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Valerie Tarico: Solstice Is The Reason For The Season!

2009-12-23T17:15:00Z

December twenty-first is winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. That makes the 22nd the first day of more sun! Let me spell that out. Beginning this week we're on a path toward "sun breaks" and dry sidewalks, a time when people will take their fleeces off for long enough to wash them, a time that pet poop will dry out enough that your kids can scoop it off the lawn. Anyone who thinks that winter solstice couldn't possibly have spawned the rich array of celebrations that we now call Yule and Christmas and Divali and Hannukkah and Kwanzaa never lived in Seattle.

Solstice means that within a few weeks the days will be perceptibly longer. It means that by mid- January, it will be easier to see the ice I'm scraping off the windshield with my battered health insurance card. It means that crocuses will come up through the grass if I hurry and get some bulbs planted, and the chickens will start laying again. It means that my crazy friends Sarah and Lee who bicycle to work in the dark and rain soon will be able to bicycle in just rain! Now that's something to celebrate.

But even as I look forward to spring, I can't help but think that mid-winter, in some ways, shows the human spirit at its best. Remarkably, we've managed to take our darkest days and turn them into some of our brightest. Without the lights and parties, December in Seattle would be a time for hibernation. (We Seattleites complain now about getting fat and sluggish from things like too many shrimp cocktails, or glasses of wine, or chocolate truffles. But think about how much more bear-like we'd get if all we did was huddle in bed with Netflix and Costco-sized bags of Sun Chips.) Bear bodies aside, hibernation would mean missing out on one of the best times of the year.

That is because the darkness of this season forces us to look into ourselves and our relationships for beauty and delight. Summer's pleasures can make us lazy. But now, the garden is soggy with fallen leaves and plants that look like wilted lettuce. The grassy soccer fields are mud-wallows. The street trees are sticks, and hanging flower baskets are gone. The mountain trails are slick and nasty cold making high meadows inaccessible. With the outside world a grey shadow of itself, life becomes what we make it.

And so, make it we do. We seek out those we love. We bask in who loves us. We indulge our most superficial material impulses. We have more sex. And we ask ourselves what matters. It is no accident that many of the celebrations around solstice are embedded in spiritual traditions that invite us to examine not only our relationships with each other but our relationship to the universe and the Great Unknown. Many of us enter the new year, with its promise of new life, by making promises of our own: renewed commitments to be better parents or friends, re-engage in a spiritual quest, launch a new project, or simply take better care of ourselves.

Since the time our ancestors moved from being hunter-gatherers to being farmers, humans have been bound to an agricultural calendar and a cycle of hard work. During the spring, summer and fall, most of the time was consumed with creating food and shelter. In the bleak wastelands of winter, though, in the lull between planting seasons, came a time to laugh and sing and ask big questions. These days, few of us work the fields, but the rhythm of the year still shapes our lives, and the sun on our faces is one of life's joys.

I wish the media hype-meisters would realize that most of us aren't interested in squabbling about labels or who owns which dates or rituals, or who copied who when it comes to our celebrations. Most of us just aren't inspired to spend this season staking out territory.

For one thing, all of our mid-winter celebrations emerged from earlier traditions that honored the cycle of the seasons: Christmas incorporates ancient rituals from Yule and Saturnalia. December 25 was chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus because it already was celebrated as the birthday of dying and rising gods and of the sun. That we borrow from each other and build new on top of old foundations doesn't make any of these traditions less powerful or delightful or sacred.

More importantly, we're not interested in squabbling over turf because this season is about celebrating what we all have in common. In Seattle, one thing we share is a craving for the sun. But there's far more than that: The value we place on love. Our delight in giving to each other. Our yearning for wonder. Our longing for fresh beginnings. I personally don't care which tradition people call on at solstice time, as long as they keep those lights burning.

Phil Bronstein: The Whole Truth, and Nothing but -- Now Open for Negotiation?

2009-12-10T15:35:44Z

"In the 21st century, can facts matter?"

Good question from Mitch Kapor, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, at a UC Berkeley forum on the Future of the Forum last weekend. "How do we make facts matter? Or is that hopeless?"

Ouch.

More potential bad news for journalists searching for their future value, and also for the public hoping to sort out the massive scrum of big-pipe web info.

What the hell are facts, anyway? How and where do we find them? Are they the same as the truth? Can they be negotiated? And does any of this get sorted out on cool, ubiquitous sites like Wikipedia?

Nobody mentioned truth, thank God, at the Berkeley event. But the word "fact" was tossed around like a rag doll.

I'm a fact-seeker, so I paid close attention.

The Saturday morning panel included Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, Kapor, and "Smart Mobs" author and social/digital media frontier pioneer, Howard Rheingold. These are people who have strong opinions about what is and what isn't.

MIT social media professor Judith Donath was also there, but she was so impossibly smart, I couldn't really keep up with her presentation.

The whole day was supposed to be about "Internet Communities and the Public Interest," according to the Berkeley New Media Center brochure. But the "fact" discussion was the most interesting to me and circled around Wikipedia because Wales was a presenter and the keynote speaker that night.

Kapor said Wikipedia was, "an incredibly valuable cultural forum," "tries to get agreement about facts." OK. I agree with Rheingold, who believes Wikipedia "is the place to start studying what happened..." But agreement about facts and real facts aren't always the same thing.

Wales described his invention as "the dominant public forum for facts today." He talked about how the Wikipedia article in Farsi on Iranian unrest satisfied him "with respect to our standards of neutrality...it just gave the facts." Then he told a tale about a Wikistory on an old battle between the Lithuanians and the Poles. He was thrilled that while Lithuanian and Polish Wikipedia versions were slanted to reflect each country's version of events, the English story "seemed like a place where the Polish people and Lithuanians had met to sort of hash out the differences."

The editors on each side "sort of figured out a compromise version."

