As of late (in the past three days) I have started defining my interest in digital activism in terms of its transformative capacity. By transformative I mean the ability of digital activism to alter the political status quo. I am not interested in digital campaigns that seek to gain victories ... Leer más
I am interested in digital activism to the extent that is is politically transformative, that it can give marginalized political actors more power. I usually think about this in the progressive context of human rights activists and democracy promoters but, as the case of Internet jihad demonstrates, violent and hyper-conservative ... Leer más
Since I got to Harvard I've been casting myself in all digital directions: research assistant at the Berkman Center, trying to start a student Digital Action Group (DigAct), maybe building some digital activism technology with Gene Koo, bringing a speaker to campus. I've got a big goal and I'm not ... Leer más
In this post I foolishly choose a public forum to hash out a half-baked digital activism theory. There are currently two main poles of digital activism: comman and collaborative. In command activism, an institution uses the Internet to direct its members to take certain actions, like phoning a member of ... Leer más
Note: The idea of semiotic democracy - the collaborative public definition of cultural signs (semeîon in Greek) - is gaining popularity, particularly as it applies the the Internet. Here's a passage on semiotic democracy from my case study on the citizen journalism web site OhmyNews. Please feel free to correct ... Leer más
Why do people want to be "on the Internet?" One of the main reasons is simple freedom. The Internet is a rare example of a true, modern, functional anarchy. There is no "Internet Inc." There are no official censors, no bosses, no board of directors, no stockholders.Today that paragraph, written ... Leer más
Most of the Internet is like a village square where the rich come to sell you something and the powerful come to remind you who is boss. The rich don't expect you to interact with them and they don't want you to interact with them unless it will somehow encourage ... Leer más
Open it up, it's free... and here's why One of the basic tenets of anarchist thought is the gift economy, an economic system in which goods and services are given without any explicit agreement for a reciprocal gift of money, good or services from the receiver. Basically, in a ... Leer más