Up until now, governments, companies and individuals could register domain names based on different languages only in Latin transliteration. The current Internet domains system will go much further allowing to use Cyrillic characters in a URL.

“The main thing here is that people who do not understand Latin (English) will be able to use their own language to access the Internet. The Web will become more familiar to people,” Veni Markovski, a representative for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) [ENG] in Russia, CIS and Eastern Europe, told the GVO.

The final decision to introduce Cyrillic URLs was made in October 30, 2009 when the ICANN finally approved the request to let different states use their national alphabets for domain names.  On November 16, the Russian Coordination Center for National Intern Domain (RU-Center) submitted an official request for creating a .РФ zone.  Although a limited registration of Cyrillic domains starts on November 25, the first requests were already submitted on November 11. The administration of the Russian president is very likely to become the first institution in the .РФ zone with a new URL “кремль.рф” (kremlin.rf). The local government of the Ekaterinburg region also submitted a request asking for “екатеринбург.рф” (ekaterinburg.rf) and “екбург.рф” (ekburg.rf) domains.

The main concern for the RU-Center during the registration is cybersquatting when people and companies buy popular domain names with the only purpose to resell them later for a higher price. But it looks like making a fortune with reselling .РФ URLs won’t be an easy task.

The first stage of registration starts on November 25, 2009 and will continue until March 25, 2010. Only government organizations and owners of officially recognized trademarks - there are at least eight thousand trademarks owners in Russia- will be allowed to apply for a .РФ  address during the first months.

The registration will be opened to the general public in April 2010. But not everyone will be able to afford a new domain. Buying a domain name on the first day of the open registration would cost 10 million rubles ($340,000). The price will decline to 100,000 rubles ($3,400) closer to June when the process won't be regulated by the RU-Center. At that point, everyone will be able to purchase a domain name at the price set by different commercial domain sellers.

The stream of applications to the  RU-Center started long before November 25. Several thousands of Russian companies and organizations submitted early requests. More than a half of those requests were already denied.

“Over a week, only 1,117 applications have been approved while over 1,500 have been declined,” Andrey Vorobyov, a PR manager at the RU-Center, said. “The applicants do not take the rules seriously and their domain names contain Cyrillic letters along with Latin characters. Some names do not even represent their trade marks.”

The RU-center does not allow Latin letters in new .РФ domains. New URLs also cannot contain offensive words and expressions. A special group of Russian linguists analyzes every application for any abuses of the language.

Some Russian experts see potential conflicts and issues at the earliest stages of the registration. Svetlana Vladimirova, a director of “Mediapartner” company, said that some trademark owners have almost identical names and that can lead to all sorts of problems  and confusions during the process.

Russia is the first but not the only country that will have top-level domains based on its own alphabet. The Egyptian Minister of communication Tarek Kamel said at the Sharm El Sheikh Internet Governance Forum [ENG] that Egypt would be the first to use Arabic letters in the state domains. The new URLs will contain “.masr” (Egypt) extension written in Arabic.

Applications for new national top level domains were also submitted to the ICANN by China, Bulgaria and few other countries. One can witness a chain reaction around the former Soviet Union with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine expressing their interest in Cyrillic domain names for their countries.

Most Russian experts consider .РФ domain great news of national importance and a special achievement for the country. The new zone will definitely provide new  and more effective ways to reach the Russian-language audience. It will also significantly increase the amount of Russian speakers using the World Wide Web. Some experts say that the age of Internet users in Russia will be significantly younger since the usage of Cyrillic in URLs will make it easier for children to go online.

The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called the creation of the Cyrillic zone an “important goal” of the Internet development in the country. Medvedev also underlined its symbolic importance for Russia. The authorities claim that it will speed up the process of creating an effective e-government system. The Russian Minister of Communications Igor Shegolev noted recently that the new domain zone would be used to create a government e-mail services making it easier for citizens to communicate with government officials.

But not everyone is optimistic. “No one needs an .РФ zone,” Vladimir Dolgiy-Rapoport, a CEO of Aroundme.ru, said in an interview for the Forbes magazine. “The net is international but the Cyrillic address can’t by typed in most of the countries.”

For better or for worse, the emergence of a .РФ zone also includes a strong political message. The global nature of the Internet in many cases threaten the sovereignty of state actors. In many cases, a commitment of people to a particular network that doesn’t have any affiliation with the state identity is stronger than their commitment to state framework. Until now, governments had difficulties defining state-affiliated spaces in the virtual word. In a way, the national alphabet domains create new borders in the virtual reality and support the state sovereignty.

Domains in different languages also raises some questions about net neutrality. In the near future, the access to some of content on the Internet will be limited to those who know and can type national alphabet characters into an address box of a Web browser. In other words, the new domains not only support the state sovereignty but can also increase the cyberspace fragmentation by drawing new virtual borders.

Veni Markovski believes that the new domain zone has nothing to do with the net neutrality. He claimes that it makes the Internet more accessible. “There is no relation between the new top level domains and the net neutrality issue, which is mainly an issue in the United States,” he said. “The IDN ccTLD - and note, we are talking here only about a country code TLD, not generic TLD - provide more access. If you are from a country that does not use Latin letter, you might never be able to understand what the Internet says… Think about it in a different way, what if the Internet was created in China, instead of in the U.S., and we all had to write the web addresses in Chinese? How many users would there be in E.U., or the U.S., or in Russia?”

Photo by Ayahuasca and used under a Creative Commons license.

Esperanza Martinez says on the blog Ecoportal [es], that women told their husbands that if they allowed the companies to work on their lands, they would have to find other women …on different lands. The Kichwas organized a united front against the oil company until it finally had to leave.

This group of Kichwas live in province of Pastaza, on 140 thousand hectares in the Amazon, an area the Ecuadorian Ministry of Mines and Oil identified as Block 23. Several companies attempted to work there throughout the years, but they failed every time due to Kichwa’s opposition to drilling.

Although the decision to resist was made by the entire tribe, women’s participation became a key component. These fearless women will go a long way to preserve the forests and their lands.