I think I know what he meant, but compromise versions are often the opposite of fact. Just compare most Congressional bills between the original and the ultimate cross-party, cross-chamber compromise that passes.

Neutrality also doesn't necessarily lead to facts, though it's a lot more peaceful than debate, which can. Neutral is not the same as unbiased. Switzerland probably has its favorites, but just clams up about who they are.

Wikipedia gets more traffic, according to Wales, than CNN, BBC, New York Times, ABC, NBC and CBS combined. "We are the mainstream media."

So, given Wikipedia's "astounding power" (Kapor), should we be as confident as Wales that compromise, agreement, and neutrality get us to facts?

That's not entirely fair given what a useful, impressive, crowd-sourcing, intricately footnoted machine Jimmy Wales and Co. have built. It's often the first stop on my research train. But we should always keep Ronald Reagan in mind: trust, but verify.

The biggest danger of the web, said Rheingold, is not predators and porn spam but people (especially the inquiring young minds) who "are not going to be able to distinguish bulls--t from accurate information. This is the single most important danger facing the future of the public sphere."

While Wikipedia is a great starting point, Rheingold was adamant that it's still "up to you to determine the accuracy of that information."

And journalists? What are we good for in the 21st century? With the talented among us, it's our "infallible, internal (bull)s--t detector," says Rheingold, paraphrasing Ernest Hemingway.

Now that doesn't involve technology. But it is a fact.

Randall Amster: Caution: Surge Ahead ... and Slide Back

2009-12-09T11:16:00Z

In what is rightly being viewed as a Bush Redux, we are yet again about to experience a military escalation of potentially tragic proportions. Somehow, the forlorn word surge has once more found itself bound up with perpetual warfare and an Orwellian phraseology of having been (in President Obama's words) "compelled to fight" in the name of "common security" in a war where "our cause is just," one that of course "we did not ask for" -- all wrapped in the mantle of "peace, prosperity, and human dignity."

Strangely enough, the word surge itself seems to have a history of ironic etymology in its humble midst, likely deriving from the Old French surgir, meaning "to rise, ride near the shore, arrive, land" -- making it particularly apropos for use in a war escalation context. The definition provided by Dictionary.com contains an especially pointed illustration that might serve to define the morass likely to ensue in the days ahead: "a strong, wavelike, forward movement, rush, or sweep: the onward surge of an angry mob."

Obviously we've been through the news cycle already and know that we're looking at 100,000 troops in Afghanistan until at least mid-2011. Many already have opined that it's an unwinnable situation in a place where empires go to die, with almost no al-Qaeda left there by now, and that instead we're facing an emboldened nativist resistance that will likely fight to the bitter end. The fact that the former anti-surge candidate is now the pro-surge president only adds to the pervasive anguish and the utter sense of incredulity.

In times like this, it is often helpful to consult spiritual tracts. For me, that means Wikipedia, where entries evolve magically and many of the tales told are essentially apocryphal. Indeed, the Bible itself was likely written in similar fashion, by putting a call for contributions out to the erudite and informed. So, in the interest of uplifting and enlightening all concerned, I offer the following expurgated passage to help ease the shock and perhaps remind us that there's still a sense of wonderment in the world:

"Surge may refer to: a soft drink formerly made by The Coca-Cola Company; the revised U.S. counter-insurgency strategy in the Iraq War; a video game publishing label owned by Namco Bandai Games; the student radio station of the University of Southampton; a comic book character and mutant in the Marvel Universe; a gym Leader in the Pokemon video games; and/or a multihop protocol for data acquisition used in Wireless Sensor Networks."

Okay, so this last one is bewildering. But the others, if one is conspiratorially inclined, paint a fascinating picture -- linking Coke (clandestine drug reference and imperialist corporate product) with video games (obvious military training tools developed by the Pentagon), comic books (classic good-vs.-evil, pro-war scenarios), and college radio stations (commercial inducements masking as rebellion) -- all intertwined with explicit counterinsurgency efforts in 21st century Middle Eastern wars. This cannot simply be an accident of random chance, as it clearly reflects a hidden military-industrial agenda to corrupt and co-opt not only our minds but, indeed, the unassuming concept of surge.

What then do we make of the most recent addition to the list? We might call it "an increase or expansion of a dangerous or foolhardy policy," or "a boon to certain construction and service firms whose stock has already risen on the good news," or even "a resurrection of outmoded and failed strategies reminiscent of a previous Administration that will be remembered for its callous indifference and adventurism." In each case, the spirit of surge can be found lurking in the shadows of an angry mob arisen.

It's an intriguing prospect to consider that smiling faces on the Sunday morning talk shows went out of their way to disavow any intended "exit strategy" that might be contained within the new surge. It appears that we will be surging in Afghanistan for quite some time, and despite tepid predictions from higher-ups suggesting that this strategy might "degrade" (rather than defeat) the Taliban, there's really not much reason to expect anything more than a hollow declaration of "victory" and a slow drawdown at some unspecified (and increasingly murky) date in the future -- at which point we'll likely rush headlong toward the next front in the generational war without end.

The fallout, however, will be with us for an even longer time: soldiers and their families with disrupted lives and the wounds of war; Afghans left to rebuild from the rubble of a literal and figurative power vacuum; America sitting on monumental debt and unfulfilled domestic initiatives at home; a destabilized geopolitical spectrum based on a preemption doctrine long abandoned in international law; and a further institutionalization of fear and vengeance masking as foreign policy. In this sense, it is mainly misery and futility that will surge ahead, while decency and responsibility continue to inexorably slide back.

Indeed, it almost sounds like this could be a viable storyline for a comic book or a video game, but it's all-too-real. And no amount of Coke or college radio can drown out the inherent illogic and despair. Some will try to rationalize it away because they still want to like this new president, others will couch their bloodlust and race-hatred as strong-willed and sound military policy, and still others will cast their lot with a bald-faced fleecing of the treasury under the guise of "national security" and "promoting democracy."

