关于切实做好党的十七大期间信息安全工作的通知

转自：鹤山市档案局网站

鹤山市信息产业局文件

鹤信字〔2007〕18号

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

关于切实做好党的十七大期间信息安全工作的通知

各镇、各有关部门：

为迎接党的十七大的召开，切实做好我市在十七大期间的信息安全工作，为宣传十七大精神创造安全良好的信息环境，根据上级的有关文件精神，结合我市的实际，特通知如下：

一、10月14日前，各镇、各有关部门要对相关网站的信息进行重点排查，落实专人负责，对网上的不良信息要快速删除，确保信息没有违反国家命令禁止及违反社会公德的内容，切实把好网上信息传播的关口。

二、10月15日——10月30日，各镇、各有关部门要加强相关网站的信息安全工作的检查监控工作，对发布的信息实行“先审核，后发布”制度，要及时发现和防止网上有害信息的传播，对网上不良信息要采取巡查、过滤、拦截、删除等措施；对于网站的互动栏目（论坛、留言板、博客等）要实行24小时值班制度，不能实行值班制度的栏目要进行关闭处理；要实行情况报告制度，若发现出现有害、反动的信息要及时报市信息产业局。

三、十七大结束至春节前，各镇、各有关部门要继续加强信息安全的管理，做好十七大的主题宣传，密切做好互动栏目的监督管理工作，及时制止恶意炒作新闻。

鹤山市信息产业局

二00七年十月十一日

（联系人：李若翀，联系电话：8871575，13828022094）

中国加强对网络视频的控制

原文：美联社 编译：小编 转自：一五一十部落

作者：美联社

北京（美联社）--中国将在本周四实行新的措施来控制网络，新规定指出只有国有独资或国有控股公司才能播出网络视频。但是由于担心这将损害这个正在快速发展的行业，很多人期望监管部门能给私营者留下一定的经营余地。

新的规定除了为了促进商业和教育发展，其主要目标是为扩大审查系统来对互联网传播进行内容审查。中共领导尤其担心在八月的北京奥运会之前网络上出现一些影响不好的视频。

总部位于北京的电信研究咨询公司BDA China 董事长Duncan Clark称，“视频的政治内容好像才是首要考虑的问题”。

令人惊讶的新规定出台于生效前四周的12月29日，这次的举动很可能是为夏季奥运会作出的一项控制网络内容的紧急预案。

网络视频在中国非常流行。目前中国有2.1亿网民，预期今年将会超越美国成为世界上网络用户最多的国家。

像土豆网（Tudou.com）、我乐网（56.com）、优酷网（Youku.com）这样的网络视频网站，称其每天有1亿人次的访问量，这个数字能与中国最大的国有电视频道匹敌。有些视频提供完整的电视节目，但是很多比较热门的视频都是业余爱好者自己制作的。这些网络视频网站已经从投资者那里赚了数千万美金。

易观国际(Analysys International)总裁于扬(Edward Yu)说：“网络视频日益成为一个相当大的的媒体平台，他们试图把传统电视观众吸引过来，并让他们自己上传自己做的视频。”

中国实行世界上范围最大的网络监控，审查系统，对于博客及其他网络热潮也制定了一系列规定来监管。监视人员要监控网页、公告栏，删除带有颠覆性意图的内容。

但是网络视频的迅速发展让监管者吃惊，这也可能导致了异乎寻常严格的规定出台—只允许国有独资或国有控股公司才能播出网络视频或者进行流媒体播放。

译文有删减

原文

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-China-Online-Video.html?scp=3&sq=China&st=nyt

ARTICLE 19 calls on authorities to lift ongoing suspension of website

来源：ARTICLE 19 转自：IFEX

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) - The following is a 29 January 2008 ARTICLE 19 press release:

Kazakhstan: Censorship of Independent Websites

ARTICLE 19 is deeply concerned about the selective application of Internet regulations and the suspension of major independent websites in Kazakhstan.

On 18 October 2007 the authorities in Kazakhstan blocked four independent websites which published links to audio files containing politically sensitive telephone conversations alleged to feature senior government officials. In the files the speakers use strong language to discuss Rakhat Aliyev, a former ally of President Nursultan Nazarbayev who now lives in exile in Europe.

One of the blocked sites, kub.kz, is hosted outside Kazakhstan. It was subsequently suspended by the official website regulator, the Kazakhstan Network Information Center (KazNIC), under the "Regulation for the Allocation of Domain Space in the Kazakhstan Segment of the Internet" which prohibits sites with the .kz domain from being hosted abroad. However, the KazNIC website itself ( http://nic.kz ) is hosted in the USA, suggesting the selective targeting of specific websites. No prior notice or warning was sent to the websites to enable them to address the alleged irregularities.

