Change.org is a website that aims to promote social change by the use of online petitions. The site is operated by Change.org, Inc., a for profit and certified B Corporation^[1] incorporated in Delaware, whose businesses include hosting sponsored campaigns. Organizations like Amnesty International and the Humane Society pay the site to host their petitions.^[2] Its stated mission is to "empower anyone, anywhere to start, join, and win campaigns for social change."^[3] In addition, "millions of people sign petitions on Change.org each month on thousands of issues, winning campaigns every day to advance change locally and globally." Their top causes range from economic and criminal justice, human rights, education, the environment, animals, health, and sustainable food.^[4]

History[link]

Change.org was launched on February 7, 2007^[5] by current CEO Ben Rattray, Mark Dimas and Adam Cheyer.^[6] As of February 2012, the site has 100 employees with offices on 4 continents. By the end of 2012, Rattray stated "he plans to have offices in 20 countries and to operate in several more languages, including Arabic and Chinese."^[7]

In 2008, the organization partnered with MySpace to create an index of crowdsourced ideas for implementation by the incoming presidency of Barack Obama,^[8] drawing comparisons to similar approaches by change.gov.

In 2010, Change.org helped to inaugurate Blog Action Day.

In 2011, Change.org claimed it was the subject of a distributed denial of service attack by "Chinese hackers",^[9] and that the alleged attack was apparently related to its petition to the Chinese government to release artist Ai Weiwei.^[10]

In 2012, Arizona State University decided to block access to Change.org in response to a petition created by student Eric Haywood protesting "rising tuition costs at the school." ASU officials claimed that "Change.org is a spam site" and the blocking was conducted "to protect the use of our limited and valuable network resources for legitimate academic, research, and administrative uses."^[11] In response, Internet Campaign Director Josh Levy of the Free Press, stated that "disabling access to any lawful site violates the spirit and principles of Net Neutrality, chills academic freedom, and possibly rises to the level of a First Amendment violation."^[12]

It was reported on April 5th, 2012 that Change.org hit 10 million members, and is currently the fastest-growing social action platform on the web. They are currently receiving 500 new petitions per day. ^[13]

On 13 May, 2012, The Guardian^[14], BBC News^[15] and other sources reported that Change.org would launch a UK-specific platform for petitions, placing Change.org in competition with 38 Degrees.

Petitions[link]

On March 8, 2012, a petition entitled "Prosecute the killer of our son, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin" was posted on Change.org. The petition unprecedentedly garnered over 2.2 million signatures - the largest number of signatures for any campaign in Change.org's history, and currently a top featured petition on the site.^[16] The petition called for the prosecution of George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, who, on February 26, 2012, shot and killed Trayvon Martin in a community in Sanford, Florida, a suburb of Orlando. Zimmerman, armed with a 9mm gun, said he was acting in "self-defense" against the unarmed teenager, and he was set free the night of the killing without charges filed against him by the Sanford Police Department. The fact that Zimmerman was set free after killing the unarmed Trayvon Martin ignited a firestorm of protest and outrage across the United States, with social media technology (including Change.org's petition) playing a pivotal role in spreading awareness about the killing, and the inaction of the Sanford Police, to millions of people worldwide. On April 11, 2012, George Zimmerman was arrested and sent to jail after being charged with 2nd-degree murder by special prosecutor Angela Corey.

On October 1, 2011 Molly Katchpole, a "22 year old nanny with two jobs" in Washington DC, started a petition on Change.org "asking Bank of America and their CEO Bryan Moynihan to drop its unexpected new $5/month banking fee" for debit card customers. Less than 1 month later, 300,000 signatures were collected and resulted in Bank of America formally announcing to drop the new banking fee. President Barack Obama signed the petition, US Senator Durbin, Illinois (D) responded to Bank of America and the petition on Twitter, and it prompted Congress to "look at legislation for out-of-control banking fees."^[17]

In December 2011, a fourth-grade class in Brookline, MA launched the "Lorax Petition Project" through Change.org requesting Universal Studios to include more of an environmental message on their website and trailer for their upcoming movie, "The Lorax", a classic Dr. Seuss children's story. The website and trailer lacked the important message from the book, "to help the environment."^[18] They collected over 57,000 signatures (including Edward Norton's), and on January 26, 2012 Universal Studios updated the website "with the environmental message the kids had requested."^[19]

On February 2, 2012 a petition on Change.org started by Stef Gray, a 23 year old graduate in New York, received around 110,000 signers (as of Feb 5 2012) in response to Sallie Mae, the "nation's largest private student-loan provider," which resulted in the company changing their forebearance fee policy.^[20]

In 2012, a petition was started on change.org to return Fishers Island from New York to Connecticut. [[2]]

Business Model[link]

The website makes revenue by running sponsored campaigns for advocacy organizations such as Amnesty International^[21] and list-building services to partner organizations.^[22]

Criticism[link]

Under certain conditions^[23] signatures and other private information including email addresses and can be found by search engines. Change.org operates a system for signature hiding, which works only if the user has an account on Change.org, but^[24] it does not work if the signature was forged or appears on another site operated by Change.org, PetitionOnline. That has drawn heavy criticism from (unintended) users, as in addition even multiple support requests on both the Change.org and PetitionOnline helpdesks are answered with great delay, if at all. Any support on PetitionOnline seems to have ended.

