This post is part of Global Wire Associates’ Recharge E-Waste Campaign.

So, you have a box in the corner of your closet or in your basement piled high with broken or “gently used” electronics, gadgets and wires you don’t use anymore.  You are thinking about taking that box down to your local recycling center and (maybe) get a rebate for your good deed of saving the planet.  However, you would be doing a better deed for the planet if you learned how to repair and reuse your old electronics.

Leading the “repair is recycling” movement is iFixit, a website where you can find free repair manuals for virtually every electronic on the planet.  In the largely community-run site, users can both add information to guides and asks questions about issues not offered in the guides.  The website funds itself by selling useful service parts and tool kits for repairing electronics.  Self-repair not only saves money that would have otherwise been used to purchase new electronics, but it also helps the environment.

Even if you take your old electronics to recycling sites, there is no guarantee they will be recycled properly.  Most e-waste ends up in landfills throughout the developing world, where it wrecks havoc on the health of those who live near it.  This is partly because it is expensive and labor-intensive to properly recycle e-waste in many developed countries, as most environmental laws in these countries require e-recyclers to use environmentally friendly processes.

According to iFixit:

But labor is cheap in the developing world. And those pesky environmental laws don’t exist everywhere. Containers full of outdated electronics are regularly shipped to places like China and Nigeria where people scrounge through the dead electronics looking for bits and pieces that are useful. After scavengers pick out the worthwhile bits, ‘extractors’ start breaking things apart. They can make a living breaking down electronics harvesting copper from wires and gold from electrical connectors. But without environmentally friendly processes, the nasty chemicals from the extraction process seeps into the groundwater and remnant broken electronic scrap litter the landscape.

Here is a video from Greenpeace that explains the e-waste problem in Nigeria

Meanwhile, iFixit recently launched a new website – ifixit.org – for discussions on e-waste activism and specifically showcasing the arduous work of the brave extractors or “fixers,” like the Ghanaian man featured in the headlining photo above.  The website will eventually be a launching pad for a documentary film about the lives of fixers in Egypt, Kenya, Ghana and India.

A recent New York Times article puts the issues of labor rights, innovation and the future of the American economy on the table.  Like many other American-based tech companies, Apple employs foreign workers to manufacture its products.  As a matter of fact, “almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas,” according to the article.  Apple employs 43,000 workers in the United States; however, there are many more Apple contractors worldwide, including 700,000 people who actually engineer and assemble iPods, iPads, iPhones and other “iThings.”

Apple and other tech companies claim to send business overseas because America is not producing enough people who are capable of doing the jobs at the speed and efficiency needed to compete in the global market today.  However, human rights advocates claim that these companies are looking for the cheapest way to create products while making more money for themselves at the expense of foreign workers.  With more NAFTA-like free trade agreements, such as the South Korea FTA, getting passed by the US Congress, even more jobs will only be shipped overseas.

…One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”…

Apple works with Foxconn Technology, a firm that ” assembles an estimated 40 percent of the world’s consumer electronics for customers like Amazon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung and Sony.”  Apple assembles its products in the Chinese assembly plant “Foxconn City.”

“[Foxconn] could hire 3,000 people overnight,” said Jennifer Rigoni, who was Apple’s worldwide supply demand manager until 2010, but declined to discuss specifics of her work. “What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and convince them to live in dorms?”

Did we also mention that Apple admitted to worsening child labor issues and employee suicides in its Chinese factories.

Here are our questions:

1.  Should American-based tech firms be obligated to provide more good jobs (meaning decent wages, benefits etc) to American-based workers, especially during a down economy?

2. Or should the pursuit of the “American dream” and the virtues of capitalism go where an American business can make money anywhere in the world?

3. Why isn’t America taking innovation and creating a job force competitive enough for the impending global market more seriously?

4.  If jobs do go overseas, what is the company’s obligation to provide good jobs for its foreign employees?

5.  Should Americans protest companies not supporting the American economy and/or their unethical employment practices overseas?