Poor old surge, getting caught up in all of this mad rush. (I guess if it happens again, at least the wags can have at it with references to the "Three Surges" or something equally sublime.) Alas, in the end it seems that we've taken yet another step backward with this new headlong offensive aimed at "peace and prosperity" -- and no amount of linguistic manipulation toward "forward movement" can effectively counter that actuality.

Damien Hoffman: Wikipedia: Is the User-Generated Utopia Dying?

2009-12-09T09:38:30Z

Like Leonardo DiCaprio's getaway in the movie The Beach, Wikipedia started as a user-generated utopia and has recently been plagued by infighting and tyranny. We dug a deeper to see if the maturing web giant has been affected. Here's what we found:

According to Quantcast, Wikipedia's traffic has been making lower highs and lower lows. In trading, that's the definition of a downtrend. Google Adplanner confirms the trend:

Is the world's largest open-source encyclopedia losing steam? Is it truly open-source? Where will the chips fall as the Wikipedia Gestapo quarrel over power?

Map Reveals Which Countries Wikipedia Discusses Most -- And Least (PHOTOS)

2009-12-07T09:18:57Z

The blog Zero Geography has created a heatmap illustrating the total number of Wikipedia articles tagged to each nation that reveals surprising facts about the content, and oversight, of the online encyclopedia.

In building the map, the creator discovered that there are more articles about imaginary places, like "Middle Earth." than numerous countries in Africa, which on the whole are poorly represented on Wikipedia:

Remarkably there are more Wikipedia articles written about Antarctica than all but one of the fifty-three countries in Africa (or perhaps even more amazingly, there are more Wikipedia articles written about the fictional places of Middle Earth and Discworld than about many countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia).

The designer also found that the United States had the most number of articles (about 90,000), and that Anguilla had the fewest geotagged entries (just four).

Here's the map showing the number of Wikipedia entries by country:

And here's a representation of the data -- the number of Wikipedia articles -- mapped against population. The creator's finding:

Here countries with small populations and large landmasses rise to the top of the rankings.Canada, Australia and Greenland all have extremely high levels of articles per every 100,000 people.

Read more about the Wikipedia maps, and how they were created, here.

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Jose Antonio Vargas: Salahis' Self-Marketing 2.0 (PHOTOS)

2009-11-28T15:37:06Z

"Hey, you hear the news about the housewives of DC crashing the president's party?" read a quick note from one of my best friends, Manny Varela, a 29-year-old engineer from Miami. Like most people, Manny is not one to care about some party in D.C., never mind that it's the Obamas' first state dinner. But he is a fan of "housewives" -- short for the Bravo's hit and addicting "The Real Housewives" reality TV series, now filming its Washington, D.C. edition.

"How funny," Manny wrote. "What great marketing for the show."

A very, very good point.

This is, after all, all about marketing, whether Bravo likes it or not. Though folks at Bravo have told various news organizations that they have yet to finalize the cast for its D.C. series, it's this drive for self-marketing that seems to have landed socialites-turned-"gate-crashers" Tareq and Michaele Salahi inside the White House in the first place. Hey, who could resist a "real housewife" who gets face-time from a smiling President Obama? In our reality TV culture exacerbated by the rise of social networking sites -- in which 15 minutes of fame can be elongated by the number of photos and videos swirling around the Web -- who can blame the Salahis for their sheer, shameless self-promotion? Their shared Facebook profile have 743 photos and 14 videos, and you don't need to be Facebook friends with Tareq and Michaele to see them. Just click away.

Inevitably, people have created and joined groups mostly chastising and mocking the wedding crashers heard 'round Facebook.

Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Denies Site 'Losing' Thousands Of Editors

2009-11-26T18:21:39Z

The study, conducted by Felipe Ortega at Libresoft, a research group at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, analysed the editing history of more than three million active Wikipedia contributors in ten different languages. It found that the first three months of this year the English-language version of the site suffered a net loss of 49,000 contributors, compared with a loss of about 4,900 during the same period last year.
The findings of the research have prompted many to question whether this is the beginning of the end for the world's largest encyclopedia. However, Mr Wales told The Telegraph he didn't accept the research as new editors are replacing existing editors at nearly the same pace.

Wikipedia Bans Volvo IT Over Racist Rants

2009-11-25T14:33:01Z

Wikipedia has banned editing from machines inside Volvo Information Technology - the outfit that operates the Swedish auto maker's IT infrastructure - after someone in the organization vandalized the free encyclopedia with a pair of profanity-laden racist rants.

Jose Antonio Vargas: Anatomy (and Meaning) of the "Did You Know?" Video Series (VIDEOS, PHOTOS)

2009-11-24T12:00:07Z

Yes, technology is revolutionizing politics, from raising money through online donors to organizing and mobilizing supporters using Facebook and text messaging. Yes, technology is impacting businesses big and small, particularly how they pitch and sell their products in such a fragmented, almost ADD digital marketplace.

But most importantly of all, the onslaught of new technologies -- cell phones, video games, social networking sites, the Wikipediazation of information, the reach of YouTube and Skype, you name it -- have ushered a seismic shift in education: how our kids learn, how our teachers teach, how curriculum is shaped and presented, how individual students, powered by technology, process and experience what they're learning.

It's this shift, an education earthquake of sorts, that prompted Karl Fisch, formerly a math teacher and now the technology coordinator at Arapahoe High School, just outside Denver, to create the slideshow "Did You Know?" That was in August 2006. What happened next, within three years, illustrates the very nature of what I've called our evolving "Clickocracy": one nation under Google, with video and e-mail for all.

