THE MIT PROGRAM ON

HUMAN RIGHTS & JUSTICE

the mit program on human rights & justiceapril 29 – may 2, 2004

Human Rights and Technology

Conference Report 2004

PSB 05-05-0312

Table of Contents

Conference Description ............................................................................. 3

Speakers ......................................................................................................... 4

Sponsoring Organizations ........................................................................... 5

Training Organizations ................................................................................ 6

Session Descriptions

Panel I: Threats to Human Rights in the Digital Realm ............................ 7

Panel II: Technology in the Service of Human Rights Struggles ................... 8

Track I: Tech Activism ............................................................................... 9

Track II: Community Radio ................................................................... 11

Track III: Community Wireless ................................................................ 13

Additional Workshops ............................................................................... 14

Attendance .................................................................................................. 16

Feedback ..................................................................................................... 20

Community Benefits ................................................................................. 21

Innovations ................................................................................................. 22

Panelist Bios ................................................................................................ 23

Facilitator Bios ............................................................................................ 26

Acknowledgements ...................................................................................... 28

Appendices

Appendix A ............................................................................................... 29

Appendix B ............................................................................................. 31

In Memory of Bhuwan Singh1980-2004

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Conference Description

From April 29–May 2, 2004 the first ever Human Rights and Technology conference at MIT brought together activists and academics to discuss the role of technology in enhancing the struggle for human rights. Thursday night’s opening panel, Threats to Human

Rights in the Digital Realm, provided a theoretical framework for understanding the rise of digital surveillance, the development of autonomous artificial intelligence robots for military action, and the erosion of the public’s access to mass communications. Friday’s panel, Technology in the Service of Human Rights Struggles, served to highlight the work of cutting-edge practitioners who employ technology in support of human rights struggles in both the U.S. and abroad.

These two discussions provided an entryway to a full weekend of hands-on workshops, where practitioners taught MIT students and community members how to design, build and deploy a myriad of technologies and media, including community radio, wireless antennae technology, video and internet. In doing so, the conference successfully traveled an arc from the realm of the critical /theoretical to the world of the practical/concrete.

While the conference provided a big picture analysis through academic discussion it allowed participants to ground this discussion in the work of practitioners directly involved in issues of social justice and community empowerment.

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Chris Csikszentmihalvi Director, Computing Cultures Group MIT Media Lab

Mark Lloyd Visiting Scholar Department of Urban Studies, MIT

William Staples Professor, Department of Sociology University of Kansas

Thenmozhi Soundarajan Executive Director Third World Majority

John Sellers Executive Director The Ruckus Society

Pete Tridish Executive Director Prometheus Radio Project

Speakers

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Sponsoring Organizations

The MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice http://web.mit.edu/phrj

Center for Reflective Community Practice, MIT http://web.mit.edu/crcp

Design that Matters http://web.mit.edu/dtm/www

The Dougherty Family Fund

with additional support from:

The Public Service Center, MIT http://web.mit.edu/mitpsc

The Technology and Culture Forum, MIT http://web.mit.edu/tac/www

Bard Human Rights Project http://www.bard.edu/hrp

The Organizers Collaborative http://www.organizenow.net

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Training Organizations:

The Ruckus SocietyJohn Sellers, Executive Director

Allen Gunn, Technical OrganizerAudrey Driver, Development and Communications DirectorDavid Taylor, Internet Organizer/Direct Action Technician

Billionaires for Bush:Andrew Boyd, Founder

Phillip Smith, Web DirectorAmanda Hickman, Internet Organizer

Prometheus Radio Project: Pete Tridish, Executive DirectorDave Arney, Technical DirectorDharma Dailey, Policy Analyst

Free Software FoundationDavid Turner

Activist ElectronicsJohn Parnell, Tactical Communications Trainer

New York Independent Media CenterBrandon Jourdan

Community and Information Technology Institute, Syracuse University

Murali Venkatesh, Springfield Community Wireless

WMBR 88.1 FM Linda Pinkow, ProducerJumana Nabti, Producer

Urban League of EasternMassachusettsKhalid Mustafa, Director

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panel i: Threats to Human Rights in the Digital Realm

Thursday, April 29 5:30-7:00 p.m.

Mark Lloyd, Visiting Scholar, MIT Department of Urban Studies: “The Global Village: Entertainment or Empowerment?”

Professor William Staples, Department of Sociology, University of Kansas: “I Sing the Body Detected: Electronic Surveillance and the Right to Privacy”

Chris Csikszentmihalyi, Director, Computing Cultures Group, MIT Media Lab: “The Rise of the Autonomous Killing Machines: Innovations and Countertrends”

The opening session of the conference began by addressing the critical question of how technological trends are both helping and hindering the advancement of human rights and social justice globally. Mark Lloyd spoke about the privatization of the public airwaves and its effects on citizens’ access to information. As a possible positive response to this trend, he elaborated on the concept of “Communications as a Human Right” first proposed by the World Summit on the Information Society (http://www.itu.int/wsis/). Professor William Staples described the increasing collaboration between government and private sector forces in amassing vast stores of digital information on every citizen, in a trend he juxtaposed with the classic conception of Big Brother, by describing it as a decentralized network of thousands of ‘Little Brothers.’ Professor Chris Csikszentmihalyi detailed the increased integration of artificial intelligence with robotic technologies for eventual use by military and law enforcement (in violation of a longstanding agreement between the government and AI community). In contrast to these trends, he highlighted the work of new media lab inventions that seek to foster greater public accountability among politicians, corporations and the media, such as the Afghan Explorer Robot, and the Government Information Awareness project.

