From Mobilactive.org ---- How to Take Good Mobile Video

Many mobile phones can capture video footage. This has enabled both trained journalists and citizen reporters to more easily capture footage including images that were rarely seen before. The Polk Journalism Award in 2009, for example, was awarded to a video from Iran captured on a mobile phone. Today, more and more journalists are using mobile phones to record video and quickly transfer content to their newsrooms via mobile data connections.

Using mobiles to capture video isn't new news. But there is good news: You don't need a high-quality video camera to do high-quality reporting, be you in the U.S. or elsewhere. Many journalists and citizen reporters today use smartphones to capture video footage. Examples abound. Vancouver journalism students use an iPhone with some additional hardware and software to do all their video editing on the phone. Voices of Africa uses a Nokia N-series smartphone. In his bookMobile Journalism in the Asian Region, Stephen Quinn uses both iPhones and Nokia smartphones. This post will provide some tips and tools on how you can record quality video and audio from your mobile phone.Phone hardware is constantly improving and getting cheaper. With an older phone, you may consider video enhancement software, which can offer a cheaper way to get better quality video content. For high quality video recording on a mobile, the best phones available today feature 640 x 480 pixels at 30  frames per second. 320 x 240 pixels at 15 frames per second produces acceptable web-quality video.

Lower resolutions will look grainy and pixelated without software enhancement, and video below 15 frames per second will look choppy. On the high quality end, these are some good mobile phones with excellent video cameras:

• PC Magazine featured these five video-phone models with varying price ranges. The article includes lengthy reviews and a matrix comparison of the phones.
• For high end phones, take a look at these articles: CNet's top 5 video phones of 2009,Wirefly's top 10 2009 video phones, MSNBC's video phone review with 5 recommendations, the iPhone 3GS, and the Motorola Droid.
• The GSMArena.com database features 1800 phones with video capabilities, 70 of which are listed on this page. The site allows you to search for cameras based on various criteria and links directly to carriers around the world who are selling these phones.
• The Nokia N series phones are generally highly recommended for video recording. The N82,N93, and N95 are mentioned often by independent reviewers.When it comes to shooting video, the major difference between mobiles and mainstream camcorders is that mobile phones have simpler (and smaller) cameras. It is important to understand what makes for good quality video given these limitations. Some suggested tools and tips are listed here.

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The Challenge: New Technology in an Indigenous Community in Panama

Promo video for an wireless internet hub for an Indigenous community in Panama.  This features a "facilitator" from Microsoft. For information about a group in Namibia that works to provide alternatives to Microsoft by encouraging and assisting in setting up free and opensource networks, see: http://www.schoolnet.na/
and http://deepdishwavesofchange.blogspot.com/2008/02/schoolnets-computer-comics.html
In the Schoolnet comics the microsoft sales man is the evil villain.

Drawings from comic books distributed to Namibian school students and teachers by Schoolnet.

How Environmental Disasters Destroy Culture

Con la solidaria intención de que prevalezca la verdad y la justicia, se ha publicado este Documental, que revela un derrame o siniestro equivalente a 30 veces el producido por el Exxon Valdez. CHEVRON TEXACO debe pagar por el genocidio provocado; además de la afectación de flora y fauna irrecuperables.

Flash Mob at Best Buy for Palestine

Inmates in Georgia Prisons Use Cell Phones to Coordinate Protest

By SARAH WHEATON Published: December 13, 2010 U.S. NEWS
http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=713691&f=21

The prison protest has entered the wireless age.
Inmates in at least seven Georgia prisons have used contraband cellphones to coordinate a nonviolent strike this weekend, saying they want better living conditions and to be paid for work they do in the prisons.

Inmates said they would not perform chores, work for the Corrections Department's industrial arm or shop at prison commissaries until a list of demands are addressed, including compensation for their work, more educational opportunities, better food and sentencing rules changes. The protest began Thursday, but inmates said that organizers had spent months building a web of disparate factions and gangs - groups not known to cooperate - into a unified coalition using text messaging and word of mouth. Officials at the Georgia Department of Corrections said Monday that four facilities remain in a lockdown status and there have been no major incidents or issues reported.

Inmates complained of scattered clashes with guards.
Smuggled cellphones have been commonplace in prisons for years; Charles Manson was caught with one in a California penitentiary this month. Officials worry that inmates will use them to issue orders to accomplices on the outside or to plan escape attempts.

But the Georgia protest appears to be the first use of the technology to orchestrate a grass-roots movement behind bars. Reached on their cellphones inside several prisons, six participants in the strike described a feat of social networking more reminiscent of Capitol Hill vote-whipping than jailhouse rebellion.

