Reps from 40 countries descend on D.C. for Google conference

Ijust arrived in Washington, D.C., for a conference with the goal of protecting freedom of expression on the Internet. Organized by Google, Internet at Liberty (they could have done better on the name) will “explore the most pressing dilemmas and exciting opportunities around free expression in the digital age.”

As the conference site says, “Today, more than any time in history, technological and political forces are colliding to draw lines about how the Internet functions. … The conference will explore creative ways to expand the free flow of information online” with global activists and representatives of academic centers, corporations, governments, the media and NGOs.

Certainly, Google has a business stake in a free and open Internet — an Internet that does not become balkanized as a result of attempts to bend the content citizens can see to reflect governments’ narrow, parochial interests. But here is an example where Google’s interests and the public’s interests sync up perfectly.

A gathering of Internet freedom organizations

I’ll be running the conference’s social media track (disclosure: Google recruited and paid me to organize it). Look for two days of workshops that will cover strategies and tools to advance cause organizations’ advocacy campaigns. Our charter is not to discuss only Internet freedom issues but any strategies, tactics and tools that can help change-makers using social media succeed. The plenary sessions Wednesday and Thursday will be live-streamed while the workshops will be video recorded and put online at a future date, I’m told. Follow the hashtag #InternetLiberty.

Somewhere between roughly 250 and 350 people from as many as 40 countries will be attending the invitation-only event, the second in what may become an ongoing series of gatherings held every couple of years. (The first was Internet at Liberty – Budapest in 2010.)

Among the attendees at the Newseum will be representatives from the State Department and Justice Department, Voice of America, Human Rights Watch, WITNESS, Egyptian Democratic Academy, the World Bank, Viet Tan, Center for Democracy & Technology, Citizen Lab, TechFreedom, Committee to Protect Journalists, the Ford Foundation, Freedom House, Global Voices Online, Libya Public Policy Forum, Internet Society chapters in Bulgaria, Gambia, Nepal and Poland and many others. My old friend Rebecca MacKinnon will be one of two folks from New America Foundation coming out for this.

Fascinating gathering, no?

Social media for advocacy campaigns

Over at our sister site, Socialbrite, tomorrow we’ll launch a Social Advocacy Toolkit that contains informational guides to the best platforms and tools available to social advocates, including campaign tools, 10 steps to run a successful campaign, monitoring, metrics and fundraising tools, Internet freedom resources and more.

For our workshops, “Social media: Strategies and tools for advocacy campaigns,” running Wednesday and Thursday, Google brought in a great batch of speakers:

• Jim Murphy, Emma Daly and Enrique Piraces from Human Rights Watch
• d’Arcy Lunn From the Global Poverty Project
• Sana Saleem, an activist and political reformer in Pakistan who runs the advocacy/policy organization Bolo Bhi
• Oscar Morales, the Colombian activist whose Facebook protests against the terrorist group FARC was chronicled on page 1 of David Kirkpatrick’s “The Facebook Effect”
• Matt Perault of Facebook
• Jason Karsh of Google Plus

Thanks to everyone who’s coming out for this important gathering to catalyze action back home!

About this conference

• Internet at Liberty 2012 Conference: Join the discussion (Google public policy blog)

• Schedule of events

• Live-stream Wed.-Thu.: YouTube.com/citizentube

• A microsite with the bios of the speakers was supposed to be live by now, but apparently isn’t.

The post Catalyzing action for Internet freedom appeared first on Inside Social Media.

I’m at a loss for words for the trampling of our constitutional rights in recent years. So I’ll repost a few paragraphs from an entry by Thomas Hawk earlier today: Long Beach Harbor Patrol Says Photography "Not Allowed" From Public Sidewalk.

I just got back from shooting for a week in Los Angeles and have to say that the highlight of my trip was shooting industrial stuff down in Long Beach Harbor with Photographer David Sommars. David is an amazing photographer who regularly shoots industrial stuff around L.A. and he shared with me some of the most fantastic vantage points to shoot this sort of photography in Long Beach. David also maintains a photography related blog here.