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panel ii : Technology in the Service of Human Rights Struggles

Friday, April 30 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Thenmozhi Soundarajan, Executive Director, Third World Majority: “Media Justice-Global Justice”

John Sellers, Executive Director, The Ruckus Society: “Hacktivism and Direct Action”

Pete Tridish, Executive Director, Prometheus Radio Project “Seize the Airwaves! Community Radio vs. the FCC”

The second panel shifted the focus to movements that utilize a broad range of technologies to further human rights issues, including digital video, internet, radio and a number of mechanical engineering devices. Thenmozhi Soundarajan showed a multimedia presentation illustrating her organization’s use of video, internet and digital storytelling as a community organizing tool in urban communities in the United States, and impoverished communities abroad. She described how the process of digital storytelling can be used as a mechanism to highlight human rights issues that impact marginalized and underrepresented groups. John Sellers used a multimedia presentation to talk about the myriad forms of daring, high profile direct actions that are being used as part of environmental, human and social justice struggles around the world, including banner hangs, lock downs, and viral internet campaigns. Pete Tridish spoke to the issue of Communication as a Human Right, and detailed his experiences on the front lines of the legal battles with the FCC to create room for local communities to be heard on the radio band.

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Workshop Summaries

track i : The Ruckus Society

Workshop I: Saturday (10am -1pm)Non-Violent Direct Action: History, Tactics and Training Facilitator: John Sellers

John Sellers began this workshop with a multimedia presentation on the history of Nonviolent Direct Action. In the many examples he discussed, from sit-ins from the Civil Rights movement to, more recently, Rainforest Action Networks campaigns against Home Depot, he underscored the fact that nonviolent direct action is a powerful and effective means to focus attention on environmental and human rights injustices. He then introduced the spectrogram, an innovative facilitation tool that encourages participants to state their position on a controversial issue by placing themselves physically on an x and y axis. In doing so, the group entered an animated discussion of the ethics surrounding various forms of direct action.

Workshop II: Saturday (2 -5:30pm) Using Technology to Mobilize Facilitator: Dave Taylor

Dave Taylor, technical specialist for the Ruckus Society, began the workshop by describing a variety of technology tools that can be used to get large groups of people energized, organized, mobilized for action. He discussed the use of cutting edge grassroots organizing software (that he

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helped author) that facilitates the formation of decentralized, non-hierarchical decision-making structures. Using the case of the electoral campaign of San Francisco Councilman Matt Gonzales, Dave illustrated how technologies were employed at every level from neighborhood phone trees to orchestrating demonstrations on the streets.

Workshop III: Sunday (10am-12pm) Culture Jamming and Creative Media InterventionsFacilitator: Andrew Boyd (Billionaires for Bush)

Andrew presented a multimedia presentation that detailed the tactics and techniques of creative media interventions. The workshop reviewed a number of case examples, from Andrew’s work with United for a Fair Economy to the famous Billionaires for Bush campaign. The Billionaires campaign served as a case study in how to create effective high concept (but low budget) viral marketing, combining conceptual ingenuity with the distributed use of internet, and other available media structures. Together, participants analyzed how and why these efforts succeeded, how they might be a model for future messaging efforts, and how ingenious “meme warfare” can inject a message into mainstream media in spite of editorial frames designed to filter it out. Discussion centered around locating good principles of good viral design.

Workshop IV: Sunday (2pm-5pm) Building a Creative Campaign

Facilitators: Andrew Boyd, Phillip Smith, Amanda HickmanThe facilitators taught participants how to craft, perform, record and disseminate their own public service announcements on local human rights issues that can then be used for broadcast on college and local community radio. As an example, the group used the case of the Boston University “Bioterrorism” lab, which local community activists believe is a major threat to public health and is only located in the Roxbury district because of its predominantly low-income African-American residents. Within half an hour, participants chose framing, wrote scripts, and digitally recorded their audio announcements.

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track ii : Community Radio

This track was aimed at getting participants thinking about how low power radio stations provide a direct means for community empowerment, particularly for underserved and underrepresented communities. Philadelphia’s Prometheus Radio Project, the nation’s leading low power radio training organization, led the technical side of this track. The veteran production team from Boston’s WMBR 88.1 FM “No Censorship Radio” led the content, programming and interviewing portions of this track. (See appendix: Radio Curriculum)

Workshop I: Saturday (10am -1pm)The Vision and Basic Systems OverviewTrainers: Pete Tridish (Prometheus Radio), Linda Pinkow (WMBR)

Petri and Linda co-facilitated a participatory discussion on the many community-based uses for radio. They asked participants to think about what makes community radio different from commercial radio, or college radio? What voices should be included to make it a truly ‘community’ oriented station? Petri also elaborated extensively on the current legal challenges that community radio advocates face in setting up more stations, and suggested several possible means to address them.

