Rising Voices é uma iniciativa da Global Voices, cujo objectivo é permitir o aparecimento de “novas vozes”, de novas comunidades e línguas, na esfera global, providenciando recursos e fundos a grupos locais para que estes ajam nas comunidades que ainda não possuem uma voz activa.

Founded in 2004 by a group of pioneering international bloggers, Global Voices aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media often ignore. However, over the years it became increasingly clear that certain regions, languages, and demographics were better represented in the online global conversation than others. The bloggers, vloggers, and podcasters featured on Global Voices tended to be urban, middle-class,
and well-educated. (1)

Esta iniciativa, iniciada devido ao apoio de Knight News Challenge Award, procura, pois, fortalecer as comunidades não representadas, de modo a que as suas vozes sejam ouvidas online.
Tal acontece através de projectos de cariz social, do desenvolvimento de actividades (tais como workshops) com recurso aos novos media, e, através do cultivo de uma rede de activistas sociais que encorajam e apoiam estas actividades e projectos.

Dois exemplos de projectos pertencentes a esta iniciativa são o hiperbarrio, vencedor da Golden Nicca na categoria de Digital Communities da Edição do Ars Electronica de 2009, e Voces Colombianas com uma menção honrosa, no mesmo festival.

(1) in rising.globalvoicesonline.org

Global Voices é uma comunidade, fundada em 2005, de mais de 200 bloggers, espalhados pelo mundo, que trabalham em conjunto, visando agreegar e amplificar a “conversação” online, shining light on places and people other media often ignore (1) Desenvolvem ferramentas, instituições e relações que potenciarão todas as vozes, que queiram e necessitem ser ouvidas.

Global Voices is incorporated in the Netherlands as Stichting Global Voices, a nonprofit foundation. We do not have an office, but work as a virtual community across multiple time zones, meeting in person only when the opportunity arises (usually during our Summits). We rely on grants, sponsorships, editorial commissions, and donations to cover our costs. (1)

Global Voices faz traduções em mais de 15 línguas, atarvés de voluntários, criando o projecto Lingua e Advocacy, que pretende defender as vozes que não têm outro meio de conseguirem ser ouvidas.
Outra iniciativa desta comunidade é o Rising Voices to help marginalized communities use citizen media to be heard, with an emphasis on the
developing world. (1)
A ideia para este projecto nasceu no decurso de um encontro internacional de bloggers, na Universidade de Harvard, em Dezembro de 2004; a partir do qual se expandiu rapidamente.
At a time when international English-language media ignores many things that
are important to large numbers of the world’s citizens, Global Voices aims to redress some of the inequities in media attention by leveraging the power of
citizens’ media.(1)
Como metas principais deste projecto encontram-se definidas:
Uma chamada de atenção para conversas e perspectivas interessantes emergentes da comunicação social de cidadãos de todo o mundo atarvés da “linkagem” de textos, fotografias, vídeos e outras formas de aproximação a esta comunicação.
Facilitar a emergência das novas vozes através de workshops, tuturiais online e publicação dos meios nos quais ferramentas grátis possam ser utilizadas por todos quanto queiram expressar-se.
Apoiar a liberdade de expressão no mundo e proteger os direitos dos cidadãos jornalistas que elaboram relatórios e formulam opiniões, sem medo de censura
ou perseguição.

(1) In www.globalvoicesonline.org

World Bloggers: Support detained and imprisoned bloggers throughout the world!

Bucharest, 17th of November 2009 – World Bloggers outspeak their support to two imprisoned video blogging youth activists in Azerbaijan as well as all persecuted, detained and imprisoned bloggers throughout the world. Continue to read.

and other issues in CyberWorld

Internet blocking balancing cybercrime responses in democratic societies

Prepared by
Cormac Callanan (Ireland)
Marco Gercke (Germany)
Estelle De Marco (France)
Hein Dries-Ziekenheiner (Netherlands)

Google Chrome OS To Launch Within A Week

Google’s Chrome OS project, first announced in July, will become available for download within a week, we’ve heard from a reliable source. Google previously said to expect an early version of the OS in the fall.

What can we expect? Driver support will likely be a weak point. We’ve heard at various times that Google has a legion of engineers working on the not so glamorous task of building hardware drivers. And we’ve also heard conflicting rumors that Google is mostly relying on hardware manufacturers to create those drivers. Whatever the truth, and it’s likely in between, having a robust set of functioning drivers is extremely important to Chrome OS’s success. People will want to download this to whatever computer they use and have it just work.

Britain’s new internet law,

The government has revealed details of its Digital Economy Bill, trailed in the Queen’s Speech. One proposal which has already attracted a great deal of attention is the introduction of new penalties for those suspected of internet piracy, from disconnection to hefty fines. Laws which allow the swift termination of pirates’ internet connections (often on a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ basis) have been spreading across the world recently, from France to South Korea.

Featured Author: Filip Stojanovski

Filip Stojanovski is a Global Voices author and translator based in Skopje, Macedonia. He is the Program Coordinator of Metamorphosis, a think tank which seeks the development of democracy and prosperity by promoting knowledge-based economy and information society. He has been blogging in both English and Macedonian since 2003 and has written a number of essays and research papers. His essay “Some Sources Of Bias In Reporting About Macedonia” is especially relevant to those interested in global perceptions of Macedonia.

Featured Author: Diego Casaes

This past week at the Brazilian Digital Culture Forum [pt] I had a chance to meet up with Diego Casaes, a dedicated Global Voices author and translator from Salvador, Brazil. Much of Diego’s writing on Global Voices has spread awareness about legislative threats to online freedom in Brazil, such as the infamous “Azeredo Bill“. He has also profiled cyber-activists like João Carlos Caribé and Daniel Pádua (who just lost his life to cancer) and their attempts to protect the individual freedoms and social bonds enabled by the Internet.

