Stories about Technology from June, 2009
Israel: 7th Most Internet Connected Country in World
Israel is the world's 7th most internet connected society, reports Lirun of East Med Sea Peace. “It means many things,” he writes: “Freedom of information, freedom of expression, freedom of e-activism, freedom of e-entrepreneurship, freedom of media verification, freedom of online association and congregation. It's unlimited…”
Israel: Bedouin Village Relies on Green Energy
The Bedouin village of Darajat is gaining acclaim for its focus on clean energy. The Green Prophet reports: “Most residents have solar water heaters and electric systems, the school is powered by wind and sun, and students learn hands-on about alternative energy by reading the power meters in their classrooms....
Israel: Music Videos Unite Jewish & Arab Youth
Windows for Peace, a nonprofit based in Tel Aviv, Israel, is waging practical solutions for peace. This summer, Jewish and Arab Israeli teens will unite to create short music videos that represent their ideals. According to Israelity, the project's goal is “showing young people in the region that communication with...
Ukraine: Blogging Priest Scandal
Profy writes about a scandal involving a Ukraine-based Russian Orthodox priest – LJ user abbatus-mozdok – whose blogging manners were deemed inappropriate by the church officials.
Egypt: Play and put an end to Torture
Against Torture in Egypt posted this game - designed by IRCT (The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims) – on the occasion of the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (June 26).
Jordan: MPs Drafting a Law which requires Website Passwords
A new electronic sites law is being reviewed and drafted by the Jordanian Parliament which requires website administrators to provide their site's passwords to the government's Printing and Publication Directorate. In case the admins refuse, says the draft, the sites will be closed down by the concerned authorities. Blogger Osama Romoh reacts to the news.
Japan: On How to Perceive the Japanese Web (Part One)
Reporter Yuka Okada from the Japanese tech news site ITmedia brandished her well-regarded interviewing skills for a one-on-one session with Mochio Umeda. The result was “The Japanese web is ‘disappointing': An interview with Mr. Mochio Umeda” Part One and Part Two [ja]. In reaction, the Japanese blogosphere had to give...
China: July 1 Operation: Jump the Great Fire Wall
Wenyunchao called for a joint operation to demonstrate against the Green Dam on July 1 via twitter: Operation July 1: Oppose Green Dam, unite and jump the Great FireWall (translated by goldkorn)
Ecuador: Everything Ready for BarCamp in Guayaquil
Everything is ready for the next BarCamp in Guayaquil, Ecuador [es] that will take place on June 27. So far, there are more than 270 people registered for the event, writes Milton Ramírez.
Palestine: Discussing The Arabic Blogosphere
Palestinian blogger Laila El-Haddad recently took part in a panel discussing the Berkman Center's report Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: “Palestinian blogs signalled relatively low on the radar; it appears bridge bloggers and social networking sites or online forums figure more prominently.”
China: Chinese netizen reactions to CCTV attacking Google
Fauna from ChinaSMACK translated a blogger's letter to Gao Ye, the CCTV intern who attacked Google.cn under the identity of university student for poisoning youth's spirit by their overseas links to pornsites.
Bahrain/Tunisia: Censors of the Net
Sesawe‘s blog publishes an English translation of an article which appeared in France's Le Monde 2, entitled Censors of the Net, written by Claire Ulrich, which focuses on censorship, including that in Bahrain and Tunisia, to name a few.
Arab World: Berkman Launches New Arab Blog Study
Harvard University's Berkman Centre for Internet and Society has released a study of the Arabic blogosphere entitled Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere. About 35,000 active blogs were covered. “The goal for the study was to produce a baseline assessment of the networked public sphere in the Arab Middle East, and its...
Palestine: Finding Lost Relatives Online
Palestinian Mona, who lives in Canada, discusses how the Internet is being used to search for long lost relatives.
Tanzania: Blogger arrested for publishing manipulated images of the president
The alleged owner and blogger of the blog Ze Utamu (zeutamu.com) has been arrested in Tanzania. The alleged arrest has been in discussed at Jamii Forum, a popular Tanzanian Online Forum, since yesterday. And today, Swahili Time has posted the news along with a picture of the arrested blogger, Malecela...
Pakistan: Enriching Google Map Data
Pro Pakistani informs that “Pakistani netizens are posting more localized information and data to the Google’s ‘map maker’ than the web users of any of the 160 countries”.
Iran: FaceBook in Persian
Cyrus Farviar reports Facebook is about to launch its Persian-language version of the social networking software.
Iran: Google translates Persian
Several bloggers welcome this news that Iranians can now translate, in Google Translate, any text from Persian into English and from English into Persian — whether it's a news story, a website, a blog, an email, a tweet or a Facebook message.
CCTV's propaganda campaign against Google.cn
On June 18th, China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre (CIIRC) published a report in its frontage condemning Google.cn for spreading obscene contents. The report, titled as “Strongly condem google for spreading indecent and obscene information”, said
The Irony of Iran's ‘Twitter Revolution’
When the dust settles down on the Iran election crisis, we will see that Twitter was more useful as a media tool and not as an organizing tool.
Cuba: Lessons from Iran
Havana-based blogger Generation Y thinks that “what is happening in Iran and its dissemination through the Internet is a lesson for Cuban bloggers.”
