Comments on: Does The Number have lesson for human rights activists?

By: march 08 « Joannemcneil’s Weblog

march 08 « Joannemcneil’s Weblog — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:43:11 +0000

[...] Remember the songs and images and tshirts about 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8….? Chinese activists avoided typing text and transfered information in the same ways: [...]

By: » More Bullshit DRM From AACS LA

» More Bullshit DRM From AACS LA — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:19:53 +0000

[...] P.S. While scanning for other articles on this I came across Ethan Zuckerman’s great blog entitled: My Heart’s In Accra. Back in May he posted on the relevance of The Number to human rights activists. It’s a really good read … as is the rest of his amazing bog. [...]

By: Astrubal - Suggestions pour lutter contre la censure : le “Robot proxing”

Tue, 22 May 2007 14:07:16 +0000

[...] b – Pour la liste dynamique, celle-ci va permettre un échange de données relatif aux références des proxies mis à la disposition des utilisateurs. C’est une liste ouverte de par la nature “virale” de la circulation de son contenu sous format crypté. Elle pallie ainsi aux inconvénients d’un accès transparent aux IP à la Tor et à ceux des accès restreints à la Psiphon. Et, dans ce dernier cas, tel que le rappelle Ethan Zuckerman “To spread clandestine information, it’s important not to have a single point of failure, like a single website that can be blocked.” [...]

By: Ulises

Ulises — Wed, 09 May 2007 10:38:57 +0000

I think we have to be careful about what kind of lesson The Number can teach activists. I posted something on this here.

By: The chicken are revolting! « GlobaLab

The chicken are revolting! « GlobaLab — Sun, 06 May 2007 16:08:23 +0000

[...] As I had a chance to comment on Andrew’s blog, this story fascinates me on two levels. First, it clearly shows the potential of Web 2.0’s collective power, an embodiment of the visionary predictions of Kevin Kelly in Out of Control. I was just as amazed when I came across the story by Evgeny Morozov on how blogs are becoming the new frontier of human rights, which I wrote about a couple of days ago. The idea that anonymous bloggers could act more swiftly and effectively than Amnesty could ever do is both exciting and intriguing. Ethan Zuckerman – of My Heart’s in Accra… – has a really interesting post on the subject and on how cyber-activists have been eluding censorship over the last few years using imaginative tricks. [...]

By: Larisa

Larisa — Sun, 06 May 2007 07:02:00 +0000

viral spreading of human rights information is a fascinating issue.

I remember thinking about that when I read of the homo-bashing mob attacking 3 men suspected of being gay, on Valentine’s day in Jamaica. They were chased into a shop where the head of J-Flag happened to be shopping. He called NY Human Rights Watch on his cell phone, who called the local commissioners and the Jamaican chief police commissioner, while the men were still being threatened by the crowd. blogging might not have been fast enough, in this case, but it was an interested example of tech’ed up communication

(the full story is available from http://direland.com)

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 05 May 2007 19:12:59 +0000

I think the diggstorm was equatable with MLK’s March on Washington:

http://www.copyrightings.com/2007/05/digital-march-on-washington.html

By: Shannon Clark

Shannon Clark — Wed, 02 May 2007 23:38:44 +0000

Ethan,

I think the major issue will be how to boil down a complex human rights issue to a single, small set of bits.

i.e. a 16 digit hex number, with a clear and very easy to explain purpose (break DRM on HD DVD’s) lends itself to spreading.

But like the difference between viral startups and the many 1000′s with great technology but much harder adoption rates – what’s the 15 second pitch for an issue such as Tibet? Darfur? Censorship in various countries around the globe? Net Neutrality? electronic voting machines/vote rigging? Corruption in various countries? etc

I do, however, think it is possible – and that boiling down of issues to something short and memorable is something that many groups have done (relatively successfully – see “Dolphin safe tuna” in the past).

But in an online context what should they be spreading? Tor addresses? Proxy servers? torrents of banned books?

Great question to be asking!

Shannon

By: ianmack

ianmack — Wed, 02 May 2007 22:18:02 +0000

very interesting post! i’ve wondered myself how social & viral media can be used to further human rights. in some ways, i think it’s already happening – such as the clip of fleeing Tibetans shot at the Chinese border. The video cropped up everywhere, including the homepage of Digg, spreading it to the screens of mainstream media. Was the result a significant call to boycott China or re-examine their abuses? Tough to say for sure. Every little bit helps, and in some cases, the watershed movements take a while to manifest. In the meantime, we just keep plugging away.

By: Dylan Tweney

Dylan Tweney — Wed, 02 May 2007 21:37:40 +0000

Ethan, in addition to the 3 sites you mention (Digg, Slashdot, Wikipedia), Google has also sent at least one takedown notice pertaining to the banned code, and WordPress.com may have done so as well:

http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/05/google_wordpres.html