News
Exporting Censorship and Surveillance Technology
Western companies turn a healthy profit by exporting their surveillance technologies and equipment to repressive regimes. This is what Ben Wagner concludes in the Hivos-commissioned report “Exporting Censorship and Surveillance Technology”.Wagner interviewed dozens of people from Europe and North Africa and found that governments there have relied heavily on Western censorship technologies in an attempt to quell the civil unrest during the Arab Spring. Earlier reports had already established...
Unpacking Digital Natives from their Shiny Packaging
In this article, the writer supports that China, despite having a plethora of hacker talents, does not conform to the typical paradigm of liberal, usually anti-government, group of digital natives. She explains that the so-called “red hackers” are working hand-in-hand with the dominant ideology, fighting against the enemy abroad while hunting down the enemy within who disrupts the ‘harmony’ (of the nation). Focusing on China’s digital culture, Tsou demonstrates that digital natives, despite...
On Natives, Norms and Knowledge
Using digital technologies has become so convenient that with the rise of the so called digital revolution arose also the need to reflect it. A very impressive compilation of reflections dealing with the role and impact of the “user” (or digital native, as it is now called) comes in the form of a four book collective called Digital AlterNatives with a Cause? by the Centre for Internet & Society and Hivos. The fourth book features Ben Wagner’s essay Natives, Norms and Knowledge: How Inform...
Digital Native: Twin Manifestations or Co-Located Hybrids
Ben-David’s piece is a well-articulated and informed attempt to resolve two of the several conceptual fuzziness of the term “Digital Native”. She attempts this in a philosophical manner: trying to move away from the ontological “who are Digital Natives?” to an epistemological “when and where are Digital Natives?” Her reasoning is that this perceptive change will allow us to unpack the duplicity of a hybrid term and to understand if it refers to a unique phenomenon in the world worth exploring.
Digital AlterNatives Video Contest
The Centre for Internet and Society and Hivos are pleased to announce the Digital AlterNatives video contest. There are hundreds of stories of the Everyday Digital Native - people who are always connected, or on the fringes, or groups that bond over causes but don’t really care for the ‘Digital Native’ tag & hype. Tell us their story through your video! Deadline for your proposals is the 8th of January 2012.
From Facebook revolution to surveillance technology
In the beginning of 2011 the Arab Spring took the world by surprise. Around the world people were confronted and inspired by millions of brave citizens who stood up, ousted two dictators and demanded democratic reforms. (Inter) nationally technology like Twitter and Facebook have been praised for these web 2.0 revolutions. While the Facebook revolution discourse has been much debated, the flip side to the technology coin has been ignored.
“Digital Natives with a Cause?” newsletter, volume VIII
This issue touches upon new dilemma’s of the digital era. Guest editor Nilofar Ansher writes a compelling piece that questions what come’s first: the members of a group of the group itself? She makes her argument through explaining what happens when she deletes all her posts from the Facebook group wall. She asks the questions, when she erases all the traces of her posts, does this matter to the group and to the people that came after her?
Making a difference, online and offline
A new collection examines how technology and issues of connectivity are shaping the lives of ‘digital natives’—and how the Net can influence social change. The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, and The Hague, Netherlands-based Hivos Knowledge Programme recently launched a four- book collection, Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?, edited by Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen. Jansen is the knowledge officer for the Digital AlterNatives with a Cause? Programme at Hivos. In the book, resear...
Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?
Hivos (The Hague) and The Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore) consolidate their 3 year knowledge inquiry into the field of youth, technology and change in the 4 book collective "Digital AlterNatives with a cause?". This collaboratively produced collective, edited by Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen,asks critical and pertinent questions about theory and practice around 'digital revolutions' in a post MENA (Middle East - North Africa) world. It...
Moving beyond the tool paradigm
All the website, campaign and tools that are developed in search of changing the world prove that this concept is a utopia. What I have realized in working in the field of digital activism is that when talking about digital technology and change, we always want to develop a new website, build a new tool or insert a fancy gadget. There are many examples that show that fancy tools do not work. Therefore I propose that we move beyond our tool obsession and focus on strategy, what is it that we w...