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People power transforms the web in next online revolution

People power transforms the web in next online revolution
In July 2004, US cinema advertisements for Halo 2, the science fiction computer game, briefly carried the address for a website - ilovebees.com - which appeared to belong to a beekeeper who had mysteriously disappeared. Her honey-based recipes had been replaced by an apparently random list of numbers. Over four months 600,000 people joined in solving the mystery of what the numbers meant. People set up blogs and bulletin boards, websites and instant message groups. The game's designers at 42 Entertainment in Los Angeles set the players a series of complex tasks and on the final day started calling 1,000 payphones on the East Coast of America. If ingenious games designers can inspire thousands of people to collaborate to solve a puzzle, could we do something similar to tackle global warming, keep communities safe, provide support for the elderly, help disaster victims, lend and borrow money, conduct political and policy debates, teach and learn, design and make physical products?

Nous avons réuni 150 personnes, de 22 pays différents, en utilisant principalement Twitter Si vous suivez régulièrement ce blog, vous n'aurez sans doute pas manqué le fait qu'Entreprise Globale s'est pleinement investi ces derniers mois dans la promotion du concept du Coworking. Les 19-20 novembre derniers, nous avons réuni à Bruxelles les pionniers de ce mouvement émergent en Europe. Au total, plus de 150 personnes étaient présentes, originaires de provenance de 22 pays différents. Les pays limitrophes, bien sûr: Allemagne, Pays-Bas, Luxembourg, France, Royaume-Uni… Mais aussi venant d'Espagne, d'Italie, du Portugal, de République tchèque, de Hongrie, de Grèce, d'Ukraine, de Russie, de Pologne, de Roumanie et même des Etats-Unis (7 personnes, dont une majorité de la côte ouest)… Pour réunir cet aréopage international d'acteurs du coworking au niveau européen, nous avons utilisé un outil de communication principal : Twitter . Première étape : un site internet et un bon produit Nous avons démarré en ouvrant, d'abord, un blog. Choix de langue : l'anglais. Deuxième étape : l'annonce

The Web Turns 20: Linked Data Gives People Power, Part 1 of 4 Editor's Note: The World Wide Web went live 20 years ago this month, on a single computer in Geneva, Switzerland. For the anniversary, the Web's inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, has written an exclusive article for Scientific American. In it, he confronts various threats that could ruin the Web, and explains why preserving the basic principles that have allowed the Web to flourish is essential to preventing its destruction. While preparing the article, Berners-Lee also spoke to Scientific American about emerging Web capabilities that could change how the online and physical worlds work. This four-part series covers some of the most intriguing, including the power of linked data, social machines, free bandwidth to the masses and Web science. Indeed, the Web is thriving—a recent cover story in Wired magazine to the contrary notwithstanding. Examples of the power of linked data arise daily. Linked data can also keep corporations honest.

Réseaux sociaux d’entreprise et management | Le blog de la communication on-line Les réseaux sociaux d’entreprise (RSE) dessinent l’avenir de l’Intranet. Ces plateformes collaboratives réinventent la communication interne. Mais plus encore, elles préfigurent – et nécessitent– une forme nouvelle de management. La Ve conférence Media Aces vient d’en apporter une illustration brillante, avec la présentation du réseau social d’entreprise d’Alcatel-Lucent : Engage. Retour sur une innovation exemplaire. Le réseau social d’entreprise d’Alcatel-Lucent ConnectCollaborateContribute. Un média social interne Les salariés retrouvent, sur cette plateforme, des outils similaires à ceux qu’ils utilisent quotidiennement sur le web et les réseaux sociaux. L’exemple du management Seconde clé de cette réussite : l’implication du management. Pour l’instant, le réseau social d’entreprise ne se substitue pas à l’Intranet. Casser les silos Les débuts ont été timides. Car le but déclaré de Engage, c’est justement de casser les silos. Management Trust and Engage Changement de paradigme.

People power comes to Russia Opposition protest rallies across Russia Dozens arrested across Russia as opposition party calls for mass rallies around the country. P 11, 2011 VLADIMIR PUTIN'S return to the Kremlin as president next year may not be the smooth limousine ride he expects, judging from growing protests across Russia against the way his ruling party hijacked recent parliamentary elections. Significantly, the people coming onto the streets are not opposition regulars but ordinary citizens who have never demonstrated before. ''I didn't vote for United Russia [the pro-Putin party], neither did any of my friends or relatives or anyone I know, so I don't see how they can say the party won 50 per cent.'' When Kiev became a sea of orange flags after vote-rigging in Ukraine in 2004, Mr Putin vowed there would be no ''colour revolutions'' in Russia. Advertisement One woman said she did not mind whether or not Mr Putin came back.

And here's to the year of people power Cartoon: Cathy Wilcox. THE death on January 4 from self-immolation of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi triggered a tumultuous year of revolution in North Africa and the Middle East. The 26-year-old Bouazizi's suicide, a protest against corruption and despotism, was a tragic start to a year that will be remembered for a resurfacing of people power. The awful regimes of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen were swept from power and Syria's leader is under siege from his own people, his Arab allies and major powers, including the US. There have been protests in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia; Jordan's king has acknowledged a need for democratic change, appeasing protesters; and there are high hopes a victory for moderates in Morocco's recent election will pave the way for a fairer future. The campaign for democracy has been bloody and well short of universally successful. Advertisement Time magazine has called ''the protester'' the person of the year and it's a fitting plaudit.

