In Gaza, Tech Start-Ups Break Down Barriers to Entrepreneurship
BY Daniella Peled | Wednesday, May 14 2014
In Gaza, where the blockade has made entrepreneurship difficult and some times impossible, enterprises that exist in a virtual world, one where the difficulty of physically crossing borders can be overcome, are becoming increasingly attractive. It’s too soon to tell whether entrepreneurship and a new fledgling tech start-up community is helping the beleaguered economy of the Strip, but those involved in the sector hope it can capture the imagination of a generation mired in frustration and give them hope for the future. Daniella Peled reports from Gaza. Read More
The Fingerprints of a Drone Strike
BY Rebecca Chao | Wednesday, March 19 2014
A woman works with a forensic architect in recreating the scene of a drone strike in Waziristan (Forensic Architecture)
A woman dressed in a black hijab is highlighted by the glare from a computer screen as she works with forensic architects in digitally recreating her home, the scene of a drone strike in Mir Ali, North Waziristan, Pakistan where five men, one of them her brother-in-law, were directly hit and killed on Oct. 4, 2010. This is the spot where she had laid out a rug in the courtyard, she explains, and where her guests sat one evening when the missile dove into their circle, leaving a blackened dent in the ground and scattering flesh that later, she and her husband had to pick up from off of the ground so they could bury their dead. Morbidly, the reconstruction of a drone strike is similar – the gathering of flecks of information when nothing else is available: through satellite imagery and video, the length of a building’s shadow, the pattern of shrapnel marks on a wall, and the angle of a photo, can help forensic architects determine where a missile struck and determine how it led to civilian deaths. Read More
First POST: Jackpots
BY Micah L. Sifry | Monday, November 25 2013
How a blog post about being poor set off a cascade of solidarity; why Google's new Civic Information API is a big deal; the rise of the "protest selfie"; and much, much more. Read More
First POST: Sabotage
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, October 8 2013
Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: The latest explanations for HealthCare.gov's troubled start; why journalists need to reverse engineer algorithms; how fact-checking sites may be improving the behavior of politicians; and much, much more. Read More
First POST: Generation W?
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, September 17 2013
Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Whistleblowing as an act of generational identity?; Craig Newmark is officially the government's biggest "nerd"; Turkey's ruling party is building a social media army; and much, much more. Read More
With Real-Life Diplomacy on Hold, Israel Launches Twitter "Embassy" in Arab States
BY Lisa Goldman | Thursday, July 25 2013
In its latest foray into digital diplomacy, the Israeli foreign ministry has established a Twitter "embassy" for the purpose of engaging with the Arab countries of the Gulf region. Called @IsraelintheGCC, the account was launched on July 18. As of this writing, it has 685 followers. Read More
Israelis and Palestinians Launch Online Campaigns Ahead of Obama's Visit
BY Lisa Goldman | Tuesday, March 19 2013
With Barack Obama set to land in Israel tomorrow for his first official visit as president, Israelis and Palestinians have taken to the Internet to campaign for their causes and to express approval or disapproval of what the Israeli government has dubbed Operation Unbreakable Alliance . Read More
Israel Has Two Pirate Parties That Hate Each Other
BY Lisa Goldman | Wednesday, January 30 2013
In a 21st century digital echo of Monty Python's Life of Brian, Israel, a country of just over 7 million, has two Pirate Parties. One is called Pirate Party Israel and the other the Israel Pirate Party. Neither party recognizes the legitimacy of the other; nor do their founders have anything positive to say about one another. Read More
Israeli Transparency NGO Shows Voters How to Cast Informed Ballots
BY Lisa Goldman | Thursday, January 3 2013
As Israelis prepare to cast their ballots in national elections on January 22, the country's only transparency NGO has launched a campaign to encourage voters to educate themselves by consulting their Open Knesset website, where they can find previously unavailable information about how their legislators are doing their jobs and whether they are representing their constituents as they would wish to be represented. Read More
D.C.-based NGO Asks the Crowd to Map an Israel-Palestine Border
BY Lisa Goldman | Monday, December 10 2012
A Washington, D.C.-based NGO has launched a interactive map called Is Peace Possible that seeks suggestions for a border between Israel and the West Bank via crowdsourcing. Read More