Citizen journalism, social networking is "Big Brother" reversed

Technology often gets a bad wrap for its 1984-esque surveillance capabilities. "Big Brother"is The Man with cameras and satellites when he uses them to control his subjects. But what happens when the citizens use surveillance to hound the authorities? "Big brother" becomes a grassroots, for-the-people social networking effort... It becomes citizen journalism.

The opposite of "Big Brother" is embodied in the young, tech-savvy, politically-active citizens of Myanmar (formerly Burma), a country of about 48 million near China, where a military committee (a junta) rules by force.

In August, several hundred monks dressed in bright red began to protest when the government doubled fuel prices. When troops injured several of the monks, and no apology was made, outrage grew. Pro-democratic protesters joined with the monks. Last week, the number of protesters had grown to more than 100,000.

Though newspapers in Myanmar are either shut down or tightly controlled with propaganda, young computer-literate protesters have been capturing video and still photographs on their cell phones and spreading information about human rights violations despite their heavily-censored Internet access. Dedicated to working around censors, and dedicated to defying the military's propaganda, they have to be creative to get the truth out. Bloggers like this one have posted daily updates from their network of citizen journalists.

Or at least they were doing so until last Friday, when the government cut off the nation's Internet access. ISPs were shut down, cybercafes were closed, and even the government's Web site was down.

In 1988, the Burmese junta quelled protests by killing several thousand people. Human rights activists say they fear a repeat of such violence could happen while the flow of news is slowed to a trickle. Reporters Without Borders says on its Web site, "The repression, with its dozens of deaths and hundreds if not thousands of arrests, is gaining pace, but the flow of news and information is drying up. The international community must take action to prevent this news blackout."

It is scary to think of such a crucial voice silenced. Human rights activism is certainly the most important social networking on the Internet. What nobler cause could there be?

'Big Brother' to the rescue?

According to a report by New Science, satellite images that can focus down to 1 pixel per meter are being used to document the protests and the military actions. Because the monks wear bright red, they are easily spotted from the sky.

The hope is that if the military knows it is being watched by the international community, it will not repeat a massacre.

I find it hard to articulate my appreciation of the overwhelming dichotomy of the uses of surveillance. Americans value their privacy; they know their human rights are not violated so long as they have it. George Orwell understood in a fictional, symbolic way how important privacy is to humans.

The monks value their visibility. They march until their feet cannot carry them anymore; they know their human rights will be violated until they can change the hearts of the soldiers and turn all eyes to their cause. They understand in a religious, symbolic way how important being heard is to humans.

Inspired Americans can add to their visibility and increase the strength of the social network by joining the Facebook group, or by wearing red at the solidarity protests being organized all over the world, or by contacting their elected lawmaker and urging them to promote policies that encourage Myanmar aid.

And we should join the cause. We have it easy... We can connect to each other without fear of arrest, and stand up against oppression in places Myanmar's military cannot reach. Really, what better way do we have to stick it to The Man? What could be more American?

Not silence... not silence.

Presidential Election Reform Act not enough to fix an outdated bias

The Presidential Election Reform Act, a ballot initiative that would weaken the winner-takes-all Electoral College voting system in California, does not go far enough to fix an outdated bias.

Currently, California winners of the presidential election take all 55 electoral votes. Under the new proposal, each of California's 53 districts would get to award 1 vote to their winning candidate, and the winner of the statewide majority would be awarded just two extra electoral votes.

Two other states have adopted this method of vote counting. It would mean a weaker Democratic party in California... but a more accurate reflection of this state's voters.

The winner-takes-all system effectively means that everyone who voted for a minority candidate in one state (who may have been a majority candidate in another) has their vote miscounted for the people they voted against. (Voting for the lesser of two evils means voting against candidates.) In an especially populous state such as California, the majority vote is made stronger because of California's size--but a powerful vote is still a miscounted vote if it's not going to the candidate you voted for.

To make things really fair, we'd need this ballot initiative passed nationwide, so that democrats voting in Republican states wouldn't have their votes miscounted. The Reform Act, while more fair to voters on a statewide level, gives an unfair nationwide advantage to the Republicans unless it is enacted in, say, Texas too.

Certainly, don't believe the Republicans in our state are a voiceless minority to be pitied, as portrayed on a recent airing of the Colbert Report. In fact, thanks to the 2/3 majority California needs to change the budget, constitution, pass taxes, or ... well... get anything done, the minority party ends up holding or withholding the crucial votes on major decisions in the state. The fact remains that the Electoral College gives all its power to the party, and no power to the individual.

