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This sheep talks back

Jun 27, 2005 |

On my way back from this weekend's meeting of the Online Deliberative Democracy consortium I had a chance to enjoy the ever-increasing vigilance of US airport security. At the end of my last US visit I ended up at the airport with a colleague who relayed the...

My 10 sites

Jun 27, 2005 |

As promised, I'm picking 10 sites for my bookmark bar; in fact they're pretty much there already. Here's what I'm going to try to live off of for the next week, with no search and no typing addresses into the address bar: My blog's admin page My del.icio.us page My...

Take the 10-site challenge

Jun 25, 2005 |

I'm blogging this from Mike Weiksner's sidekick and it is painful not to have one, bluetooth or no bluetooth. (Its one major shortcoming.) The phenom of mobile browsing - which makes typing a little annoying - reminds me of a favourite question of mine: if you were...

e-Democracy skills training

Jun 25, 2005 |

I was part of a break-out group discussion today on making online deliberation tools accessible. We discussed three facets of this challenge: tool design, user training, and motivating participation. Our conversation began and ended with user training issues, becuase...

Online tools for ODDC: URLs

Jun 25, 2005 |

I'm in Minneapolis for the Deepening Online Deliberation workshop hosted by the Online Deliberative Democracy Consortium. We had a terrific conversation today about some of the tools available for online deliberation and for collaboration among deliberation...

Ambush kills U.S. troops in Iraq

Jun 25, 2005 |

Snip: The suicide car bomb and ensuing small-arms fire killed at least two Marines and four others were missing and presumed dead. At least one woman was killed, and 11 of the 13 wounded troops were female.

The ambush late Thursday also suggested Iraqi insurgents may have regained a foothold in Fallujah, which has been occupied by U.S. and Iraqi forces since they regained control of the city from insurgents seven months ago.

The women were part of a team of Marines assigned to various checkpoints around Fallujah. The Marines use females at the checkpoints to search Muslim women “in order to be respectful of Iraqi cultural sensitivities,” a military statement said.

The demise of Technorati politics?

Jun 24, 2005 |

What's missing from the new and improved Technorati? It seems as if their overview ofpopular blog conversations still includes movies, books, and the top 100 -- but where is their politics page? Until the redesign, Technorati was home to a nifty slice of political...

Where social software meets social activism

Jun 22, 2005 |

A lot of my recent reading and thinking has focused on how social software -- community-building online tools like blogging, wikis and social networking -- effect small-p political change by allowing groups to self-organize more easily and powerfully. Today, Wired has...

The true hazards of blogging: beyond the EFF

Jun 21, 2005 |

The EFF's recent release of a legal guide for bloggers gives bloggers in the US a great tool for assessing and managing the legal risks of blogging. But as the EFF itself acknowledges, its guide only speaks to the US context: This legal guide is based on the laws in...

100 blog shakers

Jun 21, 2005 |

I suspect that the AO/Technorati Open Media 100 will be the meme of the day. It's a list of 100 movers & shakers in the world of open media -- the world of bloggers, social networks, and social software. For the most part the list includes the people I would hope to...