Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · comments (0)
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Buenos Aires. Diciembre 23, 2011. Mi nombre es Luis Alberto Spinetta. Tengo 61 años y soy músico. Desde el mes de julio sé que tengo cáncer de pulmón. Estoy muy cuidado por una familia amorosa, por los amigos del alma, y por los mejores médicos que tenemos en el país. Ante el aluvión de información inexacta, quiero aclarar públicamente las condiciones de mi estado de salud. Me encuentro muy bien, en pleno tratamiento hacia una curación definitiva. […]

Luis Alberto Spinetta, by Facundo M. Nívolo. Image licensed by Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

In January, Spinetta was admitted to the Cemic Institute to undergo surgery for intestinal perforation due to diverticulitis, a diagnosis unrelated to his cancer. On January 30, after 25 days in hospital, he was discharged and was able to go home.

On February 8, just over a week later, “El Flaco” died at home, surrounded by his children: Dante, Catarina, Valentino and Vera,  according to [es] the Argentine newspaper Telám. And it was his children themselves who started a wave [es] of messages full of melancholy, sadness and pain, expressed on the social network Twitter. [translator's note: all Twitter links are in Spanish]

Dante (@dantespinetta), in a brief but very profound tweet said [es]:

Te amo por siempre Papá.

While Valentino (@Leeva_) posted [es] on his account:

T amo papá, siempre vas a estar en mi alma y mi corazón.

Quoting a line from her father, Catarina (@Cataspinetta) also tweeted [es]:

‘No habrá un destino incierto, ni habrá distancia que pueda alejarme de ti…' Amor eterno a mi Padre♥

Reactions on social networks

The hashtag #chauflaco [goodbye Flaco] quickly became a trending topic, gathering the tweets of those users wanting to express their emotions with the news of the death of a musician with one of the longest careers in Argentine rock:

User Paula Castro (@_paucastro) reflected:

La tristeza de decir #chauflaco .. Gracias x tanta poesia!

Technology writer Federico Wiemeyer (@wiemeyer) recalled a verse by Spinetta:

“Si no canto lo que siento me voy a morir por dentro” #ChauFlaco

Pablo Ferreyra (@PabloRFerreyra) mourned:

Murió el mejor músico argentino. El que más voy a extrañar. Barro tal vez, flaco. #ChauFlaco

User Bruno Vaccotti (@peztresojos) quoted Spinetta to explain popular sentiment:

“La gente está incluida en el alma. Yo soy toda la gente” #elflaco dixit. Por eso hoy, todos morimos un poco. #chauflaco

Paula Zuviría (@pau_apichela) related an anecdote:

Mama entra llorando a mi cuarto y me dice: Porque no me contaste que murió Spinetta ? #chauflaco

User Cecilia Ann Tosh (@_CeciliaAnn) reflected:

Por qué se puede estar acongojado por la muerte de alguien que no conociste? Porque su obra enriqueció tu ser. #ChauFlaco

Messages from Twitter netizens are flowing [es] in at a rate that probably won't slow down in the coming days or weeks, which is understandable since Luis Alberto Spinetta is considered by many the greatest exponent of music in Argentina. And while such a statement is completely subjective, it is undeniable that his work has greatly influenced the work of many musicians, and his legacy will always be part of the heart of Argentina and Latin American culture.

“And this is always true, whether you are staying or you are going.”

Written by Natán Calzolari · Translated by Betsy Galbreath · View original post [es] · comments (0)
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The war was provoked by a dispute between Argentina and England over the sovereignty of the island, which was retained by Britain after its victory in the war.

However, the Argentine government continues to request a dialogue with Great Britain from the international organisations in order to reach an agreement on the sovereignty of the Falklands. These requests have intensified considerably during the last decade, and in 2011, prior to the presidential elections in Argentina, President Cristina  Fernández received a clear ‘no' from British Prime Minister David Cameron:

As long as the Falkland Islands want to be sovereign British territory, they should remain sovereign British territory - full stop, end of story.

The Argentine president took only a few hours to respond, describing the United Kingdom as a “crude colonial power in decline” and the words of the prime minister as “an expression of mediocrity and almost of stupidity”. She also stated that Argentina would continue “tirelessly” with its demand in each and every global forum available.

This was perhaps the moment in which the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands became a recurrent topic in the various news media in Argentina, and an object of analysis and discussion amongst growing numbers of Internet users.

