Stories about Technology from November, 2008
Uruguay: National Volunteers Gathering for Plan Ceibal
Pablo Flores provides a summary of the recent National Gathering of Volunteers in Montevideo, Uruguay. These volunteers have been working with the Ceibal Plan, which has been distributing and working with the XO computers throughout the country.
Egypt: Internet Freedom in Egypt
Tunisian blogger, Sami Ben Gharbia, published a video explaining the role of the Egyptian blogsphere in exposing human rights abuses and the role of the social-networking website Facebook and the micro-blogging platform.
China: Blogger Conference
David Feng from China Review reports on various presentations at Chinese Blogger Conference, including: Michael Anti's presentation on his old / media experience, Ping Ke's presentation on ir/rational online debate, Hecaitou's presentation on the challenge for digging true information online.
Syria: No More Bab el Hara
Ayman Haykal [Ar] links to a report published on Haaretz that says the Israeli cellular provider, Cellcom, made a profit of approximately 400.000 shekels per month this year from the Syrian soap opera, Bab El Hara (Neighborhood Gateway).
Brazil: Flash mob protest against Digital Crimes Bill
Brazilian bloggers and netizens took to the streets of São Paulo to protest against the Digital Crimes Bill which typifies the cyber-crimes punishable by law and stipulates penalties accordingly, but might end up considering trivial conduct when surfing the Internet as a crime. At a public hearing held in the parliament, the project supporters "ended up sounding silly and unprepared".
Egypt: Blogger Blocks Nawara's Blog
It seems that it is not only third world regimes who block people's blogs. Apparently, Google's Blogspot has decided to join the bandwagon, and has blocked Nawara Negm's Blog (Tahyees [Ar]), without specifying any reasons. Ahmed Shokeir writes here about the incident in Arabic.
Argentina: Wordcamp 2008 in Buenos Aires
The second edition of Wordcamp Argentina recently took place in Buenos Aires, and which again featured the presence of Matt Mullenweg, Wordpress' main developer. Here he previewed the changes in store for the latest edition of the blogging platform and also provided his thoughts on the recent talk regarding the "death of blogs." In addition, bloggers discussed ways to earn money, get blog advertising, and also how to develop corporate blogs.
Nagorno Karabakh: Peacebuilding Goes Online
With stereotypes and alternate and usually contradictory as well as inaccurate perceptions of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh still prevalent in both societies, a new online youth media project has been set up by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State to be implemented by Project Harmony.
China: Too much time online? You got psychosis.
Facebook, twitter, blog, facebook, email, online game, then blog, how long have you stayed online? If you have stared at your computer screen and clutched your mouse for over 6.13 hours a day, you are, I am sorry, a person of mental disorder according to the latest official definition in China.
India: Landing on the Moon
The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) of the Indian space mission Chandrayaan-1 crash Landed successfully on the Moon today. My Thought Waves reacts: “Chandrayaan has made each one of us proud. We now join one of the very few countries in the world to have demonstrated the capability to carry out...
Syria: Using ScribeFire
In this post, Omar [AR] tells us that he used the FireFox add-on, Scribefire, to publish his post. He explains how it is easy to add the plug-in in your browser and publish posts without necessarily signing into your blog account. And to those who own several blogs he adds:...
Japan: Changing jobs in a recession
Noriyuki Okada at Silicon Valley wa Kyô mo Hareru (シリコンバレーは今日も晴れ) [jp] describes his experience taking the decision as a software-engineer to change his job despite being in the middle of an economically unstable period. He writes about how he thought carefully about his technical skills, asked for experts’ opinion about...
Japan: Street View and the Burakumin
The Internet, many would argue, has created the possibility for anyone to express their opinions freely. Recently, however, some have worried about an increase in the number of racist and denigrative comments against minorities spreading across the web. In Japan, the advent of Google's new Street View service has led some bloggers to discuss the relationship between areas photographed and discriminated communities.
Vietnam: British Ambassador is also a blogger
British Ambassador to Vietnam, Mark Kent, started blogging last September. The blog is published in Vietnamese so that it can reach more people in the country.
Japan: Children and mobile phones
At Kyô mo Aruku [ja], Shigeru Kurokawa casts doubts [ja] on the propriety of a report [ja], published by the government Discussion Group for Education Rebuilding, which urges mobile phone companies to make special telephones for children that limit functionality so that only calls can be made, and to set...
Trinidad & Tobago: Manning & the Media
The furor surrounding the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister's recent radio station visit has not abated.
Nicaragua: Online Radio Stations
Nimrod lists some of the Nicaraguan online radio stations [es] that can be found using the Winamp music player.
Syria: Unprofessional Websites
Salam [AR] lists in this post problems most Arabic internet users face as they're viewing Arabic websites. He argues that the reason behind such problems is mostly due to the profession of these websites’ owners: they're not websites’ designers nor developers, but rather money makers.
Japan: Umbrella Loudspeaker
Edo from Pink Tentacle introduces a new design that turns umbrella into loudspeaker.
Brazil: Romário, football star and blogger
“Couch career? Don't count on me, I would rather career as a blogger”, said Brazilian football player Romário. Cocada Boa [pt] announces that he has just launched his blog and speculates on the 10 reasons for the star to start to have done so.
MENA: Blogs and a social revolution
Saudi blogger, Esam Mudeer, clipped from CNN Arabic, an article asking -in light of last week's major events in the Arab world- if Arab blogs might lead a social revolution in the region.
