Articles by: KimChou
About: KimChou
Wikis and the political process: Introducing WikiMeg
Meg Whitman, former eBay executive, is now running for California governor on the Republican Party ticket. Democratic Coalition group Level the Playing Field 2010 is trying to stop her — by digging up dirt, with the public’s help.
Opposition research (“oppo research,” in politico parlance) into possible skeletons in the closet is nothing new, but Level the Playing Field uses crowd-sourcing to do so. WikiMeg launched Monday, so give it some time to see what people turn up.
Some concerns, however, have already been brought up — and eloquently so — by a San Francisco Chronicle piece when the site launched and a write-up on TechPresident, and here too on CBSNews. Though the web site’s “welcome” message requests that contributors add to the information on the site in a “positive and constructive way,” especially because it is a partisan site, who is to say that it won’t just become a database of unfounded smears? (Or, as TechPresident Nancy Scola says, “a slime site.”) WikiMeg’s contributor guidelines do ask people to link to sources when possible — which should help on the verity issue, as long as people are citing credible sources — but also allows first-hand reports.
In saving money and time otherwise spent on research, and making volunteer contributors feel like more instrumental cogs in the political process, Level the Playing Field has come up with a smart product. Time will tell on how useful — and true — it actually is, but there’s potential here so keep an eye on it.
We also talked about crowd-sourcing in our Blueprints version 1.0, using TED’s Open Translation Project as an example of constituents (because we’re all digital constituents with allegiances and dependences, aren’t we?) volunteering toward a greater effort, in TED’s case, translating TEDTalks. While wiki-style research is not yet common in politics, there’s been several examples in “citizen journalism,” such as ProPublica’s “Stimulus Spot Check,” launched last summer.
How do you think crowd-sourcing should be used in politics?
Posted in: Uncategorized | Tagged:
You might be reading this on your iPhone
From an interesting study on a social-networking trends, released in the last week by web traffic trackers comScore, Inc. …
A new survey by comScore, Inc. shows that Facebook and Twitter access via mobile has grown by triple-digits in the past year. Via the release:
The study found that 30.8 percent of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January 2010, up 8.3 points from 22.5 percent one year ago. Access to Facebook via mobile browser grew 112 percent in the past year, while Twitter experienced a 347-percent jump.
Are you surprised, or not surprised? And what could that mean for us? Some thoughts after the jump.
Posted in: Uncategorized | Tagged: chatroulette, facebook, friending, Noam Cohen, The New York Times, things to read, twitter
Short-codes for “The Cove”: Mobile activism, Oscar-style
In a night of quote-worthy Oscar speeches, from Mo’Nique to “Music By Prudence’s” Kanye moment, activist Ric O’Barry’s short-code spoke louder than words.
O’Barry held up a sign that said “TEXT DOLPHIN TO 44144” when he and others involved in the making of ”The Cove” — a documentary about efforts to stop an annual dolphin hunt in Japan — took the stage for their Best Documentary Feature win at Sunday night’s 82nd annual Academy Awards.
Following O’Barry’s instructions signs you up for the film’s mobile campaign, connecting you to more information on the film, trailers, a petition against the hunt in Taiji, Japan, and other materials to promote “The Cove” and the cause behind it.
Some viewers watching on television might not have caught O’Barry’s message; the cameras cut away soon after he raised the sign above his head. The Academy Awards show producers, after all, are famous for trying to keep things short and on schedule — and relatively politics-free.
Posted in: Environment, Mobile, News | Tagged: Action, advocacy, community, documentary, film, Oscars, short-codes, The Cove
ThinkSocial Awards: Stand Up Take Action (United Nations) "Largest mobilization of human beings in recorded history"
VOTE
Name: Stand Up Take Action (United Nations)
Nominated Category: Organization & Collaboration
URL: http://www.standagainstpoverty.org, http://www.endpoverty2015.org
Area: Advocacy, Action
About:
As part of the movement to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals to end poverty by 2015, millions of people on designated days each year have answered the “Stand Up Take Action – End Poverty Now” campaign’s call to “stand up and take action.”
