Stories about Technology from May, 2008
Mozambique: Society and mobile phones
Ximbitane [pt] talks about the “sms mania” which seems to be now part of the Mozambican daily life. “The mobile phones are installed in our lives as if they were a second skin and there is not the slightest doubt about it”.
Macedonia: Use of New Media in Election Campaign
Authors of the Macedonian media blog Komunikacii.net analyzed the "unprecedented" use of the internet and the new media by the leading political parties in the campaign for the early parliamentary elections, scheduled for June 1, 2008. Filip Stojanovski has translated the post from Macedonian.
China: GFW Upgraded
According to Turnright, the Great Fire Wall internet filtering system in China has recently been upgraded. Apart from website keyword filter, it also filters signatures of Window Live messager.
Saudi Arabia: Being Silly
Saudi blogger Mashi 67 [Ar] affirms he has the right to express himself in any way he wants – even if he decides to be silly and stick to silly topics.
Colombia: Statistics on Internet Usage and Access
Seventy-five percent of Colombians do not have access to the internet reveals a recent studty. Campus Comunicativo [es] provides more of the findings.
Colombia: Campus Party Speakers
Campus Party – Colombia is about a month away and Carolina Botero provides an update on some of the activities and speakers planeed for the week-long event.
Armenia/Georgia: Online Diasporan Communities
Social Science in the Caucasus examines the Internet presence of Armenian and Georgian communities in Switzerland. The blog of the Caucasus Research Resource Centers says that examining the extent of activity in online communities is one way of tracking how organized migrant communities abroad are.
Egypt: Egyptian Bloggers Union Formed
Egyptian blogger Shokeir [Ar] is surprised that an Egyptian Bloggers Union has been formed.
Kuwait: Sad for Hadeel
Kuwait blogger Rawan mourns the death of Saudi blogger Hadeel - and writes [Ar]: “I don't know why I cried a lot over a person I never knew. Why did I tell my mother and brother and a lot more people about her? Why I did not sleep and continued...
Africa: Powering mobile payments in Africa
Mobile Africa reports about a mobile payment system empowering rural communities in Africa: “Leading mobile payments provider Mi-Pay has signed a contract with an East African operator to deliver a mobile money ecosystem to its subscribers in rural communities. Mi-Pay’s technology and expertise will enable subscribers to benefit from international...
St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Going Beyond the Call
Blogging from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Abeni shares her thoughts on cell phone etiquette.
Kenya: The battle for mobile phone market
Ka-Investor blogs about “mobile wars” in Kenya: “The stage for a bruising battle for control of the local mobile phone market is now set and the main target is the safaricom’s near monopoly 9.2 million subscribers (although some of them are absentee subscribers). Other battle frontiers are the cash transfer...
Kenya: My experience with M-Pesa
Digzer writes about his experience with M-Pesa, a service that allows people to send money using mobile phones: “For all the simplicity using Safaricom’s M-Pesa is meant to provide, I’ve had a rather hard time at it. I’ve always noticed long queues at various M-pesa agent points and so thought...
Russia, Lithuania: Knight News Challenge Winners
Oleksandr Demchenko writes about the Russian and Lithuanian winners of the Knight News Challenge 2008.
Iran: Blogger writes book on the impact of the Internet
Cyrus Farivar is a USA-based blogger, journalist and writer. He is currently working on a book about the impact of the internet on society. Cyrus writes about internet impact on Iran, Senegal, South Korea and Senegal. He was recently in Iran and has taken several photos of Iranian carpets, food,...
Libya: The Novelty of Blogging
Libyan blogger Highlander writes: “Once upon a time I was a prolific blogger, but I found myself to have drastically cut down in the last twelve months or so. I am not sure what it is exactly. A mild disillusion, a little weariness perhaps or has the novelty passed.”
China: Ethnically diverse forum shut down
Uighur Online's attraction was in that it tolerated occasionally offensive and hateful opinions as valid parts of discussion; its closure now only demonstrates the short-sightedness of those responsible. As with any influential blog or BBS forum in China, Uighur Online's administrators were already in theory forced to censor any language which might alarm authorities. Now, all talks are off.
Cuba: Warnings from Sanchez
Uncommon Sense links to a post that Havana-based blogger Yoani Sanchez has written, which suggests that she may soon be arrested, saying: “Please pray for this brave woman, and for her continued safety.”
Videos: Creativity in facing the water crisis
With two very recent natural disasters in mind: the cyclone in Myanmar and the Earthquake in Sichuan, China, the topic of getting pure and drinkable water to needy populations has come back into the conversation. Following, several videos which propose different solutions to supply clean water or at least make it easier for people to have a healthful liquid to drink.
Japan: Online Sharing of Creative Work
Serkan Toto from Asiajin introduces 7 web services targeting at creative people for sharing of their creative work.
Japan and China: Softbank and Alibaba Joint Venture
Serkan Toto from Toykotronic blogs about the Softbank and Alibaba.com's joint venture in developing B2B web space in Japan.