Workshop II(a): Saturday (2pm -5pm)Affordable LPFM Antenna Construction Trainers: Prometheus Radio Project

Prometheus trainers began this workshop by explaining what components are required to set up a community radio station, and what options are

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available for different contexts, be they rural or urban. The discussion centered around frequency scanning (finding a space on the dial) and other preparatory considerations. The participants then entered the workshop to begin constructing a number of affordable LPFM radio antenna designs.

Workshop II(b): Saturday (2pm -5pm)Interviewing and ContentTrainer: Linda Pinkow, WMBR 88.1 FM

Linda Pinkow, veteran radio host, taught participants basic interviewing skills and gave a tour of the WMBR radio station on MIT’s campus. Linda covered how to pick a topic, how to formulate questions, and how to engage the interviewee. (See Radio Curriculum in Appendix A.)

Workshop III: Saturday (2pm -5pm)Creative Uses of LPFM RadioTrainers: Prometheus Radio Project

The Prometheus Radio Project trainers continued constructing low power FM antennae in the Edgerton Lab. Two fully functioning LPFM antennae were constructed, tested, and made ready for use.

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track iii : Community Wireless

This track was aimed at getting participants thinking about how emerging wireless technologies can be used as a form of community empowerment, particularly for underserved and underrepresented communities. The workshops covered a comprehensive range of issues on how to envision, design, build, and operate an appropriate, affordable, distributed wireless infrastructure that can be community owned and controlled. (See appendix B: Community Wireless Curriculum)

Workshop I: Saturday (10am -1pm)The Vision & Basic Systems Overview Trainers: Murali Venkatesh and Team; Khalid Mustapha

Khalid Mustafa, Director of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts and the founder of the Roxbury Technology Center, led a discussion on how wireless technology can be used as a form of independence and autonomy for low-income communities. He spelled out a comprehensive vision for building local autonomy, and discussed how a community-owned telecommunications infrastructure can be used to enhance local business, allow internet access to underserved high density urban residences, and improve access to a wide range of other local public and private services. Murali Venkatesh, Director of the Community and Information Technology Institute at Syracuse University, used a multimedia presentation to illustrate the Springfield Community Wireless Project currently being implemented in a low-income Puerto Rican community

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in Massachusetts. With his team of 7 students, he outlined (a) the technological components required to create a functional wireless ‘mesh’ network, (b) a number of proven antenna designs and configurations, and (c) how to design these elements, as well as the scale and scope of the network, based upon an assessment of community needs.

Workshop II: Saturday (2am -5pm)Demystifying Wireless Antennas: Cantenna Design and ConstructionTrainers: Manu Prakash (Media Lab); Dave Arney (Prometheus Radio Project)

Manu Prakash began the discussion by explaining how wireless antennas work, by using acoustic guitars as a metaphor for how antennas propagate radio waves. Then, Dave Arney and Manu began the antenna construction by having participants empty out their cans of instant cocoa mix and begin soldering the components of their home-made ‘cantennas’ together. After a few hours of workshop construction, each participant tested out their wireless creations on a spectrum analyzer and a high bandwidth internet connection.

One participant commented: “This was awesome. I understood everything, and I actually use my antenna. It increases the range of my wireless by an additional 30 feet!! No more dropping the signal when I’m on the wireless network at home. The use of simple materials (hot chocolate canister) brought home the fact that ‘techno’ does not necessarily equate to expensive and proprietary hardware. The trainers did a fabulous job.”

Additional Workshops:

Workshop I: Sunday (12-1pm)What All Activists Should Know About Their Digital ToolsFacilitator: Dave Turner, Free Software Foundation

David Turner, GPL Compliance Engineer at the Free Software Foundation, talked about the dangers and disadvantages of proprietary software. He presented an alternative: community-developed, Free Software.

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Workshop II: Sunday (1-2pm) Activist Electronics for Tactical CommunicationsFacilitator: John Parnell

John Parnell demonstrated how to use readily available communications technology to assist participants in public demonstrations. Based on the principle of using the tools of the oppressor against the oppressor, he outlined how to utilize and integrate cell phones, cheap two-way radios, radio scanners and computers to create an ops center that keeps all sectors of a demo in touch with each other and informed of the big picture. John also described his experience in the set-up and use of inexpensive radio communications systems to help indigenous organizations, environmentalist and human rights orgs in their operations in remote areas of the planet. An email link and an outline of his presentation (with links to resources) can be found at <www.longwire.org>.