We think the last question would be hard for most Americans.  How likely will they dump their iThings to protest Apple?  But then again, maybe a little protest could at least inspire a larger conversation.

Upon the first anniversary of the Egyptian revolution, a group of journalists and technologists have come up with an innovative way to document the historic events from the last few months online.  18DaysInEgypt is a new online, group storytelling module that allows anyone to submit any digital media they created while witnessing the beginnings of the Arab Spring.  Instead of filming a traditional documentary, 18DaysInEgypt co-founders Jigar Mehta and Yasmin Elayat are using their private beta site, Groupstre.am, to solicit submissions of tweets, video, pictures and other media to create an interactive product.

Participants can go to the website and register their own account or “stream” and invite friends in their online social circles to participate by submitting their own media to tell a story in a slideshow module.  Participants can also add tags and map locations for easier navigation.  Viewers are able to look at the stream and see other streams that took place at the same time or at the same location.  So far, many of the streams represent an array of the Egyptian experience, ranging from press freedom, women’s rights to even some underwater humor.  Pretty cool, right!

This project is supported by the Tribeca New Media Fund, and Mehta and Elayat are hoping to fully launch Groupstre.am in the next few months.

Today Americans will mark the birthday of the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr with a series of memorial breakfasts, panel discussions and workshops on how U.S. race relations have evolved since his assassination.  Most would say that there have been many improvements.  According to a recent Gallup poll, “more Americans believe U.S. race relations have gotten better rather than worse with Barack Obama’s election as president.”

However, recent events such as the controversies around President Obama’s birth certificate and new U.S. television program “All-American Muslim” would suggest otherwise.  The surge in social media allows anyone to use the medium to combat racial and ethnic stereotyping and discrimination.  With the use of online video specifically, more people are using innovative storytelling tactics to start these discussions.  Currently on YouTube, there is a series of funny, yet thought-provoking videos called “Sh*t Girls Say” made by both amateur and professional videographers addressing racial attitudes, like the above video made by Iraqi actress Tamara Dhia.

Another video in the series that has taken off is “Sh*t White Girls Say…to Black Girls” by New York video blogger Franchesca Ramsey, which is based on comments made to her by other white females.  Ramsey said in a recent interview that she was hoping to get high viewer hits at first.

“I saw other videos in the series become popular online,” she said.  “I thought they were funny, but I couldn’t relate to them or see myself in them.”

This video garnered five million hits in one week, and sparked a larger online discussion.  Ramsey says she has received both positive and negative emails from others who wanted to discuss the meaning behind the video.

Filmmaker Issa Rae also felt that she wasn’t represented as a black woman in mainstream media.  After reading yet another article about the lack of African-Americans onscreen, she decided to be the media and do her own online webisodes about being “awkward,” and, thus, the name of her series “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl.”

“This is the future, especially for minority content producers on the Internet,” she said in a recent CNN interview.  “This is the way to go.  There is no gatekeeper.  You can release whatever content you want.  I think this is the best route to take, honestly.”

As many of you are still gushing over all the new tech gadgets you received over the holidays, you probably didn’t give a second thought about the “old” gadgets you just threw away.  According to the United Nations Environmental Programme, it is estimated that 20-50 million tons of discarded electronics – electronic waste or e-waste – are dumped into landfills around the world, mostly in developing countries, every year.  Electronics include old mobiles, televisions, microwaves, computers and more.  However, most of the time it’s not because these gadgets are broken; they’re being dumped in favor of newer versions.

For example, many of you may have traded in your iPhone 4, which came out in June 2010, for the iPhone 4S, which was released just last October.  According to Greenpeace, “the average lifespan of computers in developed countries has dropped from six years in 1997 to just two years in 2005, and mobile phones have a life-cycle of less than two years in developed countries.”

Landfills with e-waste create serious problems in the long run.  Toxic chemicals in electronics can leach into the land over time or are released into the atmosphere, creating severe health and environmental hazards in nearby communities.

