Stories about Citizen Media from December, 2009
Russia: Google Bus Stop Ads Hacked
While Russia and the U.S. were holding meetings on cyber warfare, Russian activists took the process of hacking from virtual space to real bus stops in Moscow where they slightly altered original Google ads.
ICT4D: Past mistakes, future wisdom
What makes an ICT4D project fizzle out? What are the common mistakes that donors, planners and implementers make when trying to run an ICT4D project? Practitioners discuss in a public Twitter chat.
Dispatch from Copenhagen: Demands for Climate Justice
Saffah Faroog is one of four Global Voices Authors in Copenhagen during the United Nations Climate Change Summit covering the lively conversations occurring in the blogosphere surrounding COP15.
Why does homosexuality need an etiology?
Pakistani blogger buttersisonlymyname pens her thoughts at Bazm-e-Rindaan, on the various ongoing discussions trying to explain homosexuality. According to her, ‘trying to ‘explain’ homosexuality is a heteronormative, and even sometimes a homophobic thing to do’.
Ghana: President Atta Mills up against his own party?
In the months leading to the election of President John Evans Atta Mills, many Ghanaians, including those abroad, feared that a New Democratic Congress (NDC) win would morph into another reign by the party’s founder and former military ruler, President Jerry John Rawlings.
Armenia: 21st Anniversary of the 1988 Earthquake
Monday marked the 21st anniversary of the 1988 earthquake which devastated many areas in northern Armenia leaving around 25,000 dead and many more homeless. Bloggers examine conditions in the region more than two decades later.
Brazil: Call for a boycott of the country's biggest newspaper
Brazilian bloggers have gathered in protest against what they call Coupist Press Party, at the same time they call for people to stop buying, reading or commenting and instead to un-subscribe to Folha de São Paulo and its website.
Kenya: Bloggers discuss Kenyan explosive drama, Shuga
Staying alive campaign being the world largest youth focused HIV prevention campaign content together with MTV bring an explosive drama for the world AIDS Day Shuga . Shuga slides away from the ordinary comfort zone and portrays life of six college students living the life on the first lane: alcohol, sex, love and money and focuses on how the youth put themselves and others at risk of contracting HIV.
Africa: Marking World AIDS Day Poetically
Blogger poets in Africa mark World Aids Day 2009 with selective words to describe the registry of emotions triggered by a pandemic that still sees no end.
Australia Faces 2010 Climate Change Election
The fortnight before Copenhagen has seen a topsy-turvy political bun-fight in Australian climate politics. The Rudd Labor government’s Emissions Trading Scheme Bill was amended after negotiations with the conservative Liberal National Coalition, only to be defeated by them in the Senate
Congo: Doctors without Borders tell people's stories through web video
Condition Critical is a website showcasing the stories of victims of the violence in Eastern Congo coordinated and launched by Doctors without Borders/Medecins sans Frontiers (MSF). With slideshows and first person accounts, they give a face to the conflict.
Portuguese-speaking bloggers on World Aids Day '09
This World Aids Day Lusophone bloggers in different parts of the world reflect on the suffering caused by the human immunodeficiency virus.
M-banking: Going where no bank has gone before
Millions and millions of low-income, unbanked people stand to benefit (and maybe prosper?) from the development of mobile financial services in the next years, but there are several technological, logistical, and security challenges that must be addressed first.
Young Leaders from Sweden and Middle East in Dialogue
Last month, the Swedish Institute in Paris hosted a meeting of 26 young people from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Sweden to improve dialogue between opinion leaders in Sweden, the Middle East and North Africa. Global Voices in French was there.
Climate Change Skeptics Incited by Leaked Emails
Hundreds of emails and documents from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia (UEA) have been hacked and posted online, adding fuel to the beliefs of climate change skeptics.
Brazil: Hacking for transparency and the right to information
Brazilians have started to debate their 'Right to Information'. While a bill has been introduced in the congress, cyberactivists are hacking their way toward enforcing transparency and access to public data.
Namibia: The role of new media in 2009 elections
Namibia's presidential and national assembly elections took place on 27–28 November 2009. Political parties and non-governmental organisations used a number of social media tools to campaign, monitor and report on elections.
Japan: Moving Beyond a TV Drama Production
There are some television shows that become fashion trend setters (à la Sex and the City) but what would you think if a show was designed as a vehicle to sell clothes? With television stations in a financial slump with shrinking advertising revenues, Kansai Television is experimenting with a new...