Workshop III: Sunday (10am-12pm) Digital Witnessing for Domestic Human Rights ViolationsFacilitator: Brandon Jourdan, New York Independent Media Center

In recent years, we have seen an increase in media consolidation and an increase in media activism. The role of the video activist has become increasingly relevant, as human rights abuses have occurred at political demonstrations and within poor neighborhoods without significant mainstream media attention. Because of the work of video activists, police brutality and repression have been carefully documented and released to audiences who were not previously aware that human rights abuses are occurring here within the United States. Using this context as a starting point, Brandon began with a brief history of video activism, and then presented dramatic footage taken by activists at recent protest events. He then gave a detailed account of the many technical tips and shooting tactics that can be used for covering dangerous situations where human rights abuses are occurring. Finally, he elaborated on the many means of distributing this footage to the mainstream media, or directly to the public through the global indymedia network <www.indymedia.org>

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Attendance Data

Approximately 150 total participants attended the panel discussions and weekend workshops, including over twenty facilitators and volunteers. Over one hundred individuals checked in at the registration table Saturday and/or Sunday mornings, forty-seven of whom had pre-registered on-line and forty-one of whom had not. An additional sixty-eight people pre-registered but did not check in over the weekend, though these individuals were contacted and invited to give feedback to the conference. With over sixty people in attendance at the panel discussions Thursday and Friday nights, the conference overall reached out to MIT students, staff, faculty, as well as alumni and community members.

Below is a list of attendees and the emails and affiliations they provided, if any:

First Last Email Affiliation

D. Alwam dalwan@hotmail.com Int’l Women’s Peace Service

Dave Arney dave@davearney.org Prometheus Radio Project

Margaret Avener avenerm@mit.edu MIT

David Baldwin dfb@ccs.neu.edu Northeastern University

Alberto Barahona tobarahona@hotmail.com

Juan Carlos Barahona barahona@MIT.EDU MIT (Media Arts and Sciences)

Elizabeth Basha e_basha@mit.edu MIT (EECS)

Alex Bermudez abermudez@msh.org Management Sciences for Health

Ariel Bierbaum arielb@mit.edu MIT (DUSP)

Karen Boutet bouradley@hotmail.com Zeitgiest Gallery

Andrew Boyd andrew@wanderbody.com Billionaires for Bush

Soul Brown griothouse@aol.com Griothouse “Oral Traditions” Radio

Amanda Brund

Emma Brunskill emmab@mit.edu MIT (EECS)

Rob Chalfen robchalfen@hotmail.com Zeitgeist Gallery

Robbin Chapman rnc@media.mit.edu MIT (Media Lab)

Lodrina Cherne lodri@rotten.com Boston University

Chen Deh Chiou dchen@hsph.harvard.edu Harvard

Victoria Chou vikki@mit.edu MIT (EECS)

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First Last Email AffiliationLaura Colon-Melendez karma@mit.edu MIT

Kate Coyer k.coyer@gold.ac.uk University of London

Vikki Cravens vcravens@dcci.com

Andrew Crawford technil@riseup.net LPFM, Free Radio Burlington

Chris csik@mit.edu MIT (Media Lab)

Dharma Dailey dharma@prometheusradio.org Prometheus Radio

Clare Davis cedavis@MIT.EDU MIT (EECS)

Diane Davis dedavis@mit.edu PHRJ

Will DelHagen willd@MIT.EDU MIT (EECS)

Ellie DiLorenzo elliedilorenzo@bigplanet.com

Keith Donaldson kdonaldson@codmanacademy.org Codman Academy

Audrey Driver yerdua@ruckus.org The Ruckus Society

Charles Q. Du knightrider@media.mit.edu MIT (Media Lab)

Jeff Duritz jdu@mit.edu MIT (DUSP)

Alessandro Farinella alessandro@april-milano.it APRIL-Milano

Juliet Fink juliet_fink@gse.harvard.edu Harvard Graduate School of Education

Amanda Fisher midniteradio@hotmail.com

Ben Forman bforman@mit.edu MIT (DUSP)

Susan Frick fricks@mit.edu MIT

Gan Golan gangolan@mit.edu MIT

Claudia Gold claudiag@mit.edu MIT

Deb Goodman dgoodma2@wellesley.edu Wellesley

Lisa Gordon KumaLisa@par-don.com School of the Museum of Fine Arts

Victor Grau-Serrat victor@firstmilesolutions.com First Mile Solutions (wireless)

Jude Griffin jgriffin@msh.org Management Sciences for Health

Alan Gunn gunner@questionauthority.org The Ruckus Society

Bridget Hanna bh266@bard.edu Bard Human Rights Project

Craig Hart cah@mit.edu MIT

William Hartney hartney@mit.edu MIT

Amanda Hickman amanda@welfarelaw.orgBillionaires for Bush/CounterConvention.org

Alan Idle alanidle@hotmail.com Zetigeist Gallery

Naireen Hsu naiwen@hotmail.com

Maura Jacob mauraj@bu.edu Boston Mobilization

Brandon Jourdan mediablitz@riseup.net NY Independent Media Center

Tom Keenan keenan@bard.edu Bard Human Rights Project

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First Last Email Affiliation

Nick Knouf nknouf@mit.edu MIT (Brain and Cognitive Sciences)

Grigory Kolesov grigory@mit.edu MIT (Health Sciences and Technology)

Eungkyoon Lee eung@mit.edu MIT (DUSP)

Dave Lewit dlewit@igc.orgBoston-Cambridge Alliance for Democracy

Mark Lloyd mlloyd@mit.edu MIT (DUSP)

Manshi Low mslow@mit.edu MIT (Architecture)

Bill Massaquoi billmass@mit.edu MIT (Spurs Fellow)