Unfortunately our photowalk around the Port of Long Beach was not without incident. Three times we were blinted while photographing. I’ve been stopped plenty of times while legally shooting in the past. Most of the times I’ve been able to be respectful but insistent on my legal rights to shoot wherever I’m shooting. Every so often though an incident turns into a more serious altercation.

The first two times Sommars and I were stopped we were stopped by private security agents working for Securitas on behalf of BP’s Carson Refinery. … The hassle from BP’s agents though didn’t really bother me all that much. We were insistent on our rights to shoot the facility and they seemed to understand that in the end there was nothing that they could do about it. Their security guard snapped photos of both of us with his camera phone (and I returned the favor of course) and then they followed us when we left in my car in order to get my license plate, but they seemed to pretty clearly understand that while they were free to ask us not to shoot the plant, it was clearly within our rights to do so.

The more disturbing incident came later when we were atop a bridge, again on a public sidewalk, shooting another plant and long exposure bridge shots. Here we were stopped by real cops this time, rather than security guards. The cops in question were from the Long Beach Harbor Patrol. Their officer explained to us that it was his job to monitor the side of the bridge that we were on while L.A.P.D. had jurisdiction over the other side of the bridge.

Basically the conversation went something like this.

Long Beach Harbor Patrol Officer: "I’m going to have to ask you guys to leave."

Us: "But, why, were simply taking art photographs."

Long Beach Harbor Patrol Officer: "You’re not allowed to photograph these plants."

Us: "But we’re on a public sidewalk. What law doesn’t allow us to photograph here?"

Long Beach Harbor Patrol Officer: "You’ll need to come back tomorrow and get a permit if you want to shoot in the Harbor."

Me: "I’m only down in Long Beach for tonight and won’t be able to do that."

2nd Long Beach Harbor Patrol Officer (shrugging her shoulders): Oh, well, you’re just going to have to leave. Photography is not allowed here without a permit."

During this altercation both David and I were asked to present identification to the police. They used our IDs to run background checks on both of us. …

David told me that he’s been stopped about 10 times in the last six months while shooting in Long Beach Harbor. About half of those stops involved actual police in addition to security guards. On one occasion the cops actually handcuffed him and in another incident 4 police cars and a black SUV converged on him. He’s also had FBI agents call on him over his photography. Personally I think it’s wrong to handcuff peaceful photographers for the "crime" of photography while questioning and detaining. …

What I am tired of though is the harassment that photographers face on a regular basis while out documenting our world. Photography is not a crime. 911 didn’t suddenly magically turn photographers into criminals. And as long as photography is not a crime, I think that cops, security guards and other authority figures should be required to live within the legal system as it now stands. Maybe some day they will pass a law that shooting Long Beach Harbor is in fact a crime. Or maybe they’ll actually pass a law that permits *are* actually required to shoot there. But until that day happens (and I’d be one vocally opposing any such rule like that) this sort of harassment ought not take place. And it’s unfortunate when it does.

Digg this here.

The post ‘Photography not allowed’ from public sidewalk appeared first on Inside Social Media.

Xeni Jardin at BoingBoing TV interviews my friends and videoblogging pioneers Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson while they were in hiding after videotaping some pro-Tibet demonstrators in Beijing during the Olympics. They just returned to the U.S. today.

Related:

Mark Glaser at MediaShift has the exclusive story explaining how Reporters Without
Borders pulled off a 20-minute FM radio broadcast in Beijing right
before the Olympics kicked off on August 8. It’s a first-person account
of how the protester hid radio antennas in hiking sticks, tried to look
like a tourist, and ended up broadcasting right near the Beijing
International Media Center. Chinese authorities searched for the person
sending out the broadcast, but never found them. It’s a story of
intrigue and shows that technology will help people come up with
ingenious ways to get around state censorship.

The post Interview with pro-Tibet videobloggers in hiding appeared first on Inside Social Media.