Global Wire Associates is launching a new awareness campaign called “Recharge E-waste.”  Throughout the year, we will have special posts about the problem and possible solutions – reduce, reuse and recycle.  Check back here for more discussions about proper recycling, donating and/or selling of used electronics, turning electronics into art and design models and, most importantly, why you should resist the urge to buy any of the latest gadgets featured at the Consumer Electronics Association’s (CES) trade show this week in order to extend the life of the gadgets you already have.

We believe environmental hazards affecting marginalized communities is a social justice concern for all.  Also, because we take green business very seriously, we are going the extra mile with this e-waste campaign. Over the years, we have spoken to many of you through our trainings about the problems you are having with e-waste and other tech disparities in your communities.  We will be launching our own e-waste management program later this year with some other like-minded groups on how to effectively deal with this problem and bridge some gaps within our network.  More information will come on this program in the next few weeks.

In Solidarity,

Talia, Marjane, Philip and Maria

A new year means new beginnings in many ways.  A few weeks ago we asked you about your predictions on digital activism trends for 2012.  Below are the winners of our contest who will be receiving a Flip UltraHD Video Camera.

“I think citizen journalism will begin to be seen as just as valuable and legitimate as mainstream journalism in the new year.  When you look at all the movements from [the previous] year like Occupy and Arab Spring, much of the news was coming from protesters reporting from the ground with pictures and Tweets.  If it weren’t for the brave protesters in Syria recording the atrocities being committed by the government on YouTube, nobody would know what was really happening there.  I can see more professional journalists wanting to collaborate with citizen journalists on reporting stories.”

- Anjula Bhratt, Bangalore, India

“I am exciting about the growth of mobile technology and how it can help those of us in the developing world.  I have seen how mobile entrepreneurship has really taken off in my community, and online business in the developing world will only grow in 2012.  It is so easy for anyone to start their own business today with the lowered barriers for selling products and services.  For the past year I have been thinking about starting my own pocketbook business, and after doing the research, I realized how easy and inexpensive it would be to manage my website, social media and online purchases.  I will be officially starting my business later this year!”

- Lelia Rye, Paramaribo, Suriname

“I think more collaboration will happen in 2012, thanks to tools like cloud computing.  I use a lot of Google products like Gmail and Google Docs and Drop Box to collaborate with other activists in my local community.  But the recent global movements such as Occupy Wall Street and Egypt protests have made me think out loud why can’t activists worldwide collaborate more in the cloud on the same issues more often.  We can organize our own movements without the help of already established NGOs.”

-Fikru Abate, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

“The digital divide will become smaller in the new year.  I am excited about the development of tablet devices like the Aakash.  These tools make technology more accessible to everyone.  I am excited about the new developments in bringing this technology to Africa and Asia and young students being exposed to ideas they wouldn’t have had access to otherwise.  I would like to see that world governments see the investment in supporting more mobile devices for our youth.  People need to understand that a digitally literate world is a better world for everyone.”

- Hugo Batko, Kiev, Ukraine

A milestone year in digital activism is finally coming to a close.  A few weeks ago we asked you what your thoughts were on the best acts of protest this year.  Below are the winners of our contest who will be receiving a Flip UltraHD Video Camera.

“The love in my heart I felt for my brothers in Tunisia was amazing.  Watching from far away, I felt I was right there with my brothers in the streets [on YouTube].  The images were powerful because it showed the frustration of the people and their determination to see political change immediately.  I am sad everyday that Mohamed Bouazizi is no longer with us and died the way he did, but I will always be grateful for him for starting the revolution for change.  Mohamed must remind us that it only takes one person to get the ball rolling.”

- Nassir El-Bahri, Beirut, Lebanon

“I was incredibly touched by the protests this year on behalf of the socially and economically disenfranchised.  When I learned about the story of Troy Davis, I was so profoundly touched by his story, that I told my friends and family on Twitter and Facebook and my blog to sign the e-petition to keep him alive.  It was the first time in my life I felt motivated to be an online activist because I knew deep down in my heart that he wasn’t guilty of the crime.  And I think watching the Arab Spring from my TV and following it on Twitter showed me how simple it was to stand up against injustice.”

