Take ORG to 1000 and beyond

The Open Rights Group ORG:GRO campaign continues this week and they're even giving away five copies of my book, theoretically as an incentive to join up and hand over your fiver a month. Don't let my book put you off(!) but do consider seriously supporting a great group of people who, with limited resources, are doing sterling work in the digital rights area. Every little bit helps and it would be great to see them hitting their interim target of 1000 members by the end of the month.

"This week, to encourage more people to join up and support Open Rights with a fiver per month, we’re giving away copies of Ray Corrigan’s Digital Decision-Making: Back to the Future. Ray is a rapid-fire blogger with a big interest in digital rights issues whose work has a historical, home-grown perspective and a sharp sense of humour. If you want one of five signed copies of the book, then please sign up today and note ‘Ray da Man’ in the ‘where i heard about ORG’ box. We’ll send the books to whoevers’ fivers arrive the quickest! Here’s a quote from the synopsis to whet your appetites:

Since the general public began to use the Internet in the mid 1990s, there has been a vast amount of investment by governments and commerce in digital communications technologies. There has also been a fair degree of confusion and sometimes controversy about the purpose and effectiveness of such technologies, for example the proposed UK identity card system. Decisions about digital communications technologies are not always so clearly a subject of political concern as is the case with identity cards.The far-reaching implications for commerce and society of some of these decisions in invisible or opaque specialist fields, however, mean they should be matters of concern for every citizen. This book argues that: decisions should be based on an understanding of the systems, technology and environment within which they operate; experts and ordinary people should work together; and, technology and law are evolving in restrictive rather than enabling ways.

Its looking pretty tight as to whether we hit our interim target of 1,000 fivers per month by the end of October. Although we’re still rising, the rate of new supporters has slowed significantly this month. Please, if you’re already a supporter then spread the word about our works on your networks."

I've never been described as a rapid-fire blogger before. Thanks Michael! Though I'm not sure some of my more serious minded colleagues would approve if they realised I was engaged in such an unconventional academic pursuit. ;-)

Update: If you have a free 7 minutes have a look at this video which gives you an rough idea of the kinds of things ORG campaign about:


Who's Watching Who? from Dean Whitbread on Vimeo.