March, 2009
Stories from March, 2009
12 March 2009
Kenya: The Big Language Dilemma For Kenyan Poet Bloggers
Kenyan poets, unlike artists, find it easier to write and perform in English as opposed to any other language. This would be closely attributed to what language enables them express themselves better, and most definitely their command of that language. After a few interactions with a cross section of poets and by visiting their blogs, I realized that virtually none write in their mother tongue as much and very few have written in Kiswahili or Sheng.
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New Citizen Media Projects Foster Rising Voices in Ivory Coast, Liberia, China, Mongolia, and Yemen
Of the 270 project proposals we received from activists, bloggers, and NGO's all wanting to use citizen media tools to bring new communities - long ignored by both traditional and new media - to the conversational web, the following five are most representative of the innovation, purpose and goodwill that Rising Voices aims to support. Please join me in welcoming our new Rising Voices grantees.
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Japan: On Twitter, nobody knows you're a bot
“On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.” -- The words of a well-known adage dating back to a New Yorker cartoon from 1993 capture the anonymity people generally expect from online communication. This week a new take on this adage hit the Japanese blogosphere when a blogger discovered that two of his closest friends on Twitter were actually bots designed as part of a programming contest.
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Iran: Hopes, Doubts, Questions over Former President's Candidacy
Former reformist president Mohammad Khatami's announcement on 8 February that he will run in the 2009 Iranian presidential election, attracted a lot of attention in the virtual as well as the real world. Several bloggers shared their hopes, doubts, questions and concerns about Khatami who served between 1997 and 2005.
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Russia, Ukraine, the Balkans: Eurovision News
The controversy caused by Georgia's Eurovision Song Contest entry seems to be over (or, depending on