Monument to the Fallen in the Falklands, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Image by Leonora Enkin under licence Atribución-CompartirIgual 2.0 Genérica (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The ebb and flow of the conflict

At the beginning of January 2012, with the aim of pressuring Great Britain into engaging in a dialogue on the Falklands matter, Argentina coordinated a movement along with other Mercosur countries in which access to boats flying the Falklands flag was blocked. On January 12, the Argentine newspaper La Nación published [es] the following:

Por medio de las respectivas cancillerías, Uruguay, Brasil y Chile ratificaron el bloqueo de barcos con bandera de las Malvinas. […] En todos los casos quedó en claro que aquellos buques que tengan bandera de las Malvinas no podrán ingresar en puertos del Mercosur, pero si cambian la insignia por la bandera roja comercial de Gran Bretaña sí podrán amarrar.

It was in the face of these events that on January 18, Prime Minister David Cameron aroused controversy accusing Argentina of being ‘colonialist', during a session in the House of Commons:

We support the Falklands' right to self determination, and what the Argentinians have been saying recently I would argue is actually far more like colonialism, because these people want to remain British, and the Argentinians want them to do something else

Prior to this statement, the Member of Parliament Andrew Rosindell had urged the Argentines to remember that they had “lost the war”, words which were greeted by laughter from those present.

These criticisms were received with much controversy in Argentina and condemned by various politicians of the ruling party. The vice-President Amado Boudou made [es] the following comment:

Realmente es muy triste tener que escuchar esta falacia, este exabrupto. […] como mínimo es una falacia histórica lo que Cameron ha dicho respecto del colonialismo. […] Es un exabrupto torpe, ignorante, de ignorar la realidad histórica, nos deja medio impresionados tanta ignorancia. Que vuelva a los libros de historia.

The Foreign Affairs Minister Hector Timmerman added [es] that “Great Britain is synonymous with colonialism”, while the representative for Santa Fe, Agustín Rossi, published [es] on Twitter:

Estoy presentando en Diputados un proyecto de resolución para que expresemos nuestro enérgico repudio a los dichos de David Cameron.

In turn, certain opposition politicians received the criticisms in the same way as the ruling party. The national representative Ricardo Alfonsín said [es] that Cameron's words “displayed an appalling attitude” while the former presidential candidate Hermes Binner stated:

El hecho de que el gobierno conservador británico hable de ‘colonialismo' suena a broma, dado que no se puede manosear la historia.

National representative Fernando Iglesias, from the opposition, expressed [es] his disagreement with the government's position on the Falklands on Twitter:

Una cosa es el justo reclamo de retiro del Reino Unido y su base militar y muy otra la soberanía argentina sobre un pueblo que no la quiere

In the same way, internet users from Argentina and elsewhere are divided between those who believe that Argentina should abandon its claim for the Falklands and those who support this claim.

Journalist Florencia Etcheves (@fetcheves) published [es] the following comment on Twitter, in relation to the current conflict over mega-mining in Argentina:

Mientras la prioridad es Malvinas , arrasan el [cerro] Famatina. Qué plato.

User Martín Caparrós (@martin_caparros) also made [es] the same observation:

¿No es maravilloso que simulen pelear por las Malvinas mientras le entregan toda la cordillera a las mineras multinacionales? #Famatina

Similarly, TV panellist Gustavo Noriega (@Gus_Noriega) pointed out [es] that there are more important matters to worry about:

#cosascotidianas la mitad del país sin cloacas, agua potable ni gas, pero ahora el tema es Malvinas.

From Chile, journalist Felipe Avello Suazo declared [es] himself to be in favour of the Argentine demand:

Los chilenos apoyamos a los hermanos argentinos: LAS MALVINAS SON ARGENTINAS. Avergonzados estamos por ayudar a los ingleses en los 80.

Bloggers have also been giving their opinions on the matter. Doctor Ana, in her blog ana-guev-logueando [es], reflects [es]:

Interesante y absurdo cruce diplomático con los ingleses, en donde los ciudadanos, argentinos e ingleses, caemos una vez más en la manipulación patriotera. […] Hasta una escandalosa guerra protagonizamos, donde – como siempre – los pueblos ponemos la sangre y los titiriteros ponen las cortinas de humo y los fantasmas. […] Tremenda paradoja de un mundo en donde valen más los quiebres que las comunicaciones, la fachada que la casa, los discursos que los actos, los fantasmas que los hombres.

