Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:33:56 -0400 http://www.bligoo.com/ es "Blog for a Cause" now available in Arabic http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/203158/Blog_for_a_Cause_now_available_in_Arabic.html Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:12:31 -0400 http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/203158/Blog_for_a_Cause_now_available_in_Arabic.html marycjoyce@gmail.com Tibetans Use the Internet to Get the News Out http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/144134/Tibetans_Use_the_Internet_to_Get_the_News_Out.html Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:25:00 -0400 http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/144134/Tibetans_Use_the_Internet_to_Get_the_News_Out.html marycjoyce@gmail.com Last week hundreds of Tibetan monks took to the streets in and near the Tibetan capital of Lhasa to protest Chinese rule. Although the heavily censored Chinese media refused to cover the story, both Tibetans and foreign tourists used the Internet to get the news out.


cell phone image of protests published on the site of a Tibetan rights NGO based in India

According to the Vancouver Sun, “Amateur cellphone photos and video clips showing what were described as confrontations between police and Tibetans protesting Chinese rule poured onto websites big and small, including those for major news media,

(Read more)]]> Prison Blogging: Making Invisible People Visible http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/136966/Prison_Blogging_Making_Invisible_People_Visible.html Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:05:00 -0300 http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/136966/Prison_Blogging_Making_Invisible_People_Visible.html marycjoyce@gmail.com Today I read in the New York Times that 1 in 100 American adults is in prison.  This is the highest incarceration rate in America's history and I believe it is also one of the highest in the world.  This is really shameful, not to mention horrible social policy, given what we know about high recidivism rates and the crimilnalizing effects of being in jail.

Because of the way my mind works, I am always wondering if there is grassroots digital solution to any problem and I am wondering if having inmates blog might be a good idea. 

Certainly this

(Read more)]]> Blog for a Cause!: The Global Voices Guide to Blog Advocacy http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/125463/Blog_for_a_Cause_The_Global_Voices_Guide_to_Blog_Advocacy.html Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:57:00 -0300 http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/125463/Blog_for_a_Cause_The_Global_Voices_Guide_to_Blog_Advocacy.html marycjoyce@gmail.com blogforacause.jpgI wrote this guide for Global Voices Advocacy.  It explains how activists can use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice around the world. Blogging can help activists in se veral ways. It is a quick and inexpensive way to create a presence on the Internet, to disseminate information about a cause, and to organize actions to lobby decision-makers.

The goal of Blog for a Cause is twofold: to inform and to inspire. The guide is designed to be accessible and practical, giving activists a number of easy-to-follow tips on how to use a blog to further their particular

(Read more)]]> Free Fouad on CNN http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/114680/Free_Fouad_on_CNN.html Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:39:16 -0300 http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/114680/Free_Fouad_on_CNN.html marycjoyce@gmail.com New York Times Sees Blogs as Threat http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/112975/New_York_Times_Sees_Blogs_as_Threat.html Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:36:59 -0300 http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/112975/New_York_Times_Sees_Blogs_as_Threat.html marycjoyce@gmail.com The Campign to Free Fouad http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/111031/The_Campign_to_Free_Fouad.html Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:35:41 -0300 http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/111031/The_Campign_to_Free_Fouad.html marycjoyce@gmail.com Don't Cry for Us, Thomas Friedman http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/80102/Don_t_Cry_for_Us_Thomas_Friedman.html Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:55:20 -0400 http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/80102/Don_t_Cry_for_Us_Thomas_Friedman.html marycjoyce@gmail.com Columnist Thomas Friedman is worried about the politics of the Internet generation. He wrote the following in the New York Times on Wednesday in an editorial entitled "Generation Q."

I just spent the past week visiting several colleges...and I can report that the more I am around this generation of college students, the more I am both baffled and impressed....

I’ve been calling them “Generation Q” — the Quiet Americans, in the best sense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, at home and abroad....

But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, for its own good,

(Read more)]]> Semiotic Democracy and Rayt http://www.raytthenet.com/content/view/68669/Semiotic_Democracy_and_Rayt.html Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:31:53 -0400 http://www.raytthenet.com/content/view/68669/Semiotic_Democracy_and_Rayt.html marycjoyce@gmail.com The theory of semiotic democracy states that ordinary people can re-define and create culture. We are not merely the passive receptacles of judgements, beliefs, and traditions. We can re-work these semiotics (signs) and in so doing re-work culture.

white_house_rayt_Aug07_centercrop.jpgscreenshot of Rayt comments at the top of www.whitehouse.gov: One thousand comments

(Read more)]]> Taking Back the Internet http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/65785/Taking_Back_the_Internet.html Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:06:00 -0400 http://www.zapboom.com/content/view/65785/Taking_Back_the_Internet.html marycjoyce@gmail.com 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 you to buy more.   The powerful  don't expect you to interact with them and they don't want you to interact with you unless it will somehow encourage you to be more obedient.

We have accepted that we can't talk back to the rich and powerful.  But that is a lie. 

(Read more)]]>