AfricaNews.com - The most compelling interactive Africa community, sharing news, photos, weblogs, videos, mobile reports and the untold stories by African people.

The growing number of mobile phones, and increasing access to affordable Internet, has resulted in the rise of African content. The African ‘blogosphere’ exemplifies these changes. Three years ago an Internet search resulted in only a handful of postings from across the continent. Now there are thousands of African blogs and the numbers continue to grow exponentially. Global Voices (United States), Afrigator (South Africa), Akouaba (Congo), Naijapulse (Nigeria) and BlogSpirit (Uganda) have emerged as Internet platforms that aggregate, organize and distribute the ever-increasing amount of information.

The rise in African blogs is joined by further developments in the African mediascape. In the last three years Africa has seen the emergence of Reuters Africa, CNN Africa, CNBC Africa and many others. Other global players see new opportunities too. Heavyweight Google has opened offices in East Africa, setting up local search engines, expanding their Google maps initiative and supporting numerous efforts to translate the web into local languages. Google has also made a big push to support its Android technology that will make the mobile phone center to its African strategy. This effort is only highlighted by the company’s launch of Google SMS and the recent Google investment in the O3b Satellite project. These events confirm the company’s long-term commitment to the continent, a business that depends on content for its success.

Africa is also starting to produce talented programmers and ingenious projects emerge as a result. In 2006, Nathan Eagle of MIT launched an innovative curriculum needed to train local programmers in Nairobi. The program has now expanded to universities in 10 Sub Saharan countries and reflects growing demand and interest in the subject. The Makerere University Faculty of Computing and ICT in Kampala, Uganda is the largest program in Sub-Sahara Africa. The university is training thousands of students a year as ICT professionals. The faculty hosts a 600 seat call center and is host to a software incubation lab and programs dedicated to digital mapping and mobile programming. The faculty is consistently oversubscribed. Appfrica Labs and Software Factory Uganda in Kampala offer private sector examples where local programmers are given the space and tools needed to develop their skills and incubate their businesses. Samasource is another innovative effort that aims to source projects in North America that can then be developed by local African talent.

An emerging community and a host of dedicated events support these new talents. 2008 saw the first TED talks in Nairobi and impromptu BarCamps have taken place in locations as varied as Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Congo, Mauritius, Madagascar, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland and Uganda. Dedicated workshops have been hosted by organizations like Facebook, Google and MobileActive08. These events focus on the potential local programmers have to develop Internet and mobile applications for the local market. Once unique efforts to establish viable networking platforms, new events emerge by the day.

It is not possible to speak about innovation in Africa without recognizing Ubuntu, a Debian-derived computer operating system based on GNU/Linux, otherwise a high quality desktop and server operating system that is freely available all over the world. Mark Shuttleworth, a successful South African entrepreneur founded the project in 2004, and is a driving force in mobilizing the open source movement on the continent. As a spin-off the project has resulted in the creation of a number of unique tools for free software developers, such as the Bazaar version control system and Launchpad.net. Sub-projects include specialized desktop environments for schools and platforms that address the needs of people in specific countries or industries e.g. Edubuntu and Kubuntu. These efforts play a critical role in making software available to developers across Africa, lowering barriers to participation, and part of a growing interest to engage local programming talents.

Africa’s lack of infrastructure presents unique opportunities and inspires creative thinking. Uninhibited by legacy infrastructure, as in N. America and Europe, Africa has been forced to innovate on mobile. In 2008 Vodafone introduced its M-Pesa mobile banking platform in Kenya. The company initially planned to register 200,000 new customers, what was an ambitious projection, and proceeded to surpass all expectations. The reality is that the demand for the M-Pesa service was so high their systems crashed and the company has been trying to catch up ever since. Within one year M-Pesa was already servicing 1.6 million Kenyans. Hammond, a director at Vodafone says, ‘look, microfinance is great; Yunus deserves his sainthood. But after 30 years, there are only 90 million microfinance customers. I’m predicting that mobile-phone banking will add a billion banking customers to the system in five years. That’s how big it is.’ Needless to say, mobile banking projects are being rolled out across the continent and are now innovating network structures and models that can be applied elsewhere. Increasingly, people from around the world come to Africa to learn about how such a service might work in their own country back in N. America or Europe.

The power of mobile is also being linked to the web. MXit is an example that demonstrates local innovation with wide scale impact. Developed in South Africa, MXit is a free instant messaging software application that runs on GPRS/3G mobile phones and on PCs. The website explains, ‘It allows the user to send and receive one-on-one text and multimedia messages to and from other users, as well as in general chat rooms. MXit also supports connection to other instant messengers such as MSN messenger, ICQ and Google Talk.’ The service is cheap compared to SMS. Instead of charging for one-on-one messages, and because messages are sent via the Internet, the cost per message is greatly reduced (typically 1c for a MXit message compared to approximately 75c per SMS). As a result, MXit has become a popular communication platform with over 11 million users. They calculate about ‘17 million log-ons per day and over 250 million messages sent/received per day.’ This project successfully shows that there is local demand for information services and its no surprise to see similar services emerging in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda.

The success of mobile-based platforms does not stop with transferring money and/or messaging services. Mobile phones can also serve as a source of employment. Building on several years of experience, and learning from his interactions with local programmers, Nathan Eagle has gone on to launch TxtEagle as an innovative outsourcing initiative. He has created a service where African’s exchange a few spare minutes, needed to complete short assignments on their mobile phone, in exchange for mobile phone credit. This project highlights some of the innovative thinking that can be inspired by a truly unique African context.

Mobile phones are also being used to monitor, track and report on local events. This is part of a growing effort to bring transparency to issues that plague the continent. Ushahidi is an example of a project born out of an African experience. In 2008, and as a result of mixed election results, Kenya witnessed unexpected post election violence. As the media storm began to descend on the country, which remains a faithful recipient of foreign development aid and depends on tourism as its largest source of foreign currency, the government responded by closing down both traditional and new media channels. The government made a proactive effort to ‘lock’ the local flow of information.

