· March, 2011

Stories about Technology from March, 2011

Russia: Friendship Relations Between LiveJournal Blogs Analyzed

RuNet Echo  23 March 2011

Habrahabr-user RomanL published [ru] a detailed analysis of Russian LiveJournal blogs. According to the analysis, Russian-speaking LiveJournal blogosphere (active audience of around 170,000 users) can be divided into 4 distinctive clusters (apolitical, political, creative, and general). Only 55 bloggers have the audience of more than 10,000 friends, while the vast...

Kenya: Kenya Film Commission Animation Expo

  23 March 2011

Moses attends Kenya Film Commission’s Animation Expo in Nairobi: “I was surprised on entering the Expo that there we’re far more companies than I had imagined who offer Animation services locally in Kenya. One definitely got a sense of a burgeoning industry that is much larger than what it looked...

Kenya: Learn about Dealfish Kenya

  23 March 2011

Moses posts his presentation on Dealfish Kenya that he gave at the monthly meetup of MobileMonday Kenya: “The mobile channel is incredibly important for Dealfish in Kenya since up to 50% of our users access our web site via the mobile web.”

China: VPNs don't work

  23 March 2011

Many Chinese netizens expressed their frustration on the blocking of VPNs in China since last week. Chinaren is among one of them.

Caribbean: Caribe Wave 11, the first simulated tsunami alert

  22 March 2011

On Wednesday, March 23, the first full-scale simulated tsunami alert exercise will take place in 33 countries in the Caribbean to test the effectiveness of alert, monitoring and warning systems (Hashtag on Twitter: EXERCISE – NOT REAL #CW11) . Open Street Map France [Fr] and Crisis Camp Paris [Fr] will...

Haiti: Was Wyclef Shot or Cut by Glass?

  22 March 2011

Early on Sunday 20 March, 2011, while Haitians headed to the polls for the second round of a historic and controversial presidential election, a story about Wyclef Jean, the Haitian-born hip hpp star, being allegedly shot in the hand monopolized the mainstream media news cycle about Haiti for a good portion of the day.

Africa: African Youths and Internet Governance

  22 March 2011

Gamel discusses the role of Africa youths in Internet Governance issues: “Young people can play a variety of roles as Internet users: developers, designers, researchers, content builders (bloggers, writers, etc), technical people, policy makers, activists, community coordinators, marketers and end-consumers.”

Russia: Bots To Look For Extremism Online

RuNet Echo  22 March 2011

Lenta.ru reported that Roskomnadzor, Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Communication, intends to use a special software designed to spot extremist content online. The software will check text, audio and video footage on the Web for words and phrases containing calls for violence and social and...

Syria: Implementing Ushahidi to track protests

Syrian Revolution Map is a new Ushahidi instance launched in Syria to track ongoing protests in several cities based on citizen reports of protests, security patrols, dangerous locations, clashes, and anticipated gatherings. Six protesters have reportedly been killed in Daraa, and dozens have been arrested. The website is in Arabic...

Twestival Brunei

  22 March 2011

Twestival Brunei (or Twitter Festival) will take place on 24 March in support of the Child Development Centre. The beneficiary is an active NGO which provides assistance to special children.

Myanmar: VoIP calls declared illegal

  22 March 2011

The Irrawaddy reports that the Myanmar government has ordered internet cafe operators to stop VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls since they allegedly affect state revenues.

Russia: Human Bots Fight Opposition

RuNet Echo  21 March 2011

As Internet control becomes more and more sophisticated, new techniques join the arsenal of online deception and discreditation. Vadim Isakov analyzed the phenomena of 'human bots,' paid commenters willing to turn any constructive conversation into the mess.

Mexico: U.S. Drones Gather Intelligence on Drug Cartels

  21 March 2011

A story first reported on March 15 by The New York Times has garnered strong responses from Mexican netizens based at home and abroad. Citing American and Mexican officials, the paper reported that "the Obama administration has begun sending drones deep into Mexican territory to gather intelligence that helps locate major traffickers and follow their networks."

Russia: First Candidates for the ‘Net Parliament’

RuNet Echo  21 March 2011

Novaya Gazeta website publishes [ru] the first results of the nominations for the ‘Net Parliament,’ the virtual project described by its creators as an ‘organ of the representative power of Russian Internet.’ Among the first hundred of the nominated candidates are mostly Moscow-based bloggers.