February 1, 2010

Smuggling Cory Doctorow Into a Dictatorship

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Today Digital Democracy previewed this hot little mockup of a cover for its upcoming Burmese translations of Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, whose premise of citizens forced to fight the man with the Internets happens to describe the nonfiction drama of Burma’s activists. The “Little Brother vs. Big Brother” initiative was itself an experiment in techno-democracy, paid for by crowdsourcing on Kickstarter, backed by the author and original publisher, and further supported by a generous designer. The goal? “[T]o inspire people from the country with Cory Doctorow’s compelling tale of a teen and his friends who take on Big Brother, using technology to challenge an authoritarian regime.” The strategy? Clandestinely spreading free electronic editions around a country where even watching the most recent installment of Rambo is an imprisonable offense. Cofounder Mark Belinksy says they hope to have completed translations circulating in six months. Is there anything motivated geeks can’t do?

 

(h/t @IsaacFitzgerald)

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