Ushahidi, which means ‘testimony’ in Swahili, is an open source engine developed in the effort to better map out post election reports of violence in the county. On their website they explain that, ‘the core Ushahidi platform allows for a plug-in and extensions that can be customized for different locales and needs. The tool are open source allowing others to download, implement and use the engine so that they can bring awareness to crises in their own region.’ The core engine is built on the premise that gathering crisis information from the general public provides new insights into events happening in near real-time. In an African context people understand this better than anywhere else in the world. Where infrastructure is so limited, communication so costly, each kilobyte has significantly higher value. It is important to mention that programmers from several African countries have been fundamental to the project’s development and highlights a new generation of skills, talent and a rising African power to innovate locally.

This is an early initiative that shows how the development of an application, inspired by a political crisis in what was previously believed to be one of East Africa’s most stable societies, can be applied elsewhere. The platform has already been used to monitor events in the DRC, Madagascar and the recent conflict in Gaza. At the time of writing, there were also plans to use the Ushahidi engine as a monitoring tool during the 2009 elections in India. Because Ushahidi was born out of an African experience, where lack of communication infrastructure forces the design of inventive solutions; it is now positioned to meet crises anywhere in the world.

The entire African ICT space is experiencing extraordinary growth and development that changes the face of the continent forever. Like the success of mobile banking, now is the time to realize that innovation can also come from Africa. It is important to recognize the rise of local African talent, a new breed of individual that has the motivation, skill and power to develop solutions that tap into local opportunities and address local needs. Now is the time to explore these developments in more detail and from the perspective of the end user. Taking the time to recognize this dynamic context in which new actors emerge, it is paramount we review the ICT4D debate and our own role in this process. This is in an effort to better understand the changes on the ground and their implications for the future. In this way we can start to learn from these developments and benefit from this high level of innovation. Young programming talents are only now starting to emerge in African countries but the potential is clear. The more people in Africa who see the power to shape the technologies they use, the more Africa is capable of meeting its own needs. In turn, these new talents contribute to the global information society and play an active role in shaping its future.

Baku’s one of the regional courts sentenced the bloggers Emin Milli to 2.5 years and Adnan Hajizade to 2 years of imprisonment on charge of hooliganism on November 11.
If for many different reasons you haven’t heard of the whole story that was extensively covered by Global Voices, or if you wish to support, you could do it on the support blog.
The court case coincided with World blogging Forum, which made a statement of support for #EminAdnan.
You could probably also support by spreading a word/tweets with #EminAdnan hashtag, re-posting, trascribing or translating in any known to you languages, appearances of Parvana Persiani, youth movement activist and campaigner for Azeri bloggers, who spoke at the WBF panel. She was on Kosmoshow day before the trial, was also interviewed by Global Voices’ Onnik Krikorian on the first and second day I believe.
Although the trial was not the hottest topic for absolute majority of the Georgian social media contributors, still having couple bloggers (Dodka and Cyxymi) representing Georgia at the WBF2009, helped to interest few others in here.
All day Dodka was tweeting from WBF about the case. Later Giga Paichadze aka Dv0rsky retweeted and posted about it also blaming Georgian media “that is fighting for freedom of expression and does not notice” such a big event next door, however some links in comments indicated that media has covered the trial and arrest of Azeri bloggers. One of the links came from Tazo, Freelandia author, who did one of the longest posts explaining background, current situation and also mentioning of some activist talking about protesting in front of Azerbaijan Embassy in Tbilisi. He published this story in Rezonance daily as well.

Le 03 Novembre 2009, j’ai eu l’honneur de participer à la conférence Breaking Borders («Ouvrir les frontières»), consacrée à la liberté d’expression sur internet, organisée par Google pour commémorer le 20ème anniversaire de la chute du mur de Berli.

Parmi les participants il y avait: Thorbjørn Jagland (Secrétaire général du Conseil de l’Europe), Dean Wright (Global Editor, éthique, innovation et normes Nouvelles, Reuters), Rachel Whetstone (Vice-présidente Gestion des produits chez Google, Communications internationales et affaires publiques), Jean-François Julliard (Secrétaire général de Reporters Sans Frontière), Annette Kroeber-Riel (Google- Conseiller en Politique Européenne pour l’Allemagne, l’Autriche et la Suisse), Andrew Puddephat (Directeur, Global Partners and Associates et directeur général de l’organisation internationale ARTICLE 19 basée à Londres) et Rita Süssmuth (Ancienne présidente du Deutsche Bundestag -Parlement allemand)

À cette occasion, Google a lancé une chaîne YouTube dédiée à la liberté d’expression : GoogleFreeExpression’s Channel.

Vous trouverez ci-dessous un enregistrement vidéo de la discussion ainsi qu’une interview que j’ai donné à la chaîne GoogleFreeExpression’s Channel sur Youtube.

Global Voices Online » Palestine: Frustration With The “Swagger” Of Politics
Last week the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that he would not stand for re-election in January, in frustration at the US failure to stop Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. In this post we hear the opinion of one blogger who is also extremely frustrated – with Palestinian politics.

Leggi in italiano su gvo.it

Global Voices Online » Lebanon finally has a government
It’s official. Five months after Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, the country’s squabbling factions have finally formed a government. Citizen journalists react in this post.

Leggi in italiano su gvo.it

Jurnalismul online a schimbat nu doar modul de comunicare, ci si perceptia asupra media. Jurnalistii au capatat pentru prima oara puterea de a se exprima complet liber, de a relata razboaie in direct si de a – si sustine opiniile fara teama vreunei constrangeri redactionale. Ei au intrat insa in vizorul autoritatilor, incapabile sa gestioneze acest fenomen.

