cheesebikini?

Lovely and talented Mie lives in Tokyo. Dashing, fleet-footed Dav lives in San Francisco — downstairs in my house.

Dav and Mie have a thing goin’ on…

Mie has one of those new cel phones with a digital camera built in. Dav arranged things so that Mie can take a snapshot anywhere, at any time, and that image will immediately appear on Tokyo Tidbits, a special blog site that he created.

Now Dav bought a similar device for himself. When it arrives, distant Mie will tune in to the latest images from Dav’s San Francisco life. Choke on that, Hallmark…

These networked, wireless camera devices are just the thing for long-distance puppy lovin’. But here’s what I love most about them: they comprise a powerful new weapon against censorship and brutality. They allow people to immediately distribute evidence of wrongdoing without fearing that local authorities might examine or confiscate their film. Take a snapshot and the photo disappears from your device; but within minutes that image appears in the e-mail boxes of friends and colleagues around the world, or if you prefer, it’s stored safely on a server on the other side of the planet.

Networked wireless camera devices are becoming cheaper and more popular by the month. (How cheap? Consider Dav’s hiptop phone/camera/Internet device: it costs $99 with a special December Amazon rebate, and the service costs $40 per month, which includes always-on Internet access and a basic cel phone plan). And these prices should fall substantially in the years to come.

Already folks are sharing their photos from the field on sites like Hiptop Nation.

With fascism on the rise and civil liberties under siege all over the planet, innovations like these keep me from losing hope. Injustices will continue. But as more people can afford to arm themselves with wireless networked cameras, fewer injustices will go undocumented and unpunished.

[ More inspiring thoughts about mobile blogging: “From Weblog to Moblog” by Justin Hall. ]