Last November I was invited to participate in the conference “Cultura Social Media 2020” organized by the Escuela de Comunicaciones y Periodismo de la Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, in Chile, and delivered, via Zoom, a keynote about youth and digital citizenship. Moreover, I had the opportunity to join Sonia Livingstone in a discussion about how to bring…
Among all the variety of cumbias that have traveled across the Americas, the Cumbia Sabanera is one of my favorites. Its tempo, cadence, instruments, and lyrics are deeply connected to the culture of the Colombian Caribbean savanna and are powerful expressions of the sensibility of indigenous and mestizo peoples living in these extensive and warm…
The relationship between youth and digital technology has been at the center of the public discourse about digital culture, education and socialization in the last two decades. From the myth of the digital native to the alarms about cyber-bullying to the promotion of ed-tech and the debates about children digital rights young people have been…
Big data about individuals and populations is one of the most important resources we have today for understanding our societies, and for communicating and taking decisions. The pandemic we are confronting has confirmed that fact. Data visualizations about the exponential spread of the virus (“the curve”) in cities, countries and the world have been used…
The pandemic and the global public health crisis have proven the resilience and adaptability of the Internet and the ecosystem of digital platforms. Social networks, cloud services, streaming video, music and game platforms, and a wide variety of mobile applications have successfully supported the growth in user demand and services around the world. With millions…
while the city still sleeps
dream drops hit our windows
birds break the silence of night
it is vigil or is a dream?
urban lucid dreams
half-asleep
early daylight paints streets and sidewalks
and the colors of dawn touch closed doors and parked cars
stolid urban flows
paused
muted
half-awake stores, amenities, and buildings
wait for dwellers
quite, still, and dull
quarantine mist blurs our city consciousness
it has not cleared out yet
in-between sleep and wakefulness
we cross the threshold
another day begins
Sheltering in place during the quarantine is like a long voyage. A long trip without movement. A journey without clear time of arrival. Some times I have the feeling the quarantine we are experiencing is like a cosmic voyage. An interplanetary expedition. Imagine cruising the universe in a spaceship. The tips of the astronaut Scott…