The system was designed to keep ignorant masses from mucking up the elite game of politics. Today, however, people are literate. Education is one of our top values. The USA has learned before: the electoral system can betray the popular vote--and why should intelligent, issue-aware voters allow that to happen? Changing the system to awarding votes per district brings us one step closer to a reasonable system that is right for everyone.

Thanks to district gerrymandering, it's easy to predict what district votes for what party. Roughly 20 congressional districts of California's 53 vote Republican. Party numbers won't shift overnight, but envision a future where California becomes a contested state, where candidates are forced to take the state's support seriously in their bid for presidency, and not simply chalk it up as a "blue state." As things are now, we're basically ignored by candidates.

Let's push for an updated, more accurate system. Get rid of the electoral college. The Presidential Election Reform Act doesn't go far enough to rid us of the outdated bias against an entire populace. It is a small step that should be taken nationwide to preserve a democracy that can be all about empowering the individual.

Move over, nerd--the socialite geek is here to stay

Move over, nerd. Tech isn't just for geeks anymore.

Thanks to an endless list of networking sites, forums, and online games, there is an undeniable rise in human communities forming online. Technology gives us more ways to connect to each other than ever before... and it's not just the technophiles who use them.

Classically, the game industry has published games for and by the solitary nerd. These games feature fictional violence and characters with little growth arc to them. These games "trivialize the importance of the emotional experience," warns Sheri Graner Ray, author of "Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market."

In short, those games are made to appeal to a small stereotype of loner geeks.

But a growing number of games, animated shows, and comic books have proved the market can expand beyond that stereotype.

Take World of Warcraft for example. It is an online game played by more than 9 million people worldwide. It has continued to top sales charts since its release in 2004. And no--those 9 million aren't the socially-inept number-crunching hide-in-the-dark stereotype of a "gamer."

"Myself and all four kids and husband play here," said Olathedyami, a Warcraft player with grown children. "...(I) actually started playing because my husband was stationed at Ft. Irwin for almost two years."

She is part of a guild that prides itself on being family-friendly, meaning children and parents alike play together. Other guilds restrict their membership to be adult-only, and some are for seniors only.

It's not a surprise that people are able to play in and succeed in World of Warcraft. According to a speech given by Cliff Dennett, a corporate strategist, the skills you need to excel in the game are the same skills all leaders need in the corporate world.

"Gamers collaborate with many people they've never met, often in different time zones," he said, as quoted in an M-net news story. "You need to be a mediator and co-ordinate differing opinions and you need to allocate tasks according to skill levels. A good leader also links rewards and incentives to make members want to come back night after night.

"These are critical leadership skills required in business."

Even gamers enjoy social activity, too? If that doesn't sound right, just ask Steven Poole, author of "Trigger Happy: Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution." He'll tell you that competition and co-operation is half the fun.

Maybe the new technology does make technophiles of us all. We love to connect. We love to share. We love to compete. And we love the technology that lets us do that.

Happy birthday Dad, with love from airport security

My father will have the perfect birthday present, thanks to airport security.

My family traveled to Seattle this summer. Out of nostalgia and the sense of duty to be good tourists on my parent’s part, we visited the Space Needle. My mother, my father, my sister, and I paid $16 per person to go to the top, where we were suitably unimpressed by the view.

Things were more fun downstairs in the overpriced gift shop, where the “space needle” theme meant marketers had gotten creative to keep us interested in the structure. Anything long and skinny, from olive oil to lamps, was reborn into the Space Needle image. Space Noodle pasta, Space Needle golf tees, paperweights, figurines, pens, cooking utensils, hats, shirts, food…

My father was in his element. He has always loved to laugh at Outer Space and all things sci-fi. His eyes twinkle with good humor at the words “alien abduction.” He enjoys making fun of cheesy old movies like “Killers from Space!” And though he enjoys the comedy of wild theories that say Elvis is still alive in a mother ship somewhere, at his heart he is an artist who delights in possibilities outside the mundane. And what opens the door to more possibilities than the final frontier?

After impatiently and unsuccessfully trying to drag my parents from the store by force twice, my sister and I both realized this was the perfect place to find him a gift. He was looking at everything with that star-struck twinkle in his eyes that said his imagination had been awakened.

We were quite determined we should get Dad just the right thing. We watched as he and my mother wove through the pointless Needle knickknacks, spying out with mock 007 smoothness which souvenirs he dawdled at longest.

Finally we had a winner. It was a rocket-shaped pewter pen that sat weighty and sleek in its base. It came in a little black box, its individual parts nestled in Styrofoam. I hid it in my backpack where Dad wouldn’t see the gift.

I did not think about it again until we passed through security at the Seattle Tacoma airport.

