Stories about Technology from August, 2011
International Blog Day in Latin America
Several bloggers in Latin America are sharing their thoughts on blogging during this year's Blog Day, like Juan Edgardo Lezcano [es] from Paraguay and Julio Córdoba [es] from Costa Rica. Furthermore, UNIMERCentroamerica posted a video interview [es] with Costa Rican blogger Cristian Cambronero from Fusil de Chispas [es].
North Korean Airline Uses Facebook
Marc Perton wrote about North Korean Airline ‘Koryo’ and its use of social media in the Consumerist blog.
Egypt: Using Twitter to Help a Cairo Community
After seeing the huge impact of social media on the Egyptian revolution, Egyptian blogger, Mahmoud Salem (@SandMonkey) decided to collaborate with a non-profit organisation, Peace and Plenty, to help them raise funds for a community in Cairo in need of basic services.
Nigeria: The Brain Behind the Nigerian Blog Awards
Behold the face behind the masquerade. Good Nigerian Girl is the brain powering the Nigeria Blogs Awards since 2010. The Nigerian Blog Awards is an annual event that rewards creative Nigerian bloggers.
Russia: Chamber of Accounts’ Leak Exposes Significant Financial Violations
Anti-corruption blogger ipasserby had analyzed [ru] over 100 classified documents of the Russian Chamber of Accounts that had accidentally leaked to the Web in July 2011. According to the blogger, Chamber of Accounts knowingly concealed serious significant violations worth of millions of dollars.
China: Real Name Registration Requirement Coming For Weibo?
Bbishop from Digicha blogs about the rumor that the Chinese authorities would demand Weibo (Micro-blog) and other social media users to use real name in registration.
Nepal: Live Tweeting Miss Nepal Contest
As the 17th edition of of Miss Nepal 2011 beauty pageant took place in Kathmandu this afternoon, many Nepali Tweeps resorted to the hashtag #MissNepal2011 to live tweet the event, informs Aakar Post.
Jamaica: Collaborative Documentary for Independence
“Next year both Jamaica and I turn 50″: Labrish blogs about “a fabulous idea to celebrate Jamaica's independence.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Missed Opportunity re: Teen Video?
Another blogger weighs in on the Granny Quila video: “Yes this girl did a pile…having said that, it would have been a perfect opportunity to show the compassionate side of the State of Emergency, and used as an chance to reach out to disaffected youth.”
Iran: Rogue SSL certificate and Iranian dissidents
Internet users and dissidents in Iran are believed to be at particular risk from the rogue SSL certificate, which is used to digitally “sign” HTTPS connections to any google.com site and was issued by a Dutch company called DigiNotar on 10 July. Read more here.
Brazil: Bank Account of Google Blocked Due to “Offensive” Blogs
The courts in the Brazilian state of Ceará blocked access to $140,000 in the accounts of Google Brasil after the company refused to take down a series of blogs deemed offensive toward the mayor of Várzea Alegre, José Máximo de Carvalho, reports the blog Journalism in the Americas .
Malaysia: Emergency App Alerts Police
The State of Selangor in Malaysia has launched an emergency app called ‘MyDistress’ which alerts police with a push of a button on mobile phones
Russia: Content Analysis of Party Manifestos
LJ-user schegloff analyses [ru] party manifestos of the Russian parties using Wordle word clouds. “Opposition can be identified by the word “must,” patriots by the word “Russia,” ruling party by the word “Unity,” concludes the blogger, speaking of the word frequency in each document.
Japan: A Revealing Blog by a Fukushima Robot Operator
Blogger Erico Guizzo at IEEE Spectrum's robotics blog reported that “an anonymous worker at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has written dozens of blog posts describing the ups and downs of his experience as one of the lead robot operators at the crippled facility.” The blog was called “Say...
Trinidad & Tobago: Thoughts on the SoE
Outlish puts forward four reasons “why…the state of emergency should not be extended”, while KnowTnT.com sums up the first week of the SoE “from a few different angles.”
Trinidad & Tobago: The “Granny Quilla” Video
Railing against the current state of emergency, a teen posts a video on YouTube; the government interprets it as racist and containing threats against the Prime Minister - Jumbie's Watch agrees, but B.C. Pires says: “The video is OBVISOULSY [sic] an attempt at comedy…doesn’t work very well…but that doesn’t mean...
Kenya: Local Webcomics
Kenyan Guru writes a post about Kenyan webcomics: “With the number of people finally discovering the power of blogger,there has been a rise in the number of blogs that are getting attention from the local internet users…So today I decided to track down some local webcomics and I was lucky...
Japan: Trends in the blogging service landscape
Netaful shares observations [ja] from a recent comScore report [ja/pdf] that in terms of visitor count, livedoor blogs have surpassed Ameba Blogs. The report concludes that even with the spread of SNS, “Japan remains one of the world's leading blog markets“.
Saudi Arabia: A Special Twitter Hashtag for the King!
A Saudi hashtag entitled #tal3mrak which literary translates into “May god prolong your life” or “your majesty” if translated into a Western context, took Twitter by storm today. The hashtag came as a surprise to those who never thought Saudi netizens would have the courage to address their authorities via social media.
Egypt: Omar Soliman Facebook Army
A poll conducted by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces on their Facebook page to see how much support each of the potential Egyptian presidential elections candidates had on the ground yielded 'fishy' results. Here are reactions online after news emerged that a Facebook army was hired to tweak them.
Sri Lanka: The Second TweetUpSl Held
Indi.ca reports that TweetUpSl2 (the second Twitter meetup in Sri Lanka) was held the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on the 27th of August 2011 where about 100 tweeps gathered.
