Global Voices Online

In Gaza, the members of the Qattan Foundation Reading Club were recently introduced to the Kindle, and photos have been posted on the club's blog [Ar].

Angry Chinese blogger writes on an intellectual property right dispute case between a Beijing firm Zhongyi Electronic LTD and Microsoft.

Taran Rampersad is glad “to see that social media is being seen as a tool for fighting crime in Trinidad and Tobago”, but says there are more effective ways in which to do it.

Google is pushing for more content on Kiswahili Wikipedia through Kiswahili Wikipedia Challenge: We invite you to take part in this challenge to create Wikipedia articles in Kiswahili. We hope to make the online experience richer and more relevant for 100 million African users who speak Kiswahili.

Syrian blogger Rami wrote [ar] a post comparing internet speeds and costs in Syria with those in Romania. He was frustrated with having to struggle to obtain a 256Kbps connection in Syria in contrast with 100Mbps in Romania for roughly the same cost.

Profy writes about the IT dimension of president Medvedev's annual address: “The draft speech was initially published online as a lengthy article by the president and he invited all the citizens to voice their opinions out via the Kremlin official website - and people were definitely very willing to participate given more than 18 thousand comments received.” NetEffect writes about “tweeting your way to Gulag”: turns out that in Russia, “the police are avid readers of ‘the Internet' and particularly of Twitter.”

Do you want to chat with students from Sierra Leone?: “Sierra Leonean kids want to communicate but don’t have computer access. If you would like to chat with a student in the City of Bo, Sierra Leone let me know at pjfishing@yahoo.com and I’ll hook you up through Local Government officer Sheka Kamara.”

flaneurose notes that cable TV and the internet are now viable alternatives to mainstream media. The blogger ponders the impact of the diminishing power of mainstream media in Singapore.

Theresa lists PayPal alternatives for African entrepreneurs: “Although PayPal is ubiquitous in the States and Europe, there are many alternatives available online, most with far more relaxed policies about where and how money can be sent.”