Berkman Buzz: March 23, 2012

I’ve already critiqued the derision towards so-called “slacktivism” –so common among gatekeepers– in my last post. As I said there, the concept of slacktivism misses the point of online symbolic action. Slacktivism “is not at all about ‘slacking activists’; rather it is about non-activists taking symbolic action—often in spheres traditionally engaged only by activists or professionals (governments, NGOs, international institutions.).” Rather than being pointless, such overt political displays –easily visible to one’s social networks; easy to share, to participate and to comment—provide a potential new path for ordinary people to have their voices heard in the public sphere. Symbolic action can certainly matter if the topic is important and the moment is right. And the Israel-Iran campaign could be such an example, depending on internal political dynamics is Israel and how widespread the dissent really is.

The #Kony2012 video, and accompanying campaign and meme, has done a lot to raise awareness.

Of WHAT exactly, it’s hard to tell.

The intended target for attention — the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony — is certainly a big one.

But the video was flawed. In favor of simplicity it glossed over crucial facts and advocated passionately for questionable solutions, in the end bringing more critical attention back to Invisible Children, the charismatic American youth group behind the campaign.

Juan Carlos De Martin calls for an informed and transparent process to elect the new members of the Italian equivalent of the FCC:

Cosa dite, questa volta nomineremo i commissari in maniera trasparente? @PaoloGentiloni @Vincenzo_Vita @robertorao http://t.co/DebqQL2k
—Juan Carlos De Martin (@demartin)

At The New Republic, David A. Bell offers a wistful threnody for the paper edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which the eponymous publishing house announced it would cease publishing after 244 years. “With the disappearance of paper encyclopedias, a part of the Western intellectual tradition is disappearing as well,” argues Bell, the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor of History at Princeton and a New Republic contributing editor. The problem, he avers, is not the medium itself; the web offers comprehensiveness, currency, and serendipity, affordances it shares with the multi-volume sets of old.

Last week saw some excellent news: The Mexican Senate on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment that would federalize criminal attacks on journalists. McClatchy reports that under the amendment, journalists would no longer be at the mercy of quite possibly corrupt local cops, but could instead turn to the federal authorities, who have a much better reputation re: corruption, for law enforcement.

Even better, the amendment is written in such a way that it may protect citizen journalists and social media users as well.

As the Republican presidential candidates continue to duke it out in contentious primary elections around the country, I’ve started to notice the increasingly public signs that the Obama campaign is gearing up for battle. Not surprisingly, I tend to focus on the Obama re-election team’s uses of digital technologies, where a number of shifts may result in important changes for both the voter-facing and internal components of the Obama For America’s (OFA) digital operations. I started writing this post with the intent of reviewing some of the recent news coverage of the campaign, but it turned into a bit more of a long-form reflection about the relationship between the campaign’s approach to digital tools might mean for democracy.

A thoughtful critique of my post reacting to #Kony2012, with interesting thoughts about new media gatekeeping: http://t.co/fOLMeNXI
—Ethan Zuckerman (@ethanz)

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology appears to have reversed course on its proposed Internet filtering system. Bushra Gohar, Member of the National Assembly, confirmed to The Express Tribune “that the MoIT had decided to reverse its decision.”

In February, the Ministry announced that it was seeking bids from private-sector companies for the construction of a more robust automated Internet filtering system. Friday, March 16, was the deadline for bids on “the development, deployment and operation of a national level URL Filtering and Blocking System” [PDF of the request for proposal (“RFP”)]. To date, Pakistan has manually blocked websites considered “blasphemous” (generally pornographic in nature) at the local ISP level. In contrast, the proposed automated system would be able to block up to 50 million sites through a nationally controlled, centralized blacklist.

Renegade soldiers have announced that they are seizing power in Mali, after taking over the state television building and presidential palace.

They say President Amadou Toumani Touré's government failed to adequately support their troops in an increasingly violent struggle with Tuareg rebels in the north of the country who threaten to seek secession from Mali.

Many citizens are perplexed as to why a coup is being staged so soon ahead of already scheduled elections on April 29, 2012, and there are many theories.