[DDN] In search of Public Truth online!
In search of Public Truth online! - Building a case for ICT Software Freedom By Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary FOSSFP http://www.fossfp.org Author: Copyrights Copylefts - Building a case for ICT Software Freedom http://fossmullah.wordpress.com As the Shuttleworth Foundation's Go-Opensource Episode 2 Video states that blogging is not dark and smelly, it's fresh and new and it's incredible and magnificent. It's on the internet and has got journalists in a frill. Usually people are used to getting news through newspapers, magazines, television or radio broadcasts, and news publisher websites. Behind the scenes, international journalists and editors are preparing news and links for syndication of news stories and those stories go through a process of editing and vetting before they appear on printed page or other forms of mass media. But amidst this process, a relatively new phenomenon has introduced the element of anarchy and self expression in to the world of journalism and proponents say that it's changing the way we get our news. Journalism for the People by the People Blogging is journalism for the people and they can write whatever they want, people have a voice now through blogging, they don't have to go through large vetted articles made by someone else. Blogging gives people the opportunity to write articles that they want, their own opinions and anyone can comment on it, anyone can read it if they want, they can share it with other people and can derive new information or knowledge from them thus sharing the principles of freedom from the Free and Open Source Software Movement. Where did Blogs come from? The word blog is short for Weblog, and it can be about virtually anything, from an online personal diary, travel story, cooking recipes to public policy and political campaigns. A blog is to the world of online publishing what Free and Open Source is to Software. What do blog readers feel? Readers can feel in the same way the writers are feeling through their Blogs, you can virtually write and share the bare truth or be as funny as you want and the best part of it is that people can actually participate through posting comments and sharing their opinion, it gives nourishment to the phenomenon of free speech and open public debate sometimes even influencing public policy development and change. Blogs and public participation? The problems with television and paper based news is that you can only write letters or drop a call to the editor and it is in his power to accept or reject or choose what gets printed or is sent on air. Through Blogs, people can actually participate in the news sharing their point of views and getting the feel of news as it happens. Feedback has always been necessary for human change and need fulfillment; it's a basic form of human self expression indicating feelings and response towards opinions. Are all Blogs truth and nothing but the truth? The sense of community and interactivity offered by Blogs gives birth to a new form of transparency of information. If you're posting garbage and false facts online, obviously readers will see directly through and have the freedom of rejecting the Blogger's blog and searching out the facts from other Blogs and online sources so the Blogger may immediately loose credibility and interest of online readers. Successful Blogger are people with a sense of responsibility of providing timely and accurately true information so that they can enjoy public participation and sharing of thoughts on account of their information. The whole concept of the blog publishing ecosystem is to provide an environment where false information doesn't see the light of day and nothing but the truth and open truth reaches all corners of the globe. A medium to extend or call for help? Blogs extend new ways of sending voice to other parts of the world including the bare facts of super imposed rules and discrimination. Blogs help send the voice of human right violations and call for relief worldwide within seconds or a short duration of the activity taking place. Blogs help lobby and create adequate support from social actors' worldwide thus enabling help that was otherwise not easy to mobilize in the past through tele or printed mass media. To Blog or not to Blog, what really is the question? The biggest need for Blogs is to link to articles and related material that are sharing similar points of views, may be against the views, or provide further support as evidence to the thought provoking information at hand or discussion. These links may from be from the legitimate media like video clips from CNN and BBC showing the same footage but portraying different points of view from American or European critics and analysts, the online community may have a totally different point of view and may reference to these footage materials building the case that why both CNN and BBC may not be right or wrong. Having links pointing to the sources of what actually
[DDN] Re: [ctcnet] [Net Neutrality] Surprises
I think your suggestion of promoting civic engagement within the CTC is very appropriate. Considering that all the people who utilize CTCs in a particular representative's area will make up a very small fraction the constituency, this is also a great opportunity for CTCs to be catalysts for civic engagement beyond the doors of the lab. This issue is perfect for CTCs and CTC users to take the initiative to partner with other types of community organizations to present educational forums. It's likely then, that a far greater number of people would be inspired to become civically engaged. Those newly engaged people would the be able to take advantage of the CTC tools to support their engagement. At 12:06 PM -0500 4/27/06, Dave A. Chakrabarti wrote: Hi all, Please excuse the cross-posting, to anyone who gets this twice. I recently visited savetheinternet.com to see how things were going in the current political fight to save net neutrality. I was somewhat surprised to see that Bobby Rush supports Barton's Bill to stifle net neutrality, and voted against the Markey Ammendment. Ok, so anyone can sell