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.

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...

Arab Spring, summer of protest. A next generation of social activism?

Andrew Makkinga, Radio DJ & Presenter at VPRO facilitated this very inspiring session, which was opened with a  Metropolis video on Armenia and Romania, where citizens also go to the  streets to fight for their rights! The Arab spring has spread also to  Eastern and Southern Europe!

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...

Digital AlterNatives book launch

On Friday the 16th of September Hivos will launch the Digital AlterNatives with a cause? book, which looks at the dynamics of a new generation that is growing up with digital technology. In 2011 the digital native generation has been all over the front pages off the mayor newspapers in the world. CNN, BBC, de Volkskrant and the NRC gave prominent coverage on the ‘digital’ revolutions in the Middle East and North  Africa and dubbed them as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ revolutions. However, th...

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...

Is Social The New Personal?

This Mid Year edition of the Links in the Chain newsletter talks about the question if the ‘Social is the new Personal?’ This editions editor Nilofar Ansher talks in her introduction about the fact that the word ‘media’ has the ignominy of never being called by its first name. It’s always prefixed or suffixed into playing second fiddle. Evidence? Traditional media, mass media, new media, digital media, hypermedia, social media – the list could go on with subsets. What remains common and consi...

"Digital Natives with a Cause?" - Newsletter, Vol VII

This issues touches on the topic of Digital Dinosaurs, an exploration of the non-digital by those who are digital. The authors talk about issues of the digital and non digital. So many activities we used to be part of are now either partially or fully mediated by the digital world. Does that fact elevate the computer to a position where it stands in the center of our lives? As a Digital Native, are there areas of your life which the digital hasn’t touched? Do any of you still write by hand pe...

"Digital Natives with a Cause?" - Newsletter, Vol VI

This issue give us an insight into two different dimension of the digital natives programme. After the three workshops and one international conference it was time to get all the knowledge and new insight together in a book. The editors came together for a write shop, and here is a report. Nilofar also gives an interesting insight into digital activism.

Revisiting the end of civil society building?

The synthesis paper of Ria Brouwers of the Institute of Social Studies: “When ‘civics’ go ‘governance’, on the role and relevance of civic organisations in the policy arena in Sub-Sahara Africa”, looks at the political role played by civic organisation and tries to understand what happens when ‘civics’ go ‘governance’. It is a sound retrospective paper that deals with issues of the rise of civil society, the external force behind it, and the role that NGOs play in society and power imbalance...

Who the Hack?

One of the most sullied words that have pervaded public discourse, with the rise of the internet, is “hacker”. The word conjures up images of a silent, menacing, technology-savvy young man, who, with his almost magical control over the digital realm, manipulates systems, changes the laws, rewrites the rules and takes complete control. A hacker is defined by his ability to play around with the basic elements of a system and perform actions, sometimes for social good, but often, for fun and to...

"Digital Natives with a Cause?" - Newsletter, Vol IV

For everyone who is interested in learning more about the Digital Natives who form part of the "Digital Natives with a Cause?" community. The Newsletter includes opinion posts by participants from the three workshops as well as the facilitators, interviews with them, comics and cartoons highlighting current issues affecting the community, as well as current news and discussions happening at the project website, www.digitalnatives.in. The 4th volume had a theme of "practices acr...

Activism: Unraveling the Term

After discussing Blank Noise’s politics and ways of organizing, the current post explores whether activism is still a relevant concept to capture the involvement of people within the collective. I explore the questions from the vantage point of the youth actors, through conversations about how they relate with the very term of activism.

Digital Rights Blogathon

Last week, in light of the human rights celebration in South Africa, digital natives from different parts of the world have given use their view on the digital rights that need to be ensured in 20, 30 or even 50 years time. In this Blogathon they were asked to reflect on what should be right in the digital age.

The right to lurk

The right to lurk. Here we go blogathon: my right of the digital age is the right to lurk. I was reluctant to write this post, because I have been so busy lately that I didn't even imagine having the mental capacity to think of a right. But the right to lurk: that put me right back here. For Fieke writes eloquently about the right to unplug and Nishant about the right to be many, and I couldn't but nod my head silently (and get slowly dragged into thoughts of rights).

Maybe we have lost the right to not-know.

Therefore, we empower our right to information. This is the digital age. The world is one village.