Why Web 2.0 is a godsend to poltical activists

Ethan Zuckerman describes why "banal" social media tools used mainly for entertainment are proving a boon to political activists, especially in repressive countries:

...while Web 1.0 was invented so that theoretical physicists could publish research online, Web 2.0 was created so that people could publish cute photos of their cats. But this same cat dissemination technology has proved extremely helpful for activists, who've turned these tools to their own purposes.

So while Flickr should be used for displaying pictures of cute cats, it's also proved an effective tool for avoiding keyword filtering. Activists in China are using Flickr to disseminate images that contain words that get blocked by keyword filters - a simple tool built by Zhang Erning allows a photo of Einstein at a blackboard to be annotated with arbitrary text that won't be blocked by the Chinese firewall....

Technorati : advocacy, censorship, ethan zuckerman, political activism, web 2.0 tools

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 04:36pm in Politics, Regulation, Social Media, Social Tools, Society | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

EU Considers Net-TV Regulation; Implications for Podcasters?

Via MarketingVOX comes this Times article: EU seeks to regulate television on the net.

Since the technology that makes Internet-TV possible is not dissimilar from the technology that makes  Internet-radio possible, I wonder if podcasting will come under regulatory scrutiny?`

After all, if Internet-TV stations can be held to "fairness" and "equal time" standards, couldn't podcasters? And, if podcasters can be, why not bloggers?

Is this a slippery slope or am I paranoid?

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 12:15pm in Citizen Journalism, Civil Liberty, Communication, Law, Podcasting, Regulation | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1) | TrackBack (0)