor to answer this question. Thanks to Jillian York for liveblogging the session.

The up-and-coming powerhouse branch of GV, Lingua, provided Session 4: Translation and the Multilingual Web. Lingua Head Portnoy introduced and moderated a panel with speakers Chris Salzberg (Canada/Japan), Paula Góes (Brazil), Rezwan (Bangladesh), Claire Ulrich (France). They briefly addressed issues concerning how Lingua content posts are chosen for translation, the importance of how offering different language content greatly expands GV's audience, and covered some of the new translation tools that are being utilized by this team. Lingua currently translates into German, Spanish, French, Italian, Malagasy, Portuguese, Albanian, Macedonian, Arabic, Farsi, Bangla, Hindi, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese.

Our last session today was When the World Listens. Moderated by Preetam Rai and with