And Fabio Baccaglioni [es], in a lengthy publication, concluded [es] with irony:

Ese país [Inglaterra] está utilizando la palabra “Colonialismo” para describir a otros, no podemos ofendernos, deberíamos tan sólo cagarnos de risa.

Argentina más bien es un país colonizado. La cordillera le pertenece a Barrick Gold y a otras empresas mineras, no hay casi ninguna mina cuyo beneficio termine en el país. […] El agua poco a poco quedará en terrenos que no nos pertenecen, la patagonia es mitad inglesa o de Benetton, los campos de grandes empresas de afuera […] Tal vez Cameron se equivocó al expresarse y lo que quiso decir es que Argentina era una colonia que se creía independiente.

Written by Natán Calzolari · Translated by Eleanor Staniforth · View original post [es] · comments (1)
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Written by Silvia Viñas · comments (0)
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On January 14, 2012, Jacinto Lajas published “A guide to crowdsourcing in Latin America [es] on Periodismo Ciudadano, an online blog that hosts discussion and debate about citizen journalism. Below we have republished the article under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 Spain license (CC BY-NC 3.0).

Americas Society (AS) is the leading forum dedicated to education, debate, and dialogue in the Americas. Its mission is to foment understanding of current political, social, and economic issues that Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada are facing, as well as to augment public awareness of and appreciation for the diversity of the New World's cultural heritage and the importance of interrelationships between the diverse peoples of the Americas.

Within this mission falls the logical observation of changes effected by technological advances in the Americas, and in that same spirit comes the publication of a guide to crowdsourcing in Latin America, highlighting projects that have developed in different countries throughout the region.

The preface to the list of projects explains how crowdsourcing has become a popular method of citizen participation in compliance with the law, public health, consumer rights, and social issues in Latin America, one of the regions with the largest growth of Internet penetration in the world:

El número de usuarios de Internet creció a 112 millones en enero de 2011 –un aumento del 15 por ciento respecto al año anterior. En Brasil, Colombia, México y Venezuela, las tasas de crecimiento del uso de Internet aumentaron en un 20 por ciento o más durante el mismo período. También va en aumento es el uso del teléfono de última generación: en 2011, uno de cada cinco teléfonos celulares vendidos en América Latina fue un smartphone y, en 2010, las ventas de estos teléfonos en la región aumentaron en un 117 por ciento. Con un mayor acceso a Internet, más latinoamericanos están utilizando las redes sociales: 114.500.000 personas utilizaban sitios como Facebook y Twitter en junio de 2011.

A promising prospect. Just as the proliferation of participatory projects –some mentioned here [es]– is in Latin America. Below you will find the list of projects included in the guide. You can find more information about each project in the original publication in Americas Society [en].

• Argentina
  • Mapa del Narcotráfico [es]
  • Mapa de la Inseguridad [es]
• Brasil
  • Disque Denúncia [pt]
  • Wikicrimes [available in en, es, fr, it, pt]
  • Río Sem Dengue [pt]
• Chile
  • Mapa del Crimen [es]
  • Reclamos [es]
  • Poderopedia [es]
• Costa Rica
  • LocalCrime.org [available in en, es, fr]
  • Quien Paga Manda [es]
• Honduras
  • Honduras Health Mapping [en, available in 24 languages]
• México
  • Mapa Delictivo [es]
  • Yo Propongo [es]
  • Curul501 [es]
• Panamá
  • Mi Panamá Transparente [es]
• Perú
  • Que No Te Roben [es]
• Venezuela
  • Quiero Paz [es]
  • Victeams [es]

Written by Silvia Vinas · Translated by L. Finch · View original post [es] · comments (0)
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As Global Voices' Executive Director Ivan Sigal has written, “there are powerful corporate and government forces who would prefer to see the openness and accessibility of the web restricted.” The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) would both force websites to pro-actively censor potentially copyrighted information, and could, as Sigal wrote, “inflict broad damage on the work of digital activists living under repressive regimes, as well as restrict basic speech freedoms around the world.”

Because these bills have the potential to affect Internet users worldwide, members of the global community have joined Americans in protest. From German digital rights group Netzpolitik to Open Media Canada to individual bloggers and social media users, the sentiment is the same: Stop these bills.