Conditions at the state prisons have been in decline, the inmates said. But "they took the cigarettes away in August or September, and a bunch of us just got to talking, and that was a big factor," said Mike, an inmate at the Smith State Prison in Downing who declined to give his full name.

The organizers set a date for the start and, using contact numbers from time spent at other prisons or connections from the outside, began sending text messages to inmates known to hold sway." Anybody that has some sort of dictatorship or leadership amongst the crowds," said Mike, one of several prisoners who contacted The New York Times to publicize their strike. "We have to come together and set aside all differences, whites, blacks, those of us that are affiliated in gangs." Now, Mike said, every dormitory at participating prisons has at least one point man with a phone who can keep the other inmates in the loop.

Miguel, another prisoner at Smith who also declined to give his full name, estimated that about 10 percent of all inmates had phones." We text very frequently," he said. "We try and keep up with what's going on in the news and what's going on at other facilities. Those are our voices."

They are also a source of profit to the people providing the contraband. Miguel said he paid $400 for a phone that would have cost $20 on the street. Mike said he bought his through a guard. "That's how a lot of us get our phones," Mike said. Inmates said guards had started confiscating the phones, and they complained that hot water and heat had been turned off.

The Corrections Department placed several of the facilities where inmates planned to strike under indefinite lockdown on Thursday, according to local news reports. "We're hearing in the news they're putting it down as we're starting a riot, so they locked all the prison down," said an inmate at Hays State Prison in Trion who refused to give his name. But, he said, "We locked ourselves down."

The inmates contend that if they have a source of income in the prison and better educational
opportunities to prepare them for release, violence and recidivism will go down. But the Department of Corrections has not publicly acknowledged the protest.

Mike said that the leaders were focused on telling inmates to remain patient, and not to consider resorting to violence.

The inmates' closest adviser outside prison walls is Elaine Brown, a longtime advocate for prisoners whose son is incarcerated at Macon State Prison, one of the other major protest sites. A former Black Panther leader who is based in Oakland, Calif., Ms. Brown helped distill the inmate complaints into a list of demands.  She held a conference call on Sunday evening to develop a strategy with various groups, including the Georgia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Nation of Islam.

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FOR A DISCUSSION ABOUT THE HISTORY OF PRISON PROTESTS AND DEMANDS FOR PRISON EDUCATION AT THE REBELLION AT ATTICA, SEE THE DEEP DISH PROGRAM, The Last Graduation.

British Students Sing Protest Carols

Equity for Life on Wheels

by Jody McIntyre

Intergenerational Indigenous Project

Rachel Tso just completed her masters at Northern Arizona University. The film focuses on Rachel's work with Outta Your Backpack Media, teaching Navajo youth using film making as a medium. This work led to the award winning youth film "In the Foot Steps of Yellow Woman."

Precarious Workers' Patron Saint

Born in 2001 the Italian MayDay has become the most attended May Day demonstration in Europe: 120,000 people took the streets of Milan and danced until dawn in 2010 under the slogan “Precarious of the world, let’s fight!” Since 2004 San Precario is the patron saint of precarious European workers. The San Precario Network is devoted to defend the workers rights but we also strive to imagine a new set of rights, a new welfare that matches the needs and lives of this precarious generation. Born within the Italian social centers movement, our collective provides legal support, tactical help and social-media skills, as well as brand subverting and political theorizing.

Our more recent campaigns are: Cash & Crash, a series of actions against evil companies wallets and brands; Welfare for Life! A campaign to guarantee fix income and free access to services; the Etats-General of Precarity, a general assembly of Italian and European movements which will be held in October; and of course, the EuroMayDay Parade.

http://www.precaria.org
EuroMayDay: http://www.euromayday.org
Chainworkers: http://www.ecn.org/chainworkers
Etats-General of Precarity (in English)
http://www.precaria.org/general-assembly-of-the-estates-of-precarity.html

Videos:
San Precario appears
http://www.youtube.com/chainworkers#p/a/u/1/KdgE5NY8p8U
Tutti Santi Tutti Stronzi http://chainworkers.org/node/295
Mayday 2010 Special http://www.precaria.org/speciale-mayday-2010

Protest against Censorship at Smithsonian

And here is the offending film:

A Fire in My Belly from ppow_gallery on Vimeo.

Radio Continental Drift

Claudia Wegener sent these links: radio continental drift


a broad casting house in the bag of a listener
out to here unheard voices
a branch of the growing networks of sound workers,
audio artists, radio communities, and the street corner academies
of listening and broadcasting
around the world
radio is happening
when people loiter in public places
the air is free!




