· November, 2008

Stories about Citizen Media from November, 2008

Congratulations Pour in on Queen Rania's Youtube Award

  26 November 2008

Bloggers from across the Middle East and North Africa are tipping their hats to Jordan's Queen Rania, and her visionary initiative on YouTube, after she was awarded YouTube's first-ever Visionary Award for launching an interactive online channel to combat stereotypes and misconceptions associated with Arabs and Muslims.

India: First photographs of Mumbai blasts on flickr

  26 November 2008

The first photographs from Mumbai on flickr are coming up. Vinu from Vinu's Online Cloud has uploaded a lot of photographs from the streets of Mumbai. MumbaiHelp is back online and offering to make call for anyone who can't get through to their families and friends. Leave a message if...

India: Blasts, Gunfire and Terror in Mumbai

  26 November 2008

In a series of blasts and shoot outs, the city of Mumbai appears to have come under attack. According to the news, there appear to be at least seven different locations in the city that have been attacked. In an unprecedented sort of terror, a combination of gun fire, blasts,...

Latin American Bloggers jump into Reality Television

  24 November 2008

Chevrolet and NatGeo have launched a reality show that mixes driving, tourism, gadgets and blogging throughout South America. On The Road Again follows 6 bloggers in 6 different countries, driving around, taking tours and documenting their experiences through streaming video, blog posts and pictures, and it will later on be featured on a NatGeo channel show.

Venezuela: Following the Local Elections Online

  23 November 2008

Today Venezuela is taking part in elections for mayors and governors., which will paint the political map between States and Municipalities aligned with President Hugo Chávez or not. Venezuelan bloggers and twitter users are covering the election with the tag #23N and a campaign was launched to encourage people to vote and discuss the elections among their friends and family.

Japan: Suginami Ward proposes removal of Street View images

  23 November 2008

Following on a request by the Machida city council for regulation of Google's Street View service, recently introduced in Japan, Asiajin reports that the ward of Suginami in central Tokyo has advised its residents on how to submit [ja] takedown requests to Google. An article at Asahi reports that Suginami...

China: Baidu's new scandal.

  22 November 2008

CCTV reported that Baidu, referred to as China's Google, had accepted money from illegal medical companies and placed their Web links on top of search results. Baidu’s marketing employees were also reported to have the knowledge of these.The service is called page-rank bid and accounts for more than 80% of...

Hungary, Slovakia: Tense Relationship

  22 November 2008

On Nov. 15, Slovak prime minister Robert Fico and his Hungarian counterpart, Ferenc Gyurcsány, met in the border town of Komárno, Slovakia, in an attempt to ease nationalist tensions that have escalated due to Nov. 1 football game violence in Dunajská Streda, Slovakia. Eva S. Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum has been blogging a lot recently about the Slovak-Hungarian relations, and here are some of the highlights.

Japan: Revision of the Nationality Law

  21 November 2008

On the 4th of June, on the occasion of cases filed in 2003 [en] and in 2005 whose protagonists were 10 children born out of wedlock to Japanese fathers and Filipino mothers, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an article of the Nationality Law[en] because it infringes on Article 14 of...

Rain in the Middle East

  20 November 2008

It's raining in the Middle East and bloggers are taking to their keyboards to register their thoughts about the change in climate. Here's review of what some bloggers in Saudi Arabia, Libya, Kuwait, the UAE and Israel had to say about the rain.

Japan: 10,000 signatures to support a café

  20 November 2008

A small independent café, Berg, is facing possible eviction from a shopping complex in Shinjuku, adjacent to the world's busiest train station. The building owner wants the 50-square-metre café out because the café owner has refused to sign a new contract that allows the company to evict its tenant after...