Support Women

The blog Observatorio Petrolero Sur [es] publishes what Kichwa leader Franklin Toala said about the role of women during this process:

Uno de los procesos que tuvo Sarayaku, que hay que recalcar, es el magnífico apoyo de las mujeres. La relación que existe entre las mujeres y las comunidades es mucho más fuerte.

Ecuadorian newspaper Diario Universal described a chilling scene involving Kichwa women that took place in 2003,when 15 women and children ran for 4 hours through the jungle yelling “anchuri, (get out) anchuri oil companies,” to meet face to face with the oil company’s workers and armed guards. Confrontations took place and eventually the army intervened. But the Kichwas remained on their lands and kept them free of oil drilling.

Petroleum, Climate Change, and Indigenous women

In Ecuador, several regions have already suffered the terrible environmental and health consequences of oil drilling. In Pichincha in the province of Sucumbios, oil drilling has been taking place for 20 years, the air is polluted and the water contaminated because of oil spills. The people have suffered the loss of domestic animals because of drinking contaminated water and the loss of crops because the contaminated land becomes infertile. They are also affected by several skin and respiratory diseases, birth defects, and miscarriages.

Women are once again the most vulnerable to these negative impacts. In petroleum areas of Ecuador the incidence of cancer is three times more comparing to the national average, especially affecting women. Women are in constant contact with contaminated water by washing clothes and bathing their children in the river.

It is no wonder Kichwa women reject oil drilling. They know it will transform their lands, their lives, and the environment for ever.

The Online Community Reacts to the Kichwa Example

Blogger Efren Calapucha shares his feelings on the Kichwa’s stand on the blog Redamazon [es]:

¡Amigos de la Tierra! En este espacio de la selva amazónica con grandes recursos biodiversos se quiere cercenar LA VIDA lo que NO PERMITEREMOS se establezca tan execrable hecho que afectará al Calentamiento Global extinguiéndose los pueblos, la flora y la fauna hasta hoy fortalecidas y guardadas celosamente

The blog Observatorio Petrolero Sur [es] posts about the remarkable determination of the Kichwas despite the circumstances:

Han pasado dos décadas y hasta el momento la exploración no se concretó, pero la amenaza es permanente. En 20 años pasaron muchas cosas, demandas a nivel nacional e internacional, campañas en un lado y en el otro, y en el territorio la presión fue mucha. Los kichwas sufrieron todo tipo de atropellos, persecuciones e incluso la militarización de Sarayaku; pero siguieron diciendo no.

The Kichwa community has managed to keep their forests safe so far but the struggle is not over. Of course with Kichwa women among them, they have little to fear.

Watch the Video

A Kichwa child stands defiant with the words “I’m a forest protector” painted on his chest. He appears in the video filmed and posted by Oilwatch, which is about the Sarayaku community’s reaction to the attempt of an oil company to carry out oil exploration in their lands. Click here to watch the video in Spanish.

According to the Southern Weekend's report, these children victims were left behind by their parents, who are migrant workers and have to work in cities all year long to earn money and support their families. They lived with their aging grandparents and struggled to work before and after school time to earn some pocket money for snacks.

The children workers phenomenon is not rare in Yanghui village where the tragedy took place. The lack of government regulation is part of the reason behind, but on the other, “if these children have their parents around and being taken good care of, we will not have such a big tragedy,” Yang Youji, the village party chief, was quoted as saying.

According to the 2005 population census, there were 120 million farmers who worked or did business in cities, and the number of children they left behind amounted to 20 million. 88.2% left-behind children could only contact their parents by phone, but 53.5% of them talked with their parents in less than three minutes.

Tong Dahuan, a Chinese blogger in Tianya, pointed out another social issue in this fire-cracker incident related blog post, “Who Should Apologize for the Tragedy of the Left-behind Children”:

前两年，来自北京、上海等地的有关调查即显示，新移民二代的犯罪率是当地户籍青少年的三倍！留守儿童和流动儿童的悲剧命运，正在引领着我们走向一个不可知的未来。

Tong argued that it is the unfair education system that resulted in this kind of tragedy.

中国数以亿计的农村人到城市打工，他们的孩子经常被城市的学校排除在外，或被收更高的学费，城市里也没有专门供这些孩子受教育的非正式学校（打工子弟学校常常被教育主管部门以教育条件不达标为由围追堵截甚至赶尽杀绝）。更有甚者，在户籍加学籍的高考报考制度下，即使打工子弟历尽千辛万苦过五关斩六将在父母打工所在地读完了高中，他们也将面临无处高考的命运。这一切导致大量孩子过早被迫与父母分离，成为“没爹没妈”留守儿童。

Tong said there have been a lot of criticism against the government’s outdated residents certificate system and education system since 1997, but there seemed almost no progress on these two issues.

现行户籍与教育制度，已经严重违反了人权、人道、人伦，也违反了我们1990年签署、1991年全国人大批准、1992年3月1日起即对我国生效的联合国《儿童国际公约》

请问，不让孩子就地平等地接受教育和高考，是为了孩子的最大利益吗？用户籍制度生生将孩子和父母拆散，这样的分离符合儿童的最大利益吗?”

Another Tianya Blogger, Li Hui
, questioned why the children workers are always the left-behind children?

为什么黑童工都是留守儿童？这背后，不仅是一个非法雇佣童工的问题，更深层次的原因，是城乡二元分化，以及由此导致的教育资源发展严重不均衡。

In the Southern Weekend report's comment section, many netizens left their comments, some blamed the residents registration system as the root of this tragedy.

For example, Yanchenyu said,

户籍制度是造成留守儿童的根源，城市人口享受农民工带来的繁荣，却不为他们的健康提供保障，不为他们的小孩提供教育。

li101947 questioned the role of law enforcement:

已经有多少儿童遭受了苦难？还有多少儿童将要遭受苦难？难道就不能有组织、制度保障他们的权益吗？法律的执行怎么了？

Maoist night protest. Image by Flickr user izahorsky. Used under a creative commons license

Nepal's fragile peace process is faltering amidst increasing clashes between the Maoists and the government. Unhappy with President Ram Baran Yadav's decision to reinstate sacked Army Chief Rookmangud Katwal (Katwal was sacked by then Maoist led government), the former rebels launched massive protest across the nation. Their main demand being “re-establishment of people's supreme authority”, where they seek to curtail the President's authority as he is not an elected official. They have just announced third round of protest activities, after the first two round failed to produce any results.

