· February, 2009

Stories about Technology from February, 2009

Azerbaijan: Popular website back — minus forum

  28 February 2009

After several days of closure, the popular semi-independent Azerbaijani news and discussion website, Day.az, is back. However, raising additional questions about its brief disappearance, the site's forum — known for its open and somewhat democratic discussion — is not.

Japan: Alpha Blogger Awards 2008 (Part 2)

  27 February 2009

Starting December 24th, the Alpha Blogger website called for people to nominate 1-3 blog entries written in 2008 that had affected them the most. Mid-term results were announced on January 16th, and voting was open until February 18th. The second half of this year's winners are featured in this post.

Guadeloupe: Police “Blunder”?

  26 February 2009

Amidst the confusion of the month-long social conflict in Guadeloupe, two nights of violence took place on February 17th and 18th. Apart from acts of arson in shops and numerous burning roadblocks, the climax of these violent clashes has been the as-yet unsolved assassination of a man. Trikess, who blogs...

Nigeria: Who You Be?: Nigeria's Bloggers Award

  26 February 2009

“Who You Be?” is the 2009 Nigeria's Bloggers Award whose nominations started February 24th and will run until March 5th. The bloggers behind the award are four female Nigerian bloggers: Sting, Toluwa, Naijagirl and Geisha (a retired blogger). Who You Be has an official blog where nominations, voting and community building will take place.

Taiwan: Google Map back to 1944

  26 February 2009

Kaishao introduces (zh) a new google map mashup presented by Center for Geographic Information Science, Academia Sinica. The map combines Google Map with the maps of several counties of Taiwan illustrated by U.S. Millitary information agency back in 1944.

India: Nominations for Indibloggies

  25 February 2009

The nominations for the Indian blogging award Indibloggies 2008 will continue till 6th of March 2009. The Indibloggies are publicly-chosen awards conferred on bloggers from India and the Indian Diaspora since 2003. The nomination form is located here.

Ukraine: Politics on Twitter

  25 February 2009

Ukrainian president Victor Yushchenko has an official Twitter account; his tweets mirror daily schedule announcements and latest news items that are featured on the official website as well. There is also a Yushchenko impersonator on Twitter. Former speaker Yatsenyuk seems to have a Twitter account, too, but his political movement's press service would not confirm it.

Japan: Alpha Blogger Awards 2008 (Part 1)

  25 February 2009

On the 20th of February, the 2008 Alpha Blogger Awards were held in Tokyo. Sponsored by Pringles Chips, the event this year was attended by close to 80 people (including the team of GV Japan), awarding prizes to the twelve posts from the Japanese blogosphere in 2008 that received the most votes on the ABA site.

China: Control 2.0 Mastermind

  25 February 2009

David Bandurski from China Media Project gave more background about the propaganda event in the “eluding the cat” case, especially on the mastermind behind the control 2.0 strategy.

India: Court Ruling Against Bloggers

  24 February 2009

Kafila informs about a recent Supreme Court ruling in India which states that “a person who starts a blog/community page cannot claim that it was a community page and not meant for public consumption.” That means the owner will be liable for all the collaborative contents and comments in that...

Nigeria: Naijoo: Nigeria's Own Video Sharing Site

  24 February 2009

Nigeria has its own video sharing site, writes Loy at Startups Nigeria, “If you watch videos from Yahoo! TV, you’re probably going to enjoy Naija’s own video sharing community called Naijoo.Tv, an online video sharing site that allows you to upload, view and share video clips. When I first heard...

Mexico: Urban Artists in Monterrey Take to the Internet

  24 February 2009

In the streets of Monterrey, a city best known for being the industrial and technological mecca of Mexico, graffiti and other urban artists are utilizing user-friendly electronic media in order to showcase their painted works and murals on the internet, but also in some cases to take advantage of the anonymity needed when painting illegally on public spaces.