Ecuador: The Year in Blogs 2009 · Global Voices
Milton Ramirez

Ecuadorian bloggers are very hopeful for the new year. After taking part in familiar traditions for good luck in 2010, there is still time to look back and reflect on the year that had passed. One blogger, Carlos Correa wrote a detailed summary post in his blog Bitácora de Calú [es]  about the year in the Ecuadorian blogosphere, month by month, and invited readers to add in the comments section any significant event or happening that he might have missed.  The following is a summary of that summary.
There was extensive participation in tech-related activities by national universities: the Technical University of Loja (UTPL for its initials in Spanish), which hosted the Campus Congress, and the Superior Polytechnic School of the Coast (ESPOL for its initials in Spanish), which had sponsored the Facebook Developer Garage [es] in Guayaquil.
In addition, several local websites were hacked in 2009, and some of this unauthorized access was due to the vulnerabilities of the Ecuadorian Domain Registrar (nic.ec) [es]. The websites of the National Social Security office [es], Sucre National Theater [es], and the Ecuador Aviation School [es] also fell victim to hackers. However, not everything in 2009 was as unfortunate as hacked websites.
There were several blogger meet-ups throughout the year, as well as the First Meeting of Online Media [es] organized by Ciudadania Informada and a Social Networking Seminar on the future of Communication in Ecuador sponsored by Fundapi. Five BarCamps successfully took place in the cities of Quito, Guayaquil, Santa Elena, Milagro, and Loja.
Finally, there were several other events that took place in 2009 and are highlighted by Correa:
* The revival of the EcuaBlogs community of blogs [es], which is now being coordinated by Max Souffriau
* The small plane crash in the capital city of Quito, and which was covered by Twitterers reporting on the situation [es].
* The creation of podcastEC [es], which covers technology and internet-related topics.
* The launch of the initiative Iguana Valley [es], which is “an open community created with the aim to raise awareness and promote initiatives related to technology and promote the development of the technological sector in Ecuador.”