First, Fisch posted original slideshow on his own blog. It quickly fired up the education blogosphere of which Fisch, a long-time teacher, is one of the earliest pioneers. A few months later, he got an e-mail from Scott McLeod, then an instructor at the University of Minnesota and now an associate professor of educational administration at Iowa State University -- if you want to be a principal or superintendent, contact McLeod. McLeod loved the slideshow but also wanted to tweak it a bit, shave off about half a minute, jazz it up with photos and do a video, which he then posted on his own blog.

Then the mash-ups, the remixes, the parodies, the re-uploads on video sharing sites like Glumbert.org and Break.com came pouring in. The design company XPLANE contacted Fisch and McLeod and wanted to create a 2.0 version of the video, complete with animation, for free.

Editors Quit Wikipedia As Site Ages

2009-11-23T09:14:56Z

Wikipedia.org is the fifth-most-popular Web site in the world, with roughly 325 million monthly visitors. But unprecedented numbers of the millions of online volunteers who write, edit and police it are quitting.

That could have significant implications for the brand of democratization that Wikipedia helped to unleash over the Internet -- the empowerment of the amateur.

eReader Gift Guide

2009-11-18T13:53:15Z

We've rounded up a few of our favorite devices, though be warned: with a market this much in its infancy, there's always going to be something just a bit more exciting right around the corner.

Two German Killers Demanding Anonymity Sue Wikipedia's Parent

2009-11-13T01:18:24Z

Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber became infamous for killing a German actor in 1990. Now they are suing to force Wikipedia to forget them.

Convicted Murderer Sues Wikipedia, Demands Removal Of His Name

2009-11-12T08:18:53Z

Convicted murderer Wolfgang Werle is suing Wikipedia in an attempt to censor the site and have it remove his name from a post that makes mention of his culpability in the murder of actor Walter Sedlmayr.

Invoking Germany's privacy laws, Werle and his attorneys sent a cease-and-desist letter (available here) to Wikipedia demanding that the online encyclopedia delete his name from the entry on Walter Sedlmayr, which references Werle's killing of the actor.

Walter Sedlmayr's Wikipedia page currently says this about his murder:

In July 1990, Sedlmayr was found dead and mutilated in his bedroom. Through lurid reports in the Munich tabloid press, his homosexuality became a matter of public knowledge for the first time. In 1993, half-brothers Manfred Lauber and Wolfgang Werle, former business associates of Sedlmayr, were sentenced to life in prison for his murder. They were released on parole in 2007 and 2008.

The entry has also been edited to mention Werle's suit against Wikipedia:

In October 2009, lawyers for Wolfgang Werle sent Wikipedia a cease and desist letter requesting that Werl's name be removed from the article Walter Sedlmayr. The U.S. First Amendment protects truthful speech, although German law seeks to protect the name and likenesses of private persons from unwanted publicity.

Werle's lawyers are invoking German privacy laws in the matter, which seek to protect the name and likeness of a person from unwanted publicity, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) notes.

Werle spent 15 years in prison for his crime, and his lawyers argue that Wikipedia's reference to his role in Sedlmayr's 1990 murder could impeded his "rehabilitation."

The Register reports the lawyers' message to Wikipedia:

Werl's "rehabilitation and his future life outside the prison system is severely impacted by your unwillingness to anonymize any articles dealing with the murder of Mr. Walter Sedlmayr with regard to our client's involvement," they wrote. "As your article deals with a local German public figure (such as the actor Walter Sedlmayr), we expect you are aware that you have to comply with applicable German law."

The EFF highlights an important conflict between the U.S. First Amendment and German law, and believes that the suit could bear significant ramifications for truth and "history":

At stake is the integrity of history itself. If all publications have to abide by the censorship laws of any and every jurisdiction just because they are accessible over the global internet, then we will not be able to believe what we read, whether about Falun Gong (censored by China), the Thai king (censored under lese majeste) or German murders.

See a screenshot of Sedlmayr's Wikipedia page below:

Facebook, Wikipedia Coach Vatican About The Internet

2009-11-11T07:50:00Z

VATICAN CITY — Executives from Facebook, Wikipedia and Google are attending a Vatican meeting to brief officials and Catholic bishops about the Internet and digital youth culture.

The symposium, which opened Thursday and runs through Sunday, also will address Internet copyright issues and hacking – including testimony from a young Swiss hacker and an Interpol cyber-crime official.

Jim Luce: U.N. Birthday Rocks for Its Peacemakers

2009-11-06T12:41:06Z

Flashbulbs popping non-stop, H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations in New York, entered the U.N. General Assembly Hall in New York City. He has attained the status of a rock star.

Speaking at the U.N. Day Concert 2009: A Tribute to Peacekeeping in the General Assembly last week, it seems that the Secretary General commands the world’s attention as much as Barack Obama.

One year older than the U.N., at 65, the Secretary General spoke of his mourning – the world’s mourning – for the 11 peacekeepers who died last month in a helicopter crash in Haiti.

Tragically, more than 2,600 U.N. Peacekeepers have died protecting humanity since 1948.

H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon recognizing the U.N. Peacekeepers (Photo: John Lee).

In an unprecedented effort, the concert was produced by the U.N. Department of Public Information and the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations, in partnership with Culture Project, and with the support of Kelvin Lim, Master Certified Coach of Executive Coach International.

Culture Project has been hailed as New York City’s premiere political and social performing arts organization, illuminating and championing the most pressing human rights issues of our time.

The concert was kicked off by Master of Ceremonies Isha Sesay of Sierra Leone, now living on London. Isha is the incredibly talented anchor and reporter for CNN International covering Africa.

The first performance was Roberta Flack singing “You Are Not Alone.” Six-time Grammy-Award winning singer, songwriter, and musician, Roberta has gained worldwide fame for hits such as “The First Time Ever” and “Killing Me Softly.”

Roberta was followed by a former child-soldier turned international rap star, Emmanuel Jal. From the Sudan, where he fought as a child in their brutal civil war, he was smuggled across the border to freedom by the now legendary British aid worker Emma McCune.