As of 29 January the site kub.kz remains suspended. The audio files and transcriptions thereof are freely available on other sites.

This regulation goes contrary to the very nature of the Internet itself as is a global network of communication. Kazakhstan is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to freedom of expression, and as such is legally bound not to introduce any regulation or act in a manner that is contrary to the ICCPR's purpose and spirit. Furthermore, Kazakhstan's Constitution and a number of other international agreements also impose upon it a duty to protect and respect freedom of expression and information, which inter alia includes protection of Internet content and its infrastructure from technical or other undue interferences. Freedom of expression also includes the right to criticise public officials, who are further expected to display a greater degree of tolerance to criticism than citizens.

The Internet is an extremely important medium of communication and expression. Under international human rights law on the right to freedom of expression, any restrictions on access to the Internet must be very carefully scrutinised: any such measures should be provided by law, pursue a legitimate aim (e.g. the protection of the rights or reputation of others) and be necessary (rather than simply "useful" or "appropriate") in a democratic society. Outright restrictions on access to the Internet, such as the blocking of access to particular independent websites, do not fulfill this test and are therefore unjustifiable obstacles to the realisation of the right to free expression.

ARTICLE 19 calls on the Kazakhstan authorities to allow kub.kz, and the Internet generally, to operate free from interference, subject to the very narrow exceptions envisaged by international human rights law.

ARTICLE 19 is an independent human rights organisation that works globally to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees free speech.

MORE INFORMATION:

For further information, contact Chris Burnett, Programme Officer, tel: +44 20 7278 1195, e-mail: chris@article19.org; or ARTICLE 19, 6-8 Amwell Street, London, EC1R 1UQ, U.K., tel: +44 20 7278 9292, fax: +44 20 7278 7660, e-mail: info@article19.org, Internet: http://www.article19.org

Blogger arrested as regime steps up online surveillance

来源：Reporters Without Borders， Burma Media Association

Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association firmly condemn the arrest of blogger and writer Nay Myo Latt yesterday at his home in the Rangoon district of Thingankyun.

“This hounding of bloggers is unacceptable,” the two organisations said. “We do not know where Nay Bone Latt is being held. We urge the authorities to release him and to stop this persecution.”

A member of the outlawed National League for Democracy, Nay Myo Latt uses his blog (http://www.nayphonelatt.net/) to record the difficulties encountered by young Burmese when trying to express themselves, especially since last autumn’s protests against the military regime that were led by Buddhist monks. He also owns three Internet Cafés in Burma and one of them is located in Thingankyun.

Those arrested during the protests included blogger Thar Phyu (www.mogokemedia.blogspot.com), who was held for several hours just for posting photos of monks and demonstrators in the streets. His website has been closed.

The Burmese authorities have stepped up their surveillance of the Internet since the start of January, reportedly pressuring Internet café owners to register the personal details (name, address and so on) of all users and to programme (and save) screen captures every five minutes on each computer. All this data is apparently then sent to the communication ministry.

The Burmese exile news agency Mizzima quoted one Internet café owner as saying: “No one wants to submit to these measures but those who are most scared definitely will have complied.”

The only blog platform that until recently had still been accessible within Burma, the Google-owned Blogger (http://www.blogger.com), has been censured by the regime since 23 January. Bloggers are no longer able to post entries unless they use proxies are other ways to circumvent censorship.

“This blockage is one of the ways used by the government to reduce Burmese citizens to silence,” Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association said. “They can no long post blog entries or disseminate information. Burma is in danger of being cut off from the rest of the world again.”

When contacted by Mizzima reporters, local officials had no explanation for Blogger’s inaccessibility, saying they had received no orders on the subject. Local bloggers say the authorities also leave comments on blogs to dissuade other Internet users from reading them, or sometimes redirect them to other sites. Visitors to Niknayman (http://niknayman.blogspot.com/), one of the most popular sites last autumn, were redirected to a porn site.

Burmese Regime Strikes at Bloggers

作者：Shah Paung 来源：Irrawaddy

By Shah Paung
January 30, 2008

Burmese authorities have arrested one of the country’s best known bloggers, the owner of three Internet cafes in Rangoon, according to sources in the former capital.

