The Nexus of 2024

Category: political

Get FISA Right: Proposed 2009 strategy

Dec 9, 2008

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by

jon

in political, social computing

After discussions with people in Get FISA Right as well as others (including EFF, ACLU, privacy advocates, and journalists), I’ve put together a proposal for a 2009 Strategy.Â There’s also a Strategy Backgrounder, with a brief history, and a discussion of our strengths and challenges — as well as challenges for the anti-FISA forces in…
Three important posts on techPresident

Dec 8, 2008

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by

jon

in political, social computing

techPresident continues its recent roll, with three very worthwhile posts. Micah Sifry’s The Other Transition: Whither Obama’s Movement? contrasts the transparency of change.gov and the transition in DC with the top-down and relatively closed nature (so far) of the discussions about the future for the organizers network and my.barackobama.com.Â Excellent comments from folks like Wade…
Get FISA Right: Proposed 2009 communication channels

Dec 4, 2008

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by

jon

in political, social computing

In response to the consistent feedback that we need to simplify our communications mechanisms, there’s a proposal up on the wiki.Â A summary: to stay informed: check the website/blog at getfisaright.net OR get action alerts and daily(ish) newsletters on any one of the channels listed in the “Broadcasts” section below (email, RSS, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)…
change.org/MySpace “Ideas for Change in America” top 20

Dec 1, 2008

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by

jon

in political, social computing

Updated info available at the top ideas list on the change.org site Ideas for Change in America is a citizen-driven project that aims to identify and create momentum around the best ideas for how the Obama Administration and 111th Congress can turn the broad call for “change” across the country into specific policies…. The top…
Get FISA Right and Change.org’s Ideas site: Rupert Murdoch as civil rights sugar daddy?

Nov 24, 2008

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by

jon

in political, social computing, Tales from the Net

Nancy Scolaâ€™s Ideas for Change, and a Roadmap in techPresidentâ€™s â€œDaily Digestâ€ discusses Change.orgâ€™s Ideas for Change in America: The social-action hub has just announced that the project now has the backing of MySpace and a broad coalition of supporting partners, including techPresident, the Sunlight Foundation, Netroots Nation, VotoLatino, GOOD Magazine, Change Congress, Campus Progress,…
Obama and privacy: some early disquieting signs

Nov 18, 2008

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by

jon

in political, privacy

Sarah Lai Stirland discusses Barack Obama’s Privacy Challenge on Wired’s Threat Level, focusing on the question of what’s going to happen to the huge amount of information that Obama, the Democrats, and firms like Catalist collected from during the campaign from all kinds of sources — voter files, commercial databases, phone and canvassing information, etc.…
#MotrinMoms: From Twitter to the NY Times in 24 hours.

Nov 17, 2008

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by

jon

in political, social computing

Katja Presnal’s Motrin Ad Makes Moms Mad Motrin’s “viral” video making fun of babywearing mothers — timed for the start of International Babywearing Week — has, much to their PR firms amazement, led to a backlash.Â As Allyson Kaplan’s Motrin’s Pain: Viral Video Disaster on Fast Company’s Radical Tech describes: The viral video worked in…
Join the Impact: taking social network activism (and LGBTQ rights) to the next level

Nov 13, 2008

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by

jon

in political, social computing, Tales from the Net

Kate X Messer’s Young gay marriage activist leads national protests on 365 Gay profiles Seattle Amy Balliett, who started up the Join the Impact web site after a blog post and email by her friend Willow Witte.Â Amy’s 26, and her day job is as a search engine optimizer.Â It’s also an excellent history of…
A proposal for Obama’s new CTO: Require independent review by technical experts

Nov 12, 2008

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by

jon

in political, Professional, Uncategorized

Yesterday my former Microsoft colleague Matt Lerner, now at FrontSeat (“software for civic life”) sent out mail about the new ObamaCTO.org site, a user-powered forum for gathering and prioritizing ideas for Obama’s new CTO.Â Anybody can register, vote on ideas, or submit your own; in a twist from digg-style rating, each person is limited to…
Online activism in response to anti-LGBTQ propositions

Nov 10, 2008

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by

jon

in political, Tales from the Net

There’s a huge amount of activism going on in response to Prop 8 in California and the other anti-LGBTQ state propositions that passed.Â A few I know about: Join the Impact is focused on a national day of protest on November 15.Â Their Google Group and Patrick’s post on Pam’s House Blend have more. The…
Petitions are soooooo 20th century

Nov 9, 2008

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by

jon

in political, social computing, Tales from the Net

I set up a petition here, and I’ll be sending the comments onward to John Podesta and Michael Strautmanis of the Obama transition team. — Matt Stoller, Larry Summers At Treasury: A Fox in the Henhouse, OpenLeft The first two replies to Matt’s post were JoelN: Is it still possible to start new ‘MyBO’ groups?…
Hope 1, Fear 0: YES WE DID!

