My talk on how governments have responded to citizen media at the Blogs and Digital Democracy Forum in Kuala Lumpur.

1. Participatory Media,
Participatory Democracy
How national governments have responded
to the challenges of outspoken citizens

2. JUNE 1989 AUGUST 2007
“INFORMATION IS THE OXYGEN OF THE MODERN “IT IS TIME TO STOP THE ANARCHY ON THE
AGE. IT SEEPS THROUGH THE WALLS TOPPED BY INTERNET. WE CANNOT ALLOW THIS GREAT
BARBED WIRE, IT WAFTS ACROSS THE TECHNOLOGICAL ACHIEVEMENT OF MAN TO BE
ELECTRIFIED BORDERS, THE GOLIATH OF TURNED INTO AN INFORMATION GARBAGE
TOTALITARIANISM WILL BE BROUGHT DOWN BY HEAP.”
THE DAVID OF THE MICROCHIP.”

3. 1979 - Participatory Media (USENET)

4. Archived, Persistent, Linkable

5. 1984 BBSes - Precursor to Web Forums

6. 1989 - The Hyperlink

7. Formatted ‘hypertext’ or HTML

9. Exponential Service Growth: Easier, Cheaper

10. Web 2.0 Easier, Cheaper, Faster ...

11. ... and global.

12. Exponential Blog Growth

13. How Have Governments
Responded?

14. Egyptian blogger jailed for four years for
insulting President Mubarak and Islam

15. Two Thais arrested in Thailand for comments
posted about the Thai king

16. China: Over 50 known jailed cyber-activists

17. Myanmar: Internet severed to suppress
protests

18. Turkey: WordPress and YouTube Blocked

19. Thailand: YouTube Blocked for videos
ridiculing the king

20. Barbados: Calls for regulation

21. Malaysia: Discrediting Bloggers

22. City of Buenos Aires Official Blog - Bridging
the Blogosphere and City Government

23. Chile’s most popular blogger - Senator
Fernando Flores

24. Chile 2001 Elections - All Candidates Had
Blogs

25. Citizen-led Presidential Debates
http://www.youtube.com/debates

26. Iran: Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a
blog.

28. Cambodian King was his nation’s first
blogger. Since then ...

29. Cambodia gets publicity on CNN and
hundreds of other news outlets

30. Ecuador: President Rafael Correa has a
YouTube channel and blog

31. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa: Videoblogger
http://acuerdopais.com/blogs/rafael_correa/

32. Gilberto Gil: Brazilian Minister of Culture and
Free Culture advocate

33. State-owned Agencia Brasil links back to all
blogs discussing their articles

34. US Senators and Representatives with
weblogs. Also: Los Angeles Police Department

35. How Has Civil Society
Responded?

36. Mzalendo (‘Patriot’ in Swahili)
http://mzalendo.com/

37. Kenya: Explanation and commentary on
every bill

38. Tech President
http://techpresident.com/

39. New Election Metrics

40. They Work For You
UK-based watchdog site

41. Atina Chile: From Conversation to Legislation

42. Open Congress - US philanthropy
foundations are funding such projects

43. Campaign contributions and voting records
of every Californian politician

44. Incentives for
governments to support
blogging

45. Botswana Blog invited to the UN Global
Conference on ICT and Youth for Development

46. Investors are Blog Addicts

47. Next Step: Act

48. US $5 Million for Citizen Media Projects
www.newschallenge.org

49. To Conclude:
Fear Factor Versus Tipping Point