Wow. Global Voices Online, our daylong international bloggers' workshop held as part of the Berkman Center's Internet & Society conference, was a stunning success. Special thanks to my brilliant colleague Ethan Zuckerman and the collective brilliance of the assembled bloggers and technologists from all over the world. I didn't have time to blog the sessions as they went along, but plenty of others did. They included David Weinberger, "j", Jeff Jarvis, Jeff Ooi, Isaac Mao (in Chinese), Alex Steffen, John Lebkowsky (participating remotely via IRC), Matt of "Blackfive", Tim Oren and many others... according to Technorati and Feedster.
"Global Voices" is now the name of a new movement. As Ethan says in his summary of our next steps: "We’re all in this together, and something big is happening."
This is a movement of global cyber-citizens. We are developing a manifesto, which includes the following core beliefs and goals:
1) we believe in free speech – and act to defend it and extend it
2) we believe in direct connection between people in ways which allow us to consider ourselves part of a bigger here and wider us – and we act to bring flows of tools, money and attention to bear on creating channels for those connections to develop
3) we believe in planetary citizenship along international norms – and we act to empower campaigns to make the world fairer, freer, more prosperous and more sustainable.
Saturday's meeting included people from a broad political spectrum. I hope the Global Voices movement will remain broad and inclusive. Occasionally there were disagreements. But one thing was very clear: neither left nor right has a monopoly on the desire for free speech and a more open, global citizens' dialogue. As Ethan says, we're all in this together.
So if these values speak to you and if you think you'd have something to contribute, check out the Global Voices blog for more details.
1. Blogs are very inefficient.
2. WIKI Web Interfaces allow what your call
"the collective voice" to not only come
together but merge into a common thread.
3. Meat-Space Conferences, like your recent
one in Boston are even more inefficient
and serve mostly to exclude people via
economic discrimination. There is another
world of "real Internet users" which you
likely will never visit or see.
4. Some of the people attending your
Meat-Space conference have spent their
entire careers creating Exclusionary
Structures, like the ISOC and ICANN.
They are control freaks, hiding behind
blogs.
Posted by: Yes | December 13, 2004 at 05:57 AM
Please, please! Can you be more practical and concrete than in the sentences, very general and common, of your manifesto: I think that bloggers would appreciate. Tell me, who will not act for a "fairer and freer" world?
Posted by: Luc Fayard | December 13, 2004 at 07:21 PM
Hmmmm. Gotta love those commenters!
I was not one of the conference organizers, but I must say it was about the most inclusive I have ever seen. To start with, it was free admission. It was in a very accessible city, Boston. Many of the guests who came from around the world had their travel paid for by various foundations, including special grants given just to make this conference inclusive.
The conference was web-cast, and the web-casts were archived and can non only be downloaded, but can be downloaded and distributed on CD.
The session that discussed the manifesto lasted for an hour and a half and an open irc chat channel was available for the entire time, and was displayed in front of the room.
Finally, I personally don't know of anything more inclusive and open than blogs, particularly those that allow open comments, as this one does.
Even food, if it must be purchased, can be a tool of economic discrimination. It is bad to be poor, and it is even more bad to be desperately poor. Yup.
Now, what was your point?
Posted by: Jim Moore | December 13, 2004 at 11:43 PM
from _Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill_ by Jessica Stern (NY: HarperCollins, 2003) page 230:
"Asked about the biggest threat to their groups' survival, a militant says that 'free secular education for all' leading to an "increase in the literacy rate" is the gravest threat to the survival of the jihadi groups in Pakistan."
How about the globalization of local literacy through an integrated media program including Web/Net, TV, radio, video, hard copy, and word of mouth?
Posted by: gmoke | December 13, 2004 at 11:56 PM