CitizenShift
Updates from the basement, courtesy of the CITIZENShift team.
Archive of December, 2006
The social news network, Digg, has added videos and podcasting to its platform. Digg is a site where users submit their own stories and vote (or ‘digg’) them up or down the list. The theory is that the most popular and interesting stuff rises to the top.
I predict Digg will soon rival if not outpace iTunes for podcast indexing on the web.
Why?
Mainly because iTunes isn’t even on the web. It’s all hoarded on Apple’s weird phobos servers. This means if you want to search for podcasts on iTunes one has to fire up their big, bloated interface and then ‘connect’ to the iTunes store…. etc. etc. - all just to find a podcast.
Digg is one of the early success stories of Web 2.0; basically they took Slashdot’s model of submitting and ranking stories and popularized it in a nice clean, interface. Six months later Slashdot redesigned their interface. Too little, too late. Now Digg is out of control.
Digg the CITIZENShift podcast!
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We’ve added comment functionality to all of our clips here at CITIZENShift!
If a video stirs you up so much that you’d like to leave a comment, question, or start a discussion, now you can do it right away. Hopefully this will make the site more participative and engender a bit more dialogue about all these provocative films.
Thanks to our amazing Java/XML/CSS programmer, Yan, for all her hard work!
You can start commenting right away on our new Femicide dossier.
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Our friends over at the Shameless blog have posted a HOWTO with tips for women who want to fight back against an agressor.
They cite that : amongst women who fight back against a sexual assailant, 70% manage to avoid or stop a rape.
I’m sure this is a controversial issue, but it’s well worth a read.
Shameless Mag.
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I found this great web-based radio show from Barcelona, called Radio Chango. It relates back to our Autonomous Media dossier, as this organization explores everything from peace movements to media censorship and promotes “Mestiza” music- a genre of rhythms that attempt to cross racial borders between Native and non-Native groups. Radio Chango also rejects the one-way form of communication and encourages open sharing of information allowing for citizens, activists, and artists to post everything from personal editorials to political drawings. I found it enlightening when a friend in Chile told me it is heard and known throughout Latin America. It?s not the most aesthetically pleasing website but as an independent organization, it?s philosophy is innovative.
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CITIZENShift is inspired by Challenge for Change - a 1960s experimental National Film Board initiative that involved communities in the documentary filmmaking process.
Now, over forty years later, with the advent of affordable and interactive technology, we hope to carry the same spirit of community-driven media and content on our site.
CitizenShift hosts various media, including films/videos, audio pieces, written work and photography. We felt that in order to be in true keeping with ‘community-driven’ content, it was necessary to include a section for interaction and audience participation. Our forums and blogs do just that.
Blogging works for CITIZENShift because it gives individuals the opportunity to participate by sharing their opinions as well as their experiences with issues that are important to them. In addition, frequent posts by our bloggers allow all CITIZENShift content to remain current.
We have a special arena for guest bloggers, who write regularly over the period of 3+ months about social issues that they are involved with — often during extensive travel –and, we have a ‘Basement’ blog which is where CitizenShift staff and shorter term bloggers talk about various issues and events.
Blogging is primarily a lead-generating tool that connects people with similar interests and goals. There are some people who make money through their blogs, but they usually spend a disproportionate amount of time on administrative tasks such as optimizing advertising space and performing server maintenance.
Aside from putting one’s thoughts in order, the direct value of blogging comes through developing long-term relationships, contacts and/or business relationships through your readers. Whether you’re an artist, an activist, or a corporation, an honest long-term blog will inevitably humanize the work you are doing and make it more interesting and appealing to others. From an outreach and community building perspective for CitizenShift, blogging is a wonderful tool for social networking, and to continue our goal to create, use & support media for social change.
links: National Film Board of Canada
Challenge For Change
Other Blogs on our site
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Written by
catrina
December 4, 2006
‘Aphrodite’ shoes for sex workers - an interesting ‘art’ project/ initiative by artist Norene Leddy
that I stumbled upon in surfing for content related to Violence Against women. I found this to be a sort of .. charming idea for a serious issue - the safety of women in the streets.
The shoe is armed:
- with a piercing audio alarm to draw attention and scare off rapists and muggers. Unlike mace or knives, it can?t be used against you.
- Hidden Safety Compartmentsfor storing cash, house keys, and condoms.
- Problem Client Blogwhere you can post information online about ‘problem clients? that is searchable by date, city and street address. Check it before you head off to work, or use it to warn your fellow workers of possible trouble.
- A customized version of Rave Wireless’s Rave Guardian and a GPS system.
- With the press of a button, you can send an emergency signal to sex workers rights groups and/or the police with your location.- This helps to eliminate the “consensual” argument - if it was consensual, you wouldn?t have pressed the emergency button.- Sending the signal to sex workers rights groups allows them to monitor the police.- If the police don?t show up, both you and the sex workers rights group have a record of your call, and police negligence.- You choose who gets to see the signal and who doesn?t, and you can turn the tracking off at any time.- It?s not just for help — you can also use the GPS system to locate your friends and co-workers.- This technology is gaining widespread acceptance on college campuses across the country. Rave Wireless’s Rave Guardian, allows students that feel unsafe to use their mobile phone as a personal alarm device. Students initiate a timer on their mobile phone. If the timer expires before the student turns it off, Rave Guardian uses the e911 infrastructure to locate the phone and let local authorities know to check on the student. Learn more about Rave Wireless at www.ravewireless.com or email info@ravewireless.com.
- Audible Alarm Systemwith a piercing audio alarm to draw attention and scare off rapists and muggers. Unlike mace or knives, it can?t be used against you.
- Hidden Safety Compartmentsfor storing cash, house keys, and condoms.<
- Problem Client Blogwhere you can post information online about ‘problem clients? that is searchable by date, city and street address. Check it before you head off to work, or use it to warn your fellow workers of possible trouble.
- A customized version of Rave Wireless’s Rave Guardian and a GPS system.
- With the press of a button, you can send an emergency signal to sex workers rights groups and/or the police with your location.- This helps to eliminate the “consensual” argument - if it was consensual, you wouldn?t have pressed the emergency button.- Sending the signal to sex workers rights groups allows them to monitor the police.- If the police don?t show up, both you and the sex workers rights group have a record of your call, and police negligence.- You choose who gets to see the signal and who doesn?t, and you can turn the tracking off at any time.- It?s not just for help — you can also use the GPS system to locate your friends and co-workers.- This technology is gaining widespread acceptance on college campuses across the country. Rave Wireless’s Rave Guardian, allows students that feel unsafe to use their mobile phone as a personal alarm device. Students initiate a timer on their mobile phone. If the timer expires before the student turns it off, Rave Guardian uses the e911 infrastructure to locate the phone and let local authorities know to check on the student. Learn more about Rave Wireless at or email info@ravewireless.com.
link: The Aphrodite Project
technorati tags: takebackthetech
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