The arrested blogger was identified as Nay Myo Latt by a source who knows him well. The source said Nay Myo Latt, also known as Nay Phone Latt, was arrested at his home in Rangoon’s Thingangyun Township of Rangoon.

Nay Myo Latt, a youth member of the opposition National League for Democracy, owns the Explorer Internet café in Rangoon’s Papedan Township, the Heaven Internet café in Thingangyun Township and a third in the same suburb.

An NLD youth member who is a friend of Nay Myo Latt said the arrested blogger had been under observation by the authorities since returning from a stay in Singapore one year ago.

On his Website, www.nayphonelatt.blogspot.com, Nay Myo Latt says he is interested in art and music. But his friend said he was probably arrested because of political content on the site.

Burmese authorities have become increasingly nervous about the activities of the country’s many Internet bloggers since the September 2007 demonstrations, when blog sites were a major source of information about the protests and the regime’s brutal crackdown.

The first blog site to carry pictures of the demonstrations, http://moezack.blogspot.com, was closed down, and a blogger in Mogok Township, central Burma, was warned about the content on his site, www.mogokmedia.blogspot.com.

The authorities have tried to break contacts between Burmese bloggers and the outside world by blocking the Web site www.blogger.com and by slowing down Internet transmission speeds.

Sabotage is another regime method to disrupt bloggers’ activities. The Niknayman blog site was infiltrated by saboteurs who added insults and pornographic material to its content.

Burmese bloggers hide from police

作者：Nem Davies 来源：Mizzima News

Nem Davies
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
January 29, 2008

Apprehensive of the relentless crackdown by the Burmese military junta, several Burmese bloggers in Rangoon have gone into hiding. The scare follows the arrest of a Burmese blogger, Nay Phone Latt, earlier in the day.

Burmese bloggers in the former capital are alarmed and have been forced to go underground in fear of the authorities taking action against them. Nay Phone Latt (Nay Bone Latt), a blogger as well as a writer, was arrested from an internet cafe in Thingan Kyun Township.

A blogger, who requested anonymity in fear of reprisals, said, "At the moment we [bloggers] are fleeing in the wake of the arrest of Ko Nay Phone Latt."

Nay Phone Latt has a blog site www.nayphonelatt.blogspot.com, where he posted writings about expressions of the youth in Burma.

Another blogger said he believes the authorities have targeted bloggers and confirmed that fellow bloggers are on the run in fear of arrests.

Internet users in Rangoon said, over a few weeks ago, authorities have stepped up surveillance of internet users and asked internet café owners to maintain strict records of users.

Blogging, which is popular among Burmese youth, has become a dangerous pastime in the country. The authority's stranglehold over information flow remains as tight as ever and there is zero tolerance over any critical writing.

During the September protests, a Burmese blogger Thar Phyu, who has a blogsite www.mogokemedia.blogspot.com, was arrested and briefly detained for posting pictures of monks and people demonstrating on the streets.

Meanwhile, authorities have shifted poet Saya Saw Wai, who was arrested last week for writing a Valentines' day poem that contains a hidden word – 'Power Crazy Than Shwe', – to the notorious Insein prison on Saturday, family members said.

Blogger arrested by police: Friends

来源：Mizzima News

Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
January 29, 2008

Chiang Mai, Thailand – Police in the former capital of Burma on Tuesday detained a dissident blogger.

Nay Phone Latt (Nay Bone Latt), a writer was picked up by police at a Rangoon internet café, friends told Mizzima. The reason for his detention is not yet clear.

In addition to being a blogger, Nay Phone Latt works for a private business company.

"I am a youth who is crazy about the arts", he wrote as a self introduction in one of his blogs.

Police searched houses in Thingyankyun and Thuwanna, where he used to live, this morning at about 10:00 a.m., according to a friend.

The blogger's aunt's residence was also raided by police.

Internet users in Burma told Mizzima that over the last few weeks authorities have increasingly monitored online activities.

Where Citizen Journalism Will Go in 2008? -- Predictions

作者：Rachel Sterne 来源：NewAssignment.Net

If 2007 was the year citizen journalism proved its staying power, 2008 will be the year it evolves. The landscape now is promising, but homogeneous. From Newsvine and NowPublic to Orato and Digital Journal, one finds much of the same: proprietary content submission tools, community ratings, and some revenue share here and there. How these players break out of the pack in the coming year will determine everything.

Below, predictions on what to expect from citizen journalism in 2008, and the industry precedents behind them.

(Disclosure: I founded citizen journalism platform GroundReport.com)

What citizen journalism can learn from Open Source: Get organized.

