In addition to picket signs and megaphones, activists protesting globalization policies at next month's meeting of the World Trade Organization in Cancún will be armed with a number of new, high-tech weapons for getting their message across.

These include using peer-to-peer networks to distribute video to television stations and setting up wireless access points so that activists can post updates to their weblogs. The aim is to help demonstrators make a bigger impact, even with fewer people, say protest organizers.

Read on...

Jonah will review his own work revolving around the theme of "Deconstructing Network" both physical and online. He will discuss some of his projects that attempt to challenge accepted notions of network interaction from networked software hacks and rule-based systems to translating virtual processes and conventions into the physical world.

Finally he will talk about the Dublin Art and Technology Association (DATA Group), an informal group he co-founded in Ireland that has had over 12 monthly events in Dublin, a large symposium earlier this year, electronics for artists workshops, and aims to showcase art and technology projects from local and international artists, musicians, designers, students, academics, and more.

More About Jonah and his Work

WASHINGTON - In response to the Justice Department's launch today of a multi-city public relations "roadshow" promoting the controversial USA PATRIOT Act, the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the tour's closure to the public, presumably intended to squelch protests, and questioned the agency's use of public money to counter broad public concern about the expansive surveillance powers in the law.

"An Attorney General going on the road, away from his official duties, to favorably spin policies violative of civil liberties is troubling, to say the least," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "It raises two serious questions: is this tour -- which incidentally hits Iowa, Michigan and Ohio - political in nature and how prudent is it to be spending public money on a 'PATRIOT Act' charm offensive?"

The PATRIOT Act tour comes in the midst of rapidly growing public concern about portions of the 2001 law, which was passed with little debate shortly after the September 11 attacks. In recent months, the Department of Justice has been roundly criticized for this legislation and its questionable record on civil liberties in the post-9/11 era.

Read on