Blacking out

French site https://linuxfr.org goes dark against #SOPA

Many sites have chosen to express their opposition by blacking out their sites, either entirely or with an interstitial page. Danica Radovanovic (@DanicaR), writing for Australian blog network DejanSEO, discusses Wikipedia's decision to join the blackout, a decision that affects the site's diverse global community:

Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a “blackout” of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.

French organization La Quadrature du Net has joined its American counterparts in blacking out its website, displaying the following image:

The Pirate Party of Catalunya blacks out in solidarity

Pirate parties are among the most stringent opponents of the anti-piracy bills. In Spain, Catalunya, Switzerland, Argentina, Canada, and Sweden (among, almost certainly, many others), local pirate parties have joined in blacking out their websites.

Also blacking out for January 18 are Germany's Chaos Computer Club and Green Party, and international organization Reporters Without Borders. The latter explained its decision, writing:

We have decided to close our English-language website for 24 hours to symbolize the oppressive gag that would spread over the Internet as we know it if SOPA and PIPA are adopted. These bills would affect an incalculable number of Internet users who are innocent of any kind of intellectual property violation by forcing websites to block access to other sites suspected of vaguely-defined copyright breaches.

For more images of sites blacking out in protest, check out Netzpolitik's SOPA blackout gallery.

Translating the importance of activism

In some countries, bloggers have taken it upon themselves to educate their communities about the importance of opposing SOPA and PIPA. Lebanese blogger Mireille Raad has written an explanation for why Lebanese citizens should care about these bills. She writes:

Being a lebanese, doesn’t stop you from being an internet user – the SOPA will affect the internet in a bad way and it involves websites outside the US, and that’s yours…

…You should care and be pissed of, because, like it or not, the internet doesn’t exist in the clouds, it is made of companies that exist in countries and have to answer to local laws despite the fact that internet is “global”. This fact is making people worldwide care about the SOPA legislation – and even though you may feel powerless, you still should care and take online action – because all citizens in cyberspace are created equal and so their actions resonate equally

An earlier post Taiwanese freedom of information activist CK Hung dubs the anti-piracy bills “The Great Firewall of Chinamerica.” In a graphic [zh], the blogger demonstrates his point:

Edit: An English version of the graphic is also available:

He also writes:

掌權者很樂意用 「保護智財」 或 「阻絕色情」、 「和諧社會」 當做永遠不可能吃到口的誘餌來說服公民支持其強化管制網路的法律和政策 (例如選擇便利管制的工具)， 然後藉由這些法律和政策來強化它對公民的資訊監控。 掌權者很樂意公民只看見海市蜃樓， 卻忽略通往海市蜃樓的道路上， 威脅著社會自由民主的 collateral damages。 不論最終的掌權者到底是微軟、 蘋果、 共產黨、 民主黨、 還是共和黨， 受害的永遠都是絕大多數的公民。

而臺灣， 正是這兩大監控勢力交會處的絕佳實驗場所。

Global Voices' own Venezuelan contributor Marianne Diaz explains why she doesn't like the bills [es]:

De cualquier modo, Estados Unidos no es el mundo, y las leyes de propiedad intelectual tienen limitaciones territoriales y varían de país a país. Por ejemplo, en Venezuela, la obra entra en dominio público sesenta años después de la muerte del autor. Sin embargo, mediante la aplicación de SOPA y PIPA, Estados Unidos pretende que a mí, a ti y a cualquier siberiano se le pueda forzar a cumplir unas limitaciones que no le son aplicables de acuerdo a la ley.

On Twitter, similar conversations are happening. From the UK, @GokhanKaratay writes:

I really do hope #SOPA and #PIPA bills aren't passed through the senate. Legislation against piracy is needed, but that really isn't the way

Pointing out the participation of Argentine video platform Cuevana, @Gaby_xoa points out:

#Cuevana uniéndose al apagón #ANTISOPA que cuarta la libre expresión!!! twitpic.com/88nzkg

What you can do to stop SOPA and PIPA

Although the international community is limited in how they can affect an American bill, the solidarity expressed in opposition to both bills is certainly helpful to U.S.-based activists.  Aside from the aforementioned examples, bloggers have found numerous creative ways to do so, such as adding an anti-SOPA or anti-PIPA Twibbon or blacking out their WordPress blog.  Fight for the Future is encouraging the international community to sign a petition to the State Department. But just writing about the implications of the two bills can help.

