Stories about Technology from March, 2008
Moroccan Blogosphere on Fouad Mourtada: Finally Free
Young Moroccan engineer Fouad Mourtada was released from prison by presidential pardon days before Eid el Mawlid, the Prophet Muhammad's birthday. Fouad was imprisoned for more than forty days for creating a Facebook profile of the king's brother, Moulay Rachid. Bloggers reflect on the grassroots effort to free Fouad and celebrate his liberation as a step forward for personal freedoms in the Kingdom.
LiveJournal: Bloggers Protest Basic Account Cancellation
Yet again, LJ users are in distress. Unlike the previous times, however, the current situation involves both the Russian-language and the English-language segments of LiveJournal. It all began when LiveJournal's management announced that no account created after March 12, 2008, could be turned into a free-of-charge and ad-free Basic Account. Today, some Anglophone and Russophone LJ users protest against this unpopular measure.
Taiwan: Discussions about NCC draft law
The National Communications Commission (NCC) in Taiwan held its second hearing on Sept. 20th, 2007, to discuss the second draft of a new communication law. This new law will integrate...
Kazakhstan: Oddities of the Digital Present
In the most recent counple of weeks the Kazakhstani blogosphere – usually heavily politicized – was focused more on the developments in telecoms sector and Internet-related novelties in Kazakhstan. The...
China: Spam
It has been found out that 100% mobile users in China have been disturbed by spam messages, Liu Xiaoyuan pointed out that the government should take up the responsibility to...
Albania: Eagle Mobile
Albanian Blogger comments on the arrival of Albania's “much-awaited” third mobile operator.
Libya: Internet Grooming
Anglolibyan, from Libya, draws our attention to Internet grooming – which is slowly finding its way to his country.
Israel: Secret Service Creates New Blog
Shin Bet, the Israeli secret service joins the blogosphere this week, causing Molly of Israeli blog The Big Felafel to ask: “Can you really imagine a Shin Bet techie cracking...
D.R. of Congo: Radio Okapi journalist wins blog award
Congolese journalist Cédric Kalonji [Fr] wins a “Bobs” award for best francophone blog.
Morocco: Fouad Mourtada Robbed of His Life
Fouad Mourtada probably never guessed he'd become a household name. Arrested on February 5 and sentenced on February 22 to three years in prison (plus a $1,000 fine) for creating a Facebook profile impersonating Morocco's Prince Moulay Rachid, Mourtada is now famous, but unfortunately, that fame has come at an enormous price.
China: Planning for Citizen Media Website
Zoula compared different citizen media websites as a ground work for his future online citizen media project [zh].
China: What's Wrong with Wiki?
KJ found out that many netizens couldn't access overseas wiki websites such as wikia and wowwiki [zh].
Singapore: Greeting Online vs. Traditionally
Missybrowneyes on greeting people online vs. greeting them the traditional way “Apparantly, homo sapiens in this 20th century have pretty warped idea of greetings. You must do it online. Over...
Bermuda: Citizen Media
Breezeblog keeps track of the annual State of the News Media Report from the Project For Excellence in Journalism and says: “The report notes the nature of news reporting on...
Nicaragua: One Year Anniversary for Community Portal
The blog community portal Nicaragua y Su Blog [es] celebrates one year of highlighting new and existing blogs throughout the country.
Poland: Jaroslaw Kaczyński and the Web
Warsaw Station and the beatroot report on how the former PM “managed to show his complete lack of understanding of the world wide web”: “Plans by the government to introduce...
Bahrain: Keywords Shocker
From Bahrain, Silly Bahraini Girl takes a closer look at the keywords which drive clicks to her blog.
Japan: Crackdown on File Sharing?
Danny Choo writes about an announcement that Japanese ISPs are going to forcibly cut off users who share files over the Internet, pointing out differences between English-language and Japanese-language coverage...
Colombia: The Results of HiperBarrio
Victor Solano of ¿Comunicación? [es] reflects on the positive results that the project HiperBarrio has accomplished in Medellín, Colombia.
Blogger of the Week: Renata Avila Pinto
A lawyer by profession, Renata Avila Pinto brings us the voices of bloggers from Guatemala on Global Voices Online. Amira Al Hussaini interviews Renata about her voyage with blogging, her likes and dislikes and hopes for the future, in today's Blogger of the Week series.
Jordan: Accountable Blogging
Jordanian Naseem Al Tarawnah talks about accountable blogging in Jordan and the Arab world.
