· December, 2012

Stories about Ideas from December, 2012

Japan's Kanji of the Year 2012

  31 December 2012

The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation has announced the kanji of the year 2012 is gold (金) on December 12, 2012. How do netizens conceive this announcement and how do they look back this year?

Costa Rica: Of Mills and a New Year

  31 December 2012

There were days when I felt the mill go slowly, too slowly, desperately slowly. Other days, I felt the mill spinning vertiginously, so I couldn't take a breathe and just wanted to get off the mill and run away. Heidy, from Mi mundo mágico (My magic world) draws a parallel...

“Nobody Gets Mad on the Last Day”

  31 December 2012

Remembering his school days, Tomas Bradanovic [es] writes on his self-named blog “at elementary school, the last day of school year was the occasion for commiting any kind of mischievousness because there was no point for us to be sent to the principal's office”. Then, he reviews his own 2012...

Macedonia: Beer Belly Blog Anniversary

  27 December 2012

The “Beer Belly” blog celebrated [mk, mk] its first anniversary. Its author @Twibi thanked members of the Macedonian Twitter community who have been bringing him beer samples from their trips all over the world to review. So far, he has made 198 posts about beers from 20 countries, including Kenya...

Brazilian Memes and Internet Culture in 2012

  27 December 2012

What was the best of the crazy world of Brazilian memes and Internet culture in 2012? One thing is for sure “Brazil can do virals”, says Anna Heim from The Next Web, in an post she wrote in collaboration with Bia Granja, from youPIX.

Macedonia: Nude Art Twitter Calendar for Charity

  24 December 2012

Twelve Macedonian women – regular Twitter users – took part in a humanitarian project organized by @IlinaBookbox, two photographers and one designer via the hashtag #ТвитерКалендар (Macedonian for ‘Twitter Calendar’). The resulting nude art calendar was donated to anti-cancer association Borka [wallpapers available via mk, mk, sq]. The original photos...

Promoting Recycling in Macedonia

  24 December 2012

Continuing the tradition that started last year (en, mk, nl, es), the Macedonian Twitter community has erected a new Christmas Tree made of plastic bottles (mk, mk, photos 1, 2, 3) in Skopje City Park in order to raise awareness of the importance of recycling. The event was again organized...

A special Christmas gift

  24 December 2012

Peruvian blogger Cyrano [es] from Columna 17 ends his five-part series of Christmas-related posts republishing an article by Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez and says [es]: I hope you all like these words as much as I did and may them be my virtual present to all of you....

Two Coins for the Boatman

  21 December 2012

From Guatemala, Fe de Rata‘s blogger Juan Pablo Dardón, lists his plan [es] for the end of times: I woke up early and put two golden coins one for each shoe […] two coins I'm telling you when meteorites fall down and all this gets open as an orange […]...

Inappropriate Analogy for Greece-Macedonia Name Dispute

  14 December 2012

Responding to an assertion by Gerald Knaus… Athens and Skopje face a [prisoner's dilemma]: if neither side believes that a solution is possible, and acts on this, both will lose. …Zarko Trajanoski wrote on Facebook: However, the analogy with “prisoner's dilemma” is not only false, but very offensive: Athens is...

Presenting the Balkan Minorities

  13 December 2012

Fifteen young journalists from six different countries have produced a series of personal stories about representatives of the minorities (in a broad sense) from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, and Macedonia. The stories are available in English, German, and French on the Face the Balkans website.

Independent French Data Journalism Website OWNI Under Threat of Closure

  11 December 2012

News of the imminent demise of OWNI (OWNI.fr), an independent French data journalism media outlet, surfaced last week. Famous for its close collaboration with WikiLeaks, OWNI developed the WarLogs application and conducted a great deal of analyses on the SpyFiles among others, and has been consistently reporting on surveillance, internet governance and freedom online.

A Research On Gender Sensitive Speech Online

  11 December 2012

The Internet Democracy project in India is conducting a research project that looks at how women in India, who are social media users, deal with speech addressed to them online that makes them feel uncomfortable as women. You can also participate – details are here. Deadline 15 December, 2012.

Netizens “Bow Farewell” to Guyanese Writer Jan Carew

  11 December 2012

Guyanese writer Jan Carew passed away at his home in Louisville, Kentucky on December 5th. One of the most prominent West Indian writers of his generation, Carew was a poet, playwright, novelist and scholar, best known for his 1958 novel “Black Midas” and his 1964 polemic “Moscow Is Not My Mecca”. Caribbean netizens pay their respects.

Access Innovation Prize 2012 Recognizes Costa Rican Facebook App

  11 December 2012

Access.org announced the winners of the 1st Annual Access Tech Innovation Prize Awards, a new initiative that awards ideas that use information technology to promote human rights and address issues that are important to communities from across the world. Costa Rican Facebook-integrated app FueraJustoOrozco.com ("out Justo Orozco") was announced as one of the winners.

Colombia: Cali Organises Its Third Barcamp

  10 December 2012

On Monday, December 17, the third edition of Barcamp Cali -a Free Culture event organised in the city of Cali, Colombia- will take place. The event has created a buzz among netizens in Cali, who have been tweeting about it under the hashtag #barcampcali3.

Brazil Bids Farewell to Niemeyer, Revolutionary of Modern Architecture

  7 December 2012

Remembered primarily as the architect who designed Brazil's capital city, Brasília, and for having remained faithful to his communist ideals throughout his entire adult life, Oscar Niemeyer passed away on the night of December 5 in Rio de Janeiro after succumbing to a respiratory infection. He was 104 years old.