Exploring common, new grounds that lie in the border between computer engineering (my education) and journalism (my practice). Clues: informatics, information, (open) data, communication, networks, communities, digital inclusion, (free) digital culture, activism and social transformation.
Check out this chronology of some of the things I have done in the last few years including speaking, training, organizing events, learning permaculture, travelling and having fun while connecting with people in Timor-Leste, Mozambique and around the world. You can also follow me on Twitter (@saritamoreira) and check my Linkedin profile. PGP: 0x6023D406
[Também escrevo / traduzo no Global Voices em Português.]
Latest posts by Sara Moreira
Brazilian Activists Meet in Free Media Week in Rio de Janeiro
A series of debates and workshops dedicated to the democratization of the media, digital radio, cryptography and surveillance, among other digital activism issues, starts tomorrow, November 26, in Rio de Janeiro. The Semana de Mídias Livres (Free Media Week) [pt] gathers three events in one until November 30: the second international conference Spectrum,...
Brazilian “Wikicity” Travels to the World Forum for Democracy
Known as “the capital of participatory democracy”, the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre will become subject for a lab in the World Forum for Democracy. Focus will be given to the case of PortoAlegre.cc, a project created at the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos) which is based on...
PHOTOS: Rally of Mozambique's Main Opposition Party Attacked by Riot Police
The final mayoral campaign rally of opposition party MDM in Beira ended with three people killed and several injured – the injured included the candidate's own son – following an attack by riot police who used tear gas grenades and shot bullets to the air. When the tumult began, incumbent...
Social Movements of Portugal Get Together to Debate Massive Protests
“What is the purpose of the massive protests?”, a question that many Portuguese citizens have repeated since the economic crisis started, has become a motto for a Laboratory of Democracy organized by the non-profit association Academia Cidadã (Citizen Academy). The “informal debate about the occupation of the public space in...
Bring Your Tapes: Welcome to the Post-Digital Era
Sara Moreira speaks with the VHS wielding mascot, Antifluffy, at the Future Places media lab for citizenship in Porto, Portugal.
Painting an Entire Favela in Rio de Janeiro
The dream of painting an entire favela in Rio de Janeiro is closer to become real now that the crowdfunding campaign launched by two Dutch artists in September has come to an end with over 100,000 US dollars raised for paint and painters. When Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn started the...
International Organizations Call for a Swift Adoption of Marco Civil in Brazil
‘Internet Needs an Uncompromising “Marco Civil” in Brazil!‘, state international organizations that advocate for free speech and freedoms online in an open letter released on October 28, 2013 (on the eve of the vote on Brazil's ‘bill of rights’ for Internet users). Its opening paragraph reads: The “Marco Civil da Internet” is...
VIDEO: Angola's Kuduro as an Urban Phenomenon
A new film on Angola's frenetic music genre and dance, Kuduro (literally ‘hard ass’), follows the steps of some of the key figures that have helped this popular style turn into an urban cultural movement: Created in the discos and raves in downtown Luanda through a fusion between House and Techno beats...
Portugal Says “Thank You Troika”, Really?
Subverting the discourse of austerity, a protest was held in Lisbon earlier this week to “thank” the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission for the ongoing measures to tackle the economic crisis in Portugal. The protest took place on October 21, 2013, and gained the attention of mainstream...
VIDEO: “Myths and Murals” of East Timor
East Timorese and Australian artists have come together to reflect and create around Myths and Murals, “promoting a common sense of national identity through art and story and collaborative strategies for engagement”. The cross-cultural public art and literacy project, between artists from Melbourne and the East Timorese free art school Arte Moris, takes...
Brazilian Police Seize Activists’ ‘Subversive’ Books
"The warrant makes it clear that police are investigating the political organizations that are somehow embedded in this year's protests, trying to identify (read: forge) a conspiracy."
Future Places: Digital Media Tools for Citizenship
Future Places, a former digital media festival that is turning into a “media lab for citizenship” for its sixth edition, will take place in Porto, Portugal, from October 28 to November 2, 2013. “A festival without an audience, where everyone who is present participates and discovers in real time ways of collaborating”,...
Activists Demand Release of Angola's Youngest Political Prisoner
It has been more than a month since a 17-year-old activist from Angola was detained after allegedly having ordered the print of 20 t-shirts saying “[President] José Eduardo out! Disgusting dictator”. Manuel Chivonde Baptista ‘Nito Alves’ was jailed on September 12, 2013, and is currently at Luanda central prison, after a few days of solitary...
Elderly Care in Portugal Highlighted on Blog Action Day
The Community Center of Gafanha do Carmo [pt], in Ílhavo, was highlighted by João Paulo Pedrosa as a positive example [pt] concerning elderly care in Portugal. On October 16's Blog Action Day dedicated to human rights, the blogger, from Malfadado o Contestatário, started by questioning: Quantas pessoas idosas vêem os seus direitos ignorados, esquecidos ou até...
Brazil and Germany Debate ‘Democracy in the Digital Era’
Experts and scholars from Germany and Brazil will get together at a symposium to discuss Democracy in the Digital Era [pt] from October 17 to 18, 2013 in Salvador, the capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia. The event will be broadcast live via video stream. In the morning of the...
Portugal: A Digital Narrative Around Food, Crisis and Territory
The historical Mouraria neighborhood in Lisbon, Portugal, can now be explored in a ground breaking web documentary, Mundo Mouraria. In a true digital narrative form, the documentary makes a map available to help visitors wander the streets, sounds and flavors of Mouraria while getting to know the stories of six local dwellers. Its synopsis reads: Here...
Re-Imagining Lusophony and Decolonizing the Mind
The Fourth International Congress in Cultural Studies – Colonialisms, Post-colonialisms and Lusophonies has a call for paper submissions open until October 15, 2013 November 15, 2013 [deadline has been extended]: To demystify, to dehierarchize, to establish a policy of difference, to allow a multiplicity of voices, to constitute so many projects of possible modernities/rationalities...
VIDEO: Lend Your Voice to a Dead Poet
A project by Brazilian poetry magazine Modo de Usar & Co. [pt] invites poetry lovers from around the world to read out loud their favorite authors and submit the footage of their readings on YouTube. The project is called “Lend your voice to a dead poet”. Most of the poems are in...
From Brazil to the World: the Marco Civil and Internet Governance
The path that Brazil is taking towards the development of digital policies and Internet governance could serve as the model for the rest of the world.
Brazil's Cyberculture Has a New Book
A new book on cyberactivism and mobilization on social networks, @ Internet e # Rua (The Internet and the Street) [pt] has been launched in Brazil. The authors, cyber activists and scholars Fabio Malini (@fabiomalini), from the Federal University of Espírito Santo, and Henrique Antoun (@antounh), from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, sum...
Crowdsourcing Accountability of the Electoral Campaign in Portugal
[All links lead to Portuguese language pages.] In the run up for this week's municipal elections in Portugal, the platform Campanha Limpa (Clean Campaign) invites all citizens to help monitor electoral spending, by sending pictures of campaign materials such as posters, banners, signs, gifts and treats, rallies and events. The platform, an...