Description:
Action events include rallies, teach-ins and community service days, in communities around the world. In 2008, 116 million people participating broke the Guiness World Record for largest mobilization around a single cause. And this year, between Oct. 16 and 18, more than 173 million people participated in events, details of which were coordinated via Facebook, Twitter and the Stand Up’s interactive web site.
On the site, a world map makes it easy to find events going on in your area, and the “action center” and “take action” sections have information on how to organize and register your own event, or join an existing one. There are also online actions, such as embedding a “Stand Up” widget to a blog or social network profile, and ways to “Get the Widget Out” and bring more attention to the cause on your blog; people who added the widgets were counted as part of the 173 million participants. Images of on-the-ground action events were broadcast by way of Flickr and YouTube, which you can also see in photo and video galleries on standagainstpoverty.org.
But with 2015 fast approaching, the Stand Up campaign says, no region is on track to reach its MDG targets for ending poverty and hunger, improving gender equality and making education universal. So the campaign continues to rally people around eradicating poverty and its root causes, emphasizing the MDG commitment at a time when the global financial crisis and developing climate crisis seem to have consumed most people’s mind. The campaign does so by keeping an active presence on Twitter, Facebook and Myspace, as well as YouTube and Flickr accounts. There’s a blog keeping track of action day activities around the world, as well as related news.
The Basics:
WHO: Stand Up Take Action – End Poverty Now
WHAT: A campaign where people around the world show solidarity in the movement to end poverty, as part of the United Nations’ Millennium Democratic Goals.
WHERE: Events are organized worldwide.
HOW to get involved: Follow the Stand Against Poverty campaign’s blog, or check it’s Twitter, Facebook and Myspace accounts for information on future action days.
What other people are saying:
Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report
What do you think?
- Comment on this entry and tell us what you think. Who else should we be highlighting in this category?
- Share these initial selections with your network, through Twitter, Facebook etc
Learn more about ThinkSocial Awards here.
Thanks for your support and participation.
Posted in: Non-profit, awards, collaboration, organization, poverty | Tagged: Action, advocacy, collaboration, facebook, flickr, poverty, twitter, UN, youtube
ThinkSocial Awards: Stand Up Take Action (United Nations) “Largest mobilization of human beings in recorded history”
VOTE
Name: Stand Up Take Action (United Nations)
Nominated Category: Organization & Collaboration
URL: http://www.standagainstpoverty.org, http://www.endpoverty2015.org
Area: Advocacy, Action
About:
As part of the movement to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals to end poverty by 2015, millions of people on designated days each year have answered the “Stand Up Take Action – End Poverty Now” campaign’s call to “stand up and take action.”
Description:
Action events include rallies, teach-ins and community service days, in communities around the world. In 2008, 116 million people participating broke the Guiness World Record for largest mobilization around a single cause. And this year, between Oct. 16 and 18, more than 173 million people participated in events, details of which were coordinated via Facebook, Twitter and the Stand Up’s interactive web site.
On the site, a world map makes it easy to find events going on in your area, and the “action center” and “take action” sections have information on how to organize and register your own event, or join an existing one. There are also online actions, such as embedding a “Stand Up” widget to a blog or social network profile, and ways to “Get the Widget Out” and bring more attention to the cause on your blog; people who added the widgets were counted as part of the 173 million participants. Images of on-the-ground action events were broadcast by way of Flickr and YouTube, which you can also see in photo and video galleries on standagainstpoverty.org.
But with 2015 fast approaching, the Stand Up campaign says, no region is on track to reach its MDG targets for ending poverty and hunger, improving gender equality and making education universal. So the campaign continues to rally people around eradicating poverty and its root causes, emphasizing the MDG commitment at a time when the global financial crisis and developing climate crisis seem to have consumed most people’s mind. The campaign does so by keeping an active presence on Twitter, Facebook and Myspace, as well as YouTube and Flickr accounts. There’s a blog keeping track of action day activities around the world, as well as related news.
The Basics:
WHO: Stand Up Take Action – End Poverty Now
WHAT: A campaign where people around the world show solidarity in the movement to end poverty, as part of the United Nations’ Millennium Democratic Goals.
