Annie Machon

Boiling Frogs

This Saturday, October 2, I'll be speaking at the Southwark Playhouse in London, in between the matinee and evening performances of an excellent new play by Steven Bloomer called "Boiling Frogs".  The play looks at the erosion of civil liberties in the UK, in the name of protecting us from the "war on terror", and is being performed by The Factory, an innovative theatre troupe.

My talk will be called "Are We There Yet?", and will assess how far down the road the UK has moved towards being a de facto police state: what do we mean by this, and what are the indicators we should watch out for?

Bits of Freedom - Amsterdam Talk, 16 September 2010

It's going to be a busy month for talks - I'll be in Amsterdam with the Dutch (digital) civil rights organisation, Bits of Freedom, on 16th September.  I use the brackets consciously, as I don't personally see a distinction between rights in the physical or digital world - the underlying principles are the same.

BoF is doing great work, so anyone within striking distance of Amstie please come along, not only for the talk, but for what also promises to be a great social evening!

If you can't make that night, I seriously recommend coming along to a BoF dinner on 24th September, where the guest of honour is acclaimed journalist, blogger and author, Cory Doctorow.  I had the pleasure of meeting up with him a couple of years ago in London - an extremely switched on man.

I really, really enjoyed his digital activists' handbook - sorry, novel - "Little Brother", ostensibly aimed at the young adult market.  But, hey, we're all young at heart, and this book is spot on!

Watch out, Big Brother.....

Upcoming New York Conference: how the world changed after 9/11

Looking forward to speaking at this conference next weekend!

A timely and necessary debate about the vital, but increasingly fragile, state of our democracy and basic civil rights.

And what a great line up - well done to the organisers! 

Some of the other speakers are old friends I've worked with before, some I look forward to meeting for the first time.