Michael McAlpin mit_tech_con@sl4g.com WGBH Boston

Eden Medina eden@mit.edu MIT

Philip Meier pmmeier@mit.edu MIT

Nasim G. Memon NMemon@aol.com

V. Meredith fullforcev@yahoo.com

Mahrukh Mohiuddin mahrukh@alumni.tufts.edu Tufts University

Piali Mukhopadhyay piali@mit.edu MIT (Brain and Cognitive Sciences)

Masruddin Nazerali nazerali@mit.eduMIT, Ethiopian Students Union of Massachusetts

Jamie O’brien bosco@net1plus.com

Jan Outcalt jano@mit.eduSJC, Sierra Club, long-time community activist

Piotr Parda piotrpar@mac.com

John Parnell jparnell@igc.org Activist Electonics

Bhavin Patel bhavin@onebox.com TechsChange/Boston Social Forum

Lauren Penney lauren@earthsprite.netCommunity Technology Ctr/Youth Learn

Frank Perez frankperez@mail.com

Manu Prakash manup@mit.edu MIT (Media Lab)

Jason Pramas jpramas@igc.org Contingent Worker Ctr./ BSF

Aron Qasba aqasba@mit.edu MIT (physics)

Dany Qumsiyeh danyq@mit.edu MIT

Star R starrub@theworld.com

Margeaux Randolph shavone@MIT.EDU MIT (Literature)

Fleming Ray ftr@mit.edu MIT

Shanti Renfrew autodelete66@hotmail.com Community Church of Boston

Jocelyn Rodal jarodal@MIT.EDU MIT (Math)

Stephen Ronan info@ctcnet.org Community Technology Center

Joel Rosenberg jrosenberg@mos.org Museum of Science, Boston

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First Last Email AffiliationSudipta Saraswati MIT (Littleton Lab)

Dwight Schenk dschenk@att.net

John Sellers goat@ruckus.org The Ruckus Society

Susanne Seitinger susannes@mit.edu MIT (DUSP)

Jim Serdy serdy@mit.eduMIT (Lab for Manufac. & Productivity)

Bhuwan Singh bsingh@mit.edu MIT

Sonia Silva Swanson ssswanson@hotmail.com

Joe Slag mit_tech_con@sl4g.com Boston IMC

Phillip Smith phillip@communitybandwidth.ca

Community Bandwidth

Soundarajan thenmozhi@cultureisaweapon.org Third World Majority

Emily Sparks sparksemily@hotmail.com

Bill Staples staples@ku.edu Kansas University

Helen Tang hjtang@mit.edu

David Taylor david@riseup.net The Ruckus Society

Pete Tridish petri@prometheusradio.org Prometheus Radio

Dave Turner novalis@fsf.org Free Software Foundation

Ben Varadi bvaradi@nlchet.org National Labor Committee

Noah Vawters halcyon_and_one@hotmail.com

Marauli Venkatesh mvenkate@MIT.EDU MIT (CRCP)

Charlie Welch cwelch@igc.org

Diane Willow willow@media.mit.edu MIT (Media Lab)

Bambuu envision_artists@jamoo.com Envision Artists Collective

LaNegra RoxburyMediaInst@aol.com Roxbury Media Institute

Mary nikon@theworld.com

Toussaint Losier tlosier@fas.harvard.edu Harvard Social Forum

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Feedback

The evaluations revealed that this conference was much appreciated by the participants, and also included some concrete suggestions for improving future events.

Overall:“Great job! Very, very interesting. I learned a lot.”“I enjoyed both workshops, even though they were outside my area of expertise. The instructors were knowledgeable and well-prepared. Also, the people were very smart, and asked really good questions.” “I really enjoyed the Video Activism Workshop, especially the helpful tips Brandon shared.”“I was really inspired”

Highlights:“Indy Media Videos”“Billionaires for Bush tactics and operations”“Learning about Prometheus. The wide range of people attending.”“The wi-fi workshop was excellent. The roundtable discussion and presentations were informative and thought provoking, with challenges that got everyone debating.“Hands-on, interactive things: such as building an antenna [with Prometheus] and writing a 30-second parody commercial [with Billionaires for Bush]”“Networking and talking with individuals that are doing similar work.”“it was great to have Dave Turner from the Free Software Foundation there to discuss the open source movement and how it can work for social justice and human rights.”“The sense of community. The quality of person-to-person interaction (rare at a conference.)”

Most useful thing:“Interaction design with low cost tech IS possible for poor communities”“The most useful technical thing I learned was the basic set-up of a tunable dipole antenna. The most useful non-technical thing I gained was

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information on how to make effective political statements in “hack-like” forms.”“Inspiration.”

