TechChange & Movements.org Twitter Chat on Friday, June 3rd
How can digital activists harness new technologies, tools, and platforms to be as effective as possible in their work? Digital organizing has arguably been at the heart of the recent protests in the Arab world. In the case of Egypt, a successful campaign run by online activists contributed to bringing hundreds of thousands of people [...]
e-Portfolios: Networking Across Continents
<div id =”blargh” width=”200” height=”… > Whether you think of HTML as a familiar friend or a terrifying alien monster, we can all agree that sometimes code just takes too much time. In an attempt to help a friend build her web presence, and my own while I was at it, I worked my way [...]
Canadians Protest Election Results Ban Using Social Media Ahead of Monday Polls
On Monday May 2, 2011 Canadians will be voting in the 41st Canadian Federal Election. The election comes as the result of non-confidence vote held on March 25th, 2011 that saw the defeat of the Conservative party’s cabinet in the House of Commons on a motion declaring the Government to be in Contempt of Parliament [...]
From the Trading Floor to the Polling Booth: Twitter’s Value-Added
The BBC reported today (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12976254) on the value that Twitter has provided to stock traders. This is an example of how social media, when well filtered, can have a verifiable positive effect . For our purposes, it also shows that humanitarian organizations and NGOs can leverage Twitter as a less expensive means of deriving on-the-ground [...]
Al Jazeera and Others Visualizing Twitter and Unrest
Qatar-based Al Jazeera may be completely responsible for the lack of productivity amongst university students, in many different disciplines, all over the world. Walking through the halls of a local university you may hear, at any one point, one student saying to another “Al Jazeera ate my homework.” The reason for this is what the [...]
Multilingual Tweets: U.S. State Department To Middle East Revolutionaries
U.S Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton – speaking on behalf of the Obama administration – expressed views on the power of media via a statement on 21st Century Statecraft: “… We have seen the possibilities of what can happen when ordinary citizens are empowered by Twitter and Facebook to organize political movements, or simply [...]
Election Aftermath and Demands for Democracy in Belarus
While the world’s eyes are on Egypt, it is imperative not to forget the struggle in Belarus, which has entered a new phase following the December 2010 election. The aftermath of the recent elections in Belarus sent shockwaves around Europe; it also provides a crucial test for the Obama Administration’s attitudes towards human rights. In [...]
Recap of ICT4D Tweet Chat (Hashtag: #ict4ddl)
On January 11, 2011 from 11-12am, TechChange co-hosted a tweet chat with Linda Raftree (@meowtree) from Plan International to gauge interest in ICT for Development (ICT4D) distance learning and get a better sense of what would appeal most to potential students. In total, the chat included an impressive 401 tweets, with 59 people participating. Our [...]
Jumo: Day 1. Our First Impressions of the Social Network for Social Causes
Yesterday, Jumo released its beta platform to the world, but the launch was far from seamless. Founded by Facebook Co-founder Chris Hughes, Jumo bills itself as a “social network for the social sector.” At TechChange, we spent a few hours on the new site and here are some of our first impressions.
Welcome to TechChange
It’s clear that technology is beginning to play a key role in social change. Look at the role crisis mapping software has played in coordinating earthquake response in Haiti, or the effect that social media such as Twitter have had on demanding government accountability in Iran. These examples and many more leave no doubt about [...]