Nepali language blog Mysansar has a brief outline of the protest programs Maoists are planning to launch.

“राष्ट्रपतिको कदम सच्याउनु पर्ने माग गर्दै स‍ंसद र सडकमा आन्दोलन गरिरहेको माओवादीले आफ्नो अल्टिमेटम सकिएको भोलिपल्ट घोषणा गरेको कार्यक्रमले खुसी र चिन्ता दुवै ल्याएको छ। खुसी यस कारण कि माओवादीले सोमबार, म‌ंगलबार र बुधबार तीन दिन स‍ंसद खोल्न दिने भएको छ। बजेट पास गर्नका लागि उसले चार महिनादेखि ठप्प संसद खोल्न दिएको बताएको हो। तर उसले देश भने बन्द गर्ने कार्यक्रम पनि ल्याएको छ। त्यो पनि एक दिन हो र, तीन तीन दिन। तीन दिन बन्द हुँदा पनि माग पूरा भएन भने अनिश्चितकालका लागि बन्द गर्ने रे। तीन दिन बन्दका लागि पुस ५, ६, ७ गतेका लागि दिन तोकिएको छ।”

“Maoists who have been protesting on the streets and in the parliament demanding the President correct his decision have announced programs which have brought relief and some confusion. Relief because the Maoists will allow the parliament to work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. They are allowing the parliament to work so that discussions can be held on the annual budget. But they have also announced strikes across the nation. That too not for a day but for three whole days. If their demands are not met after the three days protest, they will go into indefinite strike. The three-day protest will start on Poush 5 and end on 7th (December 20-22)

United Nations has expressed concerns, writes blogger Mohan Nepali at GroundReport, over the way government and the Maoists seem to ignore the promises made when signing the peace agreement in 2006.

“UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) today strongly urged Nepali political forces, including those in government, to make sure that human rights of all people are protected. It has called on both Nepal government and Maoist protesters not to resort to any violence since it may jeopardize the very peace process going on since 2006.

The OHCHR expressed its concern on the likelihood of violence in the name of Maoist protests and subsequent government actions”

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is under a lot of pressure to resolve the conflict with the Maoists but so far he has been unable to placate the former guerrillas. Maila Baje at Nepali Netbook says that Mr. Nepal's latest attempt to end the stand-off with the Maoist has failed to make any waves:

“Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal warned the other day that the constituent assembly could be dissolved. But the parliament that the elected body doubles as wouldn’t be, he was quick to clarify. If the prime conciliator was expected to attempt a middle way out of our deepening deadlock, he did not disappoint. Especially since he passed the buck to President Ram Baran Yadav.”

Krishna Hari Pushkar, who works for Nepal's Ministry of Home Affairs, puts part of the blame for the faltering peace process on “foreign actors”:

“It is seen that all internal and external peace actors are visibly performing against the ethics of peace process and bouncing beyond the edge of comprehensive peace accord. So, how can Nepal's peace process go normally in such situation towards its expected end? Forlornly, it is hapless to describe that no any single direct and indirect actors found sincere and practically committed towards the success of ongoing peace process of Nepal. If the situation continues, it won't be surprising when the moist battalions decide to return jungle or government imposes special op against ethno-political combatants. It is unfortunate that some vested politicians' declares that re-insurgency or re-warfare is held in search of peace, however it has proved blunder to impel for “breach peace for peace”.

So far the protest rallies have been peaceful, in some places colorful and musical. Here is a short video of once such protest rally.

Now that the Maoists have decided to launch second round of protests and are threatening to go on strike for an indefinite period if their demands are not fulfilled, it seems that the drama will continue for a while.

Bikya Masr group blog see the verdict as “Another blow to free speech in Egypt as graphic novelist gets no love from court“

It was supposed to signal a new era in Egyptian novels. The country’s first graphic novel, Metro, was supposed to be a show of free speech and artistic merit. Instead, it has become the hallmark of what rights groups say is the Egyptian government’s continued censorship of what its citizens can write. On Sunday, a Cairo misdemeanors court fined author Magdy el-Shafei and publisher Mohamed Sharkawi 5000 Egyptian pounds ($900) and demanded the confiscation of the novel after accusing them of writing and distributing a novel, which included statements and phrases considered “offensive to public morals.”

Sarah Carr is furious; people got so absorbed in the Egypt-Algeria football war and forgot about every thing else

Shahinaz Abdel Salam is disappointed

The author Magdy El Shafee refuses to give up and promises to appeal

Mubarak's Speech

Sarah Carr is skeptical about Mubarak's speech:

Jasmine Aladdin is keeping her fingers crossed

Sharif Hafez is a political analyst who admires the President's wisdom when he asked Parliament Members to keep their calm and not act on impulse

Perwin Ali is not happy with BBC News headlines!

Dr. As`ad AbuKhalil - The Angry Arab is angry at lawmakers in Egypt for “applauding”

What is the job of Egyptian lawmakers except to applaud the comments of the president. Some of the lawmakers were friends of my father, and they applauded for Nasser, and then applauded for Sadat, and then applauded for Mubarak. Do you know that the Mustafa Khalil, who led Egypt's peace with Israel process was a staunch Nasserist, under Nasser?

And Zeinobia wonders about Egyptian's dignity inside Egypt

Mubarak said in his speech in front of the people’s assembly and the Shura Council that the Egyptian citizens abroad are the responsibility of the state and that the dignity of Egyptians is from the dignity of Egypt !!

I do not know what to say except that Mr. President none of this could have happen if we are enjoying our dignity as Egyptian citizens inside  Egypt in the first place !!?? Please tell these words to the victims of police brutality  , please them again to thousands of Egyptians abroad who haven been humiliated enough around the globe because of your economic policies for 28 years. Mr. President please these words to the families who lost their members on the borders with Israel , on the board of flight 990 , on the board of Al Salam ferry and on the board of Badr I.

With so many local, regional and international development organizations working with farmers, the possibilities for information and communication technologies (ICTs), are great. Still, the question remains: Can these technologies live up to the hype and actually help raise human development levels?