Suggestions:“Do it again!”“More discussions and definitely more hands-on workshops”“Maintain lists for future conferences”“Try and get people working on similar projects connected, try and get activist organizations/community groups using and collaborating with Open source tools”“Start Sunday workshops later in the day”“I think it could have been described better in the publicity and gotten more participants”“Post future conferences and similar events”“Resources/contact info for those who want to apply the skills presented”

Things to do differently:“Timing made it hard for undergraduates to attend”“Fewer tracks; 3 at the same time is too much, I was interested in attending the others, too”“More centralized location”

Community Benefits

The event accomplished our primary goals. First, we broadened participation in PHRJ’s ongoing discussion about Human Rights in relation to Technology. More specifically, we succeeded in generating a more sophisticated and inclusive discussion between MIT students, faculty and community members about how technology work and human rights work intersect, on both the theoretical and practical levels. Our panels brought together practitioners and theorists from a number of disciplines, and, in both cases, the level of conversation and interest was high. At both panels, we had to curtail the number of questions as people chose to remain engaged for over two hours. This leads us to believe that there is a

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considerable desire at MIT to continue discussing these issues. Second, the hands-on workshops generated a lot of enthusiasm, measured in many ways, including quantitative. On the first day, both the Wireless and Radio tracks were overfilled beyond our spatial capacity. The obstacles we encountered were purely logistical in nature. Attendance at our conference was great, but many undergraduates stated that they had to make some hard choices in order to attend. There may have been others who may have attended if the event had taken place at a different time, perhaps during the independent activities period in January or early in the spring semester.

Innovations

MIT/Community Partnership Teams: The goal of the Community Partnership Team was to have dedicated MIT students working together with members from local neighborhoods, in order to carry forward concrete projects in those communities. During the conference, participants learned and worked together to think through plans for carrying their project forward towards implementation. Several MIT students agreed to dedicate themselves during the rest of the term and devote their summers to helping set up wireless networks.

Chinatown Radio Project: Maggie Avener ’07 decided to build upon the legal, technical, and community-related aspects of radio she learned at the conference by starting a community radio station this summer. From June through August 2004, she participated in building a low power AM station that broadcast youth programming throughout Chinatown.

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Panelists’ Bios

CHRIS CSIKSZENTMIHALYI (Rise of the Autonomous Killing Machines) is the Director of the Media Lab’s Computing Culture group, which works to create unique media technologies for cultural applications. He has worked in the intersection of new technologies, media, and the arts for nine years, lecturing, showing new media work, and presenting installations in both Europe and North America. Csikszentmihalyi has taught at the University of California at San Diego, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and at Turku University. A recent piece, DJ I, Robot, was nominated for the Best Artistic Software award at Berlin’s Transmediale, while a previous piece, Natural Language Processor, was commissioned by the KIASMA Museum in Helsinki, Finland. He has toured with DJ I, Robot, and he serves on the National Academy of Science’s IT & Creativity panel. One recent piece, the “Afghan Explorer,” is a tele-operated robot, “a tele-operated, robotic war reporting system, able to provide images, sound, and interviews in real time. MARK LLOYD (Global Village: Entertainment or Empowerment) is a Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he teaches communications policy and conducts research on the relationship between communications policy and strong democratic communities. Most recently, he served as the Executive Director of the Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, a non-profit, non-partisan project he co-founded to bring civil rights principles and advocacy to the communications policy debate. Previously, Mr. Lloyd worked as General Counsel to the Benton Foundation, and as a communications attorney at Dow, Lohnes & Albertson in Washington, D.C. representing both commercial and non-commercial companies. He also has nearly twenty years of experience as a print and broadcast journalist, including work as a reporter and producer at NBC and CNN, and is the recipient of several awards including an Emmy and a Cine Golden Eagle. He has served as a board member of dozens of national and local organizations, including the Independent Television Service and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund. He has also served as a consultant to the Clinton White House, the John D. and Catherine T.

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MacArthur Foundation, the Open Society Institute and the Smithsonian Institution. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.

JOHN SELLERS (Hacktivism and Direct Action) provides the political vision behind The Ruckus Society, pioneers in the field of creative and non-violent Direct Actions. He worked with Greenpeace for six years during the nineties, coordinating dozens of actions throughout the US. In 1995 he sailed with the SV Rainbow Warrior in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean to halt drift net fishing. In the last six years he has traveled extensively throughout North America coordinating direct actions for Rainforest Action Network, Earth First!, Project Underground, International Campaign for Tibet, Global Exchange, The United Steel Workers of America and many others. In June of 2000 he was permanently removed from Canada (his favorite country in North America).

THENMOZHI SOUNDARARAJAN (Media Justice – Global Justice) is a filmmaker, singer, and grassroots media activist. As a second generation Tamil Untouchable woman, she strives to connect grassroots organizers in developing countries with media resources that can widen their base of resistance. She was the director and founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling’s national community programs in which she developed the framework for community based digital storytelling. In that capacity she has worked with over 200 communities around the country developing grounded new media practices for their work. Further she is in residence at the MIT Center for Reflective Community Practice writing about her experiences with community based digital storytelling. She is also a 2001-2002 Eureka foundation fellow. Currently she is a co-founder and executive director of Third World Majority. BILL STAPLES (I Sing the Body Detected) is currently Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of Kansas, the oldest sociology department in the United States. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA. Staples teaches classes in cultural and historical sociology. In his book, Everyday Surveillance: Vigilance and Visibility in Postmodern Life (Rowman &

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Littlefield, 2000), Staples focuses on those contemporary social control techniques often enhanced by the use of new information, visual, communication, and medical technologies that target and treat the body as an object to be watched, assessed, and manipulated. In one chapter entitled, “CU-See Me and the Internet,” Staples examines several surveillance, social control, and privacy implications of Internet usage.

