This year, the summit focused on limitations of free speech online, both technical forms of censorship like filtering and offline forms of censorship like illegal imprisonment. This touches on the themes of the Internet & Democracy project in so far as freedom of expression is a key element of democratic societies. Without the ability to freely access information and discuss its relevance to public issues, it is impossible for citizens to make informed policy decisions and to determine where their own best interests lie. The online space, particularly blogs, present an opportunity for citizens to share and discuss information that is not available in the mainstream media, yet authoritarian governments are trying to close this loophole.

Also, as Egyptian digital activism Alaa Adbel Fatah mentioned during a Q&A session, the Internet is not only a place for citizens to share information and discuss its importance, but also to organize for action. Egyptians' use of Facebook in organizing a general strike last month, is a vibrant example of the ability of the Internet to help citizens organize for collective action. The government's reaction, which included the arrest and torture of activists involved in the online campaign, is a vivid example of the government's desire to close off the democratic potential of the Internet to empower citizens.

The part of the conference which is most directly connected to the I&D project was the session on the wired electorate and emerging democracies. The session featured several cases about how bloggers are playing an important role in monitoring elections and providing reliable information to citizens when traditional media is shut down or censored. Panelists Onnik Krikorian from Armenia and Daudi Were from Kenya provided particularly useful case studies of this phenomenon. I will end by cross-posting Patrick Meier's excellent post on that session, originally published on his blog iRevolution

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This panel included activists from Kenya, Armenia, Iran and Venezuela to discuss the following question: is citizen media having an actual impact on democracies in transitions?

* Yarane Baran is a pro reformist association of bloggers in Iran. They update their blogs twice a week but only have about 50 visitors per week.

* In Armenia, the Blogosphere became polarized around the recent elections. While the elections were pronounced fair on the day of the elections, YouTube videos appeared later that day revealing serious irregularities in the voting. The government proceeded in banning all print media but left blogs completely untouched. The government took note but didn’t move to block the blogs. Instead, the President had his own blog set up to address issues and respond to questions. Another video subsequently posted on YouTube showed policemen shooting at a crowd. This forced the police to respond publically on national television. 3G mobile technology is definitely going to play an important role in future elections in Armenia. The President (or rather his spokesperson) has recently asked bloggers for a meeting. For more information, see Onnik Krikorian’s blog here.

* In Colombia the problem is not about freedom of speech but rather freedom of communication. People at home do not talk about politics, they do not have confidence to discuss the issues, and therefore you do not have a sense of community. People are also tired of talking politics since nothing changes, much. Only 20% of the population have acess to the Internet. When elections happen, it’s like a national sport. Elections3D is a website set up to centralize blog posts, photos and videos about the elections. They also used SMS an Twitter for fast discourse. They used SMS to send text messages to more than 2,000 people in less than a minute. Luis Diaz concluded his presentation on Venezuela with some lessons learned: tagging is effecient, and needs exhaustive and universal keywords to be found by the greater public; blogs are the nerve center, but the richest platform is the diversity; the blogosphere is subjective and this is important since it contains the political rainbow in a nation withou diaologue. Luis showed a picture of an indigenous Colombian, in the middle of the rainforest, using his mobile phone. “This is important, this the future,” he said with an applause from the participants.

* Kenya’s Daudi Were gave a presentation on the Kenya elections. Before the elections there were SMS campaigns mainly used to intimidate people to switch sides. There was an “Obama effect”; Kenyans looked to the US and drew on the same tactics by using social media websites, Facebook, etc. During the election day, bloggers were out in force, blogging all day, taking pictures of the process, it was a formidable turnout. “The Kenyan bloggers really blogged the election,” Daudi proudly recounted. Some bloggers were embedded with officials from various embassies in Nairobi.Some challenges included limited bandwidth. There is only 10% Internet penetration in Kenya, but radio

“But then things changed and the situation turned. We could tell immediately that something was not right. Bloggers started reporting strange things going on. When the violence started and spread, people started to use different tools to keep up with the fast changing situation. Twitter started being used. We thought some of these tools were just for teenagers but we quickly came to appreciate their importance.”

