"Armed with curiosity, determination, and a library book he discovered in a nearby library, he embarked on a daring plan—to build a windmill that could bring his family the electricity only two percent of Malawians could afford. Using scrap metal, tractor parts, and blue-gum trees, William forged a crude yet working windmill, an unlikely hand-built contraption that would successfully power four light bulbs and two radios in his family’s compound."

The Humanitarian FOSS Project is a collaborative, community-building project that was started by a group of computing faculty and open source proponents at Trinity College, Wesleyan University, and Connecticut College. Our goal is to build a community of academic computing departments, IT corporations, and local and global humanitarian and community organizations dedicated to building and using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to benefit humanity.

What do we need to do to start up local chapters at each of our institutions?

The marketing value we're going to miss is astronomical. The world's press will show up and not have much to do. They'll cover the opening, a few bits and pieces in between and the signing [hopefully] of the important document at the end.

Having just 5,000 bicycles lined up outside the conference centre would not only be a photo opportunity, it would be a most powerful image and lingering symbol of sustainability.

"Do as we do. Ride a bicycle. Make a difference."

In this collection of essays, May First/People Link techie-organizers explore this remarkable social movement.

• analyzing its growth and character as an expression of humanity's resistance and resilience;
• offering an analysis of how it impacts the progressive movement and how we should impact it;
• taking up Internet issues like access, race and gender, threats to the Internet's independence and freedom, free and open source software, spam, email, security and privacy, dns and other Internet protocols;
• and suggesting strategies for the use, protection and expansion of the Internet's technology.

It's a must-read for every progressive activist who participates in the Internet and a good starting point for the movement-wide discussion that has become essential.

I want to push back against our utopian habits because I think that they're doing us a disservice. Technology does not determine practice. How people embrace technology has less to do with the technology itself than with the social setting in which they are embedded. Those who are immersed in a techno-savvy, technophilic community are far more likely to embrace technology than those whose social world is shaped by other patterns of consumption and communication. People's practices are also shaped by those around them. There are cluster effects to socio-technical engagement. In other words, people do what their friends do.