PETE TRIDISH (Seize the Airwaves!) was a member of the founding collective of Radio Mutiny, 91.3 FM in Philadelphia. In 1996, he was an organizer for the station’s demonstrations at Benjamin Franklin’s Printing Press and the Liberty Bell; on both occasions the station broadcast in open defiance of the FCCs’ unfair rules that prohibit low power community broadcasting. He was the organizer and speaker for the Radio Mutiny tour of 25 cities from January to March of 1998, and undertook another 20-city tour in February 1999 with the Prometheus Radio Project. He was an organizer for the first two micro-radio conferences on the East Coast -- the first in Philadelphia in April 1998, and the second in Washington D.C. in October of the same year. At the October conference, there was also a demonstration at which radio pirates broadcast directly into the FCCs’ main office. He actively participated in the rulemaking that led up to the adoption of LPFM. He sat on the committee that sponsored the crucial Broadcast Signal Labs study, which proved to the FCC that LPFM would not cause interference. He has spoken at colleges, coffee shops, living rooms, and even the CATO Institute. He has been interviewed for several segments on NPR, a number of college, public and pirate radio stations, CNN, for Maximum Rock and Roll, Radio Ink, Radio and Records, Philadelphia City Paper, Baltimore City Paper, Albany Times Union, Philadelphia Inquirer, Freedom Forum, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, the Nation, Talkers Magazine, Washington Post, Broadcasting and Cable, Radio World, Hollywood Reporter, Z Magazine, Paper Tiger TV and other news outlets. He holds a BA in Appropriate Technology from Antioch College.

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Facilitators’ Bios

ANDREW BOYD (Billionaires for Bush): A pioneer of viral activism, Andrew was one of the driving forces behind Billionaires for Bush (or Gore) and the Million Billionaire March. He founded, and for several years directed, the arts and action program at United for a Fair Economy in Boston. He is currently an adjunct professor at NYU and presents/performs around the country. His writing has appeared in the Nation, the Village Voice and several anthologies on recent social movements. Andrew is also the author of The Activist Cookbook, a source book on creative direct action, as well as several books of political humor published by W. W. Norton. Andrew is joined by fellow ‘Billionaires” Amanda Hickman and Phillip Smith.

BRANDON JOURDAN (NY Indymedia): Brandon is an independent filmmaker, journalist, and writer. He is co-founder of the North Carolina Independent Media Center and currently works with the NYC Indymedia Video Team on a half-hour weekly television show entitled Blacked-Out Media. He has contributed to Democracy Now!, NOW with Bill Moyers, Free Speech Television, the INN World Report, and to Amnesty International video projects. While in North Carolina, he worked with Academy-Award winning director Barbara Trent on two Empowerment Project documentaries. He has spoken at various universities about the role of independent media and has been a guest on NPR Talk of the Nation.

MURALI VENKATESH: Murali is a former Senior Research Fellow at MIT, affiliated with the Center for Reflective Community Practice in the Department of Urban Studies & Planning. Murali is also Associate Professor and founder-Director of the Community & Information Technology Institute at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. CITI sponsors research and consulting in broadband community network planning, design and implementation. Murali won the ACM Computer Professional of the Year Award in 1998 for his work in the Syracuse community. He is currently working with a team of students to build a low cost wireless network for the North End community of Springfield, MA, a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood.

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MANU PRAKASH (MIT Media Lab): A Master’s student at MIT Media Lab and a Media Lab Asia fellow, Manu is fascinated by the notion of Engineering students in developing countries solving large scale community problems. He is actively involved in designing and building tools for bringing personal fabrication to common people. An alum from IIT-Kanpur (India), Manu co-founded the BRiCS program intended to introduce Robotics in formal/informal school curriculum in India. Manu’s research interests revolve around tools for Micro-system Design.

LINDA PINKOW (WMBR): Linda is a co-host and producer of the WMBR 88.1 FM “No-Censorship” radio program. Operating for over 10 years on one of Boston’s more popular college radio stations, “No-Censorship radio” covers peace and justice issues in an energetic and entertaining way, weaving live interviews and taped events with topical music and political art. They provide a forum for community activists to reach a broader audience and regularly air lectures and interviews with nationally known authors, including Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Helen Caldicott. They feature musicians, songwriters, poets, comedians, and other artists, with a political perspective on the arts.

PETRI DISH, DAVE ARNEY, AHERMA DAILEY (Prometheus Radio): Prometheus Radio Project approaches ‘equal access to the airwaves’ as a human right and promotes low-power FM community broadcasting while opposing corporate media consolidation. While actively lobbying in Washington for The Public’s right to have space on the radio dial, Prometheus also provides training and technical support for communities and organizations building their own radio stations from start to finish. Visit their website: <http://www.prometheusradio.org/>

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks go to Gan Golan, for his vision and leadership, and to the following individuals for making the Human Rights and Technology conference possible:

Maggie AvenerClare DavisDiane E. DavisSusan FrickCeasar MacDowell Piali MukhopadhyayManu PrakashLinda Pinkow (WMBR)Balakrishnan RajagopalFleming RayRichard SamuelsBhuwan SinghSally SusnowitzHelen TangLarry Vale

And, of course, thanks are due to the remarkable trainers, the folks at Ruckus, Prometheus, and Indymedia, for sharing their expertise and talents.

