12 March 2009

Stories from 12 March 2009

Taiwan: Best Job in the World

Taiwanese girl Clare wants to take the “Best Job” in the world and she is almost there. Job description: managing a beautiful island of Australia and blog about how you...

12 March 2009

New Citizen Media Projects Foster Rising Voices in Ivory Coast, Liberia, China, Mongolia, and Yemen

Of the 270 project proposals we received from activists, bloggers, and NGO's all wanting to use citizen media tools to bring new communities - long ignored by both traditional and new media - to the conversational web, the following five are most representative of the innovation, purpose and goodwill that Rising Voices aims to support. Please join me in welcoming our new Rising Voices grantees.

12 March 2009

Japan: On Twitter, nobody knows you're a bot

“On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.” -- The words of a well-known adage dating back to a New Yorker cartoon from 1993 capture the anonymity people generally expect from online communication. This week a new take on this adage hit the Japanese blogosphere when a blogger discovered that two of his closest friends on Twitter were actually bots designed as part of a programming contest.

12 March 2009

Armenia: Homophobia

The Armenian Gay & Lesbian Association of NY posts a short video of a recent presentation on homophobia in Armenia. Unzipped: Gay Armenia comments on the video in a separate...

12 March 2009

Japan: Brazilian community

Roy Berman from Mutantfrog blogs about the life of a Brazilian community (with photos) in the Homi public housing area of Toyota City.

12 March 2009

Japan: Link Spam

Motoko comments on Google's decision to punish Google Japan for paying bloggers to promote their new “hot new keywords” by links.

12 March 2009

Iran: Hopes, Doubts, Questions over Former President's Candidacy

Former reformist president Mohammad Khatami's announcement on 8 February that he will run in the 2009 Iranian presidential election, attracted a lot of attention in the virtual as well as the real world. Several bloggers shared their hopes, doubts, questions and concerns about Khatami who served between 1997 and 2005.

12 March 2009

Russia, Ukraine, the Balkans: Eurovision News

The controversy caused by Georgia's Eurovision Song Contest entry seems to be over (or, depending on one's perspective, has reached its climax), now that Georgia has decided not to take part in this year's event in Moscow, following the European Broadcasting Union's demand that the lyrics of the 'We Don't Wanna Put In' song are either changed or a different song entered. Russia's own entry is causing controversy now as well, however.

12 March 2009

Jordan: Blog About Jordan Day Approaches

Blog About Jordan Day, an initiative started in 2008 by blogger Qwaider, has begun. The day designated for all bloggers, Jordanian or not, to write about Jordan in any shape or form, is marked on March 12th of every year.

12 March 2009

Egypt: Disaster Ferry Owner Finally Guilty!

The life of each one of the 1,000 plus Egyptians killed when the Salam 89 ferry sank in 2006 is worth about 11 hours in prison for ferry owner, former lawmaker and business tycoon Mamdouh Ismail, who has been sentenced in absentia to seven years in jail for “involuntary slaughter,” say Egyptian bloggers.

12 March 2009

Philippines: The Death of a Rebel’s Daughter

A 20-year old teacher and daughter of a communist rebel leader was abducted, tortured, and murdered more than a week ago in the Philippines. The military has denied involvement in this gruesome crime. Bloggers are condemning the "culture of death" in the country.

12 March 2009