Let’s say the I photoshop a picture of you so that it appears that you are involved in a crime. I anonymously upload that picture to Flickr, Picasa, Fotolog, and other photo sharing sites. Then I anonymously publish several blog posts that feature the photo and claim it’s really you. There’s no way to prove [...]

What follows is a comment I left earlier today on Alec Ross’ post on the State Department blog, “Using Technology To Turn the Tide of Violence in Juarez, Mexico.” To really understand the dynamic of violence in Juarez I highly recommend subscribing to Frontera List managed by Molly Molloy. To better understand the genesis of [...]

The internet began with a strong culture of what would come to be called cyber-libertarianism. The whole story is documented in detail in Fred Turner’s From Counterculture to Cyberculture, but you can get the general idea from the first sentence of John Perry Barlow’s oft-quoted 1996 “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace“: Governments of [...]

In a recent post, “Indigenous Protests, Wikileaks and Online Subtitles” I focused on the social and historical importance of adding subtitles to online video, especially as it relates to those who promote human rights and inclusive rural development. Most of the post is centered around a single video of an indigenous woman delivering a powerful [...]

Originally published on Información Cívica. Re-publishing here because I’m having problems with server errors. There was a lot of activity on Twitter this morning claiming that Mexico has pulled out of negotiations of ACTA, the misnamed “Anti Counterfeit Trade Agreement.” That is not entirely true — it is the Federal Executive, led by President Felipe [...]

In June 2009 residents of Lima witnessed just how far removed their urban media were from the reality of daily life in the north of Peru. Peruvian protesters in June 2009 at Devil’s Curve. Photograph by Enrique Castro-Mendivil. The Protest Earlier that year Peru signed a free trade agreement with the United States that opened [...]