Peste 45% dintre ziaristii aflati in inchisoare sunt freelanceri online sau pur si simplu bloggeri. Potrivit Comitetului pentru Protectia Jurnalistilor, ei nu figureaza pe statele de plata ale niciunei organizatii media si adesea, nu au nici resursele materiale, nici sprijinul politic care le-ar permite sa- si mentina independenta.

Global Voices Advocacy lanseaza un nou site, Threatened Voices, in ajutorul celor ce vor sa- si pastreze libertatea de exprimare online. Conceput ca o platforma de culegere a datelor destinata organizatiilor si activistilor de profil, site-ul include o harta interactiva a lumii.

Harta permite vizualizarea cazurilor de bloggeri arestati in toate colturile globului, cu linkuri catre povestea fiecaruia. Sunt povesti care merita citite.

Daca aveti una de acest gen, iata cateva linkuri utile… Committee to Protect Bloggers, The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Reporters without Borders, Human Rights Watch, CyberLaw Blog, Amnesty International, Committee to Protect Journalists.

Introducing Threatened Voices

Never before have so many people been threatened or imprisoned for what the words they write on the internet.

As activists and ordinary citizens have increasingly made use of the internet to express their opinions and connect with others, many governments have also increased surveillance, filtering, legal actions and harassment. The harshest consequence for many has been the politically motivated arrest of bloggers and online writers for their online and/or offline activities, in some tragic cases even leading to death. Online journalists and bloggers now represent 45% of all media workers in prison worldwide.

Crowdsourcing Authority in the Classroom

“A wacko holding forth on a soapbox.  If Ms. Davidson just wants to yammer and lead discussions, she should resign her position and head for a park or subway platform, and pass a hat for donations.”

Crowd sourced creativity and voice over chaos

The podcast is ready to run. It’s full of interesting online antics as usual. If there is a link or a name you missed in the podcast, you can always check back here where we have all the links.

First up I had a chat with Nick Wadham-Smith is the deputy director of Counterpoint, the think tank of the British Council. They’ve been working on fresh methods of communication since 1934. Some of the latest work includes podcasting and blogging and you can also get involved.

EU replaces definition of “open standards” with meaningless drivel

Lobbyists at the EU have gutted the definition of “open” (part of a proposal to require more open standards and open source tools in European government) to mean “the willingness of persons, organisations or other members of a community of interest to share knowledge.” This meaningless drivel replaces a more robust definition that included, “The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties (consensus or majority decision etc.).”

10 Projects that Help Citizens Become Government Watchdogs

With the 2010 U.S. elections coming into view, many people are looking for more information about the people running for office — and the individuals and organizations funding these candidates.

Fortunately, there are dozens of initiatives that mine and share the data that influence policy and policy-makers. Many are funded by The Sunlight Foundation, which aims to use “the revolutionary power of the Internet to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens.”
Politicians Use Social Media to Bypass the Press Corps

Politicians are figuring out what social media technologies like blogs, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have to offer: direct access to voters. More than ever before, they can bypass the professional press and deliver an uncensored, unfiltered — and unchecked — message.

E-Readers search for place in the market

POLL: Illegal Downloaders Buy the Most Music

The UK’s Independent newspaper picks up on a curious study today: people who download music illegally also buy more music legally, according to a poll’s results. The study comes as the UK plans a controversial “three strikes and you’re out” rule that would disconnect copyright infringers from the Internet – it’s set to become law in April 2010.

The Top Internet Memes of 2009

from Mashable! by Christina Warren

BASIC SYSTEMS DISRUPTION

Here’s a simple overview of what is increasingly becoming the dominant method of offensive warfare in the 21st Century.  Early applications of this methodology to modern conflict have been very successful.  In short, it’s better to understand its dynamics than to assume it doesn’t exist.

For the last few weeks I was working on few things – a blogger interview, though this time on the other side – I was interviewed by my dear fellow GVer, Juan Arellano, in series featuring people working for Global Voices. I poested already about the site, community and how it enriches my life, so I am happy that celebration of 100th post on GV Polska we could collaborate on this text. It’s good to have all my current initiatives in one piece, and good to know that others share my thoughs. Here is the entire post.

As a result of this post I was pointed to this OSI initiative and suggested some new, brilliant ideas for Barcamp Transparency! Amazing, how blogging makes my life more exciting.

I have also met and had a chat with a great ethics blogger, Emmanuel Tchividjian. It all started with my comment under his post on recent arrest of Roman Polanski, but since we are in touch now I hope we can collaborate. I will try to think of few interesting posts for you, but in the meantime I strongly advise you to check his blog! It’s worth it!:)

I usually do not post about topics directly related to work, but as this one has many of my friends involved and is interesting for everyone to some extent involved in social media, I decided to link you to it. It’s called WOM Expert Groups and is a monthly chat about social media in different regions. It’s open, friendly and fun! It’s a great place to learn about events and developmemnts happening in different parts of the globe. You can always see the recent discussions here.

Tomorrow evening and on Thursday morning I am in London representing Global Voices and meeting specialists of media, journalism and citizen journalism to discuss few opportunities for government to move to the new levels of communication on-line. I am really interested in this one, and in the fact I will meet personally another GVer and listen to Skype session with Jeff Jarvis (whose posts on ethics were my starting point when I decided to move in the direction of social media ethics, whose words prepared me for presentation in Cairo, and whose attitute towards blogging is an example of what transparency is about). Promise to post my thoughts on Twitter while it happens or later here!

