Tag Archives: politics

Future Librarians for Intellectual Freedom | Are librarians the new threat?

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“Last week, Munro’s article exposed a chilling new Code of Conduct for Library and Archives Canada (LAC) employees. LAC identified librarians and archivists as “dedicated professionals, …seeking and sharing knowledge” in their statement of principles. However, the treatment of such committed staff is not aligned with these principles. LAC employees are restricted from teaching and presenting at conferences as these are considered “high risks” activities.”

Future Librarians for Intellectual Freedom | Are librarians the new threat?

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Egypt Crowdsources Censorship | Fast Company

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“The Egyptian government is now crowdsourcing censorship efforts. A new web page created by the country’s National Telecommunications Registry Agency, allows citizens to report blasphemous websites (Arabic-language links). According to Alix Dunn of tech activism blog The Engine Room, the site is designed to help find pages showing a controversial anti-Islam film.”

via Egypt Crowdsources Censorship | Fast Company.

UPDATED: Mali rebels fleeing Timbuktu burn library full of ancient manuscripts | World news | guardian.co.uk

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UPDATED: See this story by Alex Crawford with Sky News for more details and video.

“Islamist insurgents retreating from the ancient Saharan city of Timbuktu have set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless ancient manuscripts, some dating back to the 13th century, in what the town’s mayor described as a “devastating blow” to world heritage.”

via Mali rebels fleeing Timbuktu burn library full of ancient manuscripts | World news | guardian.co.uk.

TechCrunch | White House Announces National Day Of Civic Hacking, Asks Americans To Solve Problems With Govt Data From NASA And More

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The Canadian Government needs to pilot a program like this! Unfortunately, I can’t imagine this happening with a Harper government. We need to advocate for more open data and a transparent government, especially with government budgets and programs funded by taxpayer wallets.

White House Announces National Day Of Civic Hacking, Asks Americans To Solve Problems With Govt Data From NASA And More | TechCrunch.

N.B. At the bottom of the article is a map of America…all the cities that have signed up are quite similar to the distribution of Democratic states.  Also can’t see a Republican government launching a program like this. Obama rocks.

Gabriella Coleman | Geek Researcher Spends Three Years Living With Hackers

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Geek Researcher Spends Three Years Living With Hackers | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

I’m sure Gabriella Coleman’s upcoming book Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking will be a fascinating read!  I completed an Information Security weekend workshop during my MLIS program and we discussed hacking and how easy it is for hackers to compromise systems. We also discussed pros and cons of hacktivism. I would have to take a full-credit course in Information Security but it was not offered at the time. I could see Coleman’s research integrating well within the curriculum.

The Anthropology of Hackers syllabus-as-essay via The Atlantic

Hacker (Forthcoming, The John Hopkins Encyclopedia of Digital Textuality)

Gabriella Coleman video Hacktivism: Political Hacking’s Global Reach, From Scientology to Wikileaks to the Arab Spring on DemocracyNow.org

Mashable | 7 Landmark Tech Laws Passed in 2012

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It will be interesting to see if any other similar Canadian laws are launched, although we did just have the passing of Bill C-11 (Copyright Modernization Act). Here’s a post by Michael Geist about “What the New Copyright Law Means for You.”

7 Landmark Tech Laws Passed in 2012 via Mashable

A Great Example Why Big Data is Becoming Hugely Important

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“Barack Obama may have comfortably won re-election in the electoral college, and squeaked a victory in the popular vote. But here is the absolute, undoubted winner of this election: Nate Silver and big data.”

via Triumph of the Nerds: Nate Silver Wins in 50 States.

Nate Silver is a statistician and political blogger (FiveThirtyEight – Nate Silver’s Political Calculus) for The New York Times. His statistical forecasts for the 2012 American Presidential Election were amazingly accurate and are a great case study for validating the importance and value of big data.