How The Russians Reacted to the Boston Bombings
globalvoicesonline.orgGlobal Voices is one of the best sources for Russia & Region news specially because they do stuff like this: Translate and explain posts and tweets. Check it out!
“In 1912, radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi declared, “The coming of the wireless era will make war impossible, because it will make war ridiculous.” Two years later a ridiculous war began, ultimately killing nine million Europeans.”
—Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, and co-founder of Global Voices, in this fantastic piece on our disconnection in our connected age.
via Wilson Quarterly:
As we enter an age of increased global connection, we are also entering an age of increasing participation. The billions of people worldwide who access the Internet via computers and mobile phones have access to information far beyond their borders, and the opportunity to contribute their own insights and opinions. It should be no surprise that we are experiencing a concomitant rise in mystery that parallels the increases in connection.
Zuckerman takes us from the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran to the ongoing Arab Spring, and the different tools of communication that helped us navigate (and get lost or miss) it all.
Some highlights:
A central paradox of this connected age is that while it’s easier than ever to share information and perspectives from different parts of the world, we may be encountering a narrower picture of the world than we did in less connected days.
Why worry about what’s covered in newspapers and television when it’s possible to read firsthand accounts from Syria or Sierra Leone? Research suggests that we rarely read such accounts. My studies of online news consumption show that 95 percent of the news consumed by American Internet users is published in the United States.
Increased connection doesn’t necessary lead to increased understanding, he says. But at the same time, “there’s never been a tool as powerful as the Internet for building new ties (and maintaining existing ones) across distant borders.”
FJP: Worth noticing: the reader comments. One laughs at the notion of a “serendipity engine” (which is the beside the point entirely) and another says that “our ability to find and disseminate information has surpassed our ability to understand.” That’s worth thinking about.
Zuckerman encourages us to “see broadly,” which isn’t a new idea. A well-known danger of the build-it-yourself media diet is that we tend to fill it with things we know we want to know about, and miss the things that might do us some good. So sure, developers can race to build tools that will help us discover the people and issues in hidden corners of the world, and we can keep at improving our consumption diets.
But a vital prerequisite to any such consumption modification is for us to acquire a mental disposition that requires a bit of practice. Perhaps Zuckerman’s most important point:
The challenge for anyone who wants to decipher the mysteries of a connected age is to understand how the Internet does, and does not, connect us. Only then can we find ways to make online connection more common and more powerful.
Outside the media world, who really thinks about that question? It’s worth asking, just to open discussion, and might give us a clue about how to understand all the stuff we’re so good at consuming and disseminating. To achieve success in any endeavor, we generally identify our intent first. So why not the same of the internet?
Here’s the PDF of his article. Print it out, put it in your pocket, put it on your ipad and re-read it a few times. Talk to people about it. We’ll keep thinking about it too.—Jihii
P.S.: Global Voices on Tumblr.
La Eterna Primavera
Mi primer encuentro cercano con la guerra en México fue un 16 de Diciembre del 2009, el día en el que mataron a Arturo Beltrán Leyva en Cuernavaca. Yo estaba en la ciudad de México en una Posada con mis amigos, cuando mi hermano y mi mamá me empezaron a hablar comentándome de una inusual actividad de helicópteros de la ¡Marina en Cuernavaca! Los helicópteros estaban atterrizando muy cerca de mi casa, y la trinchera urbana (nos enteraríamos después) estaba a menos de 10 minutos de mi casa. En el transcurso de la noche nos enteramos que se debía al “barbas”.
Hasta antes de eso, todo eran noticias de Michoacán, Juárez, Tijuana, Monterrey. La vida bajo las balas me parecía demasiado lejana como para que llegara algún día a Cuernavaca. La ciudad en la que crecí, me parecía demasiado utópica en su belleza, en su tranquilidad, en las delicias de la comida, en su clima perfecto como para ser teñida por la sangre.
En algún momento comenzó esa metamorfosis y no sé cuando se dió, lo que sé, es que hoy, después de aquel incidente, aparecen cotidianamente noticias de descuartizados, colgados, jóvenes a los que les arrancaron el cuero cabelludo. Hoy esa utopía de tranquilidad se ha convertido en una de las puertas a los más tenebrosas realidades que azotan a nuestro país.
Cuando estuve de intercambio en la Universidad de California en San Diego, a un amigo mexicano que radica en Berlín le llamó mucho la atención que vivera en Cuernavaca, y una de sus primeras preguntas fue: ¿Cuando vas a la escuela ves a los colgados? La pregunta me llamó la atención, porque aún cuando yo vivía en Cuernavaca y sabía que eso se daba, también sabía que no era algo tan cotidiano que uno lo viera cuando fuera a la escuela, o que tus amigos llegaran a contarte.
