IGF banner incident

This year topics on the agenda of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) – in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt – are amongst others managing critical Internet resources, security, openness, privacy, access and diversity. On Sunday in their opening talks both the Egyptian Prime Minister and the Minister of Telecommunication were stressing especially the economic opportunities internet offers. Not one word was referring to the open character of internet, technical- and content wise.  “Egypt’s legitimacy to host such a meeting is questionable as it has repeatedly been guilty of violations of online free expression,” Reporters Without Borders said.

However minister Tarek Kamel of Communication and Information Technology welcomed explicitly the two fathers of the internet – Sir Tim Berners Lee and Bob Kahn – both very much in favour of an open and inclusive internet. Tim Berners Lee gave a summary of the past twenty years of the Internet existence as we know it. There has been lots of debate about the open structure of internet – transparency and openness versus security and safety. Berners Lee: ‘But two webs will not work, it has to be one web. No matter which device you use. Not only a matter of the language and signs you use. This universality implies an international approach. As time went on, standards did not seem enough. The web had to serve humanity to its up most including the disabled, poor and illiterate.’ Berners Lee than officially launched the World Wide Web Foundation. With support from the Knight Foundation the WWW Foundation will not look at connecting computers or counting webpages: ‘we look at humanity and want to empower the people’. He closed with the announcement of a workshop the next day on the precise goals and tasks of the new foundation.

The IGF has had its political incident just a few hours before. The Open Net Initiative – related to the Hivos partner The Berkman Institute – had their banner removed at the start of their workshop. The banner was taken away by security officer removed because it referred to amongst others Tibet and the Great Firewall of China. After their presentation ONI announced to write a letter to officially protest to the UN/IGF organisation against this act of censorship. Robert J. Deibert: ‘ When we refused to remove it, their security guards bundled it up and took it away. If this is a form of internet governance than how can privacy, access and freedom of expression be seriously discussed at this congress?’

Also read the Jac sm  Kee’s post on GenderIT

including the videoclip on of the situation at the APC website

Head Wind

The Iranian documentary Head Wind about satellite television and internet access was shown at the Amnesty filmfestival Movies That Matter. Despite the fact free access is difficult – though not impossible – Head Wind is a lively film with lots of humour.

Interesting to do the Q&A with Kamran Ashtary.

Waltz with Bashir

Last night we viewed this animation documentary in Rialto, a cosy and pleasant cinema in our neighbourhood. I can be short: Waltz with Bashir is impressive. The combination of documentary and animation is a very effective way to visualize personal experiences, in this case in war situations. The film is situated in Libanon. Although it shows more about Israel and its country’s politics in the 80’s.

Walz with Bahir tells the story through the eyes of young soldiers.  A former army friend tells Ari Folman about his recurrent nightmare in which he again is a soldier in the Israeli army.  They were both 19 years when they witnessed a mass killing in the Libanese refugee camps Sabra and Shatila in Beirut.  In a combination of comics and videogames the films shows the madness and confusion of the war. When you are in the opportunity; go and see this film. Other people will have to do with the beautiful website: Waltz with Bashir.

Global Voices Summit 08 Budapest

About 200 bloggers, activists, technologists and journalists of around the world – most of them contributors to Global Voices Online – travelled to Budapest the last weekend of June.

The GV Citizen Media Summit 2008 brought them together for two days of public discussions and workshops. It was a wonderful, energetic, diverse and fascinating gathering. Light-hearted in a serious way. Optimistic and creative despite difficulties and uncertainties. Lots of stories, videos and more can be found via on the Global Voices pages.

Some remarks:

- in closed societies role of diaspora – especially on line – becomes even more important

- who needs press freedom in booming economies, like Singapore? So what to do when your society is not interested in politics, freedom of expression or activism in general?

- Often torturers of bloggers do not have a clue how the internet works. In one example (Morocco) their leading question was: ‘why did you invent Facebook.com’? Comical if it wasn’t so tragic.

For a good impression of the discussions and the atmosphere have a look at ‘The right to blog‘ (pdf), an excellent article of Evgeny Morozov. I also recommend the blogs of the co founders of Global Voices Online; Ethan Zuckerman about collective decision making, the day after the summit; and Rebecca MacKinnon on ideas related to global participatory media.

The Summit 2008 was realized by Georgia, Solana, Sami and David.

For dessert: some really nice photo’s (203) made by Neha Viswanathan.

Iran: Lamb or Lion?

One of her most amazing memories of Tehran is about a circus where she saw a lady with a purple chador riding in circles on a horse. Carolien Roelants, a journalist for the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, has made so many trips to Iran that she stopped counting them.

Although she doesn’t speak Farsi, she tries to get a familiar picture of the country and its people as possible. During her trips to Iran, she speaks to a broad range of people: supporters of the conservative regime as well as members of the opposition, young and old, women and men. Roelants work – background stories, reports and interviews – is published in NRC Handelsblad. Last week the publisher launched a new edition of Roelants book: Iran behind the Scenes, Mullahs and Maidens’ (Iran achter de schermen, mullahs en meisjes). The book launch was combined with a discussion in the debating centre De Rode Hoed.