One point of optimism lies at the heart of Web 2.0 technologies or “the participatory web” according to a 2008 report by Annemarie Matthess and Christian Kreutz for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, called “Participatory Web - New Potentials of ICT in Rural Areas” [PDF]. They write:

The participatory web offers new ways to translate and bridge language domains. Users publish themselves and can engage in a dialogue. One such result is that knowledge becomes more explicit – bridges are built between the local and global knowledge. Worldwide agriculture research cooperation has a long experience in this field and results show how difficult it is to translate global scientific knowledge to the local context.

For all the great potential of ICTs in rural areas, Tanzanian-based journalist Emmanuel Onyangoin in his blog Knowledge Matters warns the challenges facing technologies in rural areas remain high:

Studies shows that, rural farmers do not have direct access to the internet in rural areas pending on a number of factors. The basic ones being the increased computer illiteracy among users and an unreliable infrastructure such as electricity.

Wikis and scientific information

One popular method to increase farmer productivity is through wikis, the often plain-vanilla collaborative websites that provide easy editing features, made popular by sites like Wikipedia.

Wikis are an easy way to exchange ideas over the web, allowing people in different locations to write, edit and disseminate documents on low-bandwidth sites. Wikis can be used with other platforms, such as maps or photographs, not only to collect data but also enabling users to participate in vetting the information.

One such wiki is the Knowledge Sharing Toolkit of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which allows people in laboratories and those working in the field to disseminate a wide-range of information that can be constantly updated, amended and assessed.

The Communication Initiative Network explains that the Knowledge Sharing toolkit has three main pieces:

1. A library of tools, meaning web-based software (e.g., blogs, wikis, instant messengers, podcasting) and offline physical tools that can be used with a variety of methods.
2. A library of methods, meaning group processes that people can use to interact with each other, online or offline (e.g., appreciative inquiry, storytelling, knowledge fairs).
3. A set of perspectives and guidance that can help users choose tools and methods for their needs and contexts. Some examples: How can I organise meetings differently? How can I plan, monitor, and evaluate my activities/projects? How can I improve relationships and collaboration between regional offices and the headquarters?

The Knowledge Sharing Toolkit began as a means to keep up with the explosion in scientific knowledge, which has been facilitated by the expansion of the internet and peoples’ increasing access to information. The libraries are not written for scientists, however. Rather, generalists can update their basic skills so they can better communicate with scientists, funders, partners in the field or immediately leverage new ideas in their communities.

Maps and food security

It’s been argued that one of the major components of food security is getting produce to market. Bad roads and poor transportation infrastructure are often the culprits. To solve some of these issues at the local level is iMMAP, which began using GIS technology more than a decade ago to locate landmines. They’ve moved on to help guide crisis responders in a number of different countries.

From the ICT-KM blog at Cgiar, a new project is explained.

Throughout most of the developing world, there is a real and urgent need for roads data. Road location and attribute information can play a vital role in long term development applications and also help humanitarian agencies with short term emergency and logistical planning. Despite this dire need, though, popular web mapping service applications have not explored the roads less travelled in much of the developing world. No tourists, no maps!

From that blog post, a question and answer session took place with Olivier Cottray, who spoke about gRoads, an Ethiopian-based project mapping roads with GPS-enabled PDA devices and how it will support local farmers.

The rationale of the project in the context of farming is that the better roads data will help agencies and organizations that are supporting farmers to look at accessibility to markets. Location information is also being collected for infrastructure of importance to small holder farmers such as irrigation equipment; water reservoirs; community grain storage or fertilizer warehouses; and agricultural extension offices.

Video and overcoming low literacy

Some practitioners argue that video blogging is one way to overcome a few of the hurdles facing ICT technologies in rural areas. By posting video or audio files, bloggers immediately overcome literacy issues. Also, they can speak directly by using local languages that may not be common on the internet.

Brenda Zulu, in her blog, ICT Journalist, investigates how video blogging works in Ghana with an interview with Prince Deh, the Assistant Country Director of Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (GINKS).

Vlogging major challenges were listed as connectivity or access and getting people to share Information and Knowledge and cost of equipment.
From my his own view, Deh said Web 2.0 tools were important and even more important because of the deeper impact the tools would have on marginalized societies, even if these impact are not immediately felt.
He observed that many more rural communities have stories to share with the larger public and voices to amplify and saw Web 2.0 tools as perfect applications to project the voices of the rural poor in the future.

“How do we solve the problem of rural connectivity in order to extend the benefits of Web2.0 tools much wider beyond the scope of the cities?” he asked.
He pointed out that it was important to have knowledge of video editing and innovativeness in order to create story telling videos.

Deh says the images increase the popularity of video blogs because they make them engaging. After filming a video, they can be embedded into a blog, so people can comment on them.

Development groups like them because they are cheap to make and disseminate. One popular video from GINKS explained to farmers (in a local language) how to use their mobile phone to get market information.

Lessons Learned

Throughout much of this Future of ICT for Development series on Global Voices, I have strived to put forth a well rounded debate on the positives and negatives of these technologies. Mostly I have tried to answer whether ICTs can raise human development.

One drawback has been that it is hard for me to find those who are skeptical or cynical regarding the potential of ICTs. I'd like to include these next three comments solely for the purpose of debate. They happen to be a response to a 2007 Web2forDev blog post regarding the participatory web and development. What makes them interesting is that these comments provide healthy skepticism (if not criticism) of ICTs affecting development levels in rural areas. I add these comments not as a critique on the above projects; rather, I think ICTs as tools of development need to be debated in the open.

The commenters pose a few questions: Are the stories presented in these blog posts or series like this the norm or just an aberrations? What role, if any, will ICTs play in raising living standards?

From Pankaj Gupta:

I think a lot is made of how ICTs can help in development and poverty reduction. I live in India, have worked extensively in participatory digital video and sustainability research, and travel a lot to the ‘poorest’ districts of the country (that makes up nearly most of the country!) and can say with the confidence that comes from first hand observation that the poor are far far away from using the web. The examples are merely examples: rare exceptions that voluble techno-freaks amplify, only to mislead a lot of us into thinking that information technologies can do any good to the poor. If probed deeply, any of these examples would not pass the test of affordability or sustainability once the artificial support on which an experiment is flaunted is removed. People caught up in day-to-day survival have no inclination or energy or access to link up with the web and profit from it.

