As follow up to my last post, I'd like to pass along some links to photos of the Republican National Convention protests in St. Paul, MN, USA. Most of the march was quite peaceful, but several groups of anarchist/vandals did incite some violence, which unfortunately overshadowed the nonviolent message that most people carried that day.

Philippe's recent post on video ("so the whole world can watch")
reminded me of a new piece of free cell phone software that allows most
phones with built-in video cameras to stream the footage live, over the
web.

There may be other similar tools, but the one I'm familiar with is Qik. I highly recommend visiting their web site to see some sample live videos and learn how the service works.

Obviously, tools like this are beginning to radically change citizen
journalism efforts, as it allows anyone to stream content live, through
a stable website that anyone can visit...

The St. Paul Pioneer Press, the daily newspaper of St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, today published an article about how the Republican National Convention (to be held in St. Paul this year) is using social media (such as Twitter and Digg)
to engage constituents. This isn't that groundbreaking, since political
parties have been using social media for some time, but it does reflect
the growing importance and mainstream appeal of these tools,
particularly as a way to engage young people.

Are policital parties in other countries using innnovative online tactics to engage citizens? Let me know...

I just heard about an emerging news entity that the HR community would certainly find interesting. Paul Stieger, fomer managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, is launching ProPublica, which will soon be a major nonprofit investigative news outlet. Expect coverage to begin in early 2008.

From the site:

Just saw this link about a Tibetan activist who was recently arrested in Bejing for blogging and vlogging (video blogging) about the Chinese government. I hope she's ok.

Another great BoingBoing story about some Pakistani bloggers who covered a high-profile standoff between police and the leader of a radical faction. Apparently, the bloggers were able to cover the event in real-time, before the mainstream media (newspapers, etc.) knew what was going on...