Technology

Ukraine’s forbidden social networks
Ukrainians are finding alternatives to Russian-operated social networks, writes Daria Chernina.

Uber and the corporate capture of e-petitions
Steve Andrews looks at a profit-making petition platform's questionable relationship with the cab company

‘Your credit score is not sufficient to enter this location’: the risks of the ‘smart city’
Jathan Sadowski explains techno-political trends of exclusion and enforcement in our cities, and how to overcome this new type of digital oppression

Beware the automated landlord
Tenants of the automated landlord are effectively paying two rents: one in money, the other in information for data harvesting, writes Desiree Fields

Theresa May’s new porn law is ridiculous – but dangerous
The law is almost impossible to enforce, argues Lily Sheehan, but it could still set a bad precedent

How to resist the exploitation of digital gig workers
For the first time in history, we have a mass migration of labour without an actual migration of workers. Mark Graham and Alex Wood explore the consequences

The Digital Liberties cross-party campaign
Access to the internet should be considered as vital as access to power and water writes Sophia Drakopoulou

A world without work: an interview with Nick Srnicek, co-author of Inventing the Future
The World Transformed organiser Joseph Todd speaks to Nick Srnicek about his recent book making the case for a post-work society

Novara: new media for a different politics
Novara Media are currently fundraising £10,000 to expand their efforts to help transform the media landscape. Andrew Dolan interviewed Novara co-founder Aaron Bastani about new media, insurgent politics and what the future holds for Novara

Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future by Paul Mason
Hilary Wainwright reviews Paul Mason's latest book and questions how far information technology is leading us towards a post-capitalist economy

Open source energy
Open source technology could play an important role in the shift towards energy democracy. Some pioneers are already leading the way, reports Kim Bryan

Allende’s socialist internet
Leigh Phillips tells the story of Cybersyn, Chile’s experiment in non-centralised economic planning which was cut short by the 1973 coup

Genius and the soil
State and corporate interests have sought to crack down on the power to share information digitally. But could the new technologies point towards a more democratic model of creativity, asks Jonathan Gray

Bosses: want to know who’ll join the union? There’s an app for that!
Imagine an app that would tell bosses which of his workers was most likely to want to join a union. Leigh Phillips writes on the creepier side of new technologies

History in the making
Kate Webb reads Paul Mason's "Why it’s Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions" (Verso)

Egypt: Ammar 404
The internet and the Arab uprisings. By Zahera Harb

Viral spirals
Marco Berlinguer explores the growing movements for free culture

My activist Second Life
'Virtual' activism and protest are not geeky or trivial, argues Neil Scott, but an important tool in modern communications and politics. The left has a lot to lose if it doesn't acknowledge their potential

Technological alternatives
Michel Bauwens points to the importance of the possibilities for co-operative, peer-to-peer production opened up by new technologies

The commons, the state and transformative politics
Hilary Wainwright examines how new technology and new forms of organisation are coming together to transform the left and labour movements, political representation and democracy

Pick up a penguin
The Linux open-source computer operating system isn't just for geeks. Dave Sambrook explains how to try out the free alternative to Microsoft Windows

Google for it?
Dear Auntie, As a seasoned internet activist I regularly give my friends a hard time for using Google. Its 'don't be evil' motto doesn't seem to have helped Chinese web users, who now face censored searches, while its CIA links are well-known. Only one problem: I have a secret addiction to Skype. Does this make me a hypocrite? Activista, Gerrard's Cross, Buckinghamshire

The end of the internet?
The way the internet works at the moment, you can access a blog by an anti-war teenager from Utah on an equal footing with the website of the US defence department. But all that could change if some of the big internet service providers get their way. Leigh Phillips warns of the threat to the internet as we know it

The Race for Nanoland
Is 'grey goo' about to eat the planet? Probably not, but there are real dangers with the development of nanotechnology that are not being addressed.

Open source and free software top 10
www.mozilla.org Download the popular Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email package www.openoffice.org The best alternative to Microsoft Office www.limewire.org Sharing millions of music, video and other files www.gimp.org Powerful image manipulation software audacity.sourceforge.net Edit and record your own music and remixes fedora.redhat.com One of the most popular versions of the Linux operating system www.mamboserver.com Award-winning […]

The future is geek
Why pay out good money to Microsoft and the big corporations when you can get the computer software you need for free? Derek Wall hails the open source revolutionaries

Information super-highwaymen
Corporate elites are using repressive and subversive methods to silence legitimate, independent media networks.

Spin your own web
Need to build a website but can't be bothered with all that coding malarkey? Then relax - this handy guerilla guide shows the way to cut corners and still get your point across on the web

Inquiry urged into university biotech links
The UK's largest collective of independent scientists is calling for an urgent inquiry into the links between the biotechnology industry and leading academic institutions.