See also[link]

• Activism 2.0
• Avaaz.org
• Care2
• GetUp!
• iPetitions
• Slacktivism
• We the People (Whitehouse.gov petition website)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Change

Look up change in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Change may refer to:

The process of becoming different[link]

• Impermanence
• Social change
• Biological metamorphosis
• Change (mathematics), the mathematical study of change
• Percentage change, in statistics
• Fold change, in statistics
• The Chinese philosophical concept of change explored in the I Ching or Book of Changes.
• Personal development - especially if seen as personally "life-changing"
• Changing clothes
• Changing money
• The change (also the change of life), an informal alternate term for menopause

In music[link]

Bands[link]

• Change (band), an Italian-American post-disco group active in the 1980s
• Change (also known as Clockwork and Jimmy and the Soulblazers), an American R&B group active in the 1970s

Songs[link]

• "Change" (Daniel Merriweather song)
• "Change" (Every Little Thing song)
• "Change" (Hotel FM song)
• "Change (In the House of Flies)", a Deftones song
• "Change" (Killing Joke song)
• "Change" (Kimberley Locke song)
• "Change" (Lisa Stansfield song)
• "Change" (Miwa song)
• "Change" (Sugababes song)
• "Change" (Taylor Swift song)
• "Change" (Tears for Fears song)
• "Change" (Hyuna song)
• "Change", a song by Oingo Boingo from their 1994 album Boingo
• "Change", a song by Blind Melon from their 1992 album Blind Melon
• "Change", a song by Crazy Town from their 2002 album Darkhorse
• "Change", a song by Axium from their 2002 album Matter of Time
• "Change", a 2001 song by Conor and Jay, featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto III
• "Change", a 2005 song by Tracy Chapman on the album Where You Live
• "Change", a 2008 song by Tess Gaerthé
• "Change", a song by Bobby Darin, used in the 2004 film Beyond The Sea
• "Change", a song by Fishbone on the album Truth and Soul
• "Change", a song by John Waite
• "Change", a song by T-Pain from the album Thr33 Ringz
• "Change", a song by Carrie Underwood
• "Change", a song by Keri Hilson
• "Change", a song by Sparks

Albums[link]

• Change (The Alarm album)
• Change (Vanessa Amorosi album)
• Change!, an album by the Black Swans
• Change (The Dismemberment Plan album)
• Change (Every Little Thing album)
• Change (Andrew Hill album)
• Change (Richie Kotzen album)
• Change (Pink Cream 69 album)
• Change (Sons of the Desert album)
• Change (Sugababes album)
• Change (Ray Wilson album)
• Change, by Bakithi Kumalo
• Changed (Rascal Flatts album)

Places[link]

• Change Islands, Newfoundland and Labrador
• Change, Nepal
• Change, Saône-et-Loire, France
• Changé, Mayenne, France
• Changé, Sarthe, France
• Le Change, Dordogne, France

Other uses[link]

• Loose change, coin money
• Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment (CHANGE), a civic organization based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Change (TV series), 2008 Japanese television drama starring Takuya Kimura and Eri Fukatsu
• Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, a journal published for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching by Heldref Publications
• Change.gov, the website for the Obama administration's transition (November 2008 to January 2009)
• Change 2011, a Finnish political party
• Movement for Change, an Iraqi Kurdish political party

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Change"
• All pages with titles containing "Change"
• Changes (disambiguation)
• Chang'e, the Chinese goddess of the moon
• Chang'e (disambiguation)
• "Changing", a song by Saosin from the album In Search of Solid Ground
• Hysteresis (lag or resistance to change)
• Identity and change
• Impermanence

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

The Open Rights Group (ORG) is a UK-based organisation that works to preserve digital rights and freedoms by campaigning on digital rights issues, acting as a media clearinghouse service putting journalists in touch with experts, and by fostering a community of grassroots activists. It campaigns against digital rights management (DRM), the extension of the term of copyright protection afforded to sound recordings, e-voting, and numerous other issues.

