Blogger dies in Iranian prison

A Facebook campaign has been launched to hold Iran responsible for the death of Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, a 29-year old Iranian blogger who died March 18 in an Iranian prison. In December, he was sentenced to two and half years in prison for insulting religious leaders and engaging in propaganda. More from Global Voices […]

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The gov 2.0 conversation is stalled

I am in Austin for SXSW and listening to a conversation about the future of government in a connected society.  The natural topics have come up — how to use data, what transparency means, the role of media, what technology standards are used, and similar. It is an interesting conversation, full of smart and experienced […]

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Our (We) Media Dissonance

The sky is falling! Newspapers aren’t going to survive. They’re declaring bankruptcy en masse. The Seattle Post Intelligencer is the latest considering going digital-only, I was told last night at We Media, along with the San Francisco Chronicle. Others already have given up some or all of their print editions. TV networks are bleeding, book […]

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Congratulations, You Have A Plan – Now what?

It seems to me that if we want to get the economy back on track, we are going to have to do it ourselves.  So what is stopping us? It appears that Congress has finally reached an agreement on the economic stimulus bill.  I am told this is great news.  I hope you will forgive […]

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Check Out Your Local Library

In the conversation about the future of media, so much of the focus naturally falls to technology and the role it will play in distributing information to the masses.  Most attention is paid to the creation of media and how we can monetize it.  In doing that, however, we often overlook the institutions that are […]

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Towards a ‘Findable’ Government

During a recent presentation at the New America Foundation, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said “The vast majority of information is still not searchable or findable either because it’s not published or it’s on Web sites which the government has put up which no one can index.”  He was referring to the U.S. government, one […]

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