Stories about Technology from February, 2013
Latin America Turns to iPhone App to Take Hammerhead Sharks Off the Chopping Block
Countries across Latin America are on a mission to get hammerheads onto the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) list for protection. They’re armed with a new iPhone app that promises to make fin identification quick and easy. Listing the sharks would help fund financially strapped programs in Latin America and restrict global trade.
[Webcast] Internet Censorship and the Remembrance of Infowars Past
With Internet censorship on the rise around the world, organizations and researchers have developed and distributed a variety of tools to assist Internet users to both monitor and circumvent such censorship.
Monitoring Dangerous Speech in Kenya
Umati is a project that seeks to monitor and report the role of new media on an election: “Our Kenya-based project has citizens at its core and uses relevant technologies to collect,organize, analyze, and disseminate the information collected.”
Uruguay Has South America's Fastest Net
Not that long ago, I'd never thought I could report this, but here we are. According to Netindex, Uruguay is the country with the fastest average speed in Latin America, with 9,53Mbps, and that places us 57 at a global level, over Chile (58), Mexico (71) and Brazil (75). The...
Request Google to Look into Myanmar
Many Burmese netizens requested[my] the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Information who met with Google's Southeast Asia Country lead for Public Policy and Government Affairs to convince the company not to block Google Play in Myanmar and to put Burmese (Myanmar) language in Google Translate.
SenseCamp Berlin: a Social Entrepreneurship Gathering
Berlin held its second SenseCamp on February 8 and 9, 2013, a barcamp dedicated to social entrepreneurship. The program included workshops, meetings and conferences, to raise the impact of social entrepreneurial start-ups. Creative types, entrepreneurs and those who were interested, were invited to register in order to participate in this...
Journalists Under Pressure in the Gambia Turn to Blogs
The hostile media landscape in the Gambia, marred by aggressive laws and regulatory measures that have almost crippled mainstream outlets, has some journalists in the country turning to blogs to report the news. Here is a guide to some of the most active and popular blogs.
Senegal Balks as President Recycles Predecessor's Pal
The president of Senegal's decision to appoint a local architect, renowned for his work but notorious for his political schmoozing with previous regimes, as the head of a proposed Senegalese cultural house in New York has come under fire.
China Not Blocking Hack Attack Discussion
U.S. cyber security firm Mandiant has reported that the Chinese People's Liberation Army is behind many cyber attacks against American organizations, but the usually heavy-handed Chinese government is not blocking online discussion of the news, according to TeaLeafNation. Taiwan-based Next Media Animation has produced a cheeky animated explainer of the hacking revelations.
North Korea Breaks YouTube Rules Again
It's been less than a month since a video uploaded by the official North Korean account Uriminzokkiri was removed from YouTube on grounds of copyright infringement. Now another propaganda video has been removed for using the soundtrack of a video game without consent. North Korea Tech explains in detail about...
President Correa, “Citizens Must Control Technology”
It is increasingly important that citizens control technology. That is why we must expand the use of these open tools in our society. The Free Software Association of Ecuador has published an open letter [es] to the recently re-elected president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, encouraging him to take action and...
Global Voices Seeks Part-Time Developer
Global Voices seeks a part-time web designer and developer to help maintain and redesign our many WordPress and other LAMP-based sites, working closely with our primary developer
Matisse Bustos Hawkes, Witness and the Power of Video
We spoke with Matisse Bustos Hawkes, communications manager at Witness, an international non-profit organization that uses the power of video and narrative to open the world's eyes to human rights' abuses.
Russian Opposition, What Are You Doing? Stahp.
The Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition has been a fascinating eDemocracy experiment, conducted in the shadow of Russia's competitive authoritarian status quo. Yet, a recent decision not to nominate candidates for any elections—local or regional—has intensified doubts about the KSO, making it a target for one of the RuNet's more vicious attack memes.
Summer Course: Internet Advocacy
The Central European University in Budapest, Hungary is offering an intensive course in Internet Governance, Civil Society and Public Policy Advocacy on July 8-19, 2013 in partnership with the Annenberg School of Communication and Center for Democracy and Technology. Apply online before March 15.
Ecuador: No Place for ICTs
With the elections in Ecuador approaching on Sunday, February 17, blog Bitácora de Calú shares its surprise [es] that “NONE of the candidates [running for the National Assembly] focus their proposals on information and communication technology (ICT) as platform for development, NONE OF THEM”, and goes on on listing the...
For Russia's Comics, it's Raining Meteors
Although the shock wave from the Chelyabinsk meteorite injured hundreds of people, RuNet users have been more eager than ever to crack jokes and spread memes.
Truthloader: New YouTube Show on Citizen Journalism
Truthloader is a new daily YouTube show, produced by UK-based ITN in partnership with YouTube, that brings investigative and citizen journalism together, focusing mostly on under-reported news stories from around the globe. They also host a weekly live debate on Google Hangout. Yesterday's show asked “Can citizen journalism change the...
Crowd-Source Subtitles for YouTube Videos
Anyone on YouTube can now sync their account directly to the global subtitling service Amara and invite volunteers to translate videos. Subtitles are created on Amara's platform, but are synced automatically to YouTube.
Kenya's Presidential Debate Ends on TV, Continues on Twitter
With only three weeks until Kenya's presidential elections, technology continues to change how the country participates in the electoral process. Kenyans submitted questions via Twitter for the first ever presidential debate on February 11, and an online election monitoring meant to keep the upcoming elections fair launched the same day.