Nov 4, 2008

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by

jon

in Personal, political, social sciences

From Eluminatus: A change is coming Why be shrunk by fear when you can choose hope? Why be manipulated by hate when you can choose desire? Why settle for singularity when you can have multiplicity? Control is an illusion and influence is possible. Look for meta-level solutions. Avoid false dualities. Change is performative. Worship the…
Why vote?

Nov 4, 2008

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by

jon

in Personal, political

Why Vote? a Fib, by Gregory K. Vote. Why? Folks fight For this right. It’s not just a word: Vote! It’s how you make your voice heard. Originally published on Gottabook
Showtime for election protection and citizen journalism!

Nov 3, 2008

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by

jon

in political, social sciences, Tales from the Net

They’re already voting in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, so Election Day has officially begun.Â Showtime! We’ve just finished our last minute polishing for the Voter Suppresssion Wiki, with a redesigned home page, aÂ Voter Suppression Documented summary with snippets of a dozen different examples, final touches to the Media Room, the Prepare for election day…
Blog the vote!

Nov 3, 2008

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by

jon

in Personal, political

Colleen Mondor, Lee Wind, and my brother Gregory K came up with a great idea for a cooperative blogging project at the recent Kid Lit ’08 conference in Portland: people writing about why they personally think that voting matters.Â Over fifty people wound up participating, and since most of them are writers or reviewers as…
Media release: Voter Suppression Wiki workshop highlights last-minute opportunities for reducing voter suppression

Oct 30, 2008

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by

jon

in political, social computing, Tales from the Net

Cyberspace — A diverse group of bloggers, community organizers, media professionals, technologists, and voting rights activists have issued a report with several last-minute recommendations to reduce voter suppression in the upcoming US Election.Â Some of the most significant opportunities involve increasing awareness of resources like the non-partisan Election Protection hotlines at 1-866-OUR-VOTE/1-888-VE-Y-VOTA, engaging the tens…
Update on the Workshop on Last-minute strategies for reducing voter suppression

Oct 27, 2008

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by

jon

in political, social computing, Tales from the Net

Update: w00t, w00t, Voter Suppression Wiki is mentioned in Noam Cohen’s Casting a Ballot, and a Wary Eye in the New York Times — and I’m quoted (â€œThe interesting challenge â€” the story in progress â€” is how do we coordinate our effortsâ€)!Â Â Mom will be proud 🙂 We’re roughly at the midpoint of the…
Radio, radio. You’re gonna hear me on your radio. Tonight!

Oct 26, 2008

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by

jon

in political, Professional, social computing, Tales from the Net

On Saturday, Jon hosted a major organizing conference call that became a strategy session for countering voter suppression nationwide. And, so, in a bit of marvelously self-reflexive irony, with Jon’s help, we’ll be using that same approach to make this hour of our show into a kind of national town meeting of the air, by…
Announcing a last-minute workshop on “Last-minute strategies for reducing voter suppression”

Oct 24, 2008

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by

jon

in political, Professional, social sciences, Tales from the Net

Heading into the last ten days before the election, it’s clear that is there are still huge opportunities to reduce voter suppression.Â How to make best use of this time?Â There are so many groups doing great stuff here that there are lots of opportunities for synergy; at the same time, there’s also a lot…
Live from Madison this Sunday: social network activism and the Voter Suppression Wiki

Oct 23, 2008

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by

jon

in political, Professional, social sciences, Tales from the Net

I’ll be appearing on John Quinlan and Harry Waisbren’s show Forward Forum this Sunday from 8-9 CDT, on the air in Madison and streamed live at WTDY.Â I met Harry working on Get FISA Right, and so we’ll be discussing social network activism in general, looking at some of the experiences I discuss in Reflections…