Stories about Technology from August, 2012
Sri Lanka: The 3rd Annual #TweetupSL is Tomorrow
Indu Nanayakkara informs that the third edition of the annual meet of the Twitter users in Sri Lanka will take place on Saturday, September 1, 2012. Details are here.
Central African Republic: Less than 3% have Access to Electricity
Louis Philippe Wallot writes in Journal de Bangui [fr]: According to the statistics of the ministry of energy, only 3% of the capital city Bangui has access to electricity and it is even at times less than 1% in some of the provincial cities. This is unacceptable.
Tracking Counterfeit Medicines in the Developing World
Some 700,000 people die annually from fake malaria and tuberculosis drugs alone. The WHO reports that the annual earnings from substandard or counterfeit drugs stand at about USD 200 billion. More important than its economic impact, counterfeit medicines pose a significant global public health problem.
Russia: Police Claim Top Blogger Was Hacked from Germany
The Moscow police department has determined [ru] that Aleksei Navalny's email and Twitter accounts were hacked in late June from a German IP address. Fellow liberal blogger Andrey Malgin criticized [ru] the announcement, accusing the authorities of disguising their own responsibility for supposedly stealing [ru] Navalny's passwords in a June 11 search [ru] of...
EU in Crisis: First E-Book by Global Voices
"EU in crisis" is the first production of our new Global Voices Books project and includes the best material from social conversation, participation and mobilization boosted by citizens going through the tough times of austerity in the old continent and beyond.
Russia: Senator Wants 15 Years in Prison for Hackers
In the aftermath of a hacker attack on the court that convicted Pussy Riot's 3 members, Kremlin youth group organizer and Senator Ruslan Gattarov [ru] has proposed [ru] making criminal penalties stricter for those who target government websites. Gattarov suggests equating hacks with illegal physical occupations of government buildings, which carry a...
India: Social Media Censorship to Contain ‘Cyber-Terrorism'?
'Are we going to follow the footsteps of Pakistan and China and turn into a Blockistan?' The Indian government has cracked down on various social media sites; some Facebook pages and Twitter handles have also been blocked.
India: Govt. Guidelines For #SocialMedia Use
"I am quite confident that these guidelines won’t have much of an impact when the Government itself is defying most of them while communicating with people".
Tanzania, Ethiopia: Meles Zenawi ‘Tweets’ from Grave
"@zittokabwe please be better than I was. Not fun up here I am preparing 2 pay for some of this." A post-death tweet from Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to Tanzanian Member of Parliament Zitto Kabwe causes a stir.
Caribbean: The Number Portability Game
. . . there has been considerable buzz around [Number Portability], and several countries across the Caribbean have embarked upon activities that ultimately should lead to its implementation. Yet, how many countries have successfully launched a NP scheme?
India: Social Media Blamed for Fueling Assam Unrest
'A temporary ban was put on bulk SMS and MMS. Local police swung into action and began arresting people forwarding ‘hate' SMS examples. Social media sites were warned to monitor and remove inflammatory content. About 310 webpages were blocked.'
Pakistan: Government Suspends Mobile Services in Major Cities on Eid
"So whats the guarantee terrorists won't strike tomorrow or the day after? Why not close cell phone services, like forever?" A Pakistani netizen reacts to the temporary cell phone ban, which the government says has been put in place to prevent terrorist attacks.
Russia: Millions of Taxpayer Rubles Earmarked for Facebook “Likes”
Earlier this week, Aleksei Navalny took aim at a pending state tender for advertising services to aid the state-owned broadcasting company The Voice of Russia. The dispute surrounding VoR and its Facebook marketing strategy reveals much about how Russians understand online popularity, particularly their low faith in the very concept.
Uganda: Anonymous Backs Gay Pride, Hacks Government Websites
"Hacking government websites to “help” victims of state-sponsored homophobia? Who does that? I think this extremist violent intervention MUST STOP." - Ugandan gay rights activist.
Côte d'Ivoire: CivRoute, a Citizen Project to Monitor Road Traffic in Real Time
In Abidjan, Cyriac Gbogou introduces on his blog [fr] the citizen collaborative project Civroute [fr] that he co-founded. This online plateform will collect information sent by car drivers on the state of road circulation and potential traffic jams on the ivorian avenues via SMS, Twitter or Facebook.
Malaysia: Blackout Protest Against Internet Censorship Legislation
"#Stop114A could be Malaysia's most successful digital civil movement. Hacktivism at its best. Let's make it happen people."
Global Voices Podcast: More From #GV2012
In this edition of the Global Voices Podcast you'll hear more from our Summit which took place in Nairobi, Kenya, back in July, including some of our contributors and selected academics from around the world were also invited to share their knowledge and learn from the community.
Ukraine: Authorities Shut Down BitTorrent Tracker Demonoid
In what is believed to be an attempt to please the United States without angering local voters, the Ukrainian authorities have shut down Demonoid, one of the world's largest BitTorrent tracker sites, whose servers were hosted by a data center in Kyiv.
Africa: Innovation, Education and Nature
Mutua discusses education and innovation in Africa: “In today’s world it is imperative to create a differentiated and sophisticated economy in order to truly be competitive, so for African states to become significant players in the global economy, we have to find ways to move up the ladder to innovation-driven...
Bulgaria: Thousands of Trial Records Go Open
The Bulgarian section of the Open Knowledge Foundation announced [bg] the release of 580,049 court decisions and 607,656 additional documents, including motives. Although all those are already publicly accessible in the courts and some of them are browsable in a digital format on the Ministry of Justice website, there was...
Cuba: Freedom of Press?
Blogger, journalist and Global Voices author Elaine Díaz analyzes [es] the nuances of the different practices and definitions of freedom of press, after being interviewed for the Boston Globe.