Eso me llevó a pensar en la cobertura que han tenido los medios de comunicación en esta batalla. Para mi amigo, Cuernavaca era simplemente una tierra sin Ley, en la que si se salia a comprar leche en la tienda de la esquina era muy probable que uno se encontrara con una balacera. La realidad que mi amigo conocía de parte de los medios de comunicación era una muy distinta a la que yo vivía.
Muchas veces, como parte del trabajo y ejercicio periodístico, los encargados de llevarnos las noticias tienden a aderezar con su sazón las noticias. Muchos de los medios mexicanos lo hacen ejemplarmente, con periodistas arriesgando la propia vida en el deber, pero la información casi siempre aparece descontextualizada, y la prueba de eso es que mucha gente cree que México es una feudo de sangre.
Los peligros de esa descontextualización son evidentes: cuando un narconmensaje fue lanzado en Cuernavaca dando la orden de toque de queda, la ciudad entera quedó paralizada, y lo que paralizó a los cuernavacenses fue el miedo, ese miedo cultivado día a día, con notas amarillistas, primeras planas con fotos grotescas y una elite política cada vez más polarizada.
No comparto la idea de censurar la información, pero si creo que los medios de comunicación deben de ejercer su labor de una forma más responsable. ¿Cuáles son los efectos a largo plazo en un niño que sólo escucha noticias violentas? ¿Estamos creando seres humanos violentos desde el inicio de sus vidas? La cobertura mediática va más allá de las líneas tradicionales de libertad de expresión, trascienden hasta la naturaleza humana e irrumpen el tejido social.
Los ciudadanos debemos de exigir una cobertura más sana, íntegra y objetiva. Podemos hacerlo compartiendo experiencias, informando, organizándonos para exigir a las autoridades.
Tenemos poderosas herramientas a nuestro alcance, herramientas que empiezan a darle una forma diferente a la agenda pública y herramientas, que no podemos menospreciar. Toca hacernos preguntas difíciles en lo individual y en lo colectivo. Si enarbolamos los valores que nos crearon como patria, estaremos dando un enorme salto en la historia contemporáneo de nuestra tierra.
La conférence sur Internet et les langues africaines
par Claire Ulrich
Une conférence a été donnée au ministère malien de l’éducation et des langues nationales à l’occasion de la Journée Internationale des langues maternelles. Par qui ? Par Boukary Konaté. Voici ci-dessous (avec pas mal de Global Voices dedans:)) le lien vers la présentation.
Where is #OccupySeoul?
As I am looking through the major news sites of South Korea, the only headlines I can see say, “Lee hails strong alliance with U.S.” or “Samsung gains upper hand in patent violation suit.” The two most important stories of the weekend are technology and free trade agreements with the western world. Why is it that only The Korean Herald could manage to include a story (let alone make it one of the top stories) about the now global movement of Occupy Wall Street? The site offered brief information about the worldwide protests, mostly focusing on Rome, Italy where events turned violent. As for Seoul, the information was minimal and I had to search elsewhere for more details.
On Global Voices, it said that upwards of 300 people gathered in front of the Financial Supervisory Service on Yeoido, the city’s financial center in the pouring rain and cold with signs that read: “Tax the Rich 1%, Welfare for the 99%.”
My question still remains, why is this not national news in Korea? It is all over the Twitterverse though, a comforting and slightly reassuring thought. But when really looking through the Tweets, the ones in Korea stressed the peacefulness of the protests, not so much why they were protesting in the first place.
According to the OECD Employment Outlook, the income safety net for South Korean workers is relatively limited compared to other OECD countries because of the shorter period that job losers can receive unemployment insurance benefits and “the fact that around 35 percent of employees are not registered for unemployment insurance.” The report also stated that unskilled workers and youth are still the most negatively affected groups. While this is true for most OECD countries, it is especially bad in South Korea where even before the crisis, “the employment rate for youth – especially less-educated youth – had been declining and was substantially below the OECD average.”
So when the Koreans (or the Italians or the Germans or the Puerto Ricans or the…) organize and strategize protests through Facebook and Twitter in order to demonstrate their own #OccupySeoul, maybe we should all think again about why they are doing so, instead of assuming its to follow a trend.
“For the months of February and March, I plan to have a gender ratio of 80/20 in favour of women, flipping the abhorrent ratio that currently exists within the industry … In the process, [we'll be] challenging other outlets to do the same.”