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Appendix A:

Community Radio Workshop Curriculum: Saturday May 1, 2004

Session I: Introduction to Community Radio (10am-11:30am)

Introductions: (10 min) Everyone go around the room and say one sentence about who they are, where they are from, and what they want to learn.

The Vision (30 min) – a participatory, discussion-oriented section where trainers talk about the role of community radio. Ask attendees: How is radio relevant to community empowerment? How is community radio different from commercial radio, college radio, or even pirate radio? [Trainers: Linda Pinkow, Prometheus Radio, and others]

Thinking about Programming (30 Min): Ask attendees: Who are you? Who is your audience? Who else is in your community? Who exists in your community but does not have a voice in popular media? Who should participate in the process of deciding what you put on the air, and how? How should you prioritize programming? Issues: Multi-format programming (foreign language?) Openness and accessibility (is there a grievance process?) Brainstorm: Create a picture of what a full programming schedule for your community might look like? [Trainer: Linda Pinkow]

Basic Systems Overview (30 min) - what pieces of technology are required to make a radio station? Include brief description of each component. [Trainer: Prometheus Radio]

Session IIa: Hands-on Production Training (11:30am-1pm) [Trainers: WMBR production team]

Formulating Questions (30 min) How to conduct an interview, How to formulate a question, How to use the recording equipment. Pick a topic, and then…

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Field Interviewing (30 min) Go do it! Basic Sound Mixing (30 min) Studio tour of WMBR, Mix 1 track sound; 1 track music together

Session IIb: Hands-on Tech Training (11:30am-1pm) [Trainers: Prometheus Radio] LPFM components and systems Antenna Building Frequency Scanning Antenna Tuning Broadcasting

Get a LPFM station running by the end of the day!?Try and broadcast some of our own content on the air? (very empowering) Session III: Building your organization – Problems and Challenges: ‘The Reality Test’ (3:30-5pm) • Pete Tridish - Immokalee Workers, FL - Building up a station from

scratch • Building an audience – use of other media (print, web, postering) to

publish schedules, etc. • Finding Allies – Mayors, Principals, Teachers, etc. • Money – how much we really talkin’ about? Business models? • Legality – AM vs. FM; Pirate vs. Legal; power limits, etc. • Connecting to each other – creating a community of radio people in

the Boston Area

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Appendix B

Community Wireless Mini-Curriculum: Saturday May 1, 2004

Session I: Introduction to Community Radio (10am-11:00am)

The Vision (20 min) – a participatory discussion -oriented section where trainers talk about the role of community-controlled wireless that can play for local communities. Ask attendees: What are the different ways in which wireless can serve your community? [Trainers: Michael Oh, Murali Venkatesh]

Basic Systems Overview (20 min) - what basic pieces make up a wireless network? Brief overview of terminology (base stations, mesh networks, trunking, etc). Include brief description of each component. [Trainers: Michael Oh, Murali Venkatesh]

Basic Design Considerations (20 min) – issues of Scale and scope; designing for community needs, etc. [Trainers: Michael Oh, Murali Venkatesh]

Session II: Hands-on Antenna Building Workshop (11:00am-1pm)

Home-Brew Antennas (30 min): Making ‘cantennas’ from Pringles cans and coffee cans? Because we expect participants from a non-technical background to attend, it would be best to start off with something easy and accessible before getting too technical. Homebrew antennas are not necessarily the most effective option for a real project, but the experience of making them is a powerful way to demystify the technology.Commercial Antennas (30 min): using and building off-the-shelf options – dish systems, etc. [Trainers: Murali Venkatesh, Michael Oh]

Experimental Designs (30min): Home made windowpane glass antennas, etc. [Trainer: Manu Prakash, Media Lab]<Lunch Break> Motorbike Wi-Fi Demo by Tech Superpowers ! (1pm-2pm)

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Session III: Designing for Community Needs / Site Scouting (2pm-5pm)

MIT Field Test: MIT Point-to-Point Test of Wireless Antennas: conducting a basic field test of the various antennas that were built during the antenna building workshops. Perhaps get on a rooftop or two.

Field Trip: On site discussion about designing for community needs, using a field trip to Chinatown’s proposed heritage trail, led by Asian Community Development Corporation. Possible rooftops access, point-to-point demonstration. Bird’s eye view of the eventual deployment area.

Trainers: • Michael Oh, Founder, Tech Superpowers Inc, Newburyopen.net (MIT

Alumnus) • Murali Venkatesh, Syracuse University, North End Wireless Project,

Springfield. MA (former MIT CRCP fellow) • Manu Prakash, The MIT Media Lab

MIT Team: • Bhuwan Singh – Graduate Team Leader – bsingh@mit.edu • Helen Tang – Undergraduate Team member – helenjt@mit.edu • Clare Davis – Undergraduate Team member – cedavis@mit.edu

THE MIT PROGRAM ON

HUMAN RIGHTS & JUSTICE

the mit program on human rights & justiceapril 29 – may 2, 2004

Human Rights and Technology

Conference Report 2004

PSB 05-05-0312