The award-winning film War Child chronicles the tumultuous, shocking, inspiring, and ultimately hopeful odyssey of Emmanuel Jal.

Emmanuel spoke, rapped, and danced hypnotically to thunderous applause, sharing a message of peace for his war-torn land and beloved Africa.

Emmanuel Jal’s music can be heard on the fundraising “War Child - Help a Day in the Life” album, as well as in three ER episodes, the National Geographic documentary God Grew Tired of Us, and in the feature film Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Jal is, of course, in Wikipedia.

Harry Belafonte with his wife Pamela at the photo op before the concert (Photo: John Lee).

One of America’s largest heroes, Harry Belafonte, spoke next. The acknowledged ‘King of Calypso,’ Harry is well known for his artful assimilation of jazz, folk and world music traditions. He is one of the most successful African-American pop stars in history.

He has been an unwavering voice against injustice for decades and today is one of the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors. Harry played a key role in the USA for Africa effort, singing on the 1985 single “We Are the World.”

“I became aware of the United Nations through my mentor, Eleanor Roosevelt,” Harry told the crowd.

Harry travelled to Rwanda where over one million people were driven from their homes with so many countless slaughtered in the Hutu-Tutsi conflict.

The General Assembly was alive with music and dance to honor the
dedication and sacrifice of U.N. Peacekeepers (Photo: John Lee).

“Once you witness such tragedy, you will not understand the critical need the U.N. peacekeepers play,” Harry said. “Nothing meant more to me than the Blue Helmets – the U.N. Peacekeepers – I witnessed there to protect the children.”

At 82, he did not disappoint the crowd despite and sang “Day-O” before leaving the stage. His incredible decades-long humanitarian career is covered in Wiki.

Cultural appreciation of the world’s peacekeepers then shifted to classical music played by one of the world’s top pianists, Lang Lang, from China. Lang Lang warmly embraced Harry and then sat down to play the grand piano.

Classical pianist Lang Lang, one of the world’s foremost players,
performed at the Summer Olympics in Beijing 2008 (Photo: John Lee).

Heralded as the “hottest artist on the classical music planet” by the New York Times, 27-year-old Lang Lang is the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic. He played at the Summer Olympics 2008 in Beijing.

Lang Lang recently appeared in the 2009 Time 100, Time magazine’s annual list of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.” Lang Lang has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2004.

Salman Ahmad of Pakistan performed next, with virtuoso tabla player Samir Chatterjee of India.

Salman’s vibrant vocalizations lifted my heart out of chest and I felt so alive surrounded by an international audience united by their desire for peace and support of peacekeepers listening to the best voices of the world singing in support.

The two performed a competitive duet entitled “Entwined Twins.” Salman compared their duet to the road connecting India to Pakistan. A road of peace and understanding.

Samir performed at the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway. Samir is a firm believer in the transforming effect of music on society. He is working relentlessly towards the musical revival of Afghanistan.

Madam and H.E. Ban Ki-moon with the performers before the event (Photo: John Lee).

Salman is a musician and U.N. Goodwill Ambassador known for popularizing a blend of Western rock music and Eastern/Islamic music called ‘Sufi rock,’ which has been hailed as a cultural bridge within South Asia and between the East and West.

Salman founded Junoon in 1990, which has sold over 25 million albums worldwide and has shared the stage with artists such as Melissa Etheridge, Alicia Keys, Sting, Earth Wind and Fire, and Wyclef Jean.

With his wife, Samina, he launched an NGO called the Salman & Samina Global Wellness Initiative, focused on interfaith and cross-cultural dialogue, global health and wellness, and music education.

Indian singer, composer, and music producer Shankar Mahadevan.

Shankar Mahadevan introduced the next act – the group Remember Shakti – formed by John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain. John said that Shankar is the greatest singer he has ever known.

Melodic, haunting, sacred, his voice reverberated across the General Assembly hall like clouds floating on a windy day.

John has developed a unique style of jazz-infused Indian classical music with his band Shakti. Remember Shakti is an Indi-jazz fusion quintet, composed of legendary English guitarists Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, Grammy-winning Indian tabla player, Zakir Hussain, and Indian musicians, Shrinivas Uppalapu on mandolin, Selvaganesh Vinayakaram playing the kanjira, ghatam, and mridangam, and singer Shankar Mahadevan.

The song “One,” repeating its singular theme hypnotically, was in the words of the performer about destroying the walls of hatred and extremism by experiencing the world not only with our eyes and ears, but with our hearts.

Sister Fa then took the stage. This Senegalese rapper moved to Berlin. Propelled by her own personal experience, she traveled on a self-organized tour last year, “Education sans mutilation,”to sensitize the public to the issue of female genital mutilation.

The Xian Song & Dance Troupe made a special appearance (Photo: John Lee).

Chinese dancers from the Xian Song & Dance Troupe then floated next across the stage. The graceful women seemed to shed their butterfly wings as the beautiful dance continued.

Angelique Kidjo of Benin then took the stage and sang the world-popular Swahili song, Malaika. She brought the house down with her rendition of Axe Mama Africa!

The four-time Grammy-nominated and 2008 Grammy-winning, much-celebrated singer, composer and performer began in the Beninese port village of Cotonou. The political turmoil in her country led her to relocate to Paris, the capital of world music, and then ultimately here, where she now resides.

Her striking voice, stage presence and her fluency in multiple cultures and languages won respect from her peers and expanded her following across national borders.

It also earned her access to humanitarians who sensed the passion in the words of her songs, resulting in her long-term dedication to global charity work. Her extended bio is available onWiki.

The Colombian band Aterciopelados performed. Happening, earthy, and exciting, their music took the audience into Latin America.

Known for their work with Amnesty International, Aterciopelados recently marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by creating a new version of the song “Cancion Protesta” (Song of Protest).

