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Microwork’s method is admittedly clever as it is simple. You have menial task, you post it online, and someone on the other side of the world does it for you for a shockingly low price.
Dozens …

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There is a brilliant sci-fi genre that describes sentient beings who reject human form entirely and ‘download’ themselves into giant machines to live out entirely digital lives. The creation of these beings create moral and …

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Oh how outraged everyone is getting over the bean spilling going on at the Leveson Enquiry.
Yet looking at phone hacking as a morality tale masks the real background story. As the enquiry is revealing, phone …

Attempting to counter the stifled ability to express, Arabs.com interestingly points out that we must admit that we are ‘oppressed’ in order to actually combat that oppression. In his ‘message’, the founder of the website states his support for the freedom of choice and expression as well as the need for platforms without bias or guardianship.

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This review originally appeared in Literary Review, April 2011
This book essentially a warning to the West – a term that is never defined but refers more or less to US policymakers – about its blinkered cyber-utopianism. Evgeny Morozov …

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So the joke goes that Mubarak dies and meets Nasser and Sadat in the afterlife. They ask him, “were you poisoned or shot?” Mubarak shrugs and answers “Facebook!”  Actually, an Egyptian family did recently name …

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On March 30th, the frontline club and in association with BBC Arabic hosted a special panel titled: Protest, Technology and the End of Fear. The event hosted Alaa Abdul Fattah, famous Egyptian blogger and political …

I saw somewhere that George Orwell once said, “every joke is a tiny revolution.” In the last week of this current wave of up rise throughout the Arab world, it has been the humour in social protest that has fascinated, and perhaps even confused, me. What role do these comedic characters play?

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The Small Media Initiative invites submission of abstracts for its 2011 Small Media Symposium to be held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London on 8 – 9 …

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As I sit here breathless in London, flicking channels between Al Jazeera English, BBC, CNN and France 24, in anxiety and excitement to see what Hosni Mubarak will announce within the hour, I look back …

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The current situation in Egypt is indeed provoking many discussions about the role of media in the coverage, and some could argue the ignition of its events, which began on the 25 January 2011. The …

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What has happened during only a span of four weeks in Tunisia is mind-boggling and unprecedented in the modern day history of the Middle East; that a dictator who has had a stronghold in Tunisia …

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Any form of speech used for pulling communities together to criticize a government or ruling group’s action has historically met with tightening of laws, suppression of freedom and unjust actions at the hands …

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A silly rumour did the rounds over the weekend. An unscrupulous article surfaced announcing that Facebook CEO Mark Zukerberg had decided to shut down the company on March 15th to ‘get his old life back’. …

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Here’s me wishing all my good SOASian buddies and Project Carousel users a very happy New Year! The Autumn Term gave us a real eclectic mix of engaging content, let’s hope that as the year …

An invitation to read-up on Clay Shirky’s take on the power of new and social media.

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The title is taken from this Youtube video I found while working for a presentation about the impact of the internet in the traditional media.
Found this very interesting
And this is how facebook would look …

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‘Blogfather’ and SOAS student Hossein ‘Hoder’ Derakhshan has been temporarily released from Iran’s notorious Evin Prison on bail totaling $1.5 million. Hossein, who was arrested in late 2008 and has spent the last two years …

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In solidarity with the SOAS Occupation and the student protests agains the proposed increase in tuition fees, we had some fun with the Liberal Democrat and Conservative Facebook pages last night.

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There’s been a lot of talk in the media about how the current student protests are organised using ‘social media’. But how is it being done? Here’s my quick guide to organising a successful protest …