Stories about Feature from January, 2008
China: The Vagrants behind the Wall
Beijing, the host of 2008 Summer Olympics, is trying to show every bright aspect of its stable and harmonious to the whole world, however, when you are almost convinced by the prosperous night scenes around the Forbidden City, you may never think behind some traditional Chinese-style walls, there is another totally different world.
A “Robot” for Analyzing the Persian Blogosphere
Arash Kamangir, is a very active Canada-based Iranian blogger who has contributed to several internet projects such as Balatarin, an Iranian version of Digg. He just launched an innovative project for analyzing the Persian blogosphere that provides valuable new information about Iranian blogs.
An Introductory Guide to Global Citizen Media
Rising Voices proudly announces the first in a series of outreach guides meant to explain the fundamentals of citizen media to a non-technical readership. The first guide, An Introduction to Citizen Media, offers context and case studies which show how everyday citizens across the world are increasingly using blogs, podcasts, online video, and digital photography to engage in an unmediated conversation which transcends borders, cultures, and differing languages.
Introduction to Somali Blogosphere
The first roundup of Somali blogs, a small but steadily growing segment of the African blogsphere. Most Somali bloggers, predictably perhaps, are young, based outside Somalia and write in English.
Israel: Ms. Magazine Shuns Ad Promoting Leadership of Israeli Women
In a surprising move last week, Ms. Magazine refused to accept an advertisement that highlighted the leadership of Israeli women in public service. Maya Norton brings us the reactions of bloggers from Israel.
Kenya: Cyberactivism in the aftermath of political violence
Kenyan citizen journalists and activists are increasingly turning to popular Web 2.0 tools and applications such as wikis, blogs, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and mashups to organize and share news and information about the post election crisis, chronicle violence, share crisis photos and raise funds to help the needy.
FreeAccess Plus!: Web 2.0 Censorship workaround
Based on Hamed Saber‘s “Access Flickr” Firefox extension, which enables users to circumvent the filter currently in effect in Iran and in few other countries that block Flickr, the popular...
Colombia: Uncertain Future for the Hostage Situation
In the wake of the release of two women who had been held hostage by the FARC terrorist group for 5 and 6 years, there are mixed feelings regarding the future political situation in Colombia, especially after the request by Venezuela´s President Hugo Chávez to world leaders to consider FARC an insurgent and not a terrorist group.
Maldives: Aftermath of an assassination attempt
It looks like a scene out of a Tintin or Asterix comic book. On January 8, during a campaign tour of a northern atoll, while the Maldives dictator Maumoon Abdul...
Bahrain: George W. Does a Dance
During his tour of the Middle East, US President George W Bush came to Bahrain for a brief visit, the first of a sitting US president to the country. In this post, Ayesha Saldanha reports how bloggers reacted to the visit and how it impacted their everyday lives.
Egypt: From Blogs to Books
Many bloggers maybe revolting against mainstream media and traditional publishing by embracing new technology. In Egypt, the written word is finding its home again in books. Tarek Amr shows how some bloggers are turning into authors ahead of the Cairo Book Fair in this post he has translated from Arabic.
Voces Bolivianas: Leaping forward to the next round
The pilot program of the Voces Bolivianas project organized in El Alto city ended last November. It helped teach the use of citizen media tools to members of underrepresented groups in Bolivia who have already emerged as bloggers cum citizen journalists. The next round of citizen’s media workshops titled El Alto II will begin this Saturday, January 12th in the same city. In addition, the organization’s first expansion is scheduled for January 19th in the city of Santa Cruz.
China: Citizen reporter killed—by who?
What began as a protest against a planned urban trash dump encroaching on a residential area held by the villagers there in Tianmen, Hubei province became a murder story after...
India: Introducing the Tata Nano
The unveiling of Tata Nano, a new supermini car at the New Delhi Auto Expo today has created quite a commotion on the blogosphere. The standard version of the car...
Lebanon: Without a President
Lebanon has been without a president since the deadline for the election passed on November 24, 2007. The political bickering continues. A number of foreign initiatives have been launched to resolve the conflict issues but have so far been unsuccessful. The latest is the Arab League initiative, which is in progress this week. Here is a sample of Lebanese bloggers' reflection about the presidential vacuum and about the resulting political situation.
Kenya: Moving images of unrest and hope
A video walkthrough of the recent violent events in Kenya following the December 27th elections, with shocking images, insightful interviews and hopeful thoughts on the future.
Israel: President Bush Visits Israel
American President George W. Bush is arriving in Israel today and for once, English speaking Israelis have little to say. Views fall primarily into two camps: Complaints about the short-term discomfort that high security will cause Jerusalemites in their daily routines, and concern about new rockets launched from Lebanon and ongoing attacks from Gaza hailing Bush's visit.
Caribbean: Obama in Iowa
Senator Barack Obama's astounding success in Iowa - the first of the caucuses that will ultimately result in the victorious nominee from each of the two main political parties going on to contest the 2008 US presidential election - has struck a chord with many Caribbean bloggers. Some think he's the perfect candidate for the next US president, others aren't so sure, but there's no doubt that the Senator for Illinois is giving the Caribbean blogosphere something to talk about...
China: So yellow, so violent
Discussions between Chinese bloggers over what new online video regulations will mean if they are implemented later this month, have brought erotic and violent content, which are widely accessible on the Chinese-language internet, under the spotlight.
Morocco: The Freedom to Blog
Morocco is often touted as one of the freest of the world's majority-Muslim countries. Women enjoy nearly equal rights to men, the press is comparatively liberal, few websites are banned, and now, bloggers are free to write about what the press cannot, according to a recent article published by AFP.
Iranian bloggers discuss Obama's Iowa victory
Several Iranian bloggers are discussing the victory of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama in Iowa. It was the first nominating contest of the 2008 presidential election. Some rejoice in Obama’s...