American citizens, on the other hand, have plenty of options. Here are just a few ways to get involved:

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a petition as well as a guide to meeting with representatives.
• Fight for the Future's Stop American Censorship project is hosting a letter-writing campaign.
• Free Press has a campaign to petition television networks to report on the bills.

Written by Jillian C. York · comments (14)
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During the following days, the most important newspapers reported [es] on this subject (many of whom made it a headline) and explained [es] that the operation would take place on January 4, 2012; a day after, vice president Amado Boudou would act as President for the following 20 days.

Headline of Argentine newspaper La Nación on December 28, 2011,"The President will have an operation for thyroid cancer."

Many users reacted to the news on social networks by showing their affection for the President and wishing for her recovery using the hashtag #FuerzaCristina [es] (Be Strong Christina), which quickly turned into a trending topic on Twitter. Also, hours after the operation, a group of active Kirchner supporters gathered in front of the Austral Hospital, where the operation was scheduled to take place, as reported by the daily La Nación [es].

Journalist Florencia Etcheves (@fetcheves) tweeted [es] in response to this movement:

Me parece un delirio la vigilia, pero deseo q esto que le pasa a la Presidenta sea sólo un mal momento y que pase rápido #FuerzaCristina

User Nicolás Aboaf (@nicodebrandsen) said [es]:

Sea cual sea tu identidad política, es nuestra Presidenta… #FuerzaCristina.

On the other hand, quite a number of political officials including those of the opposition expressed their support for the President via Twitter. National Deputy Fernando Iglesias (@feriglesias), from the Coalición Cívica (Civic Coalition), said [es]:

Le deseo a la Señora Presidenta una pronta recuperación. Al país, también.

Presidential candidate, Hermes Binner (@HermesBinner), said [es] on his Twitter account:

Pronta recuperación de la Sra. Presidenta es nuestro deseo.

On January 4, as planned, the surgical intervention of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner took place in the Austral Hospital. During the following days, post-operation procedures were published on the President's official Twitter account (1, 2, 3, 4) [es]. These medical reports were also read in front of groups of journalists and militants by the presidential spokesperson, Alfredo Scoccimarro, announcing the success of the operation. The next day, Ámbito Financiero published [es] in their online version:

Cristina de Kirchner fue operada ayer en una clínica de Pilar de un carcinoma en la tiroides, en una intervención que los médicos responsables calificaron de exitosa. La Presidente ingresó al hospital a primera hora de la mañana y fue internada para los preparativos de la operación, que comenzó a las 8 y se prolongó durante tres horas y media. […] En ese piso hubo sólo médicos, asistentes y algunos familiares (hijos, cuñada). En un segundo círculo se movieron el secretario presidencial, Oscar Parrilli, y el vocero Alfredo Scoccimarro, quien cerca del mediodía dio un informe de los médicos en el que se detallaba que se le había extirpado la glándula tiroides, que la mandataria se había recuperado de la anestesia y que la intervención podía considerarse un éxito.

Senator Anibal Fernández (@fernandezanibal), among other political figures, tweeted (1, 2) [es]:

Gracias a Dios, concluyó sin complicación alguna la intervención quirúrgica que se realizó en el Hospital Austral a @CFKArgentina

La Presidenta ya está despierta y la atienden en el área de atención general del Hospital Austral.

Finally, on January 7, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner thanked (1, 2) [es] the people for their well wishes:

Ya desde Olivos, agradecemos a todas las personas, ciudadanos, militantes y personalidades, por las muestras de afecto y preocupación.

Agradecemos a Dios y a todo el pueblo argentino por las bendiciones recibidas…

Controversy

However, the same day, Argentine daily Perfil reported [es] that the last part of the submitted medical report of the procedure unexpectedly changed the diagnosis of the President: it no longer mentioned a papillary carcinoma, but rather a follicular adenomas, a benign tumor.

Se esperaba un alta médico, pero no un cambio en el diagnóstico. […] En su lugar, el informe de los médicos del Hospital Austral de Pilar leído por el vocero presidencial, Alfredo Scoccimarro, hablaba de “adenomas foliculares”.

“El adenoma puede estar en cualquier órgano, es un tumor benigno. Uno de los más comunes son los que se encuentran en una mama (en el caso de la mujer) o en la próstata (en el hombre)”.

