Archive for April, 2004

Electronic Voting suspended – will not be used in June

Friday, April 30th, 2004

The Commission on Electronic Voting has issued its first report as many of you will have heard. Based on the report the government has announced that electronic voting will not be used in the June elections. This is indeed a victory for those of us calling opposing the proposed system, ...

Resisting digitally, in Paris

Tuesday, April 27th, 2004

On 2 April I attended a conference at the American University in Paris titled 'the Other Internet: Exploring Digital Resistance.' Sabryna and I were presenting a version of our work on MoveOn, which examines how MoveOn compares to previous manifestations of mass political action.

UICC colloquium

Tuesday, April 27th, 2004

Last Friday saw a one day colloquium in Chicago where students of the Institute of Communications Research at UIUC had an opportunity to meet with students of the Communications Department at UIC. Organised by Sabryna Cornish the motivation came from the increasingly closer links between the two units, with some ...

E-voting in India continues to enable ballot stuffing

Tuesday, April 27th, 2004

We've been pointed to this story on TruthOut, and originally from NYT, which details how the move to electronic voting in India has not had any impact on ballot stuffing - and may have made the process even more efficient!

Referendum opposition in Ireland

Tuesday, April 20th, 2004

Glad to see the Labour Party in Galway is joining the local campaign against the xenophobic/racist referendum. It looks like the party will strongly oppose the referendum at a national level too - I can't imagine that the membership will allow a lukewarm stance.

Swanlund update

Friday, April 16th, 2004

I gave a rather terse update as the press conference was going on earlier, and have rewritten it slightly now. There were three gains mentioned, two involving Cantor/university administration, one involving Trustee Carroll: - Administrators have facilitated the settting up of meetings with representatives of the Latino and Black caucuses in ...

Swanlund – minor update

Friday, April 16th, 2004

Minor developments at Swanlund. The Chancellor showed up, to authorise letting the 'outside tactical team' in to meet the 'inside tactical team.' They went in briefly, and came out to say that the people inside are 'working on an agreement.' It appears there's a gag order on discussions (unsurprisingly). The ...

Anti-Chief sit-in – 30 hours in

Friday, April 16th, 2004

Anti-Chief activists have infiltrated and taken over the Swanlund administration building at UIUC. As I speak they've been in for almost 30 hours. There has been quite a lot of coverage in local media, and there's a weblog detailing news from inside! I gather NPR and others have covered it, ...

Passport control and Iraq

Wednesday, April 14th, 2004

This from Michael Moore's latest missive:The funniest story my guys tell me is how when they fly into Baghdad, they don't have to show a passport or go through immigration. Why not? Because they have not traveled from a foreign country -- they're coming from America TO America, a place ...

New sub-site – IPRH reading group

Wednesday, April 14th, 2004

I've put together a new site for the reading group in participatory media that I'll be starting in the Fall semester. There's little on it at the moment, and it's still a bit rough, but it will eventually include a schedule of events, a list of readings (and copies of ...