WHERE: Events are organized worldwide.
HOW to get involved: Follow the Stand Against Poverty campaign’s blog, or check it’s Twitter, Facebook and Myspace accounts for information on future action days.
What other people are saying:
Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report
What do you think?
- Comment on this entry and tell us what you think. Who else should we be highlighting in this category?
- Share these initial selections with your network, through Twitter, Facebook etc
Learn more about ThinkSocial Awards here.
Thanks for your support and participation.
Posted in: Collaboration, Non-profit, Organization, awards, poverty | Tagged: Action, advocacy, collaboration, facebook, flickr, poverty, twitter, UN, youtube
ThinkSocial Awards: Remembering Omid Reza "Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last"
VOTE
Name: Remembering Omid Reza “Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last”
Nominated Category: Individual (Omid Reza, Iranian blogger)
URL: http://www.march18.org, http://www.globalvoices.org, http://www.committeetoprotectbloggers.org
Area: Advocacy, Action, Memorial
About:
On March 18, blogger Omid Reza Mir Sayafi died in prison after being sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He had been charged with insulting religious leaders and spreading propaganda about the Islamic Republic of Iran.
There were reports of Mir Sayafi—who primarily wrote about Persian music and culture—being depressed, of him taking sedative pills or receiving an overdose, of being described by his also-jailed doctor as “not at all fit for confinement” and the prison hospital failing to provide adequate care. People spoke of how use of torture was an open secret in Iranian prisons, and how someone accused of libelous blogging could be kept near more violent criminals.
Mir Sayafi’s death under mysterious circumstances—and the whys and hows of a blogger being jailed in the first place—prompted outcry by members of the international community, followed by action. The March 18 movement started in part as a memorial to Mir Sayafi (with March 18 denoted as a day of remembrance), and in part to ensure that “the first blogger to die in prison be the last” as more bloggers around the world become victims of more than just government censorship.
Founded by Hamid Tehrani and Mideast Youth, an interfaith youth network, the March 18 movement seeks to expand the world’s understanding of bloggers as de facto journalists, and extend the protections normally accorded to journalists to all those who share information and stories of repression and corruption online–sometimes at risk of violence or other harm.
March18.org asks supporters to join them by following the movement on Twitter, Facebook and the movement’s blog. The blog and Twitter feed post on movement-relevant issues and news: Recent posts include news about a freed female reformist blogger and information on how to help bloggers currently being persecuted in Vietnam.
The motivations of the March 18 movement and similar initiatives are not unlike those of “Reporter Without Borders” – the long-established activist organization for journalists’ rights that has spoken out about continued persecution of bloggers in Iran. Mir Sayafi’s death, and the role bloggers and active Twitter users played in the civil unrest following Iran’s presidential elections this year, has drawn attention to the bloggers’ rights movement, represented by sites like Global Voices and the Committee to Protect Bloggers.
The Basics:
WHO: Omid Reza Mir Sayafi and people around the world trying to ensure that what happened to him doesn’t happen to other bloggers.
WHAT: Mir Sayafi was one of a number of bloggers that have been arrested in Iran; he was reportedly the first to die in prison. Movements and memorials have sprung up in his memory, and his story — and the greater story of persecuted bloggers in Iran, and the yet greater story of bloggers under oppressive regimes around the world — has also drawn attention to bloggers’ rights and safety campaigns worldwide.
WHERE: Worldwide.
HOW to get involved: Follow the March 18 blog, Twitter and Facebook feeds. Become a member on the web site. Check out Global Voices, Reporters Without Borders and Committee to Protect Bloggers for new.
WHAT other people are saying:
What do you think?
- Comment on this entry and tell us what you think. Who else should we be highlighting in this category?
- Share these initial selections with your network, through Twitter, Facebook etc
Learn more about ThinkSocial Awards here.
Thanks for your support and participation.
