On Wednesday, May 16, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) made his 3rd report to the UN Security Council on the action of the ICC on the referral under UN Security Council Resolution 1970.(1) Much of Ocampo’s report was about the actions of the ICC on issues related to the detention of Saif Al Islam Gaddafi.

The report, however, failed to mention important aspects of the case. Instead it substituted the views of the National Transitional Council (NTC) of Libya in place of the actions and determinations of the ICC, giving the UN Security Council a false picture of the situation that exists regarding Saif Al Islam Gaddafi’s detention.

According to the reports by the ICC Registry and the Office of the Public Counsel for the Defence (OPCD), Saif Al Islam Gaddafi has been held mostly incommunicado and denied access to a lawyer by his… weiter lesen

[Note: This is a slightly edited version of a talk presented on May 1, 2012 at a small celebration in honor of the 15th Anniversary of the publication of the print edition of the book Netizens]

I – Looking Back

Fifteen years ago on May 1, 1997, the print edition of Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet was published in English. Later that year, in October, a Japanese translation of the book was published. Today we are celebrating the occasion of the 15th Anniversary of this event.

In honor of this occasion I want to both look back and look forward toward trying to assess the significance of the book and of Michael Hauben’s discovery of the emergence of the netizen. I want to briefly look at what has happened in the interim of these 15 years toward trying to understand what new advance this… weiter lesen

Introduction to Spring 2012 issue of the Amateur Computerist, Vol 21 No. 2

On May 1, 1997, the book “Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet” was published in a print edition.(1) This May Day, May 1, 2012 marks the 15th anniversary of that occasion. Five years ago, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the book, I wrote an article for the online magazine Telepolis. In the article I wrote that an anniversary “offers an occasion to consider the potential of the Net that was identified in Netizens and to assess what has developed with regard to this potential today.”

I reviewed some of the background of Netizens: “During the course of his pioneering research in the early 1990s, Michael Hauben discovered a surprising phenomenon. He recognized that there was a new social consciousness developing among those in the online community. At… weiter lesen

Union Square May Day 2012

On Tuesday, May 1, in an impressive show of numbers, and a gathering of young and old, workers, students, community people and retirees, New Yorkers welcomed May Day 2012.

Labor was represented by contingents, and Occupy Wall Street was represented, as were Art workers, transit workers, musicians, along with those calling for the US government to stop its harassment of Iran, and advocates of immigrant rights.

Gathering at Union Square in Manhattan, the march set off for Wall Street.

It was unusual in recent years to hear labor songs like “SOLIDARITY FOREVER” ring out from the microphone at Union Square, even though May Day, the traditional workers’ day of celebration and struggle began in the US in 1886, over a century ago.

The Transit Workers Union (TWU) who gathered in the Union Square then led the march. They were protesting the… weiter lesen