- Monique Lynn Johnson, Mobile, Alabama, USA

“I was laid off and have been unemployed for two years, and I felt really angry at my government and big corporations right now.  So there was something about the Occupy Wall Street movement that moved me.  I visited the tent city in my area a few times on my way to my temp job and talked to people there who were also like me.  I wasn’t able to camp out there, but I stayed in touch with everything going on there on Live Stream, YouTube and Facebook, and felt like I was there in spirit.  I also talked with others online about my predicament, and felt I was doing my part in the smallest way I could.”

-Drew Fatton, Vancouver, Canada

“I am excited to see what happens on the Korean peninsula now that Kim Jong-Il has passed.  A major protest this year that went under the radar was the mass anti-FTA protest in South Korea.  I am originally from Seoul, but currently go to university in Washington DC, when protests began.  I was amazed to see such little attention the American media gave to KORUS because in my opinion, it is the worst thing in US trade policy since NAFTA.  Many of my Korean friends are worried about how the policy will affect both Koreans and Americans negatively in the long run.  However, when the video footage of the thousands of people protesting the FTA in Seoul got on YouTube, I retweeted them to my American friends to let them know how US policy decisions affect others around the world.  My American friends were shocked because they didn’t even know about the FTA.  This year in social media and revolution has really opened many eyes.  I want to see the next online battle go to North Korea.”

- Esther Lee, Washington D.C & Seoul, South Korea

With the recent death of Kim Jong-Il, many analysts have begun to discuss the future of North Korea.  Reportedly Kim’s 27-year-old son Kim Jong-un will be his successor.  Among the many concerns with the totalitarian regime is its blatant lack of free speech and human rights.  However, with this sudden changing of the guard, is there a window of opportunity for radical social change?  Despite the disturbing images of “crying” North Koreans mourning Kim’s death, there might be possible ( and we do say this consciously) signs that the “Twitter/Facebook Revolution” can move from Egypt to North Korea.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RWB), North Korea has been ranked last or second from last (with Eritrea) in their annual press freedom index for nearly a decade.  Most North Koreans are not able to freely use mobile phones or the Internet. Only the political elite and foreign tourists in Pyongyang are granted Internet and mobile access, but even that access is limited.  All media in North Korea gets its news (or propaganda) from the Korean Central News Agency.

UCLA professor Ramesh Srinivasan made some interesting points about the future of free expression in the country.

Srinivasan said Kim Jong Il recently extended “small olive branches to the rest of the world,” which possibly included greater access to technology and social media.  And here is where the “vacuum” exists.

“A vacuum may allow activists potentially within the country to reach out to the outer world,” Srinivasan said. “It may not be the government that takes the initiative, but instead underground factions within North Korea who reach out to the rest of the world. This may influence the establishment of social networks with other parts of the world.”

In the Reporters Without Borders report North Korea: Frontiers of Censorship, “the growth of an underground economy and the permeability of the Sino-Korean border are two key factors for the prospect of a gradual opening-up in North Korea.”  The report says that North Korean defectors are sending CDs, DVDs and USB flash drives with political content about democracy and human rights from South Korea and the Chinese border via balloons to North Korea.  Sometimes radio sets are sent on these balloons.  North Korean defectors have also launched shortwave radio stations aimed at broadcasting to North Korea, like Free North Korea Radio and Open Radio for North Korea, which are regularly jammed by Kim’s regime.

Dissident journalists also risk their lives to get information out of North Korea.  Rimjin-gang, “a North Korean magazine founded jointly by the Japanese journalist Ishimaru Jiro and a North Korean journalist who uses the pseudonym of Lee Jun, uses information and photos obtained from a network of North Korean journalists.” In addition, “the Associated Press announced in June that it had signed a series of accords with North Korea that will increase its access to the country.”