Posted in: Individual, News, News & Information, awards, politics | Tagged: Action, advocacy, Bloggers, censorship, Freedom, government, Iran, Jail, MiddleEast, Prison, Violence
ThinkSocial Awards: Remembering Omid Reza “Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last”
VOTE
Name: Remembering Omid Reza “Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last”
Nominated Category: Individual (Omid Reza, Iranian blogger)
URL: http://www.march18.org, http://www.globalvoices.org, http://www.committeetoprotectbloggers.org
Area: Advocacy, Action, Memorial
About:
On March 18, blogger Omid Reza Mir Sayafi died in prison after being sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He had been charged with insulting religious leaders and spreading propaganda about the Islamic Republic of Iran.
There were reports of Mir Sayafi—who primarily wrote about Persian music and culture—being depressed, of him taking sedative pills or receiving an overdose, of being described by his also-jailed doctor as “not at all fit for confinement” and the prison hospital failing to provide adequate care. People spoke of how use of torture was an open secret in Iranian prisons, and how someone accused of libelous blogging could be kept near more violent criminals.
Mir Sayafi’s death under mysterious circumstances—and the whys and hows of a blogger being jailed in the first place—prompted outcry by members of the international community, followed by action. The March 18 movement started in part as a memorial to Mir Sayafi (with March 18 denoted as a day of remembrance), and in part to ensure that “the first blogger to die in prison be the last” as more bloggers around the world become victims of more than just government censorship.
Founded by Hamid Tehrani and Mideast Youth, an interfaith youth network, the March 18 movement seeks to expand the world’s understanding of bloggers as de facto journalists, and extend the protections normally accorded to journalists to all those who share information and stories of repression and corruption online–sometimes at risk of violence or other harm.
March18.org asks supporters to join them by following the movement on Twitter, Facebook and the movement’s blog. The blog and Twitter feed post on movement-relevant issues and news: Recent posts include news about a freed female reformist blogger and information on how to help bloggers currently being persecuted in Vietnam.
The motivations of the March 18 movement and similar initiatives are not unlike those of “Reporter Without Borders” – the long-established activist organization for journalists’ rights that has spoken out about continued persecution of bloggers in Iran. Mir Sayafi’s death, and the role bloggers and active Twitter users played in the civil unrest following Iran’s presidential elections this year, has drawn attention to the bloggers’ rights movement, represented by sites like Global Voices and the Committee to Protect Bloggers.
The Basics:
WHO: Omid Reza Mir Sayafi and people around the world trying to ensure that what happened to him doesn’t happen to other bloggers.
WHAT: Mir Sayafi was one of a number of bloggers that have been arrested in Iran; he was reportedly the first to die in prison. Movements and memorials have sprung up in his memory, and his story — and the greater story of persecuted bloggers in Iran, and the yet greater story of bloggers under oppressive regimes around the world — has also drawn attention to bloggers’ rights and safety campaigns worldwide.
WHERE: Worldwide.
HOW to get involved: Follow the March 18 blog, Twitter and Facebook feeds. Become a member on the web site. Check out Global Voices, Reporters Without Borders and Committee to Protect Bloggers for new.
WHAT other people are saying:
What do you think?
- Comment on this entry and tell us what you think. Who else should we be highlighting in this category?
- Share these initial selections with your network, through Twitter, Facebook etc
Learn more about ThinkSocial Awards here.
Thanks for your support and participation.
Posted in: Individual, News, News & Information, awards, politics | Tagged: Action, advocacy, Bloggers, censorship, Freedom, government, Iran, Jail, MiddleEast, Prison, Violence
ThinkSocial Awards: The Guardian and readers tweet around a gag order
VOTE
Name: The Guardian and readers tweet around a gag order
Nominated Category: Collaboration
Area: Media, Investigative Reporting, Wiki
About:
On April 1, 2009, The Guardian newspaper announced that its articles would from that point on only be available in tweet form. “Experts say any story can be told in 140 characters” declared the headline of the April Fool’s Day piece, whose total column inches would have taken a few dozen microblog posts to transmit.
Description:
Accompanying the story were highlights from the Twitterized archive of 188 years of ink included “W Churchill giving speech NOW” and “Listening 2 new band ‘The Beatles’”.