Jutro Londyn, całkiem niespodziewanie! Zostałyśmy z koleżanką z Global Voices zaproszone na spotkanie w Ministerium Sportu na temat tego, jak rząd może uczyć się mowych rozwiązań technologicznych w komunikacji z obywatelami. Nie jestem do końca przekonana, czy jest to możliwe, ale ostro wiąże się z tematyką Barcamp Transparency, który organizowałam z kolegą tego lata w Oksfordzie, a poza tym poznam koleżankę z projektu. Lubię spotykać ludzi z Global Voices, bo mamy podobne podejście do życia. Poza tym skusiła mnie prezentacja Jeffa Jarvisa – Amerykanskiego dziennikarza, blogera, który kiedyś pisał o etyce i którego bardzo cenię. No i tak troszkę kolacja w Galerii Narodowej – bo to mój ulubiony budynek w całej stolicy. A na deser nocleg u przyjaciółki!:)

Przez Global Voices zostałam też zaproszona na konferencję na początku grudnia w Skopje, więc mam kolejny niespodziewany urlop opłacony! Traktuję to jako prezent bożonarodzeniowy;)

Wszystko to koi brak pozytywnych reakcji na codzień i jakoś zaczynam się uśmiechać:)

Wiadomość dnia: MissPilat ma dziś Urodziny, więc i tą drogą przesylam buziaki!

W weekend jedziemy z Dawidem odwiedzić Elfkę, bardzo bliką mi osobę, która jest w ciąży i już niebawem będzie miała maleństwo w ramionach!:) Nie mogę się doczekać widoku brzuszka!:)

W przyszłym tygodniu – LISTOPAD, mój ukochany! 4go spotykam się z paroma osobami zainteresowanymi marketingiem na sieci i mam nadzieję, że moja prezentacja zaowocuje ciekawymi, raczej lokalnymi kontaktami. W następny weekend może podjadę spotkać Gabesz, przyzjaciółkę ze studiów, a później odwiedzi nas inna koleżanka, też Węgierka z kółka teatralnego, która właśnie została…policjantką w UK!

I co jeszcze? Zaprosiłam Rodziców na sześć tygodni, poznałam ciekawego człowieka, zaczynam znów pisać i fotografować, a nasza wystawa w Jam Factory trafi niebawem do programu na Channel 4 (kręcą w czwartek, więc nie wiem, kiedy pokażą). Kto by pomyślał, że to moje zbdurne zdjęcie autobusów w Oxfrodzie trafi do telewizji – normalnie cyrk!

Przeszli mi już faceci z przeszłości, choć się nadal czasem to jeden, to drugi odezwie – totalnie ich ignoruję i cieszę tym, co mam. Trochę nadal czuję się pasywna, ale już jest zdecydowanie lepiej!

No i @agakwiat niebawem będzie w Londku! Proszę, same dobre wiadomości;)

I work for Global Voices. Many of you know that. I love the community, their momentum, and their posts. Defending for the site and the people is what I do often. But sometimes, I share many readers’ frustrations in reading the website.

Global Voices aims to put readers in contexts when understanding local, national and international events. Supposedly, readers should get to know the situations better after reading through our posts and quotations from various parts of the world, or at least should have an starting point for the next step.

As a translator for GV, everyday I read through multiple posts on the website, and choose which one(s) to translate. To translate, we should thorougly understand most, if not all, of the details in the post. However, it’s getting more and more difficult recently.

Some authors have provided good contexts at the beginning and the end of posts, but don’t pay much attention to contents in quotes.

Acronyms, untranslated dialects, missing links and unclear links have all become great obstacles for us to figure out the meanings, let alone translate.

Of course as a translator and a community member, I can contact with the authors and get clarifications. I do. Many authors have received my annoying emails before. Some authors kindly reply and modify their posts; others don’t.

As a reader, I humbly hope they don’t take anything for granted. Treat us like a baby. Explain everything. I may find the answer with Google or Wikipedia, but save my efforts will create a better reading experience for sure.

As a translator, I’ll still write inconvenient emails to you. I hate to say this, but sometimes, I would have to give up translating your posts because of those mysteries.

No one is a perfect writer. I myself is extremely far from that goal. Many of you are much better than I am in writing, but sometimes, a preview will help a lot, you and me and all readers included.

Znowu! Coś często mam takie..no..agresywne tytuły postów:)

Czuję się lekko zdenerwowana, gdyż zupełnie bezpodstawnie zostałam dziś opieprzona przez telefon za to, że nie zapłaciłam dziecku za przedszkole i że zapomoga, na którą czekam od miesięcy (nie chodzi o kasę ale o burdel w jej przyznawaniu, jak już jest:P) będzie przeznaczona na pokrycie długu. Zadecydowano po drugiej stronie linii telefonicznej!

Wiecie, to szczęście, że pańcia zadzwoniła do mnie pod koniec dnia biurowego, bo tak mnie poniosło, że urwałam się parę minut z pracy aby opieprzyć panie w przedszkolu. Nie zrozumcie mnie źle – nauczycielki są super, a Dawid kocha to miesce – tylko ja się męczę z biurem!

Zanim doszłam już to załatwiły i chciały mnie uspokoić, ale tylko napomknęłam, że zabiorę dziecko gdzieś indziej.

Sama już nie wiem, jak tu walczyć z 1. głupotą, 2. burdelem, 3. chamstwem (przez telefon i tak w twarz). Po prostu chyba jestem z innej planety.

A jutro wszyscy będą się do mnie uśmiechać!Grr…

Ale poza tym jest całkiem, całkiem. Nadal rozglądam się za innymi możliwościami i myślę o tym, jak tutaj najciekawiej zaplanować kolejnych parę miesięcy, może trochę ruszyć się z domu. Koledzy z GV naciągają mnie na zjazd blogerów w Bejrucie, ale jego organizator to pan, który podpadł mi tego lata, więc oszczędzę sobie przygód. Alternatywnie zachęcają mnie do zorganizowania wystawy w Kairze w granicach wiosennej konferencji telefonii komórkowej – bo ja to już jestem oficjalnie mianowana GEEKETTE;) Ale chyba nic z tego nie wyjdzie, choć kusi mnie ucieczka przez dość zimnym w tym roku Wantage!

W pracy mam kilka nowych, ciekawych osób, a co za tym idzie jest…przynajmniej ciekawie i dowiaduję się o wszystkich memach blogwych jakie ostatnio przegapiłam;)

Czekam na mój ulubiony listopad, mam nadzieję, że przyniesie zmiany!