From Andrea:

I have been working extensively in Africa and I quite agree with you. I have seen very few villages with electricity, less with PCs and even less or none with internet connection but I think that this is also one of the thing we should still work on it.
On the other hand I still see a huge potential for web 2.0 in Aid. Web 2.0 has a strong potential for collaborative work and I think that international organisation should start using it as soon as possible.

From Ignatia/Inge de Waard

I agree with both Andrea, Pankaj and [post writer]Holly that only a minority of people are connected in developing areas. But just like Andrea I believe in web2.0 as a strengthening evolution. Because of the participatory strength of web2.0, I believe that even if only a minority will use the participatory web, this will make a huge difference on developing areas. If any change can be done, change must be stimulated by those target people. Only by their knowledge essential changes will take effect.

A month ago it was Orange, now followed by T-Mobile.

Already time ago there were cases when some (maybe can mostly name them local or minor) providers were blocking torrents, if not completely, then during daylight or for the cheapest versions. Or they were limiting traffic of users who wanted to download more than someone decides, even if they paid flat program with fast access. (To keep balance: also big players, T-Com, used limited upload speed, which has influenced torrents download.) All of this could be easily labeled as a way to lower network traffic, with the intention to minimize the price the provider needs to invest to it.

Now comes something new with the great idea of blocking child pornography.

To achieve this goal, both providers are using the British Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) database to avoid connection to some web pages - so people really interested in them must make a bit more effort to avoid this blocking.

People who responded to an online poll at SME.sk (say liberal) newspaper mostly voted ‘Yes' for “Do you want your internet provider to block access to pages with child porn?”

If I remember well, people in China have similar opinion in case of porn generally. But things are not so simple - and not just in China. (GV posts on the “internet cleansing movement” in China are here and here.)

The IWF database is not public. (That's why it is a non-governmental organization, I think. At least in Slovakia, if it is part of the government, they must reply to citizens' questions about what and why they're blocking.) And they operate in the British, not Slovak, law space.

It blocks also many general and legal pages for file downloads and there is no guarantee they will not block anything else they decide (the complete Wikipedia was already on their list).

Users have no official way to stop filtering. Last month, T-Mobile made initial filtering of their own adult services, but it was necessary to activate it by SMS. (Understand: of course T-Mobile's business is not related to child porn and its blockage will cover approximately about 0% of such internet services.) Now both providers are talking about no exceptions for IWF.

A question also is why Orange, with such high moral, does blocking of its mobile-network only, while optics-cable connected customers (where traffic already does not matter so much, right?) do not have this “advantage”.

So if you want uncensored mobile internet access in Slovakia you must move to O2, the newest provider here. Yes, this one is the leader of IWF filtering in the Czech Republic.

This is the actual state of things 20 years after the Czechoslovak Gentle revolution ended the Soviet-based system here.

Here's a selection of anonymous netizens' reactions (SLO) posted at SME.sk portal:

randy10:

Internet has to be free, open and uncensored. No company should start filtering, can offer it only as an extra part that needs to be switched on explicitly. Today it is child pornography, tomorrow it's the pages of right-wing parties, the day after tomorrow - academic segment or all religions except Christianity. This is not correct.

***

real name:

I've already reported this [to IWF]. [Orange's page with pictures for mobile phones with ‘Angels and Devils' theme.]

***

čisté ruky [clean hands]:

So we will join the list. Google in China, Youtube in Turkey - and Orange in Slovakia.

***

archi731:

Child porn is the worst thing that could be found on the internet and those responsible for it have to be jailed for long years, but this is an absolutely incorrect way, because here what is being questioned is the freedom of individual united with responsibility for own acts. After all, we are a democratic country, adult persons and not some small children, and the internet provider is not some tutor to have the right to deal with us this way.

***

archi731:

In addition, this is a dangerous precedent and no one knows where it will end. Tomorrow they will start to block other forms of criminality at internet, that it will become something normal, state will adopt the right to deal with people preventively like with potential criminals, enter their privacy and the day after tomorrow we'll have here censorship like in China.

***

osc:

I personally do not care. When they are blocking porn pages focused on child pornography (if there are such), I vote for it. Maybe some people from Catholic church will miss them. [The person quoted here is referring to the much publicized pedophilia cases involving Catholic priests, but I do not remember any real cases that took place in Slovakia.]

***

Mikaco:

And after a short time we all will need to learn the Chinese language. :(

***

sanity inside:

And do not be surprised that no one trusts IWF - in Slovakia, we have a rich experience with censorship. That one before the November [Velvet revolution] also had a different function officially. Filtering should be good in principle, but requires credible institutions.

***

lubo.flynt:

The problem is IWF does not block child porn only. If “by chance” a serious page appears on their list for removing they require a sponsor's check. [Note: This anonymous commenter has not provided any proof for this.]

***

všetci do žatvy [all to harvest]:

In that poll under the article, 27% of readers do not like child porn blocking, what kind of creatures are they?

***

ABBE:

All tragedies start with great ideas.

Carlos Correa Loyola, UTPL's Director of the Information Technology Department.

One of the local leaders helping to make the event possible is Carlos Correa Loyola, who is the UTPL's Director of the Information Technology Department. However, he is also a blogger [es] and avid user of social media networks like Twitter (username @calu). Correa has already been featured on numerous occasions on Global Voices, including the articles on blogs in his homeland of Loja and when Creative Commons Ecuador was launched.

During a conversation via Skype, Correa said that the UTPL's ultimate goal is to “become the premier technology university in the country,” and for the institution to ultimately transform itself into being the “premier [technology university] in Latin America. To accomplish this, we are working with 20 PhD technology students, with 5 graduating in 2010, 10 graduating in 2011, and the rest will graduate later.”