Open Source software development and citizen journalism have a lot in common: both rely on people working for free, motivated by a sense of collective accomplishment and personal recognition. In Open Source, the product is a little more fragile, the process more linear: make a mistake in code and you inconvenience thousands and potentially destroy a tool. The solution? Build in a hierarchical accountability system with focused groups, oversight and administration.

It’s time for citizen journalism to do the same and stop relying on isolated reporters. It may not be easy to build a multilevel system of editorial and administrative controls, but the result will have greater value. NewAssignment has put a lot of thought into the concept already, dubbing it ‘networked reporting’, and GroundReport.com recently launched Groups, a collaborative publishing tool that lets people report news in a more dynamic, social format.

What citizen journalism can learn from traditional media: Look at developing markets.

At the Media & Money conference sponsored by Nielson and Dow Jones last year, investors and media leaders espoused the benefits of expanding their traditional media into emerging markets in Eastern Europe. Likewise, it’s a massive mistake to assume citizen journalism’s stronghold is the US & Europe. As I mentioned in my 2007 recap, it’s much bigger than us. Case in point: India, quickly gaining in internet penetration, already has a citizen journalism-themed award competition and reality TV series.

Developing markets often have more controlled media—sometimes even state-controlled—and the internet offers a welcome bounty of freely flowing information and thought.

What citizen journalism can learn from Web 2.0: Video, video, video.

This is a no-brainer, but it’s important not to oversimplify. Internet traffic in the US is rapidly turning to video—Hitwise states that media & news took a hit in 2006 as people flocked to video and multimedia content. As of yet, no one has emerged as the leader in citizen journalism video—this will change in 2008. Going with the semantic web theme, citizen journalism video can’t be a big content dumping ground like YouTube. It will need to be focused, filtered and presented in a useful, accessible format if it’s to have any value.

What citizen journalism can learn from the blogosphere: It’s lonely at the top (in a good way).

New York magazine lit the blogosphere a flame in 2006 with the thesis that online there are just a handful of massively successful kingmaker-caliber blogs—see Gawker, DrudgeReport and Huffington Post. The remaining blogs grovel at the feet of these giants, scrounging for links that can make or break their numbers. The same bifurcation is happening in citizen journalism platforms, and will only become more intense. At the top of the heap are Newsvine and NowPublic, with respectable efforts by Orato, Digital Journal and Broowaha at the opposite end of the spectrum. Incidentally, the quality and consistency of content from these smaller outfits are much better—perhaps they can band together through a content share to take on the big guys.

What citizen journalism can learn from Google: separate the wheat from the chaff.

Citizen journalism helps information flow more freely—an exciting idea, but a useless one if that information isn’t categorized, tagged, filtered, rated or organized in a way that makes it valuable and compelling. This challenge plagues all of the internet, not just Google, but the search behemoth has been the most successful in solving the problem. Citizen journalism knows that you can find great stuff when you help people share their stories, images and videos with an audience—now we need to find a better way to recognize the best work and present it front-and-center to the skeptical masses.

Let the evolution begin!

Broad-based U.S. push to tighten Internet monitoring

作者：David Montero 来源：csmonitor.com

The White House has moved this month to beef up its capacity to tap phones and police the Internet. But those expanded powers are heating up a long-running debate on security versus privacy.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday:

"President Bush signed a directive this month that expands the intelligence community's role in monitoring Internet traffic to protect against a rising number of attacks on federal agencies' computer systems.

The directive, whose content is classified, authorizes the intelligence agencies, in particular the National Security Agency, to monitor the computer networks of all federal agencies -- including ones they have not previously monitored.

Until now, the government's efforts to protect itself from cyber-attacks -- which run the gamut from hackers to organized crime to foreign governments trying to steal sensitive data -- have been piecemeal. Under the new initiative, a task force headed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) will coordinate efforts to identify the source of cyber-attacks against government computer systems."

The new directive is part of a wider push by the US intelligence community to monitor the Internet, says Wired Magazine's blog "Threat Level," which follows security and privacy issues.

"The nation's top spy, Michael McConnell, thinks the threat of cyberarmageddon ... is so great that the U.S. government should have unfettered and warrantless access to U.S. citizens' Google search histories, private e-mails and file transfers, in order to spot the cyberterrorists in our midst.

…[I]n May 2007 McConnell convinced President Bush that a massive cyber-attack on a [single] U.S. bank would be worse for the economy than the deadly terrorist attacks of September 11, [a Jan. 21 article in The New Yorker] reports."

Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that the administration has advanced its efforts to boost its wiretapping abilities.

"[The] White House plan to broaden the National Security Agency's wiretapping powers won a key procedural victory in the Senate on Thursday, as backers defeated a more restrictive plan by Senate Democrats that would have imposed more court oversight on government spying.

The vote moves the Bush administration a step closer toward the twin goals it has pursued for months: strengthening the N.S.A.'s ability to eavesdrop without court approval, while securing legal immunity for the phone companies that have helped the agency in its wiretapping operations."

Those efforts may violate, however, an earlier law governing wiretapping, The Washington Post reports.

"At the heart of the controversy is whether the government's wireless surveillance program violated provisions of the original FISA [Foreign Intelligence Security Act] law that requires warrants for wiretaps whenever one of the parties involved in the communication resides in the United States....

The original FISA law requires the government to get permission from a special court to listen in on the phone calls and e-mails of people in the United States. Changes in communications technology mean many purely foreign to foreign communications now pass through the United States and therefore require the government to get court orders to intercept them."

Both the wiretapping and Internet proposals have met stiff public resistance from privacy advocates and Democratic senators, and the debate is likely to balloon, reports The Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" blog.

"Congressional aides tell The Journal that they, too, are also anticipating a fight over civil liberties that will rival the battles over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."

Bruce Schneier writes in Wired Magazine's "Security Matters" blog.

"Security and privacy are not opposite ends of a seesaw; you don't have to accept less of one to get more of the other. Think of a door lock, a burglar alarm and a tall fence. Think of guns, anti-counterfeiting measures on currency and that dumb liquid ban at airports. Security affects privacy only when it's based on identity, and there are limitations to that sort of approach."

Mr. Schneier's blog links to a recent poll by Rasmussen Reports, an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information, indicating that Americans think security is more important than privacy.

"Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans say that Security is more important than privacy. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 29% disagree and say privacy is more important. Twenty percent (20%) are not sure."

Cellphones: The Mobile Frontier for NGOs

作者：KatrinVerclas 来源：MobileActive

We are occasionally commissioned to write introductory articles about the mobile revolution and implications for NGOs for various publications. Here is one broad overview of some areas where mobiles are deployed in civil society.

Cellphones have become the most ubiquitous communication device in the hands of human beings. There are an estimated 3.5 billion mobile phones in use and there is coverage in even remote corners of the world. Cellphones have revolutionized not just the way we work and organize within cultures and societies, but have the potential to change how NGOs (non-governmental organizatios) operate.

Mobile phones are already experimentally used in multiple ways by NGOs. We at MobileActive.org have been tracking how organizations in areas such as health and disease prevention, economic development, humanitarian relief, democratic participation, and advocacy are using mobile phones to make their work more effective and efficient.

Following are a few examples of what we have seen and where we think mobile phones have potential to be used more strategically by NGOs.

One of the areas where cellphones are already used is in microfinance and economic development. In microfinance organizations, trials are underway to transmit payments via mobile and for assessing credit on the spot by field officers. Likewise, mobile phones are used to access send job information to day laborers, and provide weather and agricultural information to farmers.

In fact, a recent study found that the introduction of cellphones in Indian fishing villages with fisherman calling and negotiating prices off the boat with their mobiles, increased their profit by 8% and decreased consumer prices by 4% through greater efficiency. Other studies indicate that a reduction in excise taxes and increase in mobile infrastructure can increase GDP by more than a percentage point.

Another area of interest are in democratic participation, and particularly election monitoring and getting out the vote: The National Democratic Institute has been testing the use of mobile phones in broad-based election monitoring in six election now, most recently in an important election in Sierra Leone in late 2007. There, a coalition of local citizen groups and hundreds of volunteers used their own phones to report hourly via coordinated text messaging from 500 polling stations on any election irregularities.

In many contested elections, especially in emerging democracies, speed of reporting is of the essence. It is critical that NGOs and independent civil society organizations report data accurately and quickly even before official results are released, especially when fraud is feared. Mobile phones have been an important tool in this regard. They are, of course, not a new phenomenon in election monitoring; after all, cell phones have been around for a while now. But prior to NDI showcasing that text messages or SMS are a viable and reliable communication medium in elections, mobile phones were used merely to transmit reports verbally that then still had to be transcribed in a time-consuming and error-prone manual process.