Some Real Issues for 2012 The presidential election may be grabbing headlines, but the true rallying cry for 2012 is to struggle and organize around those issues that a president might take seriously, to stake out positions that would benefit what used to be called the working class (and now goes by “the 99 percent”) and to garner enough political will and power to pressure the president and Congress to move resolutely on the issues that matter. Tall order, and one that’s of more than passing interest to those who think of themselves as part of the food movement. Or the environmental movement. Or the Occupy movement, or the foreclosed homeowners movement, or the indebted students movement, or the unemployment movement, or pretty much any movement you can name that implicitly or explicitly acknowledges that there is a class war in this country, one that the wrong side is winning. It doesn’t matter what you call the movements, or the people behind them. Whatever. Why?

Politics and the Power of the Web According to research by Hanover Communications, the Labour backbench MP Tom Watson had a higher media profile in 2011 than every shadow minister, except for Ed Miliband and Ed Balls. Even a few years ago, the idea that a mere backbencher would have a higher profile than, say, the shadow Foreign Secretary or Home Secretary, would have seemed bizarre. Today it is a fact. Why? Many will put it down to the phone hacking scandal, in which Watson had a starring role exposing wrong-doing, and think no more of it. But I suspect something more is happening. One clue lies in the fact that Watson is an ex-blogger, and a prolific tweeter. On the Tory side, too, many backbenchers have a far higher media profile than many ministers. And what do many of the most high profile backbenchers have in common? Several years ago, after reading Chris Anderson's The Long Tail, I realised that I'd have to start blogging. The internet is democratising communication. Today MPs can get their views out there directly.

We Are Power Shift Columns / B S Raghavan : Ringing in the era of people's power Without any exaggeration, 2011 has indeed been a turning point, a cathartic experience, giving a foretaste of the invincible power people have for bringing about whatever change they want. I have never in all my life known a turn of the year that has not been marked by a gloom-and-doom syndrome in the outpourings in the media. If you want evidence, go to the section in the Madras University Library keeping old dailies and pick up at random issues of 1948, 1949 or 1950 — whatever comes to hand. If you remove the allusions to contemporary names and read on, you will have the illusion that you are reading today's newspapers: The same alarm being sounded about things falling apart, the centre not being able to hold and mere anarchy and blood-dimmed tide being loosed upon the world — in the ready-to-order words from the poem The Second Coming, of William Butler Yeats. It has been no different at the passing of 2011. Calm down, everybody. That's the future that is beckoning to us. It was M.

Earth Hour The People Power Revolution in the Philippines The Power of Active Nonviolence and Truth Movements Author: Richard Deats In l986 millions of unarmed Filipinos surprised the world by nonviolently overthrowing the brutal dictator Ferdinand Marcos, known at the time as “the Hitler of Southeast Asia.” They called their movement “people power,” demonstrating in an amazing way the power of active nonviolence, the power of truth and love, similar to what was seen in the Gandhian freedom struggle in India and the civil rights movement in the United States. Beginning with the assassination in l983 of the popular opposition leader Senator Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino, the movement against Marcos grew rapidly. I felt a strong affinity with this emerging movement. Deats teaching in the Philippines at St Andrew’s Seminary 1971 They called their movement “people power,” demonstrating in an amazing way the power of active nonviolence, the power of truth and love. We had lively discussions. A military man said, “This is something new. “Impossible?”

The Emergence of People Power in a Young Democracy (Special Analysis) We’ve all heard the phrase that “perception is (a big part of) reality.” Perception certainly informs our attitudes and beliefs, helping us to manage time, energy, and anxiety around a particular need or event. In Liberia, there seems to be a public perception that people in authority are not responsive to societal needs, and because there is a growing awareness that power and authority are indifferent, public protest is now perceived as a short route to achieving societal needs. It is, for a lack of better words, seen as a poor man’s version of lobbying the government on public policy. Though unsettling, the nature of these protests needs deep reflection and an appropriate analysis. The nature of public perception is not a clear cut case of right and wrong, and certainly, it should not be dismissed as irrational or directed by the opposition. Fortunately, the reactions from the president, so far, seem reflective and positive.

What are the prospects for sustaining high-quality groundwater? Intensive agriculture practices developed during the past century have helped improve food security for many people but have also added to nitrate pollution in surface and groundwaters. New research has looked at water quality measurement over the last 140 years to track this problem in the Thames River basin. The NERC-funded study, led by the University of Bristol's Department of Civil Engineering, has looked at nitrate transport from agricultural land to water in the Thames basin. The team used a simple model to estimate the amount of nitrate able to leach from soils to the groundwater based on land use practices along with an algorithm that determined the route nitrate would take to reach surface or groundwater from agricultural areas. The study found that nitrate concentrations in the Thames rose significantly during and after World War II to about double their previous level, then increased again in the early 1970s.

Agro-ecology methods are key to food security Agro-ecological farming methods, not industrial-scale agriculture will be needed to ensure food security and protect food supplies from the impacts of climate change, argues Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. He challenges the widely held view that food production needs to be scaled up to feed a growing population, saying that such a strategy overlooks climate change as well as how food is produced, by whom and for whom. Agro-ecology attracted interest during negotiations at the COP 17 climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, says De Schutter, and provides an opportunity to tie together the food security and climate change agendas. Climate change is already affecting the global food supply, creating food shortages and famine. "What is desperately needed is a change of agricultural paradigm," argues De Schutter. Diverse and local, these methods can increase food yields in areas both in need of food and of resilience to extreme weather.

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