He has met interesting people during his travels around the world, which has helped him outline the upcoming I Congress Campus with the theme “Building Common Spaces in Higher Education.” According to Correa, the work began as a small team or “four cats in a room,” a commonly used saying in Loja, and the event is becoming a reality thanks to the support of Luis Miguel Romero, PhD, the current President of UTPL and who is also the current President of the OUI-IOHE.

By following the 6 strategic goals set by the technical university, a larger team of 70 people along with the Centers for Research, Technology Transfer, Extension, and Services (CITTES for their initials in Spanish) have been organizing the Campus Connect. The entire university is taking a role in planning the event, and he feels strongly that this process should take into consideration the ideas of not just one person or small group, but all participants, which something that Correa prefers to call “universitology.”

Technical University of Loja's Campus - Photo used under Creative Commons license by UTPL VIA Comunicaciones

The meeting scheduled to begin on November 25th has three components: The Congress Campus, the Latin American regional meeting of Creative Commons, and the iSummit 2009 and will take place while “respecting their identities at the same time,” said Correa. In addition, a BarCamp will follow the official events over the 3 days.

Creative Commons

The 2nd gathering of the Creative Commons representatives from Latin American will take place in Loja, which follows the previous one held year in Santiago, Chile (.pdf format). The UTPL has had a large role in bringing the use of Creative Commons licenses in Ecuador. Correa says, “We [UTPL] are the counterpart of the organization in Ecuador. We focus on ccLearn in order to promote open content in education and higher education, especially.”

iSummit

During this event, there will also be Loxa iSummit 09, which, according to Correa will be an “annual technology conference, the first in Loja and organized by the UTPL. It focuses on four areas: Software Architecture, Knowledge Management via a differentiated Semantic and Social Web, Advanced Networks, and IT Entrepreneurship called Technology Valley that the university has been supporting and is under the direction of Alvaro Castillo.” With the iSummit we seek to “establish a collaborative space, linking different views and approaches to the role of IT in higher education and business.”

BarCamp Loxa 09

“And to close the formal parts of the event, after Wednesday workshops and other events, comes Saturday's BarCamp Loxa 09, which is nothing but organized chaos, a cycle of “unconferences” on technology and other topics,” said Correa. The Barcamp Loxa 09 is eagerly awaited by the Ecuadorian blogger community and will feature musician Riccardo Perotti. There are also plans for an after-BarCamp, which will be a place to continue the celebration. The Barcamp has its own presence on Twitter with hashtag #barcamploxa09 and also a Faceboook group.

Correa concludes and reflects on Loja's role on promoting technology in the country and in the region:

It is said that the misuse of technology adds to the digital divide. That may be happening in the U.S. and Europe, and indeed in Latin America. But we want to change that, many have laid eyes here, during these three intense days. The small towns can also work closely with large cities, so Loja being a small city, not just the university, but people are betting on a democratization of participation, thereby achieving that technology does not accumulate just in the major poles of development.

The choir uses humor, which is reflected in their repertoire. They performed children's song “We are Macedonians” (Ние сме Mакедонци) [MKD] at the public holiday of the Day of the Macedonian Revolutionary Struggle, and had a performance in front of the Greek Liaison Office (a de facto Embassy of Greece) with the song “Dirlada” (Дирлада) [MKD] about summer love of a Macedonian boy and Greek girl who encounter difficulties due to visa restrictions.

On a grimmer note, the Singing Skopjans also sang “Kill me” (Убиј ме) by the local band Bernays Propaganda, which includes these lyrics:

Не сум како тебе,
немам иста боја,
омразата е твоја
…
Не сум како тебе
затоа у-б-и-ј м-е
убиј, убиј ме.

…in order to comment on the events of beating up student protesters on a Skopje square a few months ago.

The latest performance includes the Lumberjack Song by Monty Python, related to the cutting of the old trees on the Ilinden Boulevard, an act of Skopje's mayor which caused a lot of anguish and frustration [MKD] among ordinary citizens several months ago.

The word about this innovative commentary source has been spreading mainly through social media, especially through Facebook, and after a few weeks caught the attention of the traditional media: Dnevnik daily published an article about the choir [MKD].

Photo by Lozbot and used under a Creative Commons license

In Reticente [es], the blog of Juan David Escobar, he writes about that tradition that has been passed down by many generations:

Mis abuelas nos enseñaron que a eso de las 3pm, se debe parar la vida para comer algo caliente con parva, o lo que te encuentres, pero comer “algo”.

More often that not, this “something” is an arepa. On a cold afternoon, Escobar participated in the preparation of arepas of chócolo (soft corn), and which is something also discussed in other Colombian blogs. The Blog de Colombia [es] provides an explanation about the process to prepare the arepa:

La arepa es una de las comidas más típicas en Colombia. Para hacerlas, los ingredientes son muy básicos: harina de diferentes tipos de maíz, agua, aceite y sal. Luego está el relleno, que cada uno puede hacer de lo que quiera, pero la arepa pura es lo importante. Aunque todavía no se pongan de acuerdo sobre qué país es el originario, la arepa colombiana tiene su propia tradición y forma de elaboración.

The arepa of chócolo is made after threshing the corn, as indicated by the blog Recetas de Cocina, Colombia Turística [es]:

Se desgranan los chócolos, y se muelen. Debe quedar una masa suave. Se arman las arepas y se ponen a asar sobre una hoja de plátano, luego se voltean sobre una hoja nueva, hasta que queden bien asados por ambos lados.

The arepa of chócolo is accompanied with cheese [es]:

Si quiere puede hacer dos cosas con el queso: cortarlo en lajitas, cortar la arepa por el borde e introducir el queso en la mitad y asarlas de nuevo por un minuto o rallar el queso y mezclarlo, con la masa, antes de armarlas.

Blogger Carlos Múnera of the blog Somos Iguales [es] affirms:

Qué cosa más rica es ese binomio culinario de la arepa de chócolo* con quesito y mejor cuando se forma aquel triángulo amoroso a la llegada de un espumoso chocolate en leche. Sí señores, ah fríos que nos ha quitado ese trinomio de sabor. Ah tardes que nos han acompañado paralelo a una buena visita parviada*. Cuán sencillos y humanos nos sentimos cuando comemos del fruto de la tierra cocido al calor del fuego.

Photo by Juan David Escobar and used with permission.