History[link]

The organisation was started by Danny O'Brien, Cory Doctorow, Ian Brown, Rufus Pollock, James Cronin, Stefan Magdalinski, Louise Ferguson and Suw Charman after a panel discussion at Open Tech 2005.^[1] O'Brien created a pledge on PledgeBank, placed on 23 July 2005, with a deadline of 25 December 2005: "I will create a standing order of 5 pounds per month to support an organisation that will campaign for digital rights in the UK but only if 1,000 other people will too." The pledge reached 1000 people on 29 November 2005.^[2],[3] The Open Rights Group was launched at a "sell-out" meeting in Soho, London.^[4][5]

Work[link]

The group has made submissions to the All Party Internet Group (APIG) inquiry into digital rights management^[6],[7] and the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property^[8],[9].

The group was honoured in the 2008 Privacy International Big Brother Awards alongside No2ID, Liberty, Genewatch UK and others, as a recognition of their efforts to keep state and corporate mass surveillance at bay^[10].

In 2010 the group worked with 38 Degrees^[11] to oppose the introduction of the Digital Economy Act, which was passed in April 2010.^[12]

Goals[link]

• To raise awareness in the media of digital rights abuses.
• To provide a media clearinghouse, connecting journalists with experts and activists.
• To preserve and extend traditional civil liberties in the digital world.
• To collaborate with other digital rights and related organisations.
• To nurture a community of campaigning volunteers, from grassroots activists to technical and legal experts.

Areas of interest[link]

The organisation, though focused on the impact of digital technology on the liberty of UK citizens, operates with an apparently wide range of interests within that category. Its interests include^[13][14]:

Access to knowledge[link]

• Copyright
  • The public domain
  • Free and open source software
  • Creative Commons
• Digital Restrictions Management
• Software patents
• Crown copyright

Government and democracy[link]

• Electronic voting
• Freedom of information legislation

Privacy, surveillance and censorship[link]

• Automatic Vehicle Tracking
• Police DNA Records
• NHS patients’ medical database
• Communications data retention
• Identity management
• RFID
• Net Neutrality

Structure[link]

ORG has a paid staff^[15], whose members include:

• Jim Killock (Executive Director)
• Peter Bradwell (Campaigner)
• Javier Ruiz Diaz (Campaigner)

Former staff include Suw Charman-Anderson and Becky Hogge, both Executive Directors, e-voting coordinator Jason Kitcat, grassroots campaigner Katie Sutton and administrator Katerina Maniadaki^[16]. The group's patron is Neil Gaiman^[17]. As of February 2011 they have 22,000 supporters of which 1,400 are paying contributors^[18]

Advisory council and board of directors[link]

In addition to staff members and volunteers, there is an advisory panel of over thirty members, and a Board of Directors, which oversees the group's work, staff, fundraising and policy^[19]. The current board members are Emma Byrne, Simon Collister, James Cronin, Ben Laurie, Neil McGovern, Harry Metcalfe, Danny O'Brien and Vijay Sodiwala.

ORGCON[link]

ORGCON was the first ever conference dedicated to digital rights in the UK^[20], marketed as "a crash course in digital rights". It was held on 24 July 2010 at City University in London and included keynote talks from Cory Doctorow, politicians and similar pressure groups including Liberty, NO2ID and Big Brother Watch.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Open Rights Group website

See also[link]

• Digital Rights Ireland
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Electronic Frontiers Australia
• Electronic Frontier Canada
• Internet censorship
• Open Genealogy Alliance
• OpenMedia.ca

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Laura Cecilia Bozzo Rotondo (born August 19, 1951) is a television talk show host, best known for hosting Spanish-language talk show Laura en América (Laura in America) that was broadcast in the United States on the Telemundo television network. Of Italian Peruvian descent,^[1] she has hosted other talk shows under her name, including Laura en América back in the 1990s to early 2000s.^[2] Her talk shows have been compared to the American English-language Jerry Springer Show due to the fights that regularly occur as well as the sensitive subject matter routinely discussed.^[2] In 2008, a scandal erupted when it was discovered by the Peruvian press, led by important figures such as Jaime Bayly, that some of the shows provided by Laura Bozzo were fake and therefore did not show the true society of Peru.^[3]

Biography[link]

She studied law in Lima, Peru, receiving degrees in law and political science there and teaching classes within such fields in various universities. In 1993, she became the regidora (alderman) of metropolitan Lima. In 1998, she organized the organization Solidaridad de Familia (Family Solidarity) as a charitable foundation to assist people from Peru and other Latin American nations with legal, medical, and psychological problems; which has been under much criticism for increasing suspicion of being funded by former president Alberto Fujimori.^[4]

As talk show host[link]

In February 1998, the American Spanish-language broadcast network Telemundo began broadcasting her show Laura en América on its affiliates.^[5] The show soon began to be shown all over Latin America.^[2] Similar in nature to the American Jerry Springer Show, it routinely featured guests usually having troubles within their lives, including infidelity. Usually, the show would expose evidence of wrongdoing by the suspect that the guest presents, leading to fighting between guests.^[6] The authenticity of the show has been questioned, given the unusually sensational subjects explored.^[7] By the end of the year, Bozzo moved to Miami, Florida.^[1]