Original recordings re-mixed in the audio track can be accessed, downloaded & used under creative commons share-alike licence. They are archived as part of a conversational journey & audio media road workshop in Kenya & Uganda in May -September 2010.
1. http://www.archive.org/details/Gulu_Songs_of_Wisdom
2. http://www.archive.org/details/Gulu_Songs_of_Wisdom_245
3. http://www.archive.org/details/Gulu_Songs_of_Wisdom_649
4. http://www.archive.org/details/Gulu_Songs_of_Wisdom_657
5. http://www.archive.org/details/Gulu_Songs_of_Wisdom_863

featured producers (in the order of their appearance part 1 & 2):

Takscentre, LOCAL ARTS & CULTURAL CENTRE http://www.takscentre.org
(contact: David Odwar (9) davidodwar@hotmail.com, Santa Joyce Laker (1) health_gulu_ug@yahoo.com )
Mega fm LOCAL PUBLIC BROADCASTER pka "Radio Freedom" megafm@bshnet.net (contact: Nicky Afaya (2), producer afaya7@hotmail.com, Okot Juma Jammieh)
TAILORS WORKSHOP @ GULU MARKET
(Acan Jennifer (3), Agnes Odoch agnes.odoch@yahoo.com, Ajok Lilian, Aber Khevine Vicky)
Gulu MC's interviewed:
AshBee (5) http://www.myspace.com/ashbee , DN (4) & Babu (aka Kites) (5)
Breakdance Project Uganda GULU BRANCH http://www.myspace.com/breakdanceprojectuganda;http://www.youtube.com/user/abramzt
(contact: Josh Jones, coordinator joshjones85@gmail.com ; Dennis Kilama (10), Latim Simon Peter; Benson (6), Bernhard, Ivan, Caroline, Brigitte)
The Remnant Voice HIPHOP PROJECT FOR STREET CHILDREN
theremnantvoice@yahoo.com (7) (contact: Ogen Rwot Jefferson http://www.gulucommunitychurch.com ; Ogen Rwot Felix)
Bosco Uganga BATTERY OPERATED SYSTEMS FOR COMMUNITY OUTREACH http://www.boscouganda.com , contact: info@boscouganda.com
Joseph Okumu, director; Stella Akiteng (8), project coordinator; Alfred Kilama, technical assistant)
Alimucan Janet, pupil at Gulu Central High School
for contact details see also: hhttp://radiocontinentaldrift.wordpress.com/radio-communities/ 

Punch and Judy by Amy Trompetter

This is a Punch and Judy performance from several years ago in Willow, NY.
Amy Trompetter has been performing the classic Punch and Judy show for decades.  She recently was scheduled to perform it in Rhinebeck, NY, as part of a Christmas Fair. However she received a notice from the festival director that the "Mothers' Committee" had decided to cancel the play because it was inappropriately violent.
From the British Telegraph:

Oh, the heart sinks at the news that a Punch and Judy puppeteer in Portsmouth has been told to tone down Punch’s violence. Poor Daniel Liversidge has had to take away Punch’s whacking stick and replace it with a floppy mop, and add positive messages in to his show.

Punch and Judy is like Tom and Jerry – ritualised, cartoon thwacking that bears no relation to real violence, unlike violent films which try to make the shooting and the hitting as real as possible. Like all great fantasy, seaside theatre is a release from the horrors of everyday life; not an encouragement to recreate them.

Signs of Change: Graphic Arts from Global Struggles

Josh McPhee and Dara Greenwald are celebrating the publication of their book today.  It grew from an exhibition they put together at Exit Art in New York.

Josh says:  Dara and I spent years collected hundreds of posters, flyers, photos, video, film, and ephemera from dozens of radical left social movements around the world, and it's all synthesized into this book! The cultural output of almost 60 movements are explored in seven sections: Struggle for the Land, Agitate! Educate! Organize!, Forward to People's Power! Freedom and Independence Now, Let It All Hang Out, Reclaim the Commons, Globalization From Below. 

It can be purchased from their web site at: www.justseeds.org

KNN: Kibera News Network

http://kiberanewsnetwork.org/

The images and voices of the Kenyan shacktown in Nairobi are posted to the internet.

Sinking On Line Pirates

The Los Angeles Times on Internet Law

Imagine having a nemesis who assaults you daily (often mocking you as it does) yet somehow stays beyond the reach of the law. That's a rough approximation of the entertainment industry's view of online piracy — particularly the kind practiced by the likes of Sweden's The Pirate Bay, Latvia'smp3fiesta and a growing number of websites that stream bootlegged movies and TV shows from digital lockers. Such sites exist almost exclusively to promote illegal downloading or streaming of movies, music, video games and software, making money through advertisements or even by selling unauthorized copies of the works themselves.

