Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from December, 2009
Romania: Hungarian Minority Politics
Hungarian Spectrum writes about the Hungarian minority politics of the recent presidential election in Romania.
Czech Republic: Christmas Carols
Czechmatediary posts lyrics of selected Czech Christmas carols (CZE).
Belarus, Ukraine: British Literary Translator Vera Rich Dies at 73
Belarus Digest writes about Vera Rich, a British translator of Belarusian and Ukrainian literature, who died on Dec. 20 at the age of 73.
Russia: iPhone 3GS
Profy reports that “two of the three largest Russian carriers have finally reached an agreement with Apple on iPhone 3GS which means that the gadget will be officially sold in Russia – as soon as in the first three months of 2010.”
Russia: “Cyber-Tatars”
Evgeny Morozov reviews the newest issue of Digital Icons (formerly known as the Russian Cyberspace Journal), which includes Dilyara Suleymanova's article that “explores how Tatar groups use Vkontakte, one of Russia's most popular social networks, for constructing and negotiating their ethnic identity.”
Russia: Blogger Calls For Open Technical Standards
LJ user bablaw wrote an open letter [Google translation – ENG] to the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev calling him to veto amendments to the Civil Code that would make technical standards [ENG] closed to the general public.
Russia: Livejournal Vs. Tor and New Battle for Anonymity
Livejournal.com preventing users from accessing its site via an anonymizer caused panic and anger among global online community. It also showed the importance of anonymizers and revealed vulnerability of online privacy tools.
Poland: ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ Sign Stolen from Auschwitz
Last Friday morning, the sign ‘Arbeit Macht Frei‘ ('Work Sets You Free') was stolen from the gate of former Nazi death camp in Auschwitz, near Krakow. The theft caused many speculations but also serious reactions from the Polish government, museum authorities, Jewish organisations and the public online.
Russia, U.S.: Brittany Murphy in Moscow on Dec. 19?
LJ user becky_sharpe (Bozhena Rynska, Gazeta.ru‘s gossip columnist) claims (RUS) that actress Brittany Murphy, who died on Dec. 20 in Los Angeles, was a guest at a private party in Moscow on Dec. 19 and was [“hungover”] when she flew back home. UPDATE: a follow-up discussion (RUS) of LJ user...
Russia: Popular Blogger Would Be Glad If Russian Authorities Restrict Internet
Popular Russian blogger and activist Roman Dobrokhotov talks to GVO about the Internet and online activism in the country.
Hungary: Bloggers Discuss the Corporate Use of Social Media
T-Mobile Hungary experiences an outage, a Vodafone Hungary's employee tweets about it, then gets fired. Marietta Le writes about the controversy and reviews the ongoing online discussion of the corporate use of social media in Hungary.
Russia: Yegor Gaidar, Russia's Economic Reformer, Dies at 53
Yegor Gaidar, a Russian economist and politician who initiated the 1992 "shock therapy" reforms, died in Moscow on Dec. 16 at the age of 53. Russian bloggers' responses serve as a vivid reflection of how divided people still are on Gaidar's legacy and on the direction the country has taken since the demise of the Soviet Union.
Russian Rock Star Talks About His Social Network
Ikra.tv is a pioneer of music social networks in Russia. It currently consists of about 6,500 members and offers various forms of communications for fans including blogs, forums and different options to share music, pictures and videos.
Russia: A Third of Russians Use Internet
There are 42 million Internet users (29,6% of total population) in Russia according to the latest Public Opinion Foundation research [Google Translation ENG]. This is 2 million more compared to the Summer of 2009. Daily Internet audience in Russia accounts for 23,9 million.
Russia: “Anti-crisis” is Word of The Year
Three most popular words dominated Russian society in 2009 according to a well-known “Word of the Year” contest on Imhonet.ru. Those words are “antikrizisniy” (anti-crisis), “zomboyashik” (zombie-box) as a description for TV, and “Medveputiya” (Medvedev and Putin).
Video: International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
Videos and activists observed the International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers, and here are some videos related to their efforts in ensuring rights to Sex Workers.
Russian Programmer Community Hacks Super-Earth Name Vote
After The Wired magazine opened a vote [ENG] to name a newly discovered “most Earth-like” planet, Russian Habrahabr-user khekkly started a flashmob[Google Translation – ENG] urging Russian programmers to name it “Siberia.” This name currently leads the chart.
Belarus: New Plans For Internet Control
“Nasha Niva”online portal in Belarus published [Google Translation – ENG] a draft of the President's decree “On Measures to Improve the National Segment of the Internet.” The decree will significantly limit the Internet freedom and introduce new measures of online censorship.
Russia: Two Stories of Space Blogging
Blogging from and about space gains popularity and recognition among professional space travelers and regular bloggers. Russia is no exception. While the latest fashion for NASA astronauts is space twittering [ENG], more and more space explorers are going full-text. And the fact that one wouldn't necessarily call those blogs par...
Poland: Blogs Demand Payment for Content
Readers of leading Polish blogs might have been surprised to see a new welcome screen on one of their favourite websites recently: it announced that, beginning Dec. 14, 2009, access to this blog was no longer free of charge. Jakub Gornicki writes about the case.
Russia: Google Bus Stop Ads Hacked
While Russia and the U.S. were holding meetings on cyber warfare, Russian activists took the process of hacking from virtual space to real bus stops in Moscow where they slightly altered original Google ads.
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