2006, Bozzo's RAT contract with Telemundo expired after five years, so she moved her production to Televisa; production of Laura en America ended in July 2006.^[8] In October 2006, Bozzo appeared on the program ¿Dónde estás corazón? on the network Antena 3 from Spain, criticizing Alejandro Toledo for causing her arrest.^[9]

On July 11, 2006, just a few days before the one-year anniversary of her release from house arrest, Laura Bozzo was convicted of all the charges against her and was sentenced to four consecutive years in prison. Laura later informed a local television station, Canal 9, that she planned to use a newly enacted law in her favor and sue the Peruvian government.^[10]

In January 2007, Bozzo attempted to enter the Spanish TV market through Spain's Telecinco, but once some executives saw pilots of the program, a proposal for a new Bozzo show was canceled.^[11] On November 6, 2007, her new show Laura en acción debuted on Telemundo in the United States. However, in March 2008, lawyer Freddy Escobar started an investigation about the possible illegal use of minors in her program, being exposed on TV to present fake cases of family sex violence.^[12] A scandal involving an underage woman who appeared on Laura en acción caused the show to be canceled by Peruvian network América Televisión, in which the show originally aired.^[13][14] Telemundo stopped airing the series by the beginning of May 2008.^[15]

As talk show host in Mexico[link]

In June 2009, Laura Bozzo made her television reappearance after her last talk show, Laura en Acción was cancelled on April 2008. Bozzo relocated herself in Mexico and started working on many shows on Televisa, the largest Spanish-speaking television network in all of Latin America, but then she went to TV Azteca and hosted the talkshow Laura de todos (shortened from Laura de todos: sin miedo a la verdad), for two years and a half. Laura Bozzo's show aired on Azteca 13 at 17:00 hrs. CT in the country. The show was also televised in the United States, through Azteca America at 20:00 hrs. On September 20, 2010 Laura left the show after having differences with the executives of TV Azteca. Bozzo was replaced by the Mexican television host Rocío Sánchez Azuara with the return of the talk show Cosas de la vida. Laura Bozzo returned to Televisa.

She signed a contract for five years with Televisa to make a new show called Laura herself and Federico Wilkins were the producers of Laura. Wilkins was fired after making up that Laura's boyfriend Cristian Suárez^{[disambiguation needed ]} was cheating on her with Karina Alvarez Gabriel Vasquez Woodman took over the production. The talk show airs on Canal de las Estrellas network in Mexico. The show premiered on January 24, 2011, at 16:00 hrs the show airs for 1 hour and 30 minutes. (CT), the show also airs on Saturdays at 17 hrs. The show's premiere live in Mexico was very successful with 18.9 points in rating and 40.5 in share and on its second day the show reached 19.4 in rating beating its competition. On February 7, 2011, Laura started airing in the United States through Telefutura at 7/6c pm competing with Telemundo's Caso cerrado.^[16] Although the show was cancelled due to low ratings and other factors on April 2011,^[17] Telefutura is airing Laura again at 2pm/1pm central as of October 10, 2011.^[18]

References[link]

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Katy Butler is an American Buddhist journalist best known for narrative nonfiction that combines memoir and investigative reporting. Her work has appeared in Best American Essays, Best American Science Writing, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and Best Buddhist Writing.^[1]

Born in South Africa in 1949, Butler grew up in England and the Boston area. After an internship at the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Butler became a staff reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, where she stayed for 12 years. Since then, she has written for Mother Jones, the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, Vogue, The Village Voice, Tricycle (The Buddhist Quarterly), More magazine and Psychotherapy Networker magazine^[2], among others.^[3]

A Buddhist since 1977, Butler was lay ordained by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh^[4] and has co-led small meditation groups. In the 1980s she exposed abuses of sexuality and power by leaders of American Buddhist communities.^[5] In 2004, she was a finalist for a National Magazine Award for an essay about applying traditional religious practices to the chaos of modern life. She teaches writing at the Esalen Institute^[6] and was a speaker at The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard's 2008 and 2009 conferences on Narrative Nonfiction.

In 2010, the Nieman Foundation named "What Broke My Father's Heart," an essay about how a pacemaker forced her "father's heart to outlive his brain" a "notable narrative."^[7] The essay, first published in the New York Times Magazine^[8], also won awards for national journalism from the National Association of Science Writers^[9] and the Association of Health Care Journalists.^[10]

Other honors include writing residencies at Mesa Refuge, Hedgebrook, and Blue Mountain Center.^[11]

References[link]

External links[link]

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