Copyright holders have shut down some offending sites through civil suits and federal investigations, but these cases have taken years to complete. Meanwhile, new sites and services have emerged to replace the shuttered ones, and the amount of copyright infringement has increased over the years as broadband connections have proliferated.

Fed up, the entertainment industry has lobbied hard for a more powerful legal weapon against online piracy. It found a receptive audience in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which unanimously approved a bill this month that would speed the process of penalizing such sites. The goal of the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (S 3804) is a good one — there's no defense for online businesses whose raison d'etre is infringement. But some of the methods employed by the bill could create significant problems of their own.

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Sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the bill would make it easier for the Justice Department to obtain court orders cracking down on sites "dedicated to infringing activities." Such orders could be obtained against foreign-based sites that attract U.S. Internet users as well as domestic companies.

Sites that use a U.S. domain-name registrar (a company that sells domain names, such as GoDaddy.com) or registry (a company that oversees the registrars for a category of domains, asVeriSign does for .com, .net, .cc and .tv) would be subject to the most direct penalties. In those cases, a court could order the registrar or registry to invalidate the site's domain name, removing it from the global database that Internet service providers use to direct traffic online. That's akin to ordering road atlases to erase a street from their maps — it would still be there, but it would be much harder to find.

The bill would take a different approach to sites that used foreign registrars and registries, which are beyond the reach of U.S. courts. In those cases, courts could order U.S. Internet service providers, payment processing companies (such as Visa and MasterCard) and online advertising networks to stop sending traffic, money or ads to the offending sites.

Some critics have complained that the Leahy bill isn't targeted narrowly enough, so it conceivably could be used against sites that provide a useful outlet for legitimate content distributors in addition to bootleggers. Another criticism is that the bill wouldn't give offending sites a fair chance to defend themselves. In fact, the Justice Department wouldn't even have to inform the actual operator of the site before obtaining an injunction against it — it would simply have to send a notice to whoever is listed as the domain name's registrant.

Such problems, although potentially serious, could be addressed by refining the bill's definition of what it means to be a site "dedicated to infringing activities" and the process it lays out for obtaining court orders. A more troubling question is whether the Justice Department should be focusing on domain names at all.

A site's actual Internet address isn't its domain name but rather a series of up to 12 numbers separated by the occasional period. The domain name — the portion of the URL that comes after "www." — is just a form of branding. When someone types a URL into a browser, the software looks up the corresponding numerical address in a database of domain names, typically the one furnished by the user's Internet service provider.

The court orders made available by the bill would remove the offending site's name from the databases used by U.S. service providers, but they wouldn't stop people from typing the site's numerical address into their browsers. Nor would people be prevented from using alternative databases overseas — say, one maintained by The Pirate Bay. Such a migration could undermine efforts to fix the security problems in the domain name system, which can leave Internet users vulnerable to identity theft and other online threats.

Some technology advocates and public interest groups also have warned that the bill's domain-name provisions would violate free-speech principles — because some legitimate content may exist alongside pirated material on blocked sites — and encourage other countries to draw up their own blacklists of sites that don't comport to their unique dictates. Meanwhile, a virtual who's who of Internet pioneers contend that the bill could endanger the leading role the United States has played in technical issues online.

Entertainment industry executives have challenged critics to come up with alternative ways to address sites like The Pirate Bay, rather than just conjuring worst-case scenarios to gin up opposition to Leahy's proposal. They've got a point — some of the groups lining up against the bill seem more concerned about the entertainment industry abusing its copyrights than websites trying to profit off piracy.

Nevertheless, there are real questions about the effectiveness and consequences of the domain-name seizure provisions. It's worth noting that when Congress decided to crack down on Internet gambling sites in 2006, it didn't give the Justice Department new power to seize domains — instead, it focused on cutting off the flow of money from gamblers in the U.S. to betting sites around the world. Similarly, it makes sense for Congress to crack down on the revenue flowing to piracy hotbeds online, as the Leahy bill's provisions for advertising networks and payment processing companies would do.

With Congress set to adjourn soon, the bill isn't likely to progress any further this year. That's a good thing. Before moving the bill on, lawmakers should take a closer look at whether its domain-name provisions are likely to work, as well as their implications for the health of the Internet as a whole. Copyright holders shouldn't be left defenseless against the Pirate Bays of the world, but the proposed seizure of domain names is the least promising enforcement mechanism in the Leahy bill.


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Here is an interesting proposal for an alternative to ICANN
http://www.geek.com/articles/news/peter-sunde-attempting-to-create-p2p-alternative-to-icann-20101129/


http://www.geek.com/articles/news/peter-sunde-attempting-to-create-p2p-alternative-to-icann-20101129/