—Last month, I received an interesting e-mail from my editor, Nasir Khan, at the Opinion page of Al Jazeera English. In the e-mail, Khan explained that while his goal has been to keep a gender ratio of 50/50 on the page, he has often come up short. Therefore, he wrote, he would be working on a project with the sole intention of increasing the output of women contributors.
Though the initiative failed to attract much mainstream coverage, it quickly spread through social media, and by mid-March Khan was well on his way to fulfilling his goal. Through tweets, e-mails, and Facebook posts, women heard about the initiative and lined up to contribute.
Global Voices women step up
The women of Global Voices were no exception, and by the end of March they had substantially contributed to the Opinion section. This shouldn’t be surprising: just last month, a study published by The Guardian showed that Global Voices has a 51% contribution rate from women, consistent over time. The article praised Global Voices for its diversity, noting:
Al Jazeera: Amplifying (Global Voices) Women’s VoicesHowever you slice it, Global Voices publishes a diverse set of voices at all levels of participation, from the most prolific to the most casual.
Connecter des voisins, sauver des vies
fr.globalvoicesonline.orgPendant l’été 2010, quand les feux de forêt ravageaient la Russie, étouffant les villages, des internautes s’étaient organisés pour suppléer à la lenteur et à la désorganisation de la sécurité civile russe. Les blogueurs avaient rapidement lancé le site Russian-Fires [en russe], qui permettait aux internautes vivant dans de petits villages de relayer l’information sur l’avancée des incendies et les besoins matériels des zones touchées.
Le site a été un grand succès, attirant certains jours jusqu’à 17 000 visiteurs.
Quand la crise s’est résorbée, les blogueurs à l’origine de ce projet, Anastasia Severina, Alexey Sidorenko, Lev Zvyagintsev, Valery Ilyichev, et Gregory Aslomov, se sont rendus compte que les utilisateurs continuaient à se servir du site pour envoyer des messages sur les problèmes et les besoins de leurs villes.
Bahá'í student expelled from Iranian university 'on grounds of religion'
guardian.co.ukAn Iranian student belonging to one of the country’s most persecuted religious minorities appears to have been expelled from university because of her beliefs.
Paniz Fazl-Ali, a civil engineering student at Iran’s University of Science and Technology (IUST) in Tehran, has been banned from continuing her undergraduate degree after it emerged that she is a member of the Bahá’í community, activists said.
Daneshjoo News, a website which gathers information about students across Iran, reported on Wednesday that Fazl-Ali, who is described as “impressively talented”, was informed last week that she has been expelled.
She is reported to have successfully finished her third year and had only one year to graduate from the typical four-year engineering programme.
Every year hundreds of thousands of students across the Islamic republic compete with each other in a keenly contested entrance exam held for public universities. Only a few thousands are accepted in top Iranian universities such as the IUST.
In university registration forms, students are required to reveal their religion, but Bahá’ís, who are a banned religious minority, usually leave it blank – as did Fazl-Ali.
“Last month the university administrators summoned me and asked me to fill the section about my religion and I wrote Bahá’í,” she told Daneshjoo News. “Last week, as I went to see one of my test results, I noticed that I have been expelled.”
At least 219 Bahá’í in Iran were executed because of their religious allegiance after the 1979 revolution.
Iranian Bahá’ís have been deprived of their rights, such as access to education or the right to own a business, and are often persecuted for their beliefs. Seven leaders of the Bahá’í community have been in prison for the past five years, each serving 20-year jail sentences.
Scores of Bahá’ís have been expelled from universities in Iran in recent years.
A leaked official communication from Iran’s ministry of science, research and technology to 81 universities across the country in 2006 shows that they have been instructed to expel all their Bahá’í students.
“If the identity of Bahá’í individuals becomes known at the time of enrolment or during the course of their studies, they must be expelled from university,” stated the letter.
The Balkans: Over Half of the Population Uses the Internet · Global Voices
globalvoicesonline.orgGave a short overview of the recent Internet stats study in Balkans. As I wrote in the Global Voices article, it would be also interesting to see age distribution among users and other relevant demographics, as well as the analysis of online social interactions on other Internet services and social media sites.
Statistical and educational institutions in each of the Balkan countries could generate and use the data on the relevant online activities to detect and focus on their critical users, to adjust their policies and action plans based on the data.
The revolution will be translated: Global Voices’ citizen-powered site experiments with English-second
niemanlab.org“The Internet has made the world much, much smaller, but language is still probably the only barrier that really makes it difficult for people to understand each other,” said Góes. Global Voices is experimenting with a decentralized, English-second workflow for the first time in its history. Paula Góes, the site’s multilingual editor, is leading the transition.
