Stories about Technology from May, 2006
China: Don't learn Chinese for business opps, learn it for this book
For unavoidable reasons known to all, or at least presumed, Lifeweek editor Wang Xiaofeng, one of China's most entertaining bloggers—known to many for a hoax [#026] pulled in March this year which brought many bloggers’ scorn—mysteriously killed off his widely-read Massage Milk (also known as Wears Three Watches) in early...
South Africa: Space progress
South Africa points to a story on the progress the country is making in space science and astronomy…
Demystifying Tamil as a language and a person
What is Tamil? For some it's a language, for some it's a religion, for the uninitiated, wikipedia to the rescue. There is of course also the the Wikipedia in Tamil. For those who don't like reading pages and pages, google current has it all. From “what is Tamil” to “the...
Latin America: Technorati, Edelman, But No Spanish?
Commenting on the announcement by Technorati and Edelman that the two companies will join forces to include blog posts on traditional media websites, Julio Alonso wonders how it is that the project will launch in English, German, Korean, Italian, French, and Chinese, but not Spanish [ES]. “Could it be that...
Caribbean: What blogging is for
“Blogging … challenges the elitism that pervades the Caribbean and is a great experiment in the democratization of data,” says Geoffrey Philp in a thoughtful essay on the potential role of blogging in the region. “Blogging provides the kind of freedom that is anathema to many gatekeepers who want to...
Sri Lanka: Activism and the Online Medium
What does the online medium mean to those who engage with activism? ICT for Peacebuilding says “The crux of the problem is in the creation of content that is able to kindle the interest of those unused to the drudgery and often, very real danger, of activism on the ground...
Japan: Radio station webcast
from the inside, looking in blogger Shinichiro Fukushige links in a post today to the announcement of one of Tokyo's most popular radio stations’ long overdue internet broadcast.
Japan: Net user surveys
Two recent surveys from Ken Y-N at What Japan Thinks reveal some facts about Japanese netizens: that net-based telephony service Skype is not making inroads there, and that ninety percent of the democratic nation's bloggers write anonymously.
Kenya: innovations
Kikuyumoja’s realm searches for a hands free mobile phone holder for his car in Nairobi and comes up with an excellent innovative alternative to commerical products.
Africa: Alternative technologies
AfriGadget is a new blog highlighting alternative applications of everyday gadgets and technologies in Africa.
Be irrepressible! a campaign for global internet freedom
As more and more nations carve up the so-called global, borderless internet into separate spheres of control through filtering and censorship, often using technology supplied by large IT companies, Amnesty International has launched a new campaign – irrepressible.info to raise awareness of and protest against the infringements on the basic...
China: Jailed journalist campaign
myrick at Asiapundit blogs on Amnesty International's new irrepressible.info campaign which aims to protect free speech on the internet, and a parallel campaign to see jailed journalist Shi Tao set free.
Barbados: The risky business of political blogging
Barbados Free Press reviews the Barbados Labour Party's newly launched blog and outlines the risks a political party faces in undertaking such a project: “the two main risks can be shortened to this. . . 1/ Risk of Public Failure – Successful Blogging Takes New Skills & Commitment . ....
Bahamas: Ignoring the revolution
“These days, it is possible to link to other human beings anywhere in the world by using satellites, cell phones, and the internet. The world has changed, and – without realizing – we have changed with it,” marvels Nicolette Bethel, “But it appears we haven’t noticed this change. That this...
Echoes from the Tunisian blogosphere
The Tunisian blogosphere has been buzzing as usual with a bunch of different topics, ranging from the serious to the light, and the following is a snapshot of some of the interesting topics discussed these past 2 weeks. We start off with Zizou who writes about how he thinks an...
India: Office 2007
Kingsley takes a closer look at Office 2007 and comments on User Interface, features and quirks.
Arabisc: Arabic Bloggers Ken
From Egypt… Malek who was scheduled to be free few days ago is now officially free. He just made his first post, titled: Free Morning. Malek writes: الحمدلله تم الافراج عني اليوم في حوالي الساعه الرابعه والنصف من قسم ترحيلات الخليفه لحد دلؤتي مقريتش حاجه اتكتبت عني بس بجد شكرا...
Philippines: Wickedly Sweet Filipino
The blogger at Manilastreetwalker introduces “wickedly-sweet” Filipinos he encounters in his travels in Spain.
Trinidad and Tobago: Government not promoting local technology
“The one thing that is being wasted in this country more than money is the minds of our young people,” argues aka_lol of Trinidad and Tobago's Initiative Against Crime. “There has never been a government in our history who promoted local technology beyond their lips…. This country will continue to...
Barbados: Barbados Labour Party starts blog
The Barbados Labour Party (BLP) has started a blog, notes Titilayo; she wonders “how much of the impetus … came from the establishment and growing popularity of Barbados Free Press”. Meanwhile, Barbados Free Press itself compares the web presences of the country's three main political parties, and asks why the...
China: Technorati learns Chinese
Welcome news on Danwei today of Technorati's announcement of a partnership with public relations firm Edelman which will see an increase of the blog aggregator's services to include five new languages. While Chinese is one of the languages on the list, a focus on mainland users brings with it some...