The Xian Song & Dance Troupe made a special appearance (Photo: John Lee).

The event’s finale was an all-cast rendition of “The Price of Silence.” This is the new rendition of Aterciopelados’ “Cancion Protesta” created in partnership with Amnesty International.

Emmanuel Jal and Angelique Kidjo participated in the original project so it was fitting to “recreate” the performance as the finale of this concert. Link TV created a video with Amnesty international when “The Price of Silence” was first released.

Throughout the concert, the documentary film The War Against War was premiered. The film highlights the historic creation of the U.N. Peacekeeping forces and the challenges of fighting “the war against war.”

Culture Project has been hailed as New York City’s premiere political and social performing arts organization, illuminating and championing the most pressing human rights issues of our time.

Concert supporter Kelvin Lim of Executive Coach International with director Fisher Stevens.

Directed by Fisher Stevens, the film gave the audience one-of-a-kind access and insight into the formidable challenges facing peacekeepers and the committed individuals who serve some of the most victimized and vulnerable populations on earth. See Fisher’s interview here.

I, too, have a U.N. Peacekeeping story to tell. In Haiti, two years ago, as founder of Orphans International Worldwide, a misunderstanding with a crowd almost led to the deaths of myself, my staff, and two of our children there. Intervention by the Blue Helmets, after the police had been overrun by the mob, saved our lives. This story was so dramatic I wrote about it in the BBC.

Speaking to the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, the imposing Alain Le Roy, after the concert, I expressed my personal gratitude to him for his troops rescuing my team. He said simply, “Our peacekeepers have saved so many lives, I am not surprised.”

Indeed, these soldiers volunteer to go into extreme danger for the good of humanity. They may not singlehandedly be able to bring about Heaven, but through their presence the can help eliminate Hell.

Culture Project provides a creative home to dynamic artists who share its passion for challenging injustice, embracing diversity and affecting social change. Culture Project has been awarded the New York Times No.1 Play of the Year and an Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award.

The Culture Project team includes producer Allan Buchman, film director Fisher Stevens, music director Nile Rodgers, television consultants Steven Lawrence, line producer Michael Owen, co-producer Jayashri Wyatt, talent coordinator Julianne Hoffenberg, film editor Lauren Saffa, with public relations supported by Two Sheps that Pass.

Jose Antonio Vargas: Michael Jackson Online -- A Singular Attraction

2009-10-28T14:34:21Z

Online, Michael Jackson is a singular attraction.

We saw this on June 25, a day that will forever live in online infamy, when the King of Pop's death literally stopped the Internet. Within a day, Jackson's main Wikipedia article was viewed more than 6 million times. Twitter and AOL Instant messaging went berserk. Text messages flooded phones. (I, for one, didn't learn about Jackson's death from TMZ or CNN; a cousin had texted me with "Michael Jackson is dead.")

Which is not at all surprising given Jackson's draw on social networking sites, and the kind of connected world we're living in. Events don't just happen. Events are shared. On Facebook, for example, the biggest Jackson page has 10.3 million fans. To put that figure into context, consider that the official Barack Obama page has 6.8 million fans and the official Sarah Palin page has more about 951,000. On YouTube, type "Michael Jackson" and about 950,000 videos pop up -- easily more videos than when you type some of biggest names in music: "U2" (131,000) "Beyonce" (275,000), "Taylor Swift" (249,000), "Lil' Wayne" (472,000), to name just a few. About 3,000 Jackson-oriented videos have been uploaded in the past 24 hours -- and, yes, some of them are videos of fans reviewing "This Is It," the new documentary featuring the last performing hours of The Gloved One, singing, dancing and rehearsing a planned concert series.

WikiReader Takes Wikipedia Offline, Puts It In Your Pocket

2009-10-13T16:21:28Z

With a black-and-white screen, no WI-FI at all, and running on plain old AAA batteries, the Wikireader is the lowest-tech gadget we've gotten this excited about in a long time.

The Wikireader, developed with the help of an ex-Apple designer, was built to allow users to browse all of Wikipedia offline and on-the-go.

For just $99 and with only 3 buttons, Wikireader users can access all of Wikipedia's 3 million topics.

The company explains in its mission statement,

Never forgetting that 75% of the world is offline, we removed all unnecessary elements to reach a low price point. We wanted to contribute, in a small but meaningful way, to Wikipedia's own goal of providing a "free encyclopedia to everyone on the planet, written in their native language". We never saw WikiReader as a programmatic project, but rather as something intuitive and spontaneous. Making something "new" played a less important role than the "transformation" of something preexisting.

Look how far we've come. See this

versus this:

The Most Surprising Wikipedia Controversies Of All Time

2009-09-29T14:47:43Z

Cuteness? Vikings?

These entries are so controversial that Wiki has had to lay down the LOCK law and block the pages from being changed.

We've picked out the most surprising Wiki page controversies of all time for you to see (and vote on!) below. For a full list, see here.

Know other locked Wiki entries that belong on the list of most surprising controversies of all time? TELL US!

Here's how: click "Participate" below, enter the page name in "Title," give us a description or example of why it's controversial, and upload an image (if you want!). Click submit, and you're done!

Roman Polanski's Wikipedia Page LOCKED Over Child Sex Crime Controversy (PHOTOS)

2009-09-28T07:42:06Z

**See Photo Below**
Wikipedia administrators have blocked filmmaker Roman Polanski's Wikipedia page from being changed after an 'edit war' broke out following the news of Polanski's arrest on child sex charges.

Wikipedia's forum indicates that users of the free encyclopedia disagreed over whether Polanski's sexual molestation of a 13 year-old, for which he was arrested on September 27, 2009, should be given more weight than his professional accomplishments.

The Telegraph reports,

One contributor wrote that it amounted to a breach of Wikipedia's commitment to neutrality to describe Polanski only as a "Polish-French film director, producer, writer and actor" in the first sentence of the entry, because "he's just as well known as a child molester as he's known as a writer". [...]

