· December, 2006

Stories about Technology from December, 2006

The Saudi Blogosphere this Past Week

  31 December 2006

Sleeping blogs, zombie computers, Saudi driving culture, Saddam Hussein's hanging, Arabic MTV, Saudi lesbian bloggers, Christmas, and more in this week's roundup. Let's get this started… Relating to the demise of the blogging trend, mentioned in last week's roundup, Ahmad published a very interesting post about Saudi “sleeping blogs.” The...

Indonesia: Internet Outage and Flood in Aceh

  29 December 2006

There is nothing worse for Indonesian bloggers in particular around the new year eve but to see the sudden temporary “demise” of internet connection. The cause as reported by Budi Putra, , Sani Asy'ari and Enda Nasution is “the strong quake off Taiwan’s coast on December 26 damaged submarine cables...

Lusosphere: Who? Me? You!? Why not Hugo?

  28 December 2006

TIME Magazine's choice of ‘You’ as the ‘Person of the Year’ has created interesting reactions in Lusophone blogs. The coddling move from the editorial giant towards the new class of content creators among its audience initially seduced the web 2.0 crowds. Many commentators were quick to agree effusively with the...

Africa: “local” is the keyword

  28 December 2006

“Why not build the next eBay in Africa, then be “partnered” with for $40 million? Why not build the next PayPal, Google, YouTube or MySpace, when the success of such a venture is sure to realize millions of dollars?,” asks White African.

Serbia, USA: What Serbs Think About America

  28 December 2006

In his blog post called “America is shaking”, Neven Andjelic shares his opinion on the United States (SRP): This big country is shaking. A number of events have caused the current condition. None of them has anything to do with my arrival to Berkley four months ago when I first...

Poland: Free Internet

  27 December 2006

Information Policy blog reports that the Polish government will be offering free internet service “to disadvantaged members of society in a bid to ensure that all citizens can have equal access to the constantly growing array of public services now available on-line.”

Malaysia: Internet Slowdown

  27 December 2006

Nik Nazmi comments on the breakdown in internet services in some parts of South East Asia and East Asia because of an earthquake in Taiwan. “When I told my colleague earlier that a website stated repair works for the cables in Taiwan may take up to three days, we were...

Kenya: DIY phone booth

  27 December 2006

Local innovation at work: the DIY phone booth in Kenya,”The person who modified it ripped an old Siemens C25 phone apart and installed its display instead of the one that came along with this phone. The keypad is soldered to the phone and a rechargeable battery is inside the box...

China: Ping…ping…pfft

  27 December 2006

The earthquake near Taiwan last night which snapped six underwater internet cables, seems to have left a large part of Asia, particularly the Northeast, struggling for an internet fix. Those with internet censorship circumvention tools (proxies) already installed on their computers seem to be doing a little better, but for...

India: Community Video Unit and Dalits

  25 December 2006

Reflections in a window pane on the power of video and overcoming oppression. “When the use of Video by a team of six Dalits, working for a Community Video Unit, set up by Navsarjan, Drishti and Video Volunteers transcended all barriers of caste, it brought upon relief for an entire...

Sri Lanka: Preparing for the Tsunami

  25 December 2006

LIRNEasia is apprehensive about a report in the UK press which claims that Sri Lanka is prepared well if a tsunami strikes. “The best-prepared country is Sri Lanka, one of those worst hit two years ago, which has a system of transmitting warnings through its police stations.”

Nepal: Digital Democracy Organization

  25 December 2006

Democracy for Nepal discusses Humro Nepal. “It has not been registered. It does not have a budget. Both those details are intentional and are to be kept that way. It is the world's first digital democracy organization. A lot of members and outsiders still do not think of it as...

Libya:A view into the blogging scene

  25 December 2006

The Libyan blogosphere is rich and diverse, but quietly apolitical. I'm constantly surprised at how it has sprouted during the last three years. It may have less bloggers than other countries, but the fact that some people are actually blogging is a miracle per se. Libyans blog from inside Libya...

Malawi: does Google know Soyapi Mumba?

  23 December 2006

Does Google know Soyapi Mumba, the Malawian blogger?, “I found it interesting to see that only Google suggests my name. Google will suggest the correct spelling of my name when you search for my name with a slight mistake in the spelling. Yahoo Search and Live Search don't.”