out, I suppose. What surprised me even more was the response I got when I called in to let them know where I stood on this issue. The staffer who answered the phone said that he wasn't sure if I understood the bill properly, but that there was an immensely large section of his constituency that demanded lower cable prices, and this was why it was imperative that the Barton bill be supported. That there was an overwhelming demand for this bill from his constituents. They're billing this as a *community led* initiative. A grassroots response to rising cable costs. I posed a question to the staffer I was speaking with. If Comcast is allowed to block all VOIP calls except their own, then how does this lower my bills? Presumably by allowing Comcast to recover expenses from Sunrocket / Lingo / Vonage / etc while lowering their VOIP service costs. I asked how this could guarantee a more competitive market between Comcast's VOIP service and other players, and if there was a guarantee that, given this freedom, Comcast would offer a better product at a lower price. I mentioned that Comcast's VOIP service now costs $50 a month, with less features than my Sunrocket account at $16 per month. He had no response. He similarly had no response when I asked him how SBC's being able to charge Google for providing search services helps consumers, or a response to the idea of Google being double-billed (since they pay for their upstream bandwidth anyway...they're certainly not using anyone's pipes for free). He took down my name and address, and said they had a letter they could send out to me with more information on this. Savetheinternet.com is right. More and more political figures are getting nervous on the net neutrality issue as people are sitting up and taking notice. The general public doesn't want a corporate controlled internet. The only way to keep it from happening is to have people voice their thoughts on this to every single political figure involved. Congratulate the ones who're on the right side, make (public) voodoo dolls for the ones who aren't. I'm wondering if CTCs could run a write to your legislator campaign which took a few minutes to draft a letter which the CTC would then collect and mail to a Congressman, Representative, Senator, etc. A form letter on the projector / board, with a discussion beforehand to educate students on what is at stake here. Not a lobbying action or something intended to influence voting or anything along those lines...just a civic engagement exercise on an important issue. My VISTA contract actually prevents me from lobbying, and I'm sure most of our funding sources won't support lobbying either, but a civic engagement exercise with political engagement as a goal should be something worth working towards. Stationary and mailing costs would be minimal (a few cents per individual) so I'd think this is a practical way to engage communities. I'm also told that actual physical letters are *much* more effective than emails, so the easy way out of setting up an email server actually isn't that effective. An old-fashioned letter writing campaign could actually accomplish a lot more. Thoughts on this idea? Dave. --- Dave A. Chakrabarti Projects Coordinator CTCNet Chicago [EMAIL PROTECTED] (708) 919 1026 --- You received this message as a subscriber on the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To be removed from the list, send any message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Xavier Leonard Heads On Fire San Diego, CA ph.:619.232.9573 fx.:619.544.0993 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.headsonfire.org Fulfilling the promise of technology through community centered
RE: [DDN] healthy people 2010 and the digital divide
I left Taran's question below. As a medical librarian, i would like to believe that an increase in a person's understanding about prevention and disease will help them to take better care of themselves and be a healthier person. And it will help them to know what to demand from health care providers. While it is true, that people of lower economic status have less access to high quality or to even adequate health care, it is also true that they have less access to reliable health information. More and more government agencies and nonprofits are relying on the Internet to be their vehicle to distribute the latest news in health research and preventative care. People without access to the Internet cannot get on resources that the National Institutes of Health, including the National Library of Medicine and its excellent web site MedlinePlus http://medlineplus.gov/ provide. Dealing with providing people Internet access to assist them in getting better access to health information is a very important step in assisting them in getting and demanding better access to health care. Information is Power - or at the very least, an important part of getting power. So, in fact, maybe someone would be prevented from getting malaria if they were able to get online and learn that they need to take specific preventative measures to avoid it, and then were able to demand that preventative care be provided. Thats a stretch, and there are MANY issues that surround health care. Since this is the digital divide network, i am only focusing on this one aspect of it. I hope you see the value of having this conversation on this list serv. thanks for your comments. siobhan Wouldn't it be more fair to say that people who can afford internet access can also afford better health care (preventive and otherwise)? I find it difficult to see the correlation any other way. The digital divide encompasses many things, but I don't think that anyone has gotten malaria because they didn't have internet access. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago [EMAIL PROTECTED] Looking for contracts/work! http://www.knowprose.com/node/9786 New!: http://www.OpenDepth.com http://www.knowprose.com http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ Criticize by creating. - Michelangelo ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Call for Applications: Professional Development Award (PDA), Regional Office for South Asia (SARO) of IDRC.