After one contributor deleted a reference to the initial charges, another tried to get them reinstated, writing: "I'm very concerned by the attempt to remove this information from the article. After all, this is what the whole case is about."

Polanski's Wikipedia page has a note at the top alerting users, "This page is currently protected from editing until September 28, 2009 or until disputes have been resolved." (See photo below) Increasing the protection level of an entry means that only Wikipedia administrators can make edits to the page.

Currently, Polanski's page introduces him as,

a Polish-French[1][2] film director, producer, writer and actor. Polanski began his career in Poland, and later became a celebrated[3] Academy Award-winning director of both art house and commercial films, making such films as Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974). Polanski is one of the world's best known contemporary film directors and is widely considered as one of the greatest directors of his time.

His arrest for having sex with a 13 year-old is not mentioned until the second paragraph. On Wikipdia, Polanski is listed in categories that include "Sex Scandal Figures," "Fugitives Wanted On Sex Crime Charges," and "French Sex Offenders."

In the past, WIkipedia has locked other controversial entries from being edited because of the disputes over their content. The Telegraph notes, "Earlier this year members of the Church of Scientology were banned from editing articles about their church, while Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups have repeatedly clashed over attempts to correct historical "errors" on the site."

Jose Antonio Vargas: Technology Is Anthropology -- Covering an Evolving Solar System

2009-09-21T13:38:00Z

It's the people, not the gear.

When I declared "technology is anthropology" as the guiding principle of HuffPostTech -- how technology in general, and the Internet in particular, is changing the way we live our lives, from politics and education to entertainment -- this is what I meant: Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, one of the chief architects of the Obama campaign's Internet strategy, exploring the future of the online-powered grassroots movement that propelled the junior senator from Chicago to the White House. In an exclusive blog for HuffPostTech, Hughes writes that while the movement behind BarackObama.com -- now called Organizing for America and housed at the Democratic National Committee -- is "alive and well," there's more to be desired in the leadership that continues to run it.

Technology is anthropology means Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, explaining the new editing rules of the world's largest information bazaar, a do-it-yourself encyclopedia built for our networked age. At a time in which more people visit Wikipedia than most major news organizations, it's rather ironic how poorly the mainstream media understands and reports on how the site works. It means John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design, one of the hotbeds of innovation in the world, boldly predicting that "art and design will rise in importance during this century as we try to make sense of all the possibilities that digital technology now affords." Design, he writes, humanizes technology. And it means Dr. Barbara Kurshan, head of the pioneering Curriki.org -- think "wiki" plus "curriculum" and you've got the gist of it -- emphasizing the value of teachers and educators collaborating on curriculum in these tweeting, Facebooking, YouTubing times. Curriki, as it happens, is the brainchild of Scott McNealy, chairman and co-founder of Sun Microsystems. "As technology spreads across the globe through low-cost laptops and even cell phones," Kurshan writes, "open content has the potential to bridge the education divide between those with and without access to high quality instructional materials."

Jimmy Wales: What the MSM Gets Wrong About Wikipedia -- and Why

2009-09-21T10:00:00Z

If you follow the news about Wikipedia, even casually, you're probably aware that something is changing. What you probably don't realize is that what you've been led to believe is almost certainly completely wrong.

Maybe you saw some recent headlines ominously talking about editorial controls. Maybe you heard something about editorial boards.

Or maybe you read this story on Time.com: "They recently instituted a major change, imposing a layer of editorial control on entries about living people. In the past, only articles on high-profile subjects like Barack Obama were protected from anonymous revisions. Under the new plan, people can freely alter Wikipedia articles on, say, their local officials or company head -- but those changes will become live only once they've been vetted by a Wikipedia administrator."

That's all very interesting, albeit completely untrue.

Imagine if the stories told instead said things like this:

"In a major shift towards greater openness, Wikipedia is taking the first steps towards doing away with controls that kept certain pages 'protected' or 'locked' for many years. Previously, certain high profile and high risk biographies and other entries were kept locked to prevent vandalism by users who had not registered accounts on the site for a 'waiting period' of 4 days."

"The new feature, long advocated by the site's founder Jimmy Wales, eliminates that restriction by allowing anyone to edit these pages, even without logging in. The secret to being able to do this is that the new feature creates a queue where tens of thousands of longtime users of the site can approve these changes - changes that were previously completely forbidden."

What? Really? The solution to the problem of bad speech is actually more speech? Openness and collaboration actually work?

Nevertheless, it is true. English Wikipedia will soon launch a new feature that will allow you to edit, as an inexperienced user, articles that have previously been locked more-or-less continuously for years.

I believe that the underlying facts about the Wikipedia phenomenon -- that the general public is actually intelligent, interested in sharing knowledge, interested in getting the facts straight -- are so shocking to most old media people that it is literally impossible for them to report on Wikipedia without following a storyline that goes something like this: "Yeah, this was a crazy thing that worked for awhile, but eventually they will see the light and realize that top-down control is the only thing that works."

Will the new, more gentle tool, be more widely used than protection was? I certainly hope so. We are always looking for ways to help responsible people join the Wikipedia movement and contribute constructively, while gently asking those who want to cause trouble to please go somewhere else.

Faced with the choice of preventing you from editing at all, versus allowing you to edit even though you might have bad intentions, we have erred consistently for the latter -- openness. The new tool, by making it a lot easier to keep bad stuff from appearing to the general public, is going to allow for a much more responsible Wikipedia that is, at the same time, a much more open Wikipedia.

