· April, 2013

Stories about Technology from April, 2013

#FLISOL 2013: Hundreds of Latin Americans Installing Free Software

  27 April 2013

From the Patagonia to Havana, hundreds of computer users across Latin America are choosing freedom over control by installing free software on their computers. On April 27th, groups of free software enthusiasts will be installing free software in dozens of cities across Latin America as part of FLISOL [es], the...

Data Journalism Handbook Now in Spanish

  26 April 2013

The International Journalists’ Network, IJNET, recently announced the release of the Spanish translation [es] of The Data Journalism Handbook, “a free, open-source book that aims to help journalists use data to improve journalism.” Both the original English version and the Spanish translation are freely available online under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike...

Tokyo Joins NASA's App Challenge

  24 April 2013

Japan participated in NASA's International Space Apps Challenge 2013 with a hackathon in Tokyo on April 21 and 22, 2013. Eighteen project teams developed apps with the aim of improving life on Earth and in space, including an app to create dishes in a shape of celestial bodies [ja] such as...

Developing Latin America: A Summary

  23 April 2013

Desarrollando América Latina (Developing Latin America) has published a video summary of the regional hackathon DAL 2012, where 400 participants and 70 social experts developed 80 applications. Here [es] you can see Global Voices’ coverage of the event.

Your Legal Guide to Digital Security for Arab Human Rights Activists

The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, in Egypt, issued a “legal guide to digital security” as part of its digital freedoms programme. The guide was produced for campaigners and human rights activists and lawyers interested in freedom of digital expression and the confidentiality of communications and information stored on mobile phones, computers or any other device used to store or distribute data or information..

Chinese Earthquake as Seen on Weibo

  22 April 2013

Offbeat China looks into the distribution and discussion on China's social media on the recent 7.0 earthquake in Sichuan Ya'an: Unlike many of China’s typical disaster reporting from traditional media that focuses more on government officials’ whereabouts and works, these netizens who are at the front line of disaster relief...

YouTube Lags in South Korea While Internet Zips By

  22 April 2013

In South Korea where net users are accustomed to whizzing along with one of the fastest Internet connection speeds in the world, YouTube's sluggish performance is a source of constant complaints. The reason behind the video-hosting website's snail-like speed? The utter disrespect that South Korea's dominant corporations have for net neutrality.

Iran: 60% of Population Online

  20 April 2013

An organization affiliated with Iran’s government says 60 percent of Iranians are connected to the internet, 40 percent of them are young people in their 20s. Iran’s “Center For Managing National Development Of Internet”, MATMA, says more than 45 millions are connected to the internet,almost 2.5 millions of them through...

Catalan Wikipedia Reaches 400,000 Article Milestone

  19 April 2013

The Catalan edition of Wikipedia Viquipèdia, a fundamental support to a language and culture historically discriminated against because it belongs to a stateless nation, has registered a record number of active users, with its article count reaching 400,000. At a moment when Catalonia is involved in a debate about becoming independent from Spain, its role in raising global awareness on the issue is crucial.

Great Broadband Wagon Rolls Out in Australia

  14 April 2013

The Opposition’s national broadband policy, released on 9 April 2013, was always going to be highly contentious in Australia. It is not just for geeks but also looms as a major issue in the Federal election to be held on 14 September.

Why is WeChat So Popular in China?

  14 April 2013

WeChat is a mobile phone text and voice messaging communication service developed by Tencent in China. It has more than 300 millions registered users and is the most popular mobile apps. Tricia Wang from Bytes Of China explained its popularity by looking into her own user experience.