Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Women's Forum interviews blogger Scary Azeri, now also a contributor to the online gender-specific site based in Azerbaijan. The blogger, born and raised in the oil-rich former Soviet republic, speaks about her blog and reaction to it. Crossing many cultural divides, the blog has already become popular with foreigners as well as those living in the South Caucasus region. Global Voices Online interviewed Scary Azeri in July.

The winners of the Indibloggies 2008 awards have been announced. Over 150 Indian blogs were nominated across 16 varied categories and here is the statistics showing the final votes for each category. Go check out the blogs.

AdnanEmin's Blog, Prison Diary, a new blog from Azerbaijan, has been set up to republish letters sent from prison in the oil-rich former Soviet republic by Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, two detained video blogging youth activists sentenced last week and considered by Amnesty International to be prisoners of conscience. The first post carries a message from Milli after his sentence.

GVO in French translator and Mali-based Bambara blogger Boukary Konate, who blogs at Fasokan, is featured [Fr] in Africascopie, a blog of the French daily Le Monde.  They call him “the unrepentant blogger”, and you can listen to a podcast of a “smashing” interview.  In an earlier entry of the “collaborative report”, he talks about new media as a great way out of the crisis and to raise awareness, “if we go to the trouble of translating them into our national languages” and can bring cheaper and more efficient internet access in African countries.

Arab bloggers from 19 countries will meet in Beirut from December 7 to 12. Check out the event's website for updates on the Social Arab Web: 2nd Arab Bloggers Meeting.

The first Asia Blogger festival will take place in Hong Kong from 6-8 of November. Details of the program can be found here.

Arabic blogging contest Arabisk drew to a close with the announcement of the top three winners. The first place went to Tech World, the second to group blog Nibras Chabab, and the third to UAE blogger Osama Al Zubaidi.

The last day of voting for Arab blogging contest Arabisk has been moved to 16:00 GMT, October 5, announced organisers (Ar).

Kuwaiti blogging came under the spotlight during a workshop organised by IREX entitled The Role of Blogging in Kuwait. Global Voices’ Kuwait author Abdullatif AlOmar, who was a panelist at the event, has more.

Francis Nyamjoh writes about the Cameroonian blogger, Dibussi Tande: “Dibussi Tande established JimbiMedia in 2004 with the primary objective of using affordable blogging technology to give a solid online presence to powerful African voices – creative people, trendsetters, academics, journalists, etc.”

Amit Varma, one of the most popular Indian bloggers who won many awards in blogging, posts some tips on how to write a successful blog.

Melissa_Ys tweets that a protest demonstration in support of detained video bloggers Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli is set to take place outside the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Washington DC tomorrow at 4pm. The two youth activists have so far spent 51 days in pre-trial detention and now face an additional charge in what many consider to be a politically motivated attempt to silence their voices.

Blogadda interviews Dina Mehta, one of the best-known bloggers and social media observers from India. She is also a friend and Advisor to Global Voices Online.

Jordanian blogger Hareega marks four years of blogging with a message to his readers: “Thank You.”

Indian Blogger Kiruba Shankar announces that he has started writing a book called ‘Crowdsourcing Tweet’. “In the true spirit of the book, 20% of tweets will be crowdsourced. An opportunity for you to participate,” informs the blogger.

Harvard University's Berkman Centre for Internet and Society has released a study of the Arabic blogosphere entitled Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere. About 35,000 active blogs were covered. “The goal for the study was to produce a baseline assessment of the networked public sphere in the Arab Middle East, and its relationship to a range of emergent issues, including politics, media, religion, culture, and international affairs,” announced the centre.

Media Helping Media informs that Shahidul Alam, internationally renowned photojournalist from Bangladesh, blogger and founder of the Drik picture network has been detained by the Indian border security while working on the Bangladesh side of the border. Updates on this news are being posted in Unheard Voice Blog.

Teabreak, Paksitan's largest Blog aggregator celebrated its first birthday with a virtual Bloggers meet up, first ever in the country. The bloggers discussed about the IDP issues in Swat region and how bloggers can highlight the social issues in Pakistan.

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif has been elected as president of a local Rotary Club for 2010/2011, where he hopes to raise funds to develop community projects.

Blog Adda interviews Global Voices Author and popular Indian blogger Gaurav Mishra aka Gauravonomics on Social Media and Social Media Analytics.

Some Pakistani bloggers (including Global Voices Pakistan Author Sana Saleem) met with renowned theater activist Sania Saeed to talk about her recent play Main Adakara Banun Gi. Read details about this in Jehan Ara's In The Line Of Wire.

London, Lanka and Drums posts little known facts about some well known Sri Lankan bloggers.

Fighting windmills? Take a pill, a new English-language blog from Azerbaijan, is pleased to announce the publication of a book by bloggers in Baku. The blog commends a local bookshop owner and prominent blogger for coming up with the idea.

Iraqi Raed Jarrar has concluded a speaking tour in Alaska, where he was welcomed by the “one and only” Sarah Palin. “And yes, her voice is as annoying in person,” he notes.

“Today marks the fifth anniversary of Saudi Jeans. What I started as place to have fun and improve my English has become one of the most well-known blogs in the Middle East,” writes Saudi blogger Ahmed Al Omran.

Frontline Club blogger and Global Voices Online author Ali S. Novruzov has reportedly been detained in Baku as the Azerbaijani capital prepared for a planned youth demonstration. Tweets from a reliable source report that at least one other blogger was also detained along with the head of the National Democratic Institute in Azerbaijan, but that they were simply walking on the streets. Updates in the comments section of this post.

Michael Castro of Poder 5 [es] announces a blog gathering to take place on May 6 in Caguas, Puerto Rico.

Writing on his In Mutatione Fortitudo, Global Voices Online Azerbaijan author Ali S. Novruzov says that Radio Free Europe has started to pay attention to the local blogosphere. However, he notes, the station needs to learn a few important lessons about blogging and citizen media.

The First National Bloggers Conference of Pakistan took place today at 5:00pm PST at Regent Plaza in Karachi. Teeth Maestro live blogged the event.

Indian star blogger and columnist Amit Varma has been selected as one of the 50 most powerful people in India by Business Week. Amit responded with a typical witty remark: “I come between Sachin Tendulkar and Lalu Prasad Yadav, and am not quite sure how to respond to that honor. What have I done to deserve this?”