Finally, Escobar of the blog El Reticente [es] concludes his post:

Mientras los ordenes económicos y de seguridad se mueven y la ciudad crece y se moderniza, todavía por aquí tenemos las tradiciones más clásicas, a pesar de que de las abuelas ni los huesos quedan.

As a business tycoon, Alaa Mubarak has always maintained a low profile. Last May, his 12-year-old son - Mohamed - died suddenly and Egyptians sympathized highly with the bereaved father, mother, grand mother, and grand father. Zeinobia covered the funeral saying:

President Mubarak did not attend the funeral … Alaa Mubarak was crying during the prayer and the funeral. It is hard for any father to be in this situation … Seriously I feel sad … I want to hint out that across the internet where the news was published the comments came to prove how great the Egyptian people are in these times.

Before the 14th of November Egypt-Algeria match there was a lot of tension for the encounter was to determine which of the two teams would qualify to next year's FIFA World Cup in South Africa. But instead of responding to the Egyptian-Algerian actor Ahmed Mekky's wake up call for unity, peace, and tolerance, Egypt's loss on November 18th in Sudan proved that it was much more than football!

The Mubarak brothers were in Sudan to cheer for the national team and, along with the rest of the Egyptian hooligans, they were assaulted by Algerian hooligans. Upon his return Gamal Mubarak was totally silent but Alaa Mubarak made two very angry live calls.

The first call was on Dream TV with Khaled Al Ghandour.

On this call, Zeinobia wrote:

We have reached the point of no return as Alaa Mubarak has opened his fire on the Algerian federation , the Algerian fans and the Algerian thugs in Sudan not to mention the Algerian press and the Algerian Ambassador. “The Algerian press attacked him and his brother unfairly if I may say , it is a normal thing that they would support their country’s national team for God Sake !!”
Speaking about Alaa himself , well he is more human and more simple than his pale brother. There is a huge difference. If you do not know who he is , you will think that he is normal Egyptian football angry fan.

His second call was on national TV (Al Beit Beitak). Once again Zeinobia said about his second strike:

It seems that Alaa Mubarak has a lot to say from that bloody night in Khartoum that left so shaken and so furious , last night he did it again and called a live night news show ; this time it was the official Al Beit Batik.

This time it was much long , he was ballistic and you have something interesting quotes more than the previous time with his famous line “ They were treating us as if we are Jews killing people in Gaza”

On Twitter, Sandmonkey and Pakinam Amer had questions:

On Facebook, the reactions varied from extreme sarcasm to extreme endorsement as status updates, fan pages, and groups were created overnight in support of the new national hero.

Spring wrote a cynical note about the elite that ended in:

The Arabist was furious at Alaa Mubarak's shamelessness and asks what about Egyptians?

Alaa Mubarak, denounces Algeria as a “country ruled by generals and pashas!”

Mourad thinks it's all a political manouver

Nawara Negm wonders where this Alaa Mubarak came from:

Moftah quoted Alaa Mubarak's statement:

Kareem El Behiery of Egyworkers quoted political analysts saying:

And in another post Kareem El Behiery wrote:

Jack Shenker of Chatoyant Crumbs wrote:

Mubarak adds fuel to the fire as football riots spread
President vows to defend Egyptians abroad as violence spreads across Cairo and Algiers
Egyptian regime accused of whipping up nationalist fervour for political gain

Alaa Mubarak called live for the third time on TV and pulled the “I am a provoked Muslim” card

Alaa Mubarak with Amr Adib

Nawara Negm wants Alaa Mubarak to be arrested in the name of the Egyptian emergency law:

Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabye keeps a dairy of his coverage on Blogspot. Last August, he wrote about the military actions between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels:

The Yemeni government said Thursday it would take a military actions to liberate schools and government buildings used as barracks by Al Houthi rebels in Sa'ada, north of the country.

He then continued:

The statement came after information about fierce battles between the rebels and government troops in which dozens were killed and injured from both sides over this week.
“Since President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the halt of the military operations, the saboteurs and terrorists continued their attacks on the citizens and security forces, committing heinous crimes against everyone including elders, children and women, in addition to kidnapping, cutting roads, destroying houses,” the statement added.

But it seems that the Houthi rebels had a different point of view:

The Al Houthi rebels said, however, they were only defending themselves and they do not want a new war.

A few months later, no one was able to stop the ongoing war. But a new question was raised: Is it a civil war taking place in Yemen, or are there other parties participating in this war as well.

The Houthis claimed that the Saudis are participating in the on going war, and their troops are there to help the Yemeni government. The government, on the other hand, denied this. Nasser Arrabyee wrote:

A Yemeni military official denied Monday Al Houthi rebels' allegations that the army used a Saudi base to attack them.
The Saudi authorities have “allowed Yemeni army to use a Saudi base in Jabal Al Dukhan from which it launched attacks,” said Al Houthi in statement sent through emails.
The military official, who asked not to be named, said Al Houthi tries only to cover his defeats by speaking about Saudi interference. “Jabal Al Dukhan is Yemeni not Saudi lands,” he said. This is not the first time Al Houthi rebels accuse Saudi authorities of intervening in the war.

But few days later Nasser Arrabyee wrote another post in his blog:

At least 5 Saudi soldiers and 15 Al Houthi rebels were killed in fierce confrontations between the rebels and Saudi forces in Al Khuba and Jabal Al Dukhan in Jaizan area south of the Kingdom, local sources said Thursday.
The leader of the rebels Abdul Malik Al Houthi said in a statement Thursday that the Saudi army is bombarding his fighters' posts in Al Malahaid frontline far west of Sa'ada, “with all kinds of weapons”.

So the Houthi claims about a Saudi intervention were true, and that's what forced Gregory to raise the following questions:

I get the impression that the idea of wading into the muck that is the northern revolt is not something that has been well thought out in Saudi Arabia, which also gets at something else I have been asking for a while: who exactly is running Saudi Arabia's Yemen portfolio? It certainly is not Sultan. And although Muhammad bin Nayif clearly has charge of the AQ section, Saudi Arabia is not the US and is not only focused on al-Qaeda. It has a multi-faceted relationship with Yemen.
My impression is that no one individual is in charge, but that different individuals are taking turns steering the thing with little idea of where they are going besides bouncing from crisis to crisis trying to keep the crazy Yemenis and their problems from flooding across the border.