In airports, X-ray machines are used to scan for organic explosives and dangerous devices. My bag did not come out of the machine for a while. The X-ray technician stared silently at his screen, the conveyor belt not moving. Finally he murmured lowly to his coworkers, “Look at this. Looks like it could make a rocket to me… Is that a rocket? Run it through again.”

I was pulled aside, and my bag was searched.

My sister cleverly realized what was causing the trouble. She went immediately to Dad, to try to distract him, so he wouldn’t see the gift they were pulling out of my bag. He ignored her. (I can’t say I blame him—if my daughter’s bags were being searched, my attention would be nowhere else.)

Airports are full of negative energy. People are exhausted, hungry, and haunted by the uncertainties of when, where, and how their basic needs will next be met. The long arm of governance reaches to stop terrorists, oppressing everyone in its quest for safety. Frazzled travelers lose their short tempers with airport staff who might—if they are not already jaded to the public or frazzled themselves—try to put a nice face on the bad news they have to inevitably give.

If I were that security technician, I’d have thrown the pen out just in case. Better safe than sorry, right? Besides, she had probably faced ten million irate customers that day. No need to do little old me any favors.

But, she did. She saw my father, she saw me shielding the pen from his view with my body just in case, and she saw my sister vainly trying to distract him. She may have sensed the way Dad’s eyes would light up opening that gift… she may have sensed the way his daughters rose to action to preserve the secret… She may have had some sort of Martian device in her soul that diverted the flow of negativity all around her.

Here's how it happened. New strings were vibrated at the cosmic level, an alternate universe opened up where possibilities are endless and people really are basically good--and airport security let me pass with my cargo.

Next Tuesday my sister and I will proudly present my father with his pen, and probably relate the story of its journey. The trip makes it that much more special.

Dad is going to love it. Thanks, airport security!

Your virtual self is more public than your real self

Thanks to the rise of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, and thanks to Google’s content-searching methods, your virtual self is much more public than your real self. All it takes to be found in Cyberspace is a text search for your name. Employers can and do look up interviewees online, though some consider it to be unethical. Even blind dates aren't so blind any more, thanks to the net.

Social networking sites are growing in popularity. According to Business Week, last year 10 percent of all advertising impressions on the internet were being made on MySpace. Facebook has grown from its Stanford-students-only roots to rival MySpace for page hits. Barack Obama and John Edwards use Twitter to spread campaign news. Imeem is a music-sharing, video-sharing, and blogging site all wrapped into one.

All that traffic generates money, one way or another. MySpace and Facebook sell advertising. In order to contact someone directly on Match.com or LinkedIn, you must pay a monthly fee. That means these sites make money from offering direct access to people (you!). Some Facebook "widgets" - mini-games of sorts - make their money by collecting personal information about you. Before installing a widget on your page, you're always alerted to the fact and given a choice to opt out if you don't want to share your information with a company.

The default privacy settings on Facebook aren't great. Watch out! If you write on someone’s wall, think of it as a real wall in a public place – all his or her friends can see what you wrote. If the profile is public, anyone can see what you wrote.

The “news feed” application by default alerts your friends to all your Facebook activities. If you "friend" someone, join a new group, change your profile, take a quiz, or write on someone's wall, by the default settings, all your friends will know. It's easy to change that setting, thanks to the thousands of virtual protesters who told Facebook they wanted to be able to control what information about their own activities was shared with their friends.

Maintaining your privacy on these sites can be done, but it takes effort. You can’t control what information others post about you on the net, but you can control the information you post yourself.

After the Virginia Tech shootings last April, reporters used Facebook and MySpace to look up friends of the victims to find sources for their stories. In a Poynter article on journalists and Facebook, Dakarai Aarons wrote that students did not like that, and created their own Facebook groups in backlash. Other reporters have linked to a dead student's MySpace page, or reported about that page's content in trying to give a snapshot of the student's life.

The MySpace popularity contest can be a serious privacy concern. If 2,000 of your “friends” can see pictures of you drunk, or read your blog about how your friend slighted you last week, you cannot expect your privacy to be respected.

Everyone needs a good public face. LinkedIn is a professional networking site. Its relationships are built around office relationships—co-worker, manager, former manager, etc. LinkedIn’s popularity contest comes in the form of recommendations—if you enjoyed working with someone, you recommend them and maybe they’ll recommend you. It’s similar to posting quotes from references on a resume. This is how public profiles on social networking sites should be—an honest assertion of your strengths, not a rant.

Privacy is easy to maintain on any of these sites as long as you are aware of your public face. Be careful to examine all privacy settings. Know what to look for by looking at other people’s profiles. You can always change your settings later. Make sure your friends are really your friends, say nothing you wouldn’t be proud of, and if you're going to post a picture you don't want to see in your obituary, post it under a pseudonym.