One can read into the prank a bit of snark regarding the hype around the microblogging platform. It’s been a weird year where Ashton Kutcher reaching 1 million Twitter followers before CNN was big news before its significance was eclipsed by Iranians’ Twitter-based reporting of unrest after disputed presidential elections.
But The Guardian, too, would make news for it’s innovative Twitter use just this month. An initial tweet by editor Alan Rusbridger— “Now Guardian prevented from reporting parliament for unreportable reasons. Did John Wilkes live in vain?”, regarding a gag order on documents related to shipping company Trafigura’s 2006 dumping scandal —started a chain of investigation by Guardian readers.
The tangling of The Guardian and Trafigura requires a lot of background: briefly, a 2006 mass dumping of toxic sludge injured and killed people in Cote D’Ivoire; Trafigura paid the Ivorian government millions but denied that the company could have known the impact of the waste; and this past year, a copy of a scientific analysis of what might have been dumped fell into the hands of a Guardian reporter.
A court order prevented the Guardian from reporting on it, but the analysis found its way onto Wikileaks and then a member of Parliament asked about the case (mentioning the report) a few days later. Prompted by the Guardian, readers set off to find the Parliamentarian’s question, wide broadcast of which began a build-up of pressure that would finally force Trafigura to allow release of the report.
All told, the Guardian and its readers used quite a toolbox of old and new media methods to get the story out—reading clues to what couldn’t be printed in the print paper, sharing information by wiki, broadcasting big questions and reaching a big audience with Twitter.
Perhaps Noam Cohen best described the overwhelming buzz about social utilities in the New York Times account of The Guardian/Trafigura events:
“There is a danger in overpraising a tool like Twitter at the expense of the words it amplifies — in essence, extolling the chisel rather than Michelangelo.”
In recognizing instances where Twitter and other tools has been used in innovative ways for good, it’s key to remember who’s doing the deed: it’s the person, not the platform. As has been said about other nominees in this awards program, the technology is one thing, but knowing how to harness it is another—and the Guardian and its readers have certainly shown their know-how in this case.
The Basics:
WHO: The Guardian reporters and editors, and readers
WHAT: Using Wikileaks, Google’s SideWiki, Twitter and a strong news sense to get around a gag order in the Trafigura dumping case.
WHERE: The Guardian is in the UK. It’s readers are all over the world.
WHAT other people are saying:
What do you think?
- Comment on this entry and tell us what you think. Who else should we be highlighting in this category?
- Share these initial selections with your network, through Twitter, Facebook etc
Learn more about ThinkSocial Awards here.
Thanks for your support and participation.
Posted in: Collaboration, awards, politics | Tagged: collaboration, government, Guardian, Microblogging, Microblogs, politics, Tweet, twitter, Twitterized, Wikileaks
ThinkSocial Awards: Google Earth Outreach Program “Tools for mapping the world, for good”
VOTE
Name: Google Earth Outreach Program
Nominated Category: Organization
URL: http://www.earth.google.com/outreach/index.html
Area: Technology, Outreach
About:
“Don’t be evil,” as everyone knows, is Google’s unofficial company motto. The web and tech giant actively pursues the opposite of evil—in a rather official, large-scale way—with its philanthropic and development programs, including the very recently expanded Google Earth Outreach.
Description:
Since 2007, Google Earth Outreach has enabled non-profits and public benefit organizations to tell their stories with Google Earth & Maps. Google Earth provides a suite of tools that help organizations better illustrate their cause, such as a gadget that helps a user create layers of placemarks using Google Docs, and another that lets users embed Google Earth KML map files directly in their blogs or web sites; and, even more useful, there are video tutorials that explain how to use them.
The Outreach program site links to third-party resources as well, including free software for using geo-tagged photos in Google Earth. Google-awarded grants enable organizations to use premier version of these technologies, and the program even encourages organizations to apply for other companies’ grants for satellite imagery and other similar products. One example of an early (and ambitious) project was the United Nations refugee agency’s mapping of different refugee situations.
This week Google announced that Google Earth Outreach is now available in Africa, making it possible for organizations to take advantage of the pro-version software grants and other opportunities. The launch was also a way for Google to show off what some non-profits have already been doing to visualize their work in Africa with Google Earth.