Jose Antonio Vargas: Technology Is Anthropology

2009-09-14T10:13:55Z

That's the thinking behind a new HuffPost section that launches next Monday. HuffPostTech will cover how technology in general -- and the Internet in particular -- is changing the way we live our lives, from politics, education to entertainment. The iPhone 3GS and new Nokia N96 aren't just cell phones or communications devices; for many, they are primary sources of entertainment. Facebook is no mere social networking site; with more than 250 million users, it's a democracy of its own, with a population that rivals some of the world's biggest countries. Indeed, the new section's overlaying concern -- what will connect all the blogs and aggregated news stories in it -- is the thinking that technology is anthropology. It's not the gear, it's the people. Sure, HuffPostTech will feature the biggest stories and storied rivalries in tech, in addition to rising start-ups and new, gotta-have-'em gadgets. But it will always keep in mind that the gadgets we use, the apps we download, the social networking sites we belong to, tell us something about who we are.

Juliette Powell: New Internet Manifesto Backed by World Economic Forum... and You?

2009-09-09T15:48:28Z

An Internet Manifesto written by German bloggers? No, I'm not referring to The Cluetrain Manifesto, which began as a website about the 'new reality' of the networked marketplace, written a decade ago. I'm talking about a new Internet Manifesto, written by, well, us -- as in, all of us.

It all started when I came across a random link, originally posted on Twitter by @Davos, the Official Twitter account of the World Economic Forum. The post led me down the rabbit hole to a new Internet Manifesto on 'how journalism works today.' As a journalist, I was curious to say the least. The post even had a comment by Don Tapscott: "This is a good document. I support it." Was this the same Don Tapscott who authored bestselling books like Wikinomics? Probably, especially given the source of the original tweet about the Internet Manifesto. After all, @Davos has over one million followers. If so, I wondered what Huffington Post readers like you would think of the top 5 declarations (of the 17 original declarations), translated from German by Jenna L. Brinning, and reproduced in English below.

What is a manifesto anyway? According to Wikipedia, "A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature." Just above the Wikipedia page, a note that puts the declarations below and the intention of this post into perspective: "The examples in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue."

1. The Internet is different.
It produces different public spheres, different terms of trade and different cultural skills. The media must adapt their work methods to today's technological reality instead of ignoring or challenging it. It is their duty to develop the best possible form of journalism based on the available technology. This includes new journalistic products and methods.

2. The Internet is a pocket-sized media empire.
The web rearranges existing media structures by transcending their former boundaries and oligopolies. The publication and dissemination of media contents are no longer tied to heavy investments. Journalism's self-conception is--fortunately--being cured of its gatekeeping function. All that remains is the journalistic quality through which journalism distinguishes itself from mere publication.

3. The Internet is our society is the Internet.
Web-based platforms like social networks, Wikipedia or YouTube have become a part of everyday life for the majority of people in the western world. They are as accessible as the telephone or television. If media companies want to continue to exist, they must understand the lifeworld of today's users and embrace their forms of communication. This includes basic forms of social communication: listening and responding, also known as dialog.

4. The freedom of the Internet is inviolable.
The Internet's open architecture constitutes the basic IT law of a society which communicates digitally and, consequently, of journalism. It may not be modified for the sake of protecting the special commercial or political interests often hidden behind the pretense of public interest. Regardless of how it is done, blocking access to the Internet endangers the free flow of information and corrupts our fundamental right to a self-determined level of information.

5. The Internet is the victory of information.
Due to inadequate technology, media companies, research centers, public institutions and other organizations compiled and classified the world's information up to now. Today every citizen can set up her own personal news filter while search engines tap into wealths of information of a magnitude never before known. Individuals can now inform themselves better than ever.

The Internet Manifesto in its current form has 17 declarations. I've posted the top five above and the following five here in English for review. What if we used the points as an outline? How might you envision and add to a World Internet Manifesto?

Juliette Powell is an author, entrepreneur and integrated media specialist. Her first book 33 Million People in the Room (Financial Times Press, 2009) builds on her work as co-founder and COO of the Gathering Think Tank Inc., an innovation forum at the intersection of integrated media, business, innovation and technology. A popular key note speaker and commentator, connect with Juliette directly at juliettepowell.com and Facebook.

Jarvis Coffin: Important and Unimportant Imbalances in the World

2009-09-03T10:19:48Z

This is interesting: MediaPost referred to a report in the Digits Blog of the Wall Street Journal yesterday that says of 53,000 qualified respondents who said they contribute to Wikipedia only 6,814 of them - 13% - were women.

A commenter to the blog, Drew, made this observation:

This is significant because Wikipedia is in the top 10 most visited sites on the Internet, meaning that lots of people are going there to get their information. The beauty of Wikipedia is that it's neutrality on subjects is ideally balanced by an editing population that reflects the actual population of the Earth. With such a gender imbalance, the perspective of a significant part of the world's population is being marginalized.

I have a feeling that the perspective of the world has been at risk of imbalance throughout history. It is unlikely that the digital world has done anything to change the ratio of men vs. women chronicling all our endeavors and discoveries.

The explanation is easy: women are too busy. Plus, they're not quite as caught-up in themselves. They don't derive the satisfaction that men do from sitting around in their shorts, swilling swill and swapping war stories. Another commenter alluded to their practical side:

If Wikipedia would allow payment for the type of skills it requires to actually get through the complicated procedure of publishing accurate articles on their site, maybe they could utilize the amazing workforce of women out there who are struggling to compensate their husband's dwindling incomes and 401k's by working from home.

This is precisely the sort of clear-thinking that has pushed the world to its great endeavors and accomplishments. The men then cozy-up to the fire and write about it. The women continue on by making 80% of the world's purchase decisions.

Such are the important and unimportant imbalances that ultimately matter to the real world.

WikiTrust: Wikipedia To Color Code Unreliable Text

2009-08-31T08:55:13Z

Starting this fall, you'll have a new reason to trust the information you find on Wikipedia: An optional feature called "WikiTrust" will color code every word of the encyclopedia based on the reliability of its author and the length of time it has persisted on the page.

Read more: Wikipedia, WikiTrust, Media News