La Nación published [es] a medical testimony from an anonymous source about the change of the diagnosis:

“Fue un falso positivo”, resumió a LA NACION una fuente muy cercana al equipo médico de Cristina Kirchner. […] ”Esto sucede en un porcentaje mínimo de pacientes y, en este caso, le sucedió a la Presidenta, pero fueron cuatro y no sólo uno los especialistas que coincidieron en que la punción era compatible con un carcinoma papilar”, sostuvo la fuente.

Jorge Carrascosa, the director of the Maipú Diagnostic Centre explained [es] that this was the first case of a “false positive” in the entire history of the establishment, since 1983. Similarly, because of this turn in the President's diagnosis, netizens reacted with all kinds of comments. Google+ user Ana Inés Hermida, commented [es]:

[…] inventar un cáncer, nada menos. […] Mientras tanto, el hospital cancelaba turnos de gente para quimio en serio.

On the same note, in La Nación user Charlot stated [es] her opinion by saying:

Con o sin cáncer todo esto fue un circo. Y una falta de respeto total para con las personas internadas en el Hospital Austral.

In view of the controversy, the Austral Hospital expressed its stance about the faulty diagnosis, explaining [es] that the results of the exam on December 22 were not sufficiently detailed, and that the original report was yet to be changed.

Upon final inspection, Twitter user Jorge Asís (@CayetanoAsis) tweeted [es]:

Salud, comunicadores oncólogos. Que Cristina no tiene cáncer no puede convertirse en una noticia más impactante que el anuncio de tenerlo.

Written by Natán Calzolari · Translated by Louella Mahabir · View original post [es] · comments (0)
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Our top 20 list of most read posts on Global Voices for 2011 includes four from Japan, three from Egypt, and two from the Philippines. But only one story is about a giant crocodile!

It's been an incredible year for the reach and recognition of citizen media around the world, and that means Global Voices is no longer as lonely a media voice when it comes to reporting tweets and blog posts. Still, where mainstream media interest wanes, we're the ones who strive to continue documenting what local bloggers everywhere need the world to know.

Self Defence Forces arrive at the scene of the tsunami in Japan. Image by cosmobot, copyright Demotix (13/03/11).

Some of our proudest moments of 2011 will never be reflected on a top 20 list like the one below. This year we exceeded 500 active volunteer authors and translators of countless languages and countries, and we've published more than 2,600 long posts and 6,300 short ones in English alone.

Inevitably, many of the stories that don't get as wide a readership as they deserve are from countries that tend to be overlooked in international media. Unique coverage from across Africa, the Caucasus, Macedonia, the Russian language Internet, Latin America and indigenous rights are among some of the highlights. See the 2011 regional reviews by our editors and authors for a glance of what you may have missed.

Our Middle East and North Africa team deserves special mention this year. Throughout protests, blackouts, threats, they have managed to pull though and keep writing. The bloody images still proliferate, but our authors seek out constructive voices and angles for dialogue. So often, they've shared local humor and context that is difficult to appreciate from abroad without a guide.

Perhaps for the first time ever, China doesn't figure on our top 20 list of the year. These are particularly chilling times to blog about controversial subjects - something Global Voices authors in many other countries unfortunately also experience. This makes the stories that do come from anywhere free speech is frowned on even more precious.

Most read posts on Global Voices in 2011

1. Egypt: Night Falls, After Day of Rage
2. Japan: We're Losing to Apple, and Here's Why
3. Mapping the Thailand Flooding Disaster (and also this one)
4. Syria: ‘Gay Girl in Damascus' Seized (and this one)
5. Philippines: Debate on Divorce Bill
6. Japan: Tweeting from Fukushima
7. Philippines: Lolong, World’s Largest Crocodile
8. India: Aishwarya Rai's Baby and Media Madness
9. Egypt: Feminist Publishes Nude Photograph to “Express her Freedom”
10. Japan: On Catastrophes and Miracles, a Personal Account
11. Serbia: Reactions to the Story of Serbian Mercenaries in Libya
12. Largest Earthquake in Recorded History in Japan
13. Myanmar's New Flag and New Name
14. Mexico: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt Over Anonymous' #OpCartel
15. Argentine Songwriter Facundo Cabral Murdered in Guatemala
16. Africa, France: Who is Nafissatou Diallo? Victim or Conspirator?
17. Japan: Fear in Fukushima
18. Libya: Is Khamis Gaddafi Really Dead?
19. Egypt: The KFC Revolution
20. Spain: Thousands of People Take the Streets

Our most visited special coverage pages were:

1. Egypt Revolution 2011
2. Japan Earthquake 2011
3. Bahrain Protests 2011
4. Libya Uprising 2011
5. Tunisia Revolution 2011

In 2011 the world has learned more about the transformative power of online citizen media. We believe the best way to support these emerging voices on a global scale is to listen. Thanks for reading Global Voices! And please consider supporting our work with a donation.

