Stories about Technology from May, 2014
Free E-books: Digital Survival Kit
Andrea Collazo publishes [es] on Profesora de Informática [Computing teacher] her first free e-book: Security, browsers, e-mail, office automation, storage in “The Cloud”, messaging, multimedia, image treatament, accesories. Meet the Digital Survival Kit. The kit can be ordered on the post [es]. The post reviewed here was part of the...
Russian Internet Users, Putin is After Your Digital Wallets
The offices of Yandex.Money, the popular online payments system associated with Russia's largest search engine, were searched by Russia's Investigative Committee.
Legislating on Open Access in Mexico
Saul Equihua writes [es] on Infotecarios about open access in México: On Tuesday, May 20, 2014, Mexico moved ahead by adding and reforming the Legislation of Science and Technology, the General Legislation of Education and the Organic Law of National Council of Science and Technology, to promote open access. After...
Rwanda: The Good, the Bad and the Hopeful
Although Rwanda has made great strides in recovering from the 1994 genocide, advocacy groups continue to report human rights violations.
Now Russia Wants to Tighten the Noose Around News-Aggregation Sites
Russian lawmakers are taking steps to classify news-aggregating websites as mass media, which would require companies like Yandex to register with the government and face stricter regulations.
Reference Services in Library and the Web
Samuel Castro Ponce writes [es] on Infotecarios about reference services [es] or librarian consultaton, history, features and evolution: Evidently, synchronized referece services are evolving. Now there is a trend of using 2.0 websites for taking advantages of social networks that make possible sending and receiving information instantly. The same goes...
Are Colombian Librarians Updated, Technologically Speaking?
Jaider Ochoa-Gutiérrez wonders [es] on Infotecarios if ordinary librarians are updated on technological issues that influence their profession, such as content curation, big data, labs among others, and answers from his own experience: I must confess that, to me (and after speaking with some colleagues), the issue is still vague;...
China Puts Squeeze on WeChat and Other Messaging Apps
China cracks down on instant messaging platforms including the WeChat messaging application ahead of the 25th anniversary of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen.
Podcast: History of the Internet in China
Sinaca Podcast discusses how the Internet has grown and changed China with three guests who have experienced the worst and the best of the Chinese Internet: Duncan Clark from BDA China, Gady Epstein from The Economist, and Bill Bishop, the author of the Sinocism newsletter.
“An Island Luminous” Makes Haiti Open Access
There's an exciting new free-access website on Haiti, which pairs rare books, manuscripts, newspapers and archival photos with intelligent commentary.
Ukraine War in Real Time
Last Friday Ukrainian violence became even more viscerally evident on the Facebook account of one of the cyber-punk, post-state, viral-citizen-armies operating in the region.
Creating Biogas from Water Hyacinth
Water hyacinth (water weed) is a menace in Bangladesh which restricts water flow and blocks sunlight in rivers and ponds contributing to contamination and killing of fish. Instead of spending much in removing or eradicating them they can be used for a good cause. Kristin Boekhoff at Panigram blog informs...
Internet Policy In India – Which Way?
The newly elected Bharatya Janata Party headed by Narendra Modi is expected to implement policies and regulatory reforms that will augment economic growth in India. Avantika Banerjee at India Law and Technology blog opines that there is a strong correlation between economic growth and internet access/internet freedom and the expected...
Russian Digital Sovereignty Is Here and, Yes, It Includes Schoolgirls
No sooner than Basov announced the search engine's moral superiority did Russian bloggers begin posting screen captures of curious search queries conducted using Sputnik.ru.
Wiring the Amazon
On an articles published on The New York Times, Michael Kleinman talks about his video produced for Op-Docs titled “Wiring the Amazon”, where he shares the four-year struggle to get a remote Peruvian village connected with the outside world: I was following the work of One Laptop per Child (O.L.P.C.),...
Can Technology Transform Education in Trinidad & Tobago?
Trinidad and Tobago recently hosted Virtual Educa, an initiative designed to explore cutting-edge developments in education, technology and e-learning. A few netizens wonder if technology will actually help improve schooling.
39 Ideas to Do on the Internet
Masticable shares [es] 39 creative, fun, active or self-taught ideas to do on the Internet, available to everybody. Here we randomly share three of those ideas: Learn and practice other languages, music included. Tools: Duolinguo and Lyricstraining Share your drawings. Tool: Gimp for drawing o editing and devianart for sharing...
Pakistan's Sindh Province Still Wants to Censor WhatsApp, Viber and Skype
Aamir Atta at ProPakistani reports quoting local media houses that social media applications like WhatsApp, Viber and Skype may be blocked in Pakistan's Sindh province to maintain law and order. The Sindh government had proposed a similar ban in October last year, citing security concerns. However, experts say because a...
18 Advantages of Using WordPress
Are you considering to start a blog or a website and can't decide which platform to use? Andrea Collazo on Profesora de Informática, before detailing the 18 advantages of WordPress, tells us [es] why she prefered to use it. you have to learn at first, there are some words that...
Sultan Suleimanov on the RuNet's Last Chance
Suleimanov attended an invitation-only meeting at Roscomnadzor, the Russian government's chief censorship agency, which is tasked with enforcing a series of recent laws that limit the freedom of information online.
Countdown to the End of Twitter in Russia
The deputy director of Russia’s chief censorship agency, Roscomnadzor, has threatened to order a block on Twitter or Facebook entirely, in a matter of minutes.
