Archive for February, 2005
Thursday, February 24th, 2005
This is amazing. A group of 11-12 year olds were made write letters to a US soldier as a social studies assignment. So they did. And they asked questions, like "Have you seen how many civilians you or some other soldier killed?" and "By the way, when you shoot someone, ...
Posted in Political activism | Comments Off on Teacher apologises for critical comments of students
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2005
As days go today has been more productive than many. I must admit it's been somewhat strange though. I've been working mainly on an essay focusing on intellectual property - you could describe it as the political economy of intellectual property in an archaic social system - which is related ...
Posted in Intellectual property issues | Comments Off on Ancient intellectual property – a teaser
Monday, February 21st, 2005
I recently completed an article for Tuppenceworth on the future of radio. It expands on the notes from my talk in NUI, Galway last year, and on some of my more recent analysis of ComReg. It has now gone online. I think it gives a reasonable summary of my current ...
Posted in Radio | Comments Off on Looking to the future of radio
Friday, February 18th, 2005
Early in the New Year I emailed An Taoiseach (the Irish Prime Minister) regarding ODA. As regular readers will be aware the Irish government recently abandoned a pledge to reach the 0.7% ODA target by 2007. I've just got a reply, which includes some information I haven't seen elsewhere and ...
Posted in Income and poverty | Comments Off on Irish government to launch consultation process on ODA?
Friday, February 18th, 2005
This week's Media Matters radio show will feature my fellow ICR student Paul Riismandel of MediaGeek and Mike Lehman, the driving force behind the nascent WRFU. For those not within range, it should be archived on the Media Matters webpage.
Posted in Radio | Comments Off on Community radio and LPFM on Media Matters
Friday, February 18th, 2005
Good news for opponents of software patents today, with the European Parliament calling on the EU Commission to withdraw its draft proposal.
Posted in Intellectual property issues | Comments Off on No to Software Patents in EU Parliament
Friday, February 18th, 2005
Alternet's recent piece on slums and slum-dwellers is well worth reading. It is estimated that fully one quarter of the world population will shortly be living in slums. This piece touches on the various political questions that arise, such as issues of political agency. Discussing attempts to have the slum ...
Posted in Income and poverty | Comments Off on Slums and political agency
Thursday, February 17th, 2005
There's a fascinating and useful piece on Alternet about the interaction between the internet and on the ground organizing - the space/place debate, I suppose. I'm still wading through it, as it's quite dense (in the good sense).
Among the interesting points was talking about new members in a group, and ...
Posted in Political activism | Comments Off on Organizing and the internet
Thursday, February 17th, 2005
I was recently pointed to this interesting site. It appears that Minnesota's OpenDemocracy.org group have got a contract to set up local eDemocracy groups around the UK as part of the UK's eGovernment efforts.
Posted in Online communication | Comments Off on eDemocracy in the UK
Tuesday, February 15th, 2005
Interesting piece in Wired about a German radio station that's planning on integrating music downloads and streaming over mobile phones into its business plan:The first step has seen MotorFM, launched Feb. 1, abandon on-air commercials in favor of generating revenue from MP3 downloads and targeted sponsoring of its programming. The ...
Posted in Radio | Comments Off on German radio station with innovative approach