In the last few years there have been rapid improvements in mobile services as competition in the wireless industry has increased worldwide, and there is growing interest and understanding on the part of NGOs that systematic election monitoring is not as difficult as it first may seem. As election monitoring via SMS becomes standardized and NGOs gain experience, there is no reason for mobile phones and SMS not to play a greater role in other areas of civic participation. For example, imagine citizen oversight of public works projects where people might report on whether a clinic is actually built as indicated in a local budget. Other applications may be monitoring and accountability of elected officials, and dissemination of voter registration information such as the address of where to register, or the nearest polling station.

Several pilot projects in the United States and in Scotland showed promising results in increasing voter turnout by text message reminders. The future is bright for innovative ways in which cell phones are used by citizens to participate and engage in their countries as the mobile revolution unfolds.

In healthcare, mobile phones are used already in a variety of areas already; not surprising given the relatively greater monetary resources available in this field. Cellphones are used to systematically monitor disease outbreaks in countries such as Rwanda, for example and to increase patient compliance in tuberculosis treatment. There is compelling evidence, for instance, that text message reminders increase patient’s taking their medicine and allow them to take their medication at home rather than having to go to a clinic every day. In a trial in 2003 in South Africa that has since been repeated elsewhere, a daily reminder was sent to patients , complete with personalized messages, jokes, and lifestyle hints. "You get a lot of different type of messages," said a patient in an interview, "like 'Did you Know Nelson Mandela had TB' or 'Beware TB is contagious'. They keep you informed and mean you never forget to take your drugs." Since then there have been numerous pilot projects in Asia and Africa that show great promise in using mobile phones in patient management and monitoring.

Promising may well be SMS information lines that the public queries to receive information about a specific topic.

There are already numerous HIV information lines that provide prevention and disease information. A recently launched mobile phone service in South Africa, for example, provides HIV testing station locations through the use of SMS. South Africans can send an SMS to the short code "31771" with the word "HIV" followed by the name of their town or postal code. The service then responds with the location of the two nearest traveling testing units. A similar service in Mumbay, India by the Heroes Project provides prevention, testing, and counseling information via SMS to people concerned about HIV. The service received 25,000 inquiries in its first month of service alone.

Now imagine this scenario: A woman in Johannesburg, South Africa, stands at the fish counter in her local supermarket and texts the name of a fish to a phone number. Within seconds, she receives back information via a short text message informing her whether the fish is legally and environmentally harvested and advising her whether “to tuck in, think twice or avoid completely.”

The consumer is using FishMS, a text service of Sassi (The Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative) and the World Wildlife Fund to help consumers make informed choices about the seafood they purchase.

Sassi now has taken this system into a mobile environment - just in time environmental information in the super market. Jaco Barendse, coordinator of SASSI, says that cell phones are "the ideal way to combine technology and information with the variety of seafood available and the growing awareness among seafood lovers, chefs, food buyers and so on that the ocean's resources aren't infinite. It also "demonstrates to retailers and restaurateurs that those consumers are willing to use their spending power. When shoppers and restaurant patrons start texting to check whether the “Catch of the Day” is okay to eat, it'll hopefully help drive suppliers buying habits.”

FishMS is one of a growing number of environmental text message information services available to consumers and citizens that provide just-in-time information about the toxicity of products, ambient air quality, or the environmental impact of products and companies.

Text message-based information services are proliferating. For example, Climate Counts lets a consumer text in the name of a product or company to a US short-code (a five-digit phone number) to receive back information about how serious companies are about stopping climate change - and how they compare to their sector competitors. The information, in the form of a scorecard that is delivered via text message back to the user, reflects the self-reported efforts of companies to address climate change.

SMS information channels are increasingly the rage for just-in-time information for the savvy omni-consumer. According to recent IBM consumer research, this information is increasingly influencing buying behaviour. Fifty-three percent of consumers surveyed by IBM used the Internet to compare features and prices among retailers in the 2006 holiday season. Two-third of teens surveyed said they use cell phones to text friends while shopping for input, and 25 percent accessed the Internet from a mobile device while in a store. And an astonishing one in ten consumers reached out to friends and family via text message while shopping to get input.

NGOs are exploring other uses of cellphones within an advocacy context: Greenpeace Argentina, for example, has an urgent alert network of 30,000 ‘movile activistas’ who can be contacted by the push of the ‘send’ button via text message during legislative action campaigns.

It is clear that NGOs need to become savvier and more innovative in their use of cellphone technology. It is also clear that this medium has enormous potential in ways that we have not even thought about. There is no limit to grassroots innovation around the world in creative uses of mobile tech to advance civil society work, and we are looking forward to your stories.