This post is part of our special coverage Global Voices in 2011.

Written by Solana Larsen · comments (0)
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Written by Silvia Viñas · comments (0)
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Written by Silvia Viñas · comments (0)
Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Written by Silvia Viñas · comments (0)
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Previously we reported on [en] the ‘Developing Latin America' competition (Desarrollando América Latina), or #DAL, a public hackathon that aims to create technological solutions to problems in education, security and public budget, in six countries in the region. Now it's time to report its results.

The Intelligent Citizen Foundation [en] (Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente), which organised the event, determined that there were local winners, in addition to the general and regional winners, so the competitiveness in each venue was an added ingredient to the challenge of managing to complete an interesting application based on existing open data, within the time limit.

CitiVox [en] and OpenDataMx talk about the event in Mexico:

Part of the Mexican team. Photo by Desarrollando América Latina.

participaron poco menos de 50 jóvenes, de varios estados de la república, desde Sonora hasta Oaxaca. Se formaron diez equipos que trabajaron en 30 horas en diversos temas, desde seguridad pública hasta la transparencia de la nómina estatal. Finalmente presentaron sus proyectos ante un jurado formado por Mónica Aspe (Coordinación de la Sociedad de la Información y el Conocimiento, SCT), Eric Gundersen (Seed Development) y Andrés Lajous (revista Nexos). Después de escuchar las presentaciones de los equipos y de deliberar se anunció que el segundo lugar sería para el proyecto Nuestra Info por su vanguardia y potencial para presentar datos públicos difíciles de accesar. El primer lugar fue para Xmatch por hacer accesible la información y la visualización comparativa de datos en mapas.

Fayerwayer did the same on the Chilean side:

En Chile, el evento […] se llevó a cabo en la Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, concluyendo con la presentación de nueve proyectos de Santiago y cuatro de Temuco. […] Los tres primeros lugares fueron:

• Proyecto “Escuela Popular”: desarrollado por los ucranianos residentes en Chile Oleh Burkhay y Nadiia Vasylchenko, se trata de un portal que permita tener información actualizada y profunda de los colegios y escuelas del país. […] permite a las personas entregar puntos según diferentes indicadores a cada colegio, y comentar respecto al mismo, entregando mejor información a los padres que estén buscando la mejor alternativa.
• Proyecto “Presupuéstate”: […] busca proyectar cuánto necesitan ahorrar a largo plazo los padres de un estudiante para pagar la universidad del hijo. La aplicación hace el cálculo según el sueldo de la persona, mostrando una proyección de los aranceles según carrera. También hace recomendaciones de qué colegios pueden servirle al alumno para entrar a la carrera que quiere, según los puntajes PSU [Prueba de Selección Universitaria] de corte de cada carrera.
• Proyecto “Punto Seguro”: es una plataforma donde las personas de un barrio pueden marcar en el mapa un lugar de conflicto (donde ocurren robos, violencia, etc) y generar una discusión con los vecinos donde dar ideas sobre cómo combatir esa situación (instalar luminarias, organizar sistemas de alarma entre vecinos, etc).

Part of the Peruvian teams. Photo by Maru Panta/Escuelab.

In Perú, Escuelab reports about the winners from the 12 participating groups (Disclaimer: I [Juan Arellano] was part of the DAL panel in Lima):

El jurado otorgó el primer lugar al grupo #OTA por el proyecto Quiero Ir! que mediante un punto de inicio indicado manualmente o usando el GPS muestra en un mapa las rutas (líneas de transporte público) que llevan al usuario hasta el destino seleccionado. La aplicación ofrece además información referente a la empresa de transporte (número de ruta, distrito inicial, distrito final, etc) así como una foto referencial de la unidad.

