Gordon Brown reveals himself to be a cyberutopian in these comments he made last weekend. The [him] moderator is much more cautious. Digital technology is a good tool for communication and amplifying voices so that information can flow and debate and discussion can take place. These are necessary prerequisites for change. But they are not sufficient. There is no "coup de blogs" and one million monkeys on Facebook will not write Hamlet. There is action and more action needed.

[him] moderator

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BROWN LOVES POWER OF WEB
Sunday May 18,2008
Kirsty Buchanan

TO many it is a talking shop or a playground for perverts. But for Gordon Brown the internet is a new force for global good.

In a keynote speech yesterday, the Prime Minister declared the internet “the most powerful weapon for justice ever put in human hands”.

He said that in a “new world divided by vast distances” people were being united by the “instant ties of cyberspace”.

“Some dismiss the internet as a shouting match without a referee, but let us remember its power for change,” he said, reminding his audience of how Burma’s monks “with only a begging bowl and their blogs” gained the world’s support in their fight against oppression.

He foresaw “a world without walls, borders, barriers and frontiers… meeting on Facebook if not face to face”.

And he called for “a single moral universe” to fight HIV/Aids and bring about change.

The speech – to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh – came 20 years after Margaret Thatcher’s “Sermon on the Mound”, laying out her ideas on capitalism and the market economy, in the same city.

It also followed a week in which Mr Brown has toured TV studios to insist he won’t quit as Labour’s leader despite his plunging popularity.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/44848/Brown-loves-power-of-web

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May 19, Agence France Presse
Internet can force change in Myanmar: Brown

"People power" via the Internet could help shame Myanmar into accepting foreign assistance for cyclone victims, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday.

Hailing the Internet as a modern force for change, Brown said the web meant the tragedy -- which is thought to have left some 134,000 people dead or missing -- could no longer be kept a secret.

"It is true that in Burma we have not been able to get as much food and supplies into Burma that we would like but now a country like Burma cannot
remain hidden," he told a conference organised by Internet giant Google.

"Direct people power is going to be a force not just for individual countries but for foreign policy as well."

He predicted that "whether it is famine, cyclone or whatever, pressure from the people is going to force government interaction".

Brown, who on Saturday described the Myanmar ruling junta of being "inhuman" for refusing outside help, suggested that the Internet could
have helped give more details of the Rwandan genocide in 1995 as it was developing.

Internet weblogs -- online diaries -- were now forcing governments to act and be accountable, and could help force change in places like Myanmar,
Zimbabwe and Darfur, he added.

"They could feel people coming to express their anger about certain events. The mood could have an impact that means governments will be
forced to change their institutions," he added.

Brown, who came to power last year vowing greater openness in government and accountability for politicians, earlier Monday launched an online
version for the public of his weekly question and answer session with MPs.

At the conference he announced a tie-up between the British government and Google for an online scheme to map climate change on its Google Earth
application.

As he spoke, Myanmar agreed at an emergency regional meeting in Singapore to let its southeast Asian neighbours coordinate foreign assistance for
cyclone victims.

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Telegraph - Print Version
Myanmar cyclone: The internet will shame Burma's junta, says Gordon Brown
By Thomas Bell, South East Asia Correspondent
Last updated: 2:52 PM BST 19/05/2008

Gordon Brown says that "people power" is helping to reveal the "true horrors" of the Burmese junta and to shame it into admitting more foreign aid.

The Prime Minister said that in the internet age a reclusive country like Burma, also known as Myanmar, can no longer remain hidden away from the world.

"Direct people power is going to be a force not just for individual countries but for foreign policy as well," Mr Brown told a conference organised by Google in Watford.

He predicted that "whether it is famine, cyclone or whatever, pressure from the people is going to force government interaction."

Mr Brown suggested that the genocide in Rwanda might not have been met with “such silence" if it had occurred in the internet age.

Anger at crises reported online could sometimes create a “coup de blogs" he said, forcing governments to take action.

The Burmese junta, which has declared three days of mourning for the cyclone’s victims, is notoriously unresponsive to pressure, whether from bloggers, foreign governments or its own people — the vast majority of whom have no access to the internet.

Inside Burma the older technology of short wave radio, which carries the BBC’s Burmese service, is the principal medium of impartial news.

But there are signs that the junta is adjusting its policy on foreign aid, whether in response to internet coverage or not.

Although foreign aid workers are still mostly barred from the country and the United Nations says only 30 per cent of the 2.5 million cyclone survivors have received any aid, the UN humanitarian chief John Holmes was allowed to visit the shattered Irrawaddy delta today, following a visit by the Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown.

At a meeting of south-east Asian foreign ministers in Singapore today, the junta agreed to allow medical teams from neighbouring countries in and to channel foreign aid through Asian governments. There will be a donor conference in Rangoon on Sunday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/burmamyanmar/1987595/Myanmar-cyclone-The-internet-will-shame-Burma%27s-junta%2C-says-Gordon-Brown.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/burmamyanmar/1987595/Myanmar-cyclone-The-internet-will-shame-Burma%27s-junta%2C-says-Gordon-Brown.html?service=print