Not for profit organisations with social justice goals often rely on the support of individuals to carry out their work. The use of online technologies to build financial and campaign support presents challenges to many such organisations whose expertise often lies in other fields.
Over a two month period I worked as part of an Online Team at one such organisation and was able to identify a number of the challenges not-for-profit’s face when attempting to build community support online.
I was just one of a group of Amnesty International activists who joined around 500 members of Sydney’s Iranian community for a candlelight vigil on Sunday evening.
Despite heavy rain we continued our show of solidarity, remembering those who have died fighting for freedom in Iran, calling for respect for the rights of the Iranian people and an end to violence against peaceful demonstrators. Continue reading
I took part in a panel discussion for triple j radio’s Hack program this afternoon which brought together three young people from around Australia – you can listen in below. Joining me were the president of Deakin University’s Liberal Club Tim Hickman and Shaman Sha, a refugee who came to Australia by boat in 2001.
One of the closing comments (before we ran out of time) came from Tim. In a great disservice to the Liberal party, and conservatives generally, Tim referred to Waterboarding as “throwing some cold water”.
Maybe he doesn’t get what waterboarding actually is. He should probably watch this video.
I’ve been interning at Amnesty International Australia for just under a month now, and seem to be making some great progress.
Online activism and campaigning are two key areas of interest for me so it’s been great being in the thick of it.
We’re coming up to International Women’s Day and a test of our first active pursuit of active online supporters. Hopefully we’ll have engaged a fair few!
In response to your four page Internet Filtering letter mailed in reply to my email last year, I would like to reiterate my concern at the time and money being spent on a project which appears to be ignoring several key issues.
To begin you’ve fail to recognise that filtering and censorship are one and the same. I do support your commitment to increased law enforcement, prosecution, education, resources and research however the technical implications, cost and ineffectiveness of filtering continue to see my strong opposition to this idea.
Whilst I agree with many of the concerns behind your policy, the need and viability for a government imposed compulsory internet censoring system is where this agreement ends. Continue reading
A letter to Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for censoring Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Is the minister aware of the censorship and inadvertantly restrictive effect of the British model so called “Clean Feed” earlier this week?
95% of British internet users were prevented from excercising free speach in editing Wikipedia because of one organisations decision that an image (a CD cover which incidently is available on other sites such as Amazon and can be purchased) was inappropriate.
In about 5 minutes, I am leaving for my pick up stop for the mini bus going out to Goodooga. Over the next week, I’m travelling out to the Lightning Ridge area, on a social justice Aboriginal Immersion program.