En segundo lugar se eligió al equipo SEUSS. Su aplicación presupuestando.pe, brinda información de manera dinámica acerca de los indicadores presupuestales de los gobiernos regionales y locales proporcionando un fácil acceso a la información incentivando la participación ciudadana. (Presupuesto a nivel nacional). El proyecto se puede ver aquí: http://bibliotecuss.iideasperu.org/presupuestando/

En tercer lugar se eligió a ¡Salvemos las Huacas!, una plataforma web de mapeo ciudadano orientada a la defensa, conservación y protección del patrimonio arqueológico ante la amenaza del desborde urbano en nuestra ciudad.

In Argentina the winning projects were: 1- Del boletin (The Bulletin), 2- Datos Universitarios (University Data) and 3- Qué Sabemos de? (What do we know about…). In Brazil the Onde Acontece? (Where does it happen) project is reported to have won; and in Uruguay the following projects won: 1- Gobierno transparente (Transparent Government), 2- Reporte de Mapas (Map Report), 3- Moña Azul (Blue Bow). Finally the #DAL organisers announced the regional level winners:

1. Brasil – Onde Acontece. Team: São Paulo Perl Mongers. Team Leader: Thaigo Rondon.

2. Chile – Escuela Popular. Team: Oleyna. Team leader: Oleh Burkay.

3. Uruguay – Moña Azul. Team: Moñita Azul. Team leader: Fernando Briano.

DAL also added that “The developers, designers, engineers, professionals from the most diverse areas, gave a lesson to the world. Boundaries do not exist when it comes to solving real problems for our towns, nationalities don't exist when it comes to trying to solve problems that bring all Latin Americans together.”

Visualization of traffic accidents in Montevideo. Photo by Desarrollando América Latina.

Some of the developers that took part in the competition published their thoughts on their blogs. For example, Uruguayan developer Francisco Castro comments about the project he collaborated on:

Estuve participando en un grupo que busca acceder a la gente de “a pie” la información del parlamento. Datos interesantes, como las asistencias, los proyectos que presenta cada parlamentario; tanto los gastos suntuosos, como los pedidos de informes que estos parlamentarios realizan a las diversas dependencias del estado; … Transparencia. Darle al público también la posibilidad de opinar al respecto de cada asunto, de que la gente pueda indicar qué temas le interesan, y así informarse cada vez que se presenten proyectos, notas, etc… al respecto.

Sylvia, from the blog El mundo frente al mar, is another Uruguayan developer that took part in the competition. Out of all the things that the experience has given her, she mentions:

• Todas las pilas para aprender rápido y bien otros lenguajes como Java y Python. Yo sólo soy estudiante de UTU y mi intención al ir fue la de aprender y no la de ganar. Ahora, que voy a tener un premio entre manos, las ganas de superarme más allá del curso que hago son muy fuertes.
• Darse cuenta que con la informática también se puede ayudar en problemas diarios y en temas sociales. Sólo es cuestión de pensarlo y encontrarle la vuelta.

Also, Fernando Briano, another Uruguayan, in his blog Picando Código talks about his experience in #DAL and he concludes:

Me alegro de haber podido aportar mi granito de arena en algo mucho más grande que cada uno de los participantes, pero realizado con el trabajo colaborativo de todos.[…] Sabemos que estos proyectos, así como los proyectos de otros países, se segurián desarrollando. Próximamente habrán más hackatones de este estilo, donde espero ver más gente participando. Personalmente hoy estuve trabajando un poco en procesamiento de datos xls, ods y Google docs, y sé que Juan Manuel iba a mirar cosas de OCR para PDF y Fran estuvo mirando DJango (por influencia directa del evento). Sé que los demás equipos también piensan seguir el desarrollo, lo que marca el inicio de esta nueva etapa que comentaba. No hay que perder el impulso

Exhibition of one of the Mexican teams. Photo by Desarrollando América Latina.

This competition has, in equal measures, served to encourage the idea of hackathons [en] and public hackers in the region and to organise the community of people from diverse disciplines with experience in the use and exploitation of open data bases.

This might be a good starting point both to generate similar replicas or more ambitious activities from civil society organisations interested in these issues, as well as for the simple spread of the concept of open data, e-government and the social use of IT amongst the developers of the region and others who are interested. Hopefully these types of initiatives will become widespread throughout all Latin American countries.

Written by Juan Arellano · Translated by Kathryn Morgan · View original post [es] · comments (2)
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Written by Silvia Viñas · comments (0)
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