Movement / Media Research Action Project

Between July 29 and August 4, several major social science associations are holding their annual meetings in Boston. We list them in chronological order:

Association  of Black Sociologists Conference
Colonnade Hotel,  Boston, Massachusetts, July 29 – August 1, 2008
Conference Theme: “Challenging Hierarchies: Nation, Race, Class, Sexuality and Gender”

Human Rights: Ideas & Action Conference
July 31, 2008, Boston Public Library & Old South Church, 9:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Sponsors:  Mass Global Action, Mass-Care, Open Media Boston, Bikes not Bombs, Boston College Department of Sociology, Boston College Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Sociologists without Borders, Society for the Study of Social Problems, and Massachusetts Jobs with Justice.
Contact: info [at] bostonhumanrights [dot] org

Crossing Borders: Activist Scholarship, Globalization & Social Justice
SSSP Society for Study of Social Problems, Annual Convention
July 31-Aug 2nd Park Plaza Hotel and Towers, 64 Arlington St. Boston

Joint conference: Black Sociologists, Asian, Labor, Latino sections of American Sociological Association
Northeastern University in Boston,  Friday Aug 1 and Sat Aug 2nd.
Theme:   Race, Labor and Empire
A central goal of this mini-conference is to bring together academics and activists interested in
the intersection of race, labor and empire.  We hope to stimulate discussion, research and policy
development with the aim of producing a more sustainable and just labor movement.”

Worlds of Work: American Sociological Association convention
Friday August 1 through Monday August 4th
Sheraton Boston,  Hilton Back Bay, Marriott Copley Place , Hynes Convention Ctr.
Theme:  The interconnections of work—broadly conceived—and society.
The program especially seeks to demonstrate social science research’s relevance for public policy and for efforts to address social inequities and inequalities through activism around work-related issues—such as transnational labor movements, union-based movements, and community organizing with  emphasis on public sociology.

Critical Sociology Conference
Sunday, August 3rd.
Power and Resistance:  Critical Reflections, Possible Futures
Boston Park Plaza Hotel and Towers.  Full program and papers.

Most users wouldn’t think of allowing Apple to dictate which applications they could or could not run on their iMac or MacBook, so why would they give Apple so much power over their iPhone or iPod? The “electronic hand” of the free marketplace allows users to sort out which applications are worth installing and using, and which should be trashed. There is no need for either Steve Jobs or Steve Ballmer to play the roll of benevolent dictator and certify applications before users can install them. The developer community and users must be careful here. If they allow Apple’s model for software distribution to become the new standard, it will be at the cost of innovation and users’ freedom to chose.

Read my full article on openmediaboston.org.

So Apple updated to iPhone firmware 2.0 and has opened the app store. There are lots of great apps similar to those that owners of jailbroken iPhones with Installer have been enjoying for months. The big difference with Apple’s official app store is now many big developers (like WordPress) are creating iPhone apps. Small developers, too, can submit apps and make dome money on them. The downside is Apple has total control over the store; if they don’t like your app for whatever reason (like if it competes with their business model), they can refuse to publish it or yank it at any time. Very different from Google’s Android model…

Expect an openmediaboston.org story from me soon on this topic.

I just read through the upgrade process and moved to WordPress 2.6. We’ve been getting what look like spam user registrations, all from the gmail.com domain, so hopefully this upgrade will help curb those. I’ll likely comb through the WordPress plugins page to see if I can find a CAPTCHA plugin that’s worth installing

Having a blog on the MRAP site will provide a space for frequent updates by many MRAP members. It’s easy to use and quite extensible. For now, though, it’s time to get skinning.