Sapphire then left a comment on Gregory's post, and tried to elaborate why Saudi Arabia decided to enter that war:

Now, why did the Saudis decide to step in with their military into Yemen? Word has it that after loosing Iraq on their northern border to the Shi'ats of Iraq, they cannot and will not tolerate another Shi'at state on their southern border too, assuming that is, that the Huthis defeat the central Yemeni government and win their independence.

The Egyptian blogger Zeinobia wasn't pleased with the Saudi intervention:

Officially Saudi Arabia has declared war on the Houthi rebels , I will not discuss if its right or not or if it a battle in a bigger regional war but I will discuss the fact that Saudi Arabia mostly will not win this war easily or hardly as it hopes with all that multi-million gadgets they have simply because this is a guerrilla war in the mountains!

She then continued:

I do not know why the Saudis are heading to the same swamp we went to in mid 1960s , of course it is an irony because they used to back up the Yemenis against us !!! In fact I read some news claiming that KSA used White phosphorus against the civilians there !! Is this a deja Vu ??!!??

But was it only the Saudis who have been involved in the war? An Iranian ship was seized near the Yemeni coasts. And that's what made Nasser Arrabyee write the following:

An Iranian ship laden with weapons believed to be on its way to Al Houthi rebels was seized on October 26th, 2009, off the coasts of the Midi harbour in the far north west of Yemen. The 6-member crew, five Iranians and Indian, are now under investigations in the Yemeni capital Sana'a. The Iranian embassy in Sana'a denied at the time that the ship was carrying weapons.

And hence Gregory wrote about a possible proxy war taking place in Yemen:

“So it is a Saudi-Iranian proxy war,” he said. (The he being: Simon Henderson, director of Gulf and energy policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington.)

The involvement of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sunnis and Shi'ats, rang a special bell in Abul Maali Fayek's head as it seems that what he was afraid of has happened:

And finally Zeinobia was wondering here if the Arab League of Nations still existed and why it wasn't taking any actions to stop this war:

I do not know if it is ironic or sad ; Arab and Muslim blood should not be spilled like this by the hands of another Arab and Muslim blood !! We are one by the end of the day.
I do not know where the role of the Arab league when you need it , Amr Moussa seems out of town , well guess out he is losing points as possible presidential candidate !!

***Also on Global Voices Online: Saudi Arabia: We'll Defend Ourselves - For The Right Reason

Cartoon published in Gulf Times Nov. 22 2009

Is it satire, or just bad taste?

A cartoon of a crazed, angry-looking woman threatening a child with a dripping bowl of tainted gruel has left many Doha bloggers scratching their heads and looking for answers.

The sketch, titled ‘Housemaid's revenge,' was published in Sunday's Gulf Times, a local English newspaper.

The cartoon depicts a maid - presumably Indian, judging by the red bindi on her forehead and gold hoop earrings - threatening a toddler after being scolded by her employer.

The text reads:

Your mum shouted at me today just because I broke a plate. And I am going to strike back. Count on me you brat, you won't sleep at home tonight! You will stay at Al Sadd Children's Emergency. Open your mouth now. This dish I have made will make you so sick that it will make you dizzy for hours.

Many Doha bloggers strongly condemned the cartoon, but were undecided about the artist's intentions.

On Twitter, Weirdweb said:

No, really, Gulf Times, let it all out. Tell us how you REALLY feel about Indian maids. #racism #paranoia

On the forum Qatar Living,

Commenter Olive said:

There's so much wrong about this cartoon I'm not sure what the editor was thinking when he allowed it to be printed.

Some wondered if the message behind the cartoon was lost in translation.

On Twitter, tomgara said

What is worse in this Gulf Times (Qatar) cartoon - hectic racism or awful 6th-grade writing? The answer is both.

On Qatar Living, the debate turned to treatment of maids by their employers, who sponsor their stay in the country.

genesis said:

Mohammed cartoons are never meant to be funny. Most of his work is dark altough sarcastic. I think it's badly translated, the intention is how cruel some sponsors treat their maids

rMs_000 responded diplomatically:

It describes about the cruelty of some sponsors.. and devilish reaction of house maids. Editor doesn't show any partiality to both of them i say. So its neutral..

britexpat said

The message is quite simple..Abuse the maid and you risk her abusing the child

Satire or not, most found the cartoon to be in poor taste.

On Twitter, rachelannmorris said:

Not funny in any way shape or form

On Qatar Living,

Commenter Amoud said:

I don't like this at all…..Even the bad translation doesn't cover what bad taste this is in.

And Adham Essam chimed in:

Oh my God! I CANNOT believe that was printed. How on earth could they allow something like that??? Which ever angle they were going for, it is completely wrong of them to present the issue like this. For the maid. For the child. For the parents. Disgusting…

For more on the discussion, visit Qatar Living.

As they mention on their site:

We want to send you on a five-day, expenses paid trip to the South By Southwest Interactive 2010 festival. Tell us your story and you could be headed to Austin on us. Plus, we're giving away three Flip Mino video cameras and a bunch of sweet T-shirts.

It's simple to enter: just make a video. In 60 seconds or less, make a case for open video. Then upload it anywhere and tell us the URL. You can make any case you like, in any form you like.

It can be in any language, any form, and any topic related to open video issues, to be posted before January 31, 2010. All videos must be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) or other applicable license. For ideas of what to make the video about, they have a page with a list of topics or issues you can check before making or posting the video. Don't forget to check the FAQ as well.
So what is South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive. It is a series of events and conferences which take place in Austin, Texas:

SXSW Interactive features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer.

Some of the issues relevant to the contest are Art & Remix Culture and Fair Use; Citizen Journalism, Activism and Human rights; Collaborative video; Commons & Licensing; Device Freedom; Digital Divide; Education and video; Royalty-free Codecs; Media Consolidation; Net Neutrality; Privacy & Censorship and Universal Accessibility.
Some of the videos that have been uploaded already on the site are:

Be smart, support open video from Adi