"Towards a political dialogue between scientists and social movements across the planet..."

"What to expect from a world social forum on Science and Democracy ?

"The World Social Forum has played an integral part in the adoption of the free software through the Americas as well as in developing countries around the world. For this reason, the WSF is topical for this blog. Roberto Savio is probably among the best informed insiders at the World Social Forum (WSF)..."

"International coalition of environmental and social justice groups condemn Microsoft Vista and call for the adoption of free software..."

The popular social networking site Facebook just announced a Chinese version, but similar Chinese-based Web sites such as Xiaonei and Hainei have been struggling there. However, since April, UCenter Home, an open source social network service based on PHP and MySQL, is pushing open social networking in China.

In fact, my relatively newfound interest in Linux has been influenced just as much by my concern for social justice. As Linux becomes more usable for a broader range of people, it is important to recognize the wide range of reasons why “common folks” (i.e. not “geeks”) might be using it and the social implications that entails.

"...Those experiences form the basis of Networking Futures, an innovative ethnography of transnational activist networking within the movements against corporate globalization [...]He further explores how activists have used e-mail lists, Web pages, and free software to organize actions, share information, coordinate at a distance, and stage "electronic civil disobedience." Based on a powerful cul

Google's OpenSocial initiative to establish common, standard APIs for creating social-networking applications is still in its early days. But its impact for end users, developers, Web site owners, social-network operators and even business application vendors could be huge in the long run.

"...The main obstacle to the triumph of software freedom is social inertia [...] Social inertia consists of people giving in to social inertia. When you give in to social inertia, you become part of it; when you resist it, you reduce it. We conquer inertia by identifying it, and resolving not to be part of it.