Smuggling Cory Doctorow Into a Dictatorship

Test Ticker

THE FIRST $500,000

This is a big one: the first time we’re asking for the donations Mother Jones relies on since joining forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting. So in “Less Dreading, More Doing,” we lay it all out for you—why we merged, how we’re stronger together, and why we’re more optimistic than normal about the work ahead. It still won’t be easy. Please help us raise the First $500,000 we need by June 22.

This is big. Mother Jones just merged with the Center for Investigative Reporting, and this is the first time we’re asking for the donations we rely on. So we lay it all out for you in “Less Dreading, More Doing,” and we need to raise the First $500,000 in online donations by June 22. It won’t be easy. Please help if you can.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

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?