johninnit

Cory Doctorow has a new young-adult novel out, and it’s something that union organisers and communicators very much need to read.

For The Win meshes together the lives of people working in and around MMORPGS, the massively multiplayer online role-playing games which grow in size and value every year. Set about ten minutes into the future, it shows how these virtual worlds have developed virtual economies, with people who work in them, legally and illegally. (more…)

Bang on time to demonstrate why we need a service like UnionBook, comes a scary story on how video network YouTube has joined Facebook in the union-banning hall of shame. Canadian union PSAC were in dispute with Canada Post at the end of last year over sickness benefits, when some grassw00ts activists made a parody Christmas video, portraying Canada Post CEO Moya Green as Dr Seuss’ grizzly skinflint character the Grinch.

Unfortunately I can’t tell you how funny it was, as it’s been deleted. Canada Post were not entirely filled with the seasonal spirit, and quickly complained to YouTube that the video infringed copyright and should be removed. Like any web business with as many potential devastating legal liabilities as it has users, YouTube folded toot sweet and pulled the vid. This, even though Canada Post admitted the copyright they were strangely seeking to uphold was Dr Seuss’ rather than their own. (more…)

UnionBook is a brand new social network, but one specifically for international union activists and supporters.

You probably have accounts already on Facebook, YouTube, flickr and a dozen more, and are wondering why on earth we would need a dedicated service for unions.

Two reasons… (more…)

After my post last night on the enigma that is Labourist (the fan site / attack site / alternative model demo of Derek Draper’s LabourList),  I got a nice and very full comment (at least purporting to come) from the person/people behind the site, taking issue with my cynicism and offering counterpoints to a lot of what I’d said. I started writing a reply but it go so long, I thought I’d stick it here instead…

Thanks for the considered reply. You’ll forgive me for remaining sceptical of your honest intentions for a while yet though. As you won’t tell me who you are, I have to go on what I can surmise from limited evidence – which doesn’t yet give me cause to believe you. There are six main stumbling blocks for me: (more…)

Last week was a cheery one for Labour techies, with Derek Draper starting up what I think is going to be a very useful part of the jigsaw for the left blogohemisphere in the UK, LabourList.org. So enthused was the party by this project that none other than Lord (né Peter) Mandelson threw caution to the wind and set off exploring Second Life.

Well, one week on and the project’s had a bit of a double pwnage from political opponents. The Daily Mail pranked Mandelson’s virtual life by making a clone avatar and hanging about SL, behaving inappropriately. They missed the more interesting points of SL by a couple of virtual miles, but then I guess nobody ever read the Mail for sci/tech (or much beyond hell-in-a-handcart whingefests and cringeworthy reader offers).

More interesting is the treatment LabourList itself has received. A shady bunch of activists have set up a duplicate at the similarly titled Labourist.org. It’s posing as a principled objection, but I think is more likely a neat spoiler. (more…)

I’ve put my fiver in to the Atheist Bus Campaign, and am looking forward to the idea of a ‘bright’ start to my working day, riding one of the few London buses that doesn’t have religious advertising on it. (more…)

At Congress 2008 in Brighton, which is turning out as interesting as ever – spending a week in the company of pretty much every element of the UK labour movement.

I spoke at a fringe today on online organising, along with Eric Lee and  APT’s Paul Smith. For the 99.995% of trade unionists who didn’t make it along, here’s part of what I had to say – my 4 predictions on how unions (or at any rate unionists) will be using Web 2.0 in the next couple of years: (more…)

For me, one of the most interesting things about the screenwriters’ dispute in the States (click here to support it!), is the use that individual Writers’ Guild members have been making of online video to contribute to the overall campaign. Here are a few of them (hat tip: James). (more…)

Geek amusement of the day comes from Tom Watson and Chris Paul, who are gloating to various degrees over the Facebook humbling of South Manchester MP/Councillor John Leech, after it was exposed that his Labour rival for the seat, Lucy Powell, had 124 times his number of friends. Politeness (and a keen awareness that I don’t have too many facepals myself) keeps me from mentioning the exact size of Mr Leech’s online entourage – you’ll have to click. (more…)

We in TIGMOO love our folk art. Enamel badges and glorious banners are a kind of comfort to unionists – showing us our place alongside the millions who’ve taken that route before.

As unions merge or modernise though, the painted banners of old, with the quasi-heraldic panels showing members’ trades, union heroes and famous incidents are giving way to large, bold logo prints and slogans (though to be fair I guess it’s also as some of them are now precious antiques that we need to preserve a bit better than hoicking them around Clerkenwell in the rain). (more…)