Am 15. Oktober war Blog Action Day 2009 – dieses Jahr zum Thema Klimawandel. Die Aktion war ein glatter Erfolg, wie einige Zahlen und Fakten aus einem Mail von Robin Beck, dem Veranstalter des Blog Action Day, belegen:

Mehr als 31.000 Beiträge aus 155 Ländern und 6 Kontinenten beschäftigten sich am 15.10. mit dem Klimawandel. Diese Beiträge stammten aus 13.000 verschiedenen Blogs und erreichten knapp 17,9 Millionen Leser. Blog Action Day 2009 wird damit als die vorläufig wichtigste Aktion angesehen, mit denen sich die modernen Medien (Blogs, Web 2.0-Plattformen, Twitter) bislang beschäftigt haben.

Unter den Verfassern der Artikel vom 15.10. sind auch zahlreiche prominente und einflussreiche Adressen. Neben dem Beitrag des englischen Premiers Gordon Brown, den wir hier bereits auszugsweise wiedergegeben haben, finden sich auch Aufrufe aus dem britischen Außenministerium, aus dem Weißen Haus, von Google, Mashable, Unofficial Apple Blog, Huffington Post, Change.org, Global Voices, Tim O’Reilly, Treehugger, Tcktcktck, Greenpeace, WWF, Oxfam, 1Sky, Mother Jones und vielen, vielen anderen.

Hoffen wir, dass in Kopenhagen wirksame Beschlüsse zum Klimaschutz gefasst werden. Wie das geht, zeigen uns die Kleinen aus dem neuen und sehr bewegenden Video von Tcktcktck:

I bought an I-pod several months before moving to Spain.  I walk a lot in Spain, so having an I-pod has really made life more enjoyable during my 30 minute walks to work or home from classes.  I-podding isn’t just music;  these days an I-pod can provide you with movies, music videos, and my newest favorite, podcasts.

The term “podcasting” was first used in 2004, and now only 5 years later it is used across the spectrum to create episodic, downloadable, and thematic programs.  Podcasts are created by podcasters.  I-tunes and Winamp are examples of podcatchers, or software that automatically finds and downloads the new episodes as they are released.

I would like to use this website to recommend a few podcasts that I found particularly interesting and pertinent to the topic at hand.   Voices in Español is a bilingual blog and podcast created for intermediate to advanced Spanish speakers.  I found that it has a lot of stories regarding intercultural relations, albeit most are about Latin Americans living in the United States.  These stories and anecdotes told by native Spanish speakers can both help to improve your Spanish speaking, as well as improve your understanding of intercultural interactions.

Another interesting blog/ podcast I found, Notes From Spain was put out by a bi-cultured married couple who now live in Madrid.  Ben from the UK, and Marina from Spain write and speak about Spanish culture, interesting destinations, fiestas, beaches, landscapes and towns around Spain.  They also discuss some of the cultural differences they experience as a married couple coming from two very different cultures.

Vlogs are another form of information and entertainment.  Vlogs are blogs made with videos rather than words.  Vlog International is a fascinating collaboration project made up of many Spanish speaking vloggers from many different countries.  You can read about Vlog International at Global Voices or simply watch the posts on their blip.tv site.  This site could also help a non-Spanish speaker like me to improve their vocabulary and pronunciation.

Armadillo TV is a video blog created by a Colombian journalist who until recently was living in Spain.  He created this blog to document his personal experiences.  Although he recently moved back to Columbia, his blog has many interesting video anecdotes about his life as a foreigner living in Barcelona.

Sama nie wiem, gdzie zacząć. Widzicie, ostatnio działo się wiele rzeczy, o których nie mogłam i nadal nie mogę pisać z racji tego, że pracuje w blogowaniu. Jednach jest parę ciekawostek, którymi chciałabym się podzielić.

Przede wszystkim skończyliśmy Oxford Twestiwal i zebraliśmy 1,570 funciaków, więc jestem cholernie szczęśliwa, że nie tylko impreza była fajna, ale też że wreszcie zrobiłam coś finnasowo-konkretnego dla ludzkości.

Tu jest krótki reportaż z tego, co się działo…

A Dawid ze ‘Społem‘ opublikował mój post o całej historii tego pomysłu, więc zapraszam do nich na stronę.

W całym tym zamieszaniu z Twestiwalem zupełnie nie udzielałam się w organizacji wystawy fotograficznej oksfordziej grupy Flickr. Ostatkiem sił (jestem chora od kilku tygodni) zebrałam się na jej otwarcie i bardzo serdecznie Was zapraszam, bo to piękna kolekcja. Ja może nie podeszłam do mojej fotki zbyt artystycznie, ale reszta naszej trzydziestki spisała się świetnie! Fajnie było spotkać znajomych z innych geekowych i artystycznych wydarzeń miasta w jednym miejscu. A i Dawid miał świetną zabawę, zachowywał się bardzo dorośle, rozmawiał o sztuce i ulubionych fotografiach, zagadywał innych – jestem pod wrażeniem!

W międzyczasie rusza też projekt World University Project, który będzie promował życie studenckie w różnych krajach. Nathan, któremu pomagam w strategii na sieci, opisał go tutaj. Będę dawała Wam znać o tym, jak się rozwija, bo jestem przekonana, że będzie to coś bardzo ciekawego!

Przez kolejne trzy tygodnie udzielam się w projekcie dla zmian klimatycznych. Przez Global Voices uczę koleżankę, aktywistkę z Danii, blogowania. Zaczęłam więc blog,  o którym jeszcze chyba nie pisałam – blog o blogowaniu. Chwilowo w powijakach, i po angielsku, ale będzie też wersja po polsku, słowo harcerki;)

Niebawem przeniose wszytkie te moje blogi na jedną domenę, bo sama już się zaczynam gubić…

A jeśli chodzi o życie bardziej osobiste…pustynia. Przeszłam totalną depresję, której głębie dopiero teraz zaczynam zauważać, jak z niej się powoli wygrzebuję i po miesiącach, a może i latach pasywnego reagowania na wydarzenia zaczynam troszkę kierować swoim życiem i starać je sobie ulepszyć. Chciałabym być znów szczęśliwa, więc staram się znaleźć to wszystko, co podstawowe i konieczne, abym się wyluzowała, nabrała dystansu i zaczęła znów TWORZYĆ.

