Everyone wants a bit of Obama at the moment, and the contractors behind his fantastic online campaign network, Blue State Digital, are very much flavour of the IT month. Come and listen to BSD’s Matthew McGreggor on how he/they did it, and what it might mean for unions at an evening event in London this month, and as a bonus you can also catch me, bringing up the foot of the bill. (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…)
I’m not a Unite Amicus member, so haven’t been following the current General Secretary election particularly closely, but I was interested to notice today that it seems to be the first union election where all the candidates have properly interactive online tools to promote their campaigns (last year’s NUJ DGS election nearly got there, but given it’s the new media union you’d expect them to).
This is interesting though, as it means all the candidates are potentially opening themselves (or at least their campaigns) up to comments and contact direct from members. (more…)
Gov2.0 advocate Steph Gray is trying to find out how many work computer users in the UK have access to social media blocked for personal or professional use. It’s a widespread issue, thanks to the concern of many employers at the Facebook work-crack media hype of the last two years.
Some employers block social networking because they’re scared of digital nasties in the network if they let their staff use internet resources that are reputedly riddled with viruses and phishers. Some block rich media because they worry they’ll need a mortgage for the bandwidth once their staff hear about YouTube. Some over-block by accident because they bought an out-of-the-box filter that they don’t know how to tweak, and that gets in the way almost as much as it helps.
Some of them though block social media where they can’t see a work relevance, because they don’t trust their staff to use this responsibly, and think they’ll do the digital equivalent of window gazing all day if you let them. (more…)
Encouraging noises in the US that the two union federations who split in 2005 may be starting to consider reunification, to make the most of the potential for change the new administration is bringing with it. Grassroots site Labor Notes is running a slightly irreverent contest to name the possible merger.
AFL-CIO-CTW was a bit of a mouthful, so I looked at anagrams. Acct If Low wasn’t bad advice for kicking off the mother of all organising drives, and If Two Calc or Wilco Fact, displayed a recognition of the logic behind a merger. All better than Waft Colic anyways, and we’ll leave I Acct Fowl and I Cowl Fact to Richard Berman. (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…)
Peter Wilby, New Statesman 21 Feb 2008:
“So can we revive workplace democracy? Compass, the democratic-left pressure group, thinks we can and must. In a pamphlet to be published shortly …Â it argues that it is “unacceptable” that “we can be masters of our destiny in all aspects of our lives except in terms of our relationship with our employers”. I would go further: under a government that argues we must all find redemption through work, it is preposterous…”
All very reasonable stuff that you’d expect to read in the New Statesman. But what’s this in Press Gazette 12 Jan 2009?
“the NUJ today criticised New Statesman for failing to recognise the union â despite being formed in 1913 âwith the aim of permeating the educated and influential classes with socialist ideasâ, and being part-owned by Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson. (more…)
Spotted at the lights in Stratford. And there was me thinking that Brendan Barber got around the Congestion Charge by driving a trendy hybrid rather than having to pray to Boris to keep a monster SUV. Surely no-one else would want the plate “Me TUC” though?