“Some challenges: Bloggers in the blogosphere began raising funds online to purchase machetes. This is a problem: who guards the guards? Also, only 10% of Kenyans have access to the Internet but 95% of the population have access to radios. So many radio broadcasters had access to the Internet and therefore began to read out blog entries.

“Some lessons learned: The importance of having a global network is imperative; gives you support, lets you know you are not alone, and helps you keep a perspective on the local events. Citizen media was able to operate in almost real time. As bloggers, we need to protect our reputation, it’s all we have and we must do everything to keep our integrity. We need to admit our mistakes when we are wrong and stay away from non-constructive arguments. You do not have to be ‘on the inside’ to be significant. Finally, bloggers are not aliens. If society is divided, bloggers will be divided. We are part of society.”

Because of the way my mind works, I am always wondering if there is grassroots digital solution to any problem and I am wondering if having inmates blog might be a good idea. 

Certainly this

This case clearly put YouTube in an awkward situation. Clearly the videos of torture were violent and possibly offensive, but they undoubtedly had political value as they exposed the crimes of the Egyptian government. Wael is not a young hooligan posting inappropriate material, but an award-winning journalist trying to stoke political reform in his country. I hope that YouTube (owned by Google) will consider the implications of its actions more carefully in the future.

In the mean time, activists should be aware that the principal concern of many of the most useful digital activism technologies (YouTube, Blogger, Google, Skype) is not justice but profit. You cannot necessarily trust them to defend your content and your rights if they come under government pressure to remove your content or reveal your identity. For this reason, it is important to back up your content in a second location in case it is deleted and use these services anonymously if you think that the revelation of your identity by the services you use could be dangerous to your safety.

image from a terror-promoting web site celebrating the attack in Kenya in 1998 

I'm wary of even discussing this topic. I need to begin by saying that this post in no way advocates terrorism or violence of any kind. Terrorism and war and hatred make me sick and sad. Rather, this article is an analysis of how Islamic terrorists are incredibly effective at using the Internet to active their strategic aims while traditional NGOs lag behind. It is about implications.

An article in the New York Times today, An Internet Jihad Aims at US Viewers, inspired me to finally

The blog Vancouver Social Enterprise Forum has an interesting post about how activists are using Twitter as a

Nosamo (2000-present): This is the fan club of Korean president Roh Moo-Hyun (the group's name means "those who love Roh"). The independent volunteer organization used a website and digital organizing techniques to support the progressive campaign of Roh, who won the 2002 is a huge upset. They are like Deaniacs except they also drafted their candidate by convincing him to

In June, Egyptian blogger Abdel Monem Mahmoud was released after spending 46 days in prison on charges of belonging to an illegal organization, creating and possessing images destructive to public order, organizing secret meetings with the aim of disturbing public order. But now Global Voices Advocacy reports that he's under threat again. Monem has been writing about the torture he underwent while in police custody in 2003 and the Egyptian doesn't like it.

This time a journalist at Al-Ahram newspaper, Ahmed Moussa, is being used as a proxy in the persecution of Monem, a sad case of citizen journalist vs.

For the lofty academic goals of pure research I have recently been joining online social networks, specifically Facebook, Change.org, Care2, and LinkedIn. The only one I became attached to was Facebook and actually, I am embarrassed to say, I visit the site every day.

My affinity for Facebook is a bit of a surpise to me. My original reason for signing up for these networks was because I am interested in the possiblity of online communities for activism. I'd really like to see people using online social networks

Abdel-Monem Mahmoud is a prolific Egyptian blogger. Though an outspoken member of the Muslim Brotherhood, his message of greater political freedoms for all Egyptians has made him an admired figure across the political spectrum. He has been imprisoned by the Mubarak regime several times and was once tortured while in police custody. His most recent arrested in mid-April of this year resulted in a global Free Monem campaign.

After approximately six weeks in jail, Monem was released from prision and got right back to blogging. His time in jail did not temper his strong criticism of the Egyptian government