How To Remain Connected If Your Internet Gets Shut Off

HOW TO COMMUNICATE IF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN THE INTERNET USA :: Freedom and Liberty :: Print this ArticleHOW TO COMMUNICATE IF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN THE INTERNET02-07-2011 9:48 pm - Wallace Scenario: Your government is displeased with the communication going on in your location and pulls the plug on your internet access, most likely by telling the major ISPs to turn off service. This is what happened in Egypt Jan. 25 prompted by citizen protests, with sources estimating that the Egyptian government cut off approximately 88 percent of the country's internet access. NOTE: If you have advice to add, please log in and Aadd your comments. Print out your contact list, so your phone numbers aren’t stuck in the cloud. CB Radio: Short for "Citizens Band" radio, these two-way radios allow communication over short distances on 40 channels. Ham radio: To converse over these radios, also known as "amateur radios," you have to obtain an operator's license from the FCC. Packet Radio Back to the '90s: There do exist shortwave packet-radio modems.

Surveillance Self-Defense International Published July 2009; revised June 2010. 6 Ideas For Those Needing Defensive Technology to Protect Free Speech from Authoritarian Regimes and 4 Ways the Rest of Us Can Help Peter Eckersley, pde@eff.org Introduction: The Internet remains one of the most powerful means ever created to give voice to repressed people around the world. Unfortunately, new technologies have also given authoritarian regimes new means to identify and retaliate against those who speak out despite censorship and surveillance. Below are six basic ideas for those attempting to speak without falling victim to authoritarian surveillance and censorship, and four ideas for the rest of us who want to help support them. I. 1. Tor Bridges are a more discreet way to connect to the Tor network. If you use Tor and live in a country with a strong tradition of Internet censorship, your government might suddenly start blocking connections to the public Tor network. II. 1.

How To Set Up An Open Mesh Network in Your Neighborhood Mesh networks can share web connections throughout a neighborhood, spreading the reach of a broadband connection. They're an excellent way to improve a community’s web access, and could also serve a role in the infrastructure for the Next Net that Douglas Rushkoff envisions. Open Mesh is a company that offers mesh network solutions for businesses and communities. They provided Shareable with this guide to how to set up a mesh network in your own neighborhood. It is now easy for anyone to extend their wireless coverage throughout a hotel, apartment, office, neighborhood, village, coffee shop, shopping mall, campground, marina or just about anywhere else you need to extend wireless coverage. The magic that makes this work is the Open-Mesh mini routers (as small as the size of a pack of cards) that can spread a single internet connection across multiple rooms. Some basic terminology: Network: A group of computers that can talk to each other – in our case, wirelessly. Gateway: Repeater: Node:

Human Rights Video, Privacy and Visual Anonymity in the Facebook Age : Video For Change :: A WITNESS blog The successful nationwide organizing and subsequent protests in Egypt to oust the 30-year regime of President Hosni Mubarak have in part been facilitated by Facebook. But as media and technology commentators and human rights activists alike are noting, using Facebook for activism is fraught with risks. Facebook’s insistence that its users use their ‘real identity’ when signing up – and deleting accounts and groups that do no comply – makes it difficult for human rights activists needing to work anonymously or pseudonymously. The risks that affect activists using Facebook have their counterparts in video too. Some of the most notable and publicized examples include the Saffron Revolution in Burma, when intelligence agents scrutinized citizen-shot photographs and video footage to identify demonstrators and bystanders. In this post, I highlight some new dilemmas of privacy and anonymity related to the increasing ubiquity of human rights video. 1. 2. 3.

5 minute summary: Data Retention The EU data retention directive aims at enabling the retracing of who contacted whom via telephone, mobile phone or e-mail for a period of 6 to 24 months. In the case of mobile calls or text messages via mobile phone, the user's location is also to be logged. The data that is collected about the entire population allows our movements to be traced, any calls or communications with personal and business contacts to be monitored and removes privacy in our personal relationships. Information regarding the content of communications can be deduced relating to personal interests and the individual life circumstances of the persons communicating. Access to the data is granted to the police, public prosecutors, secret services and foreign states which hope for better prosecution of crimes. Until 2007, telecommunications providers were permitted to retain only data required for billing purposes. What is the problem? We are all suffering from data retention: Current situation Act now:

About « Crabgrass Current Status Crabgrass currently consists of a solid suite of group collaboration tools, such as private wikis, task lists, file repository, and decision making tools. We are currently working on a large user interface overhaul, better social networking tools, blogs, and event calendars, as well as better support for collaboration and decision making among independent groups. Crabgrass is written in Ruby using the Ruby on Rails framework. Why Crabgrass? While social movements have grown more adept at using the web to communicate publicly, we are still mostly using inadequate tools to communicate amongst ourselves. There are many existing social networking websites out there. Most importantly, Crabgrass is software libre. What Crabgrass Does Crabgrass enables social change organizations to get things done, get the word out, collaborate and network. All of these elements are implemented from a social networking perspective. Features Types of content Model organizational structure Coming Soon

Forskningsavdelningen New: Three Reports on Circumvention Tool Usage, International Bloggers, and Internet Control August 18, 2011 The Berkman Center is pleased to release three new publications as part of our circumvention project. Over the past two years, the Center has carried out a number of research activities designed to improve our understanding of the knowledge, usage, and effectiveness of circumvention tools as a means to promote access to information online in repressive online environments. The Evolving Landscape of Internet Control by Hal Roberts, Ethan Zuckerman, Rob Faris, Jillian York, and John Palfrey This paper summarizes the results of the studies we have undertaken in order to better understand the control of the Internet in less open societies. Drawing on background research, meetings with tool developers, consultations with experts, interviews with users, structured surveys, and technical evaluations, these publications help improve our overall understanding of the role of circumvention tools in promoting greater Internet openness.

Information Warfare Monitor | Tracking Cyberpower Safely and Securely Producing Media | Small World News Training Guides Safely and Securely Producing Media ENGLISH (9MB) (9MB) العربية This guide is a collection of our best practices and suggestions we’ve made to our colleagues over the last five years. We split up the process of shooting high quality video into three sections, Plan your Story, Record Your Story, and Share Your Story. I’d like to thank Jesse Hambley and Ashley Low for their involvement as graphic designers on this project. We’ve had some great feedback from partners, colleagues and collaborators around the world already. We’re going to reevaluate the guide in the coming months as we continue to hear about feedback and responses from it being used in the field. Update: If you’re based in the United States, we advise you to be aware of the Surveillance Self-Defense site put together by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Safely using SatPhones ENGLISH (1MB) (1MB) العربية Satellite communications bring a specific series of risks, depending on your use-case. License

THN : The Hackers News For Bloggers at Risk: Creating a Contingency Plan In 2011, we have witnessed the incredible power of bloggers and social media users capturing the world’s attention through their activism. At the same time, regimes appear to be quickening the pace of their cat-and-mouse game with netizens, cracking down on speech through the use of surveillance, censorship, and the persecution and detention of bloggers. The increasingly the tech-savvy Syrian regime has been reported to demand login credentials from detainees, for example, while the use of torture in some of the region’s prisons continues.Aware of the threats to their safety, bloggers often devise contingency plans in the event they are detained. Assessing individual risk is neither easy nor straightforward. If you are arrested or detained: Is there a trusted person(s) that you would like to authorize to make major decisions on your behalf--such as whether to conduct a public campaign? This post was co-authored by EFF and Global Voices Advocacy, with special thanks to Zeynep Tufekci.

Cute cat theory of digital activism Ethan Zuckerman Lolcat images are often shared through the same networks used by online activists. The Internet and censorship[edit] Zuckerman states that "Web 1.0 was invented to allow physicists to share research papers. Web 2.0 was created to allow people to share pictures of cute cats If the government chooses to shut down such generic tools, it will hurt people's ability to "look at cute cats online", spreading dissent and encouraging the activists' cause.[2][3] Chinese model[edit] According to Zuckerman, internet censorship in the People's Republic of China, which relies on its own, self-censored, Web 2.0 sites, is able to circumvent the cute-cat problem because the government is able to provide people with access to cute-cat content on domestic, self-censored sites while blocking access to Western sites, which are less popular in China than in many other places worldwide.[3][4] "Sufficiently usable read/write platforms will attract porn and activists. See also[edit] References[edit]