open software

Introducing Proveit, a new free open-source referencing tool for Wikipedia

Just a quick post to announce that Kurt Luther and his social computing crew at Georgia Tech have released Proveit, an amazing little open-source tool that allows you to find, edit, add, and cite references in Wikipedia articles! Proveit is designed specifically for Wikipedians, so all you need is a Wikipedia account. You install it once, and each time you log in – from any computer – there it is. Better than Zotero, from this point of view 😉 Plus, it works with virtually any browser, from Firefox to Chrome, from Safari to Opera. It is even said to work with Explorer – although admittedly this hardly is a plus.

Anyway, that’s how it looks on screen, and if you wanna try the live demo, click here. If you are an OSS developer, there’s a Google Code project at http://code.google.com/p/proveit-js. And if you just want to send Kurt Luther and his team a little feedback, notes of appreciation, or sheer flattery – they are all welcome at this email address.

—a

Korean documentary film highlights the role of social media in promoting street protests

So you miss some old-school political action. Like, you want corrupt politicians in some faraway country and students protesting in the street. Also, you dig the new futility-ridden Internet political thang. Like, you want to see badass flash mobs and a bunch of socially networked kids that just click their way through a better world.

Then you will love Shall we protest?, the documentary film about the Chotbul (“candlelight”) political rallies that paralysed the city of Seoul from May to August 2008. Written, directed and produced by South Korean mediactivists Sungmi Cho and Dongwon Jo, the film explains with great insight and passion how a small online forum of fashion victims called the SoulDresser managed to bring 1 million citizens in the streets to protest against the South Korea/US FTA (free trade agreements).

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