First POST: Differentiation
BY Micah L. Sifry | Wednesday, August 6 2014
A second national security leaker surfaces; Russian criminals amass a horde of passwords and email addresses; President Obama contradicts his FCC chair on net neutrality; Snoop Lion and the New York Times editorial board have an online party; and much, much more. Read More
First POST: Polarization
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, August 5 2014
How social media is making Israeli-Palestinian polarization worse; Brigade's plans to be an online "civic network," Turbovote's expansion across Florida campuses; and much, much more. Read More
First POST: Hacks
BY Micah L. Sifry | Friday, August 1 2014
The CIA admits hacking its Senate overseers' computers; lobbying dollars from the taxi industry outpaces transportation networking companies 3500-1; tech money SuperPAC tries to counter dark money campaign spending; and much, much more. Read More
First POST: Astonishing
BY Micah L. Sifry | Thursday, July 31 2014
Debating how (or if) Twitter should police abusive behavior; Facebook launches Internet.org; an update on the Detroit Water Project; and much, much more. Read More
First POST: Costs
BY Micah L. Sifry | Wednesday, July 30 2014
Estimated the costs of the NSA surveillance scandal; shifts in the politics of net neutrality; new tools for encrypting mobile phone communications, and much, much more. Read More
First POST: Experiments
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, July 29 2014
Lessig's MayDayPAC announces its first targets; Pierre Omidyar explains where First Look Media is going; OKCupid shares some experiments it's done on users; and much, much more. Read More
First POST: Unlocking
BY Micah L. Sifry | Monday, July 28 2014
Why the GOP is having trouble catching up to the Dems on tech; how the cellphone unblocking bill shows the Internet's power (or not); civil rights groups "sell out" on net neutrality; and much, much more. Read More
First POST: Software for Good
BY Micah L. Sifry | Friday, July 25 2014
Is the Internet not "Ready for Hillary"?; Streisand, the new anti-censorship tool; how Benentech develops software for good; and much, much more. Read More
Civic Tech and Engagement: Announcing a New Series on What Makes it "Thick"
BY Micah L. Sifry | Thursday, July 24 2014
An old-fashioned barn-raising in Lansing, Canada (circa 1900-1919)
Announcing a new series of feature articles that we will be publishing over the next several months, thanks to the support of the Rita Allen Foundation. Our focus is on digitally-enabled civic engagement, and in particular, how and under what conditions "thick" digital civic engagement occurs. What we're after is answers to this question: When does a tech tool or platform enable actual people to make ongoing and significant contributions to each other, to a place or cause, at a scale that produces demonstrable change? Read More
Civic Tech and Engagement: How SeeClickFix is Changing the Fabric of Local Reality
BY Micah L. Sifry | Thursday, July 24 2014
To see how people using the Internet can thicken civic engagement in deep and positive ways, there is no better example than SeeClickFix.com, a community platform that was founded in 2008 by Ben Berkowitz, a computer programmer living in New Haven, Connecticut, and his friends Miles and Kam Lasater and Jeff Blasius. Read More