Stories about Technology from May, 2007
Rising Voices Seeks Micro-grant Proposals for Blog Outreach
Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, is now accepting project proposals for the first round of microgrant funding of up to $5,000 for new media outreach projects. Ideal applicants will present innovative and detailed proposals to teach citizen media techniques to communities that are poorly positioned to discover and take advantage of tools like blogging, video-blogging, and podcasting on their own.
Russia: Pirates Strike Back
Russian pirates strike back: “By buying licensed Windows you sponsor the war in Iraq.” See the poster at Russian Marketing Blog.
Interview with Caroline Nellemann, Danish Researcher of Iranian Blogs
Danish researcher Caroline Nellemann has done her Master's thesis on Iranian blogs and was involved for three months with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society in Harvard. In order to meet Iranian bloggers and to be more in touch with Iran she took a trip to Iran recently. Caroline shares some of her ideas, photos and research experience with us in this interview.
Morocco: Punish YouTube Blockers
“People behind the blocking of Youtube in Morocco have to be reprimanded in proportion with the damage caused from ban. The news has made its way to BBC,New York times, Washington Post and a plethora of other news outlets in the world causing an unwanted negative advertising of a Kingdom...
Egyptian Blogger Monem to Be Freed
Jailed Egyptian blogger Abdulmonem Mahmood is being released on Saturday - but Egyptian bloggers are holding their breath and are full of apprehension on their future in a country which has so far conducted a witch hunt on bloggers, reports Freedom For Egyptians.
Kenya: Mobile Toolkit Workgroup
White African writes about Mobile Toolkit Workgroup meeting in Nairobi, Kenya: The first 3 days were taken up with examples and stories of how mobile technology is being used as an effective tool within NGO’s that have a focus on human rights and social advocacy. A typical question at these...
South Africa: Media Tech Africa 2007
Media Tech Africa 2007 is taking place in South Africa: “Organised by Thebe Exhibitions, mediatech africa 2007 showcases cutting edge technologies and services from industry leaders in television and broadcast, sound and audio, lighting and staging, animation, communication, and every related field. The combination of technology, demonstrations, networking opportunities and...
China: Entropia Universe
Peijin Chen from Shanghaiist reports that Entropia. Inc will soon enter China and create a cash-based virtual world, where millions of people can work, socialize, learn and fall in love, Sweden-based Entropia Universe announced Wednesday.
Peru: Bloggers Featured for the First Time?
Bloggers Juan Carlos Luján and Vladimir Terán Altamirano were interviewed on the radio station Radio Libertad. Podcasts of the interview were posted on the Grupo Periodisimo Digital [ES] blog. This led the blog's author Sandro Medina to comment, “I don't remember a Lima, or even a Peruvian radio station that...
Swahili Blogosphere: Higher Education Blame Game, Miss Universe, and Personal Privacy vs. Public Life
Hardship is the name of the game, it seems, for Tanzania's higher education students both at home and abroad. While the University of Dar Es Salaam has readmitted all the suspended students after the recent students’ strike over ‘unaffordable fees’, another crisis over students funds ensues for Tanzanians in Ukraine....
Africa: mobile phones and activism in Africa
Black Looks writes from Kenya, where she is attending a conference on the use of mobile phones for activism and advocacy in Africa: “I am here in Nairobi at one of the most interesting gatherings I have attended in a long time. Fahamu have brought together some 40 African social...
Kuwait: Online Grocery Shopping
Kuwait-based Lebanese blogger Mark says online shopping for grocery is picking up in Kuwait. “I prefer passing by an actual supermarket to buy my groceries but this could be an attractive solution for people who don’t have the time to physically go and shop,” he notes.
China: Internet Bookstore
Fangjun discussed about the competition of internet bookstore business in China (zh). Joyo and dangdang were competing the status of the biggest Chinese internet bookstore in the world. Recently Dangdang issued a statement and asked joyo not to lie again.
Hong Kong: Migration of Websites
Duke of Aberdeen comments on the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority's advice of the suspected “indecent” photo at inmediahk.net, and points out that one of the consequence is a migration wave of website hosting out of Hong Kong as the government is targeting on local ISP and BSP (zh).
Hong Kong: Censorship Bureaucrats
Roland Snoog has translated the article from Inmediahk.net on the author's encounter with the staff from the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA) who gave an “advice” to the website to remove a nude photo. See also ESWN
Thailand: Blocking Pro-Thaksin Sites
Thai authorities have blocked more sites that support the former prime minister Thaksin. The Bangkok Bugle says the block might have a reverse effect with Thai people trying other means to figure out what Thaksin has to say.
Uzbekistan: Another Blog Blocked
Libertad discusses the blocking of yet another blog within Uzbekistan. The blog in question, Khorezm, mostly discusses daily life in Uzbekistan's Khorezm region.
Yemen: Yes to Internet Filters
Yemeni blogger Omar Barsawad is in favour of his country's internet censorship tactics, saying: “Yemen was mentioned as one of the countries to have the most extensive censorship filters for the Internet. I do wholeheartedly support this; as would most of my fellow adult Yemenis. What Yemen censors most, are...
Morocco: YouTube is Back; Maroc Telecom Subscribers are Elated
MidEastYouth broke the news this evening that YouTube, which had been blocked by Maroc Telecom, Morocco's leading internet provider, has been restored to subscribers. It seems that the blogging community, with the help of bigger sites like this one, helped to get the story noticed by majors like Reporters Without...
Jewlicious: Hamas Spreading Propaganda
Writing in Jewlicious, US-based Rabbi Yonah accuses Palestinian group Hamas of spreading propaganda on the Internet.
Belarus: Blogger br23/Uładzimer Katkoŭski Passes Away
Belarusian blogger Uładzimer Katkoŭski/br23 passed away in Prague on May 25 at the age of 30. As one of his online friends wrote, "To a large degree thanks to his effort Belarusian-language Internet is now what it is."
