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14 April 2012
Remembering Murdered Activist, Vittorio Arrigoni
A year after the killing in Gaza of the International Solidarity Movement activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, events are planned in cities throughout Italy, Europe, Palestine and the world. Citizens of the digital world share their memories and stories while the trial of his kidnappers and killers continues.
22 March 2012
Italy: Protests Blaze Over High-Speed Rail to France
The last few weeks have been particularly important (and controversial) for the "No Tav" movement, which, since 1981, has opposed the construction of a high speed train line between Turin and Lyon. Alongside on-going protests, suppression and legal disagreements, activism and discussions blossom online.
18 November 2011
12 November 2011
6 October 2011
Italy
The homepage of Wikipedia Italia is on strike from the evening of October 4th. Its content is blocked in protest against an Italian bill on telephone interceptions that will mean that all sites and blogs must amend their contents within 48 hours of a request by any applicant who judges it detrimental to their personal image. The details and a petition can be found here. The latest news indicates, however, that the obligation to make amendments will only apply to online publications which are registered in court. The issue is, however, not fully resolved as demonstrates a new intervention by Wikipedia Italia [Italian - all links].
12 May 2011
Kenya
In a crisis, how can Web 2.0 be of use to social movements and what practical help can it offer to facilitate collective action? In reality, there is no shortage of platforms which, established on a voluntary basis, using free software, harness the internet and mobile phones to gather and share information, sourced directly from citizens, a process termed crowdsourcing. Their uses range from the management of humanitarian emergencies and conflicts, as in the crowdmapping of the post-election disorder in Kenya in 2008 (the first ever use of Ushahidi), to natural disasters, like in Haiti, in Chile or during the 2010 floods in Pakistan (Crowdmap, which evolved from Ushahidi, was used), to technological crises like the recent nuclear incident at Fukushima. All of these projects, and others still in development, will be discussed in Paris at CrisisCamp Paris [Fr]( for details, see the following wiki page) from 27th to 29th of May 2011. Organised in partnership with the Crisis Commons network, Ushahidi, Global Voices and other groups, the event will concentrate on the use of technology 2.0 in the management of crises. Italy will be represented by the Open Foreste project [Italian], based on Crowdmap, and which is dedicated to the prevention of forest fires in Italy. For further information on the latter project see this article [Italian].
30 April 2011
English
While the event itself initially seemed to have passed without comment [it] by traditional media and bloggers in Italy, something is finally happening [it] to call for the release of the Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei [it], who has been presumed imprisoned by the Chinese authorities since April 3. The Pulitzer Association has issued an appeal [it] to both the Italian president, Napolitano, and the Chinese premier Hu Jintao, the text of which is circulating online [it]. For its part, the Associazione Italia-Tibet relaunched the petition for the release of Ai Weiwei [it] supported by the Guggenheim Foundation. And while the accusation that Chinese authorities have violated human rights does not appear to be unfounded [it], the China Media Project has translated a video where noted Chinese activist Zhao Lianhai, calls for the release of Ai Weiwei and of other dissidents arrested in recent months.
==> As Africans we need to let go of our victimhood, inferiority complex & acceptance...