Save the Elephants uses Google Earth KML touring to show viewers a narrated tour illustrating efforts to protect Mali Desert elephants. And the United Nations Environment Programme’s recently released Uganda Atlas of Our Changing Environment traces environmental change in 11 different sites in Uganda using historical imagery. This UN effort also includes narrated tours of four of the sites featured, including the Mabira Forest Reserve and Mount Elgon.
Another of the program is a workshop/tutorial element. Coming up later this week is a free workshop Google is hosting in Kampala, Uganda for non-profits interested in using the Google Earth technology. There’ll be another such workshop in Nairobi, Kenya November 5.
The Basics:
WHO: Google Inc.
WHAT: Google Earth Outreach Program – now available in Africa: a grant program that enables non-profits and other public-benefit organizations to better use Google Earth & Maps technology to tell their story.
WHERE: Recently expanded to Africa.
HOW to get involved: Visit earth.google.com/outreach for information on the program – and for how your organization can better use Google tools and resources.
What other people are saying:
What do you think?
- Comment on this entry and tell us what you think. Who else should we be highlighting in this category?
- Share these initial selections with your network, through Twitter, Facebook etc
Learn more about ThinkSocial Awards here.
Thanks for your support and participation.
Posted in: Non-profit, Organization, awards | Tagged: Africa, Environment, Free, google, non-profits, Software, uganda
ThinkSocial Awards: Kiva “Micro-loans that change lives”
VOTE
Name: Kiva
Nominated Category: Organization
URL: http://www.kiva.org
Area: Microfinance, Fundraising
About:
Of all of the talk today about the miracles of microfinance-meets-the-internet and the different platforms and donation sites that have sprung up, early innovator Kiva arguably remains the biggest beast.
Description:
Kiva.org launched in 2005 after founder Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley hit upon the idea for a peer-to-peer microlending web site after witnessing the power of microfinance first hand in East Africa. Since then–by pairing with “field partner” institutions that profile entrepreneurs on the Kiva site (a seamstress in Ghana, a food production in Vietnam), which lenders around the world can choose to support with donations of varying size—Kiva is currently averaging one loan every 11 seconds, 24,000 lenders lending $1.9 million this week to 5,000 entrepreneurs (with roughly 98% repayment).
The numbers as well as how the individuals and institutions involved got to them are all up front on the Kiva.org web site, which is part of its appeal. The home page has a gallery of featured entrepreneurs, and clicking on a profile takes you to a full description of the entrepreneur and his or her business, as well as details about the specific loan and the field partner.
Akosua in Ghana, for example, needs $700 to buy sewing materials. From reading her profile, you can see what members of the Kiva lending community have lent her money; how much money her affiliated field partner, Sinapi Aba Trust, has distributed via Kiva; and the terms of the current loan.
Through searching the “community” section on the web site, you can also find out more information about fellow lenders on Kiva, often grouped together as “lending teams” of multiple members for greater impact—figures for average number of loans per member and total amount loaned are available.
On the site, Kiva has a host of tools and other fun tricks for lenders who want to spread the word about the platform and its mission. There are embed-friendly banners that showcase a different entrepreneur every time a page is refreshed, for example, and information about volunteering with Kiva, such as joining the Kiva Fellows Program and working directly for one of its partner microfinance institutions.
Kiva also has a developer program, where developers build applications using Kiva tools. Featured apps include a live world map of Kiva loans in various stages and a suite of tools that alert lenders to when loans of their interest appear on the Kiva.org site.
The Basics:
WHO: Kiva.org
WHAT: Peer-to-peer microlending web site, enabling entrepreneurs around the world to receive loans from lenders around the world.
WHERE: Worldwide.
HOW to get involved: Register on Kiva.org and complete a lender profile.
What other people are saying:
What do you think?
- Comment on this entry and tell us what you think. Who else should we be highlighting in this category?
- Share these initial selections with your network, through Twitter, Facebook etc
Learn more about ThinkSocial Awards here.
Thanks for your support and participation.
Posted in: Non-profit, Organization, awards, poverty | Tagged:
