Author Archives: Dan Gillmor

The Pilanesberg National Park, some 500 square kilometers, is astonishing. Way better than my photography… I’ve been having severe problems with Internet connections the past couple of days, and am heading to places where the problems may get even worse. … Continue reading →

AP: DOJ Won’t Pursue Microsoft Breakup. Bad, bad, bad news for competition. The government has caved in, giving Microsoft all it needs to consolidate its chokehold over the computer industry and extend its brutal authority into more of our lives. … Continue reading →

Note: This is a revised and much expanded version of yesterday’s initial take on the topic. Competition got hammered Thursday, and all the spin in the world won’t change that fact. The Justice Department and state attorneys general insist that … Continue reading →

A few months ago, following a meeting held by People for Internet Responsibility, I suggested that the Internet needed a “fact squad” to counter all the lies spewing from government, big business and other entities that want to control our … Continue reading →

Call it a “Hail Carly” play. When one beleaguered giant buys another, you can smell the desperation. It’s oozing from the corporate pores at Hewlett-Packard and Compaq with the announcement that the HP would buy Compaq in a stock swap. … Continue reading →

Well-meaning United Nations officials and remaining delegates are still talking about how to combat racism and hatred at the World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa. Meanwhile: Protestants throw rocks at Catholic schoolchildren in Belfast. Israel and the Palestinians … Continue reading →

It was probably inevitable that the World Conference on Racism would devolve into nothing but politics, and evil politics at that. It’ll continue even though the U.S. and Israel have pulled out — for good reasons, at least in the … Continue reading →

This is the famous Regina Mundi Catholic church in Soweto, South Africa, the black township next to Johannesburg. The church was the site of political meetings during the anti-apartheid revolution here. It’s also the place where students fled on June … Continue reading →

This is a week mostly of vacation, but if you read the papers you can’t ignore the real world. Today’s newspapers are blaring the depressing story of a shipload of refugees no one wants. A Norweigan ship saved more than … Continue reading →

The front pages here have been consumed all week with the saga of the unwanted refugees that has captivated the world and shamed humanity. To recap: The Norwegian ship rescued more than 400 refugees, most from Afghanistan, when the boat … Continue reading →