Although there are many North Koreans who may not have even heard of the Internet, clearly the network of dissidents working to establish more freedoms are at an opportune time in history to take advantage of the “vacuum” and to create a revolution.

Photo by Martin von den Driesch © 2011

Yemeni journalist and activist Tawakel Karman (above) won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize “for [her] non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights [and] full participation in peace-building work.”  She shares the award with Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee  for their equally deserved work on women’s rights.

Karman is the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman,and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize and the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate to date.  She is also possibly the first Nobel Peace Laureate to win through her advocacy of digital activism.  At the age of 32, Karman’s activism has not only made an impact on the Arab Spring, but she may have also set the tone for how journalists can support free speech.

In 2005 Karman co-founded Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) to help protect the rights of other Yemeni women journalists.  She has been a target of the Yemeni government because of her refusal to accept the Ministry of Information’s rejection of WJWC’s application to legally create a newspaper and a radio station.  In 2007 her organization began supporting text messaging news services, which had been tightly controlled by Yemen’s Press Law of 1990.

WJWC released a report in 2007 that documented Yemeni abuses of press freedom since 2005.   In 2009, she criticised the Yemeni government for harassing journalists.  Since 2007 Karman has set up a tent and led weekly demonstrations in Sana’a (sounds like the first Occupy site?!).  She played an instrumental role in the Yemeni uprising, which called for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign.  After much protesting, Saleh signed an agreement in November that called for him to relinquish office by early next year.

The case in Yemen should remind us all to not take our liberties for granted, and to be a strong advocate for those who don’t have those same liberties.  For that, we congratulate Tawakel Karman for her digital activism.

With the advent of e-books, audio books, Kindles and other devices that make the art of reading a digital experience, many wonder with the declining number of bookstores, what will happen to public libraries.  For those of us who are lucky to live in places where a library exists, they are not only spaces to read and lend out books, but they also act as community meeting spaces.

However, the increase in digital media has also been compounded with the current economic downturn, which has contributed to the budget cuts and closings of many public libraries around the United States.  Even more unfortunate is that many of these endangered public libraries are serving marginalized populations in rural and inner city areas.

Recently, we had a chance to participate in the Digital Diversity Summit, where there was much discussion about the future of public libraries, and specifically how to keep them relevant.  Jessamyn West, a Vermont  library technologist and am a community manager at MetaFilter.com, said that many librarians, especially in underserved areas, are not up to speed on how to help library users.

“Librarians are trained to do research, not in how to use new technologies,” West said.  “Libraries are also exhausted because they are now being used as social service centers.”

It made us think about the future of public libraries – library 2.0 – in marginalized communities.  How can these institutions not only have a life once physical, printed literature is buried for good, but also be relevant and useful to its clients?

How about turning public libraries into community media centers?  Many libraries already function in this manner already, but maybe it’s time to take this idea further.

Here are our ideas:

1. Provide digital training for librarians: According to the American Library Association, libraries serve 97 percent of the American population, so it is important that librarians be able to help users with as many digital platforms as possible.

2. Provide digital training for library users: Instead of closing down libraries, convert them into community media centers, where users can not only use computers with Internet access for free, but also be trained on how to use e-readers, download free e-books and audio books and learn how to better use the Internet.  In our “perfect world,” all kids should be able to go to a library and get their first experience with digital literacy at their local library.

3. Truly make libraries social service centers as well: Since librarians are exhausted by the many demands of their users, there may be a need to have a discussion about expanding the types of people who work in libraries, like having job placement experts, multilingual specialists, legal services, voter registration experts and other service workers.

4. A nationalized digital public library: One issue that has been up for discussion in recent years is the development of a nationalized digital public library.  Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society was recently awarded $5 million to go forward on their plans to develop the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).

“…The DPLA would essentially create a unified repository for all the digital collections of libraries, museums, archives, and anyone else that had digital content of value that they wanted to share with the public.  There would be standards for adding data to the repository as well as for accessing data from it.  The repository would be secure, redundant, and scalable…”

Read more about the benefits of Library 2.0 here.