FYI Only. Apologies for cross-posting. miraj = Call for Applications: Professional Development Award (PDA), Regional Office for South Asia (SARO) http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-96472-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html The Innovation, Policy and Science (IPS) Program Area of IDRC, and the Centreâs Regional Office for South Asia seek applications from qualified candidates for a Professional Development Award beginning July 3rd, 2006. The awardee, based at the New Delhi office, will assist the IPS Program Area in program development in the region, particularly focusing on questions of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policies vis-à -vis development challenges in the region as well as the social, economic and public policy impacts associated with new technologies, especially biotechnology and nanotechnology. The closing date for receiving applications is May 31st, 2006. For more details please refer to the following document. http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/11455626311PDA-English.doc Contact: José Manuel Gil Research Officer IPS Program Area PO Box 8500, Ottawa, ON Canada K1G 3H9. email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] BSA forbidden to use its acronym alone, and the bsa.ch domain in Switzerland
Sources: - Piratenbekämpfer als Freibeuter (Pirate fighters as filibusters). inside-it.ch, April 21, 2006 http://www.inside-it.ch/frontend/insideit?site=ii_d=_articlenews.id=6809 - Judgment by the first civil section of the Swiss Federal Court on BSA Business Software Alliance Inc v BSA Bund Schweizer Architekten, Jan. 12, 2006 (in German) http://relevancy.bger.ch/cgi-bin/AZA/JumpCGI?id=12.01.2006_4C.360/2005 BSA Bund Schweizer Architekten, the federation of Swiss architects, was created in 1908. In 1998, BSA Business Software opened a branch in Switzerland and grabbed the bsa.ch domain name. The architects' BSA objected, in particular when the pirate-hunting BSA launched a Schonfrist Kampagne (period of grace campaign for retroactive software legalization) aimed at all Swiss architects' studios in 2003. On Juli 11, 2003, Architects' BSA sued pirate-fighting BSA. On Jan 24, 2005, the Zurich district court ordered the pirate-fighting BSA to stop using its acronym without its full name. Pirate-fighting BSA appealed to the Zurich cantonal court. On Sept. 2, 2005, the cantonal court confirmed the judgment of the district court. Pirate-fighting BSA appealed to the Swiss federal court. On Jan. 12, 2006, the federal court confirmed the judgment of the Zurich cantonal court, specifying moreover that pirate-fighting BSA must stop using the bsa.ch domain name. Pirate-fighting BSA did try to argue that BSA is a common acronym (Boy Scouts of America, for instance), and that software and architecture being different trades, no confusion could arise that would harm the commercial interests of the architects' BSA. But the architects' BSA retorted that if people landed by mistake on the pirate-hunters' site when they wanted the architects' federation site, this would indeed harm the architects' federation good name, due to the aggressive pirate-fighters' Period of grace campaign. And the court found the architects' argument valid. Does anyone know a top-brass at the Boy Scouts of America? Claude Claude Almansi Castione, Switzerland www.adisi.ch ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
