A Review of Global Voices in 2008 · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Nearly 3 million people visited Global Voices in 2008. At times of natural disasters or conflicts, our traffic peaks – often with readers who are trying to figure out what's going on in their home countries from abroad, or simply curious people who are trying to understand global events from a local perspective.
Global Voices regional editors have written roundups of the last year of posts in their regions. You can find them on the Best of 2008 special coverage page, and even add your own favorite posts to our public Google map.  Global Voices’ executive director, Ivan Sigal, has also written an organizational overview of what we've accomplished. And our media archive is always a good indicator of what the world likes us for.
Want to know what our most read posts were in 2008?
China – Tibet, Olympics, Earthquakes
As in 2007, our most read posts in 2008 were from China.
As part of our Reuters-sponsored Olympics coverage, John Kennedy wrote this post in May that received more than 700 comments about the fallout after  a pro-Tibet protest (and counter-protest) in the United States. One young protester was a Chinese overseas student, Wang Qianyuan, who was subsequently harassed online very severely.
Disagreements over Tibet raged so much throughout March and April, that even this short post by Oiwan Lam sparked intense discussion, as did many others on Chinese bloggers’ angry responses to Western media coverage.
In May, less than 2 hours after an earthquake shook China's Sichuan province, John Kennedy wrote a much-read post with citizen video and photos that he continuously updated over the next hours and days. It was one of many posts that appeared on Global Voices describing both the earthquake and the devastating aftermath.
Japan – Google Street View
High up on the list of most read posts is Chris Salzberg's translation of a post in Japanese by Osamu Higuchi describing the cultural clash in Japan with the introduction of Google Street view, the online mapping service that uses actual photos of city streets and street life. This post was Slashdotted in English, Japanese and Chinese, and became a source for several mainstream media articles. There were several updates to this story by the Japanese team on Global Voices.
South Ossetia, Russia and Georgia – War
The international media were taken by surprise when violence erupted between Georgia and Russia in August over South Ossetia. On Global Voices, Onnik Krikorian reported quickly from blogs of the region before most journalists had even made their way there, earning links and praise from the New York Times, CNN, Reuters, and others, along with Veronica Khokhlova, Elia Varela Serra, and others from Global Voices who helped cover the conflict through citizen media.
India – Mumbai Attacks
The highest spike in traffic we received all year was for the combined posts and special coverage about the Mumbai terrorist attacks in India in November. Neha Viswanathan on Global Voices was among the first to link to citizen photos of Mumbai only hours after the attacks, and the coverage continued with contributions from Rezwan, Awab Alvi, Farhan Janjua and the rest of the South Asia team.
Thanks to everyone
There were numerous other authors and stories that deserve mention for their posts in 2008 (our Special Coverage section should give you an indication of how busy everyone has been). Global Voices depends on the daily posts of more than 150 authors and translators all over the world – and even more so the thousands of bloggers worldwide who are relaying their daily thoughts and experiences for all to read. Thanks to our readers for standing by us, commenting, subscribing and donating.
Happy new year, and please keep reading!