The Internet Governance Forum-USA workshop on “The Freedom of Expression in a Web 2.0 World,” was built to assess the whole idea of Web 2.0, and the tangent that the panel took grew increasingly bleak in outlining the limitations of new Internet technologies. They said Web 2.0 isn’t all roses. It’s not a park that simultaneously serves as a playground and the ultimate conduit of democracy, it won’t single-handedly save the world and it won’t always be used to better the lives of citizens in the U.S. or abroad.

Rebecca MacKinnon, a co-founder of Global Voices, assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong and previous CNN bureau chief in Beijing, was particularly stern in extinguishing the optimism that emerged during the summer as a result of the contested Iranian election and the subsequent temporary uprising that was partially fed by social media, especially Twitter.

“There’s a naivete that capitalism plus Internet plus Twitter equals democratization,” MacKinnon said, later adding that democracy isn’t inherently going to spread just by handing software to dissidents.

MacKinnon’s extensive experiences with the Chinese government’s attitude toward the Internet provided a stark paralell to the stated goals of President Barack Obama’s administration, voiced at the IGF by Miriam Nisbet, the first director of the Office of Governmental Information Services.

“It’s rather extraordinary that he spent the first full day in office by issuing memoranda…dealing with the openness of government,” Nisbet said. She next quoted Obama: ”All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their government.”

While the stated aim of the U.S. government is to utilize Web 2.0 to open up the government for its citizens, MacKinnon was quick to point out that the Chinese model, which is being increasingly adopted by similarly authoritarian regimes, is built more upon the idea of modern technology helping the government inform itself about its citizens, opening them up to the keen eyes of governmental watchdogs.

In some cases, these crackdowns can be justified. Ambassador David Gross, now a partner at Wiley Rein LLP, leveraged his 25 years of experience in politics and ICTs in the discussion. He told of his experience in trying to encourage a policy of liberalized Internet use to a Tunisian deputy foreign minister. The minister justified his country’s forced limitations on online expression as an extension of the government’s responsibility to protect its people by maintaining social cohesion in a country built up of incredibly factitious factions perfectly willing to fight each other, fights that the Tunisian government asserts would be stoked by open Internet communication.

Robert Guerra, the project director on Internet freedom at Freedom House, roped government surveillance into the increasingly mobile nature of Internet access, particularly in least-developed countries, pointing out that cell phones, by their nature and taking the complicity of the telecommunications industry in conceding to governmental interests for granted, are perfect for authoritarian governments to spy on their citizens. By triangulating a phone’s location, or by utilizing its speakers, receivers and text messages, governments can immediately drop in on any sort of communication deemed to be seditious.

It was agreed that while Web 2.0 has made progress, said progress can largely be credited not to the inherent power of the technology of Web 2.0, but of the lagging pace at which most authoritarian governments have approached the technology, falling behind the counter-culture movement in exploiting the Internet for its own aims.

There’s a reason, MacKinnon said, that China is currently offering to build the Internet infrastructure for several authoritarian countries, because China knows exactly how to receive the economic benefits of increasingly widespread Internet access without suffering the open scrutiny of governments and businesses that one would naturally think would result in concert with an expansion of communications technologies.

Ultimately – running counter to the long-winded, expansive rhetoric that often takes place in discussion panels dealing with governmental policy and communicative ideology – the most apt description of the Web 2.0 element of the world came from Bob Boorstin, director of corporate policy communications at Google, and previous chief speechwriter during President Bill Clinton’s administration.

“These are just tools, and they’re nothing more than that,” Boorstin said, indicating that no matter how many bells or whistles, tweets or status updates we may have, the censorship and free expression citizens endure or desire is ultimately up to their own actions and persistence.

-Morgan Little

‘Your words keep me alive’ is the title of the photo in this post (suggested by Zemanta) – which intrigued me…I was about to say that I am starting a mentoring project with Global Voices and planning to use this blog as a ’student book’ for my mentee to tell her all I know about social media. If she and my other readers decide the information is valuable, I will publish it as a free e-book. Few friends offered translating it into other languages and adding few words about their local aspects too, so I trust this will turn out to be an interesting one;)

In the meantime I am adding pages, each of those will be a chapter on a different type of medium. As you can see, I have put together a small draft of what I want to say in each and I will gradually fill out the gaps.

Wish me luck, I do it all in public and unlike in usual blogging – I might make a lot of changes on the way – but it’s all for good;)

Enjoy! YOUR words will keep ME alive;)

By SHABINA S. KHATRI
GLOBAL VOICES ONLINE

Doha residents are expressing outrage about a recently released government study that blames Qatar’s falling productivity rate on its unskilled expat labor force.

According to the study’s findings, which were reported by local newspaper Gulf Times, average productivity per hour in the country declined from 4.8 per cent between 1990 and 2000 to 1.8pc between 2000 and 2007.

“This is very low compared to what has been achieved by China (10.1pc), Bahrain (5.13pc), India (4.1pc) and Oman (4.18pc) in 2007,” the study stated, citing a recent report from the Conference Board, an independent international business and research organization.

According to the story published in the Gulf Times, the study “held the large numbers of the low-skilled expatriate workforce responsible for the low output per hour experienced by the country.”

The study reports:

What is alarming is that over half of the expatriate workforce (55.9pc) are either uneducated or below secondary education level.

Low participation by nationals in the private sector “means 99.40pc of the private sector jobs are manned by expatriate workforce.”

One can hardly find another country in the world where foreigners fully control the private sector as is the case in Qatar. This situation should be seriously considered when it comes to developing the labour market policy.

The report prompted a torrent of scornful comments on Twitter and the forum Qatar Living, where the general sentiment seemed to be that companies here get what the pay for.

On Twitter, @adnandawood said:

This is so ridiculous its hillarious

On Qatar Living, commentator Don Robert said:

Human trafficking and expat exploitation is the reason for the slowing down of progress here in Qatar.

MagicDragon noted:

You are not the owner of the company. You have no rights. Why should you be more productive? Pay me 3 times my salary and I’ll be 3 times more productive. That’s the equation.

And Bthomas said:

I know a lot of people who are getting paid peanuts considering their education & work experience. Qatar needs to stop gambling with employees about their salaries and need to set a standard across various industry sectors. Without any motivation or comfort, employees will not remain loyal to their organization or their work.

In response to the study’s recommendation to “decrease the reliance on the expatriate workforce especially those who are unskilled,”

@VEE6 asked,

There’s an alternative?

On Qatar Living, commentator Alumnar added:

It would be nice to see how Qatar would do with local people only doing all the jobs for a year. Can a country go bankrupt? If not the case, it can sure be CHAOS!

He suggested instead:

Review everything – Pay skilled workforce decent salaries. Invest in training programs. Don’t overwork and underpay them. Use incentives and show them appreciation. Give them proper accommodation and allowances so they can eat enough to be able to work properly…

The conversation regarding workers’ rights in the Gulf was continued yesterday in a Huffington Post piece by architect Cameron Sinclair, who calls laborers “boom and bust refugees.”

In Dying To Work: Human Trafficking and the Construction Industry, Sinclair writes:

It is easy to point the finger at local officials and higher authorities, but let us not forget that it is the private sector that is equally, if not more, accountable…

Forget our environmental footprint, what is our ethical footprint? What good is building a zero energy, carbon neutral complex if unethical labor practices are jeopardizing the lives of those who build this architectural wonder?

CosmicChaos comments:

The point is that all laborers no matter their origins or where they are working deserve fair wages, safe housing, and a safe work place. Anything less is criminal.

I find it horrible that I have no clue if the people I hire to do a construction job are fairly paying their workers and making sure that they have the proper equipment to prevent injuries. I doubt any of them have health coverage if they are injured.

Somehow we need workers around the world to be able to say, “Enough!” However, this is difficult to impossible when you and your family is starving.

To see more comments on Huffington Post, click here.

For more on the discussion at Qatar Living, click here.

¡Última hora, mi gente!  Esta mañana, mientras yo revisaba si tenía mensajes en mi correo electrónico, me encontré con una nota que podría sonar cómica, si no reflejara una realidad tan trágica.

Resulta que al inicio del presente periodo escolar en China (el pasado 1 de septiembre de 2009 ), se le hizo a varios niños de lo que en Puerto Rico sería una escuela elemental (grados primero al sexto, o aproximadamente de 6 a 12 años de edad) la tan gastada y antipática pregunta, “¿Qué quieres ser cuando seas grande?”.  Una niñita le contestó al entrevistador que ella quería llegar a ser un funcionario público, pero cuando el entrevistador le preguntó qué clase de funcionario público quería ser, ella—me imagino que con toda la candidez y la inocencia del mundo—contestó…

(¡Sí!  Ya saben lo que viene aquí: Redoble de tambores, por favor…)

¡UN FUNCIONARIO PÚBLICO CORRUPTO, PORQUE LOS FUNCIONARIOS PÚBLICOS CORRUPTOS SIEMPRE TIENEN MUCHAS COSAS (PERTENENCIAS, POSESIONES) LINDAS!

(¡Exactamente como lo están leyendo!  Y por favor, después no digan que no les advertí al comienzo de esta entrada.)

Y como con la censura a las obras literarias por parte del Departamento de Educación de la que escribí en mi entrada anterior, “las reacciones no se hicieron esperar”.  (Otra vez el maldito cliché ése…)  Desde que no se debe tomar muy en serio ese tipo de comentario por parte de un niño—que de todos modos, no ha desarrollado aún la malicia suficiente para sobrevivir en la olla de grillos que le espera—hasta que la expresión de la niña representa un comentario triste sobre la realidad, sobre la falta de una sólida enseñanza de valores, sobre la inocencia que dice en público lo que los adultos no se atreven a admitir (¿se acuerdan de “El Traje Nuevo del Emperador”?), sobre la forma en la que se ejercita el poder del estado sobre sus ciudadanos—con todos sus excesos, con toda su codicia.

Por supuesto, cabría pensar que cosas como ésa sólo ocurren en países como China, donde un poder centralizado dicta las vidas de sus ciudadanos, mientras quienes ostentan ese poder se dan la buena vida (¿acaso necesito mencionar nombres?).  ¿Pero aquí en Puerto Rico?  ¿Quién dijo eso?  Digo, hasta el momento, con tantos ejemplos que vemos a diario (legisladores que adquieren riquezas de la noche a la mañana, como si tuvieran ese derecho por la gracia divina, o funcionarios que insultan y ofenden a quienes no son tan “agraciados” como ellos porque such is life… ¿de veras quieren que siga citando ejemplos?), dudo mucho que una cosa como ésa vaya a ocurrir en Puerto Rico… digo, eso creo…

Pero bueno, ¡vamos a dejarlo ahí!  Cuídense mucho y pórtense bien.

(¡Ah!  Y antes de que se me olvide, aquí está el enlace a la síntesis que hace Global Voices Online de la contestación de la niña y las reacciones de la blogósfera china—traducidas al inglés.  Allí también está el vídeo del reportaje en cuestión—en su idioma original—, en el que el rostro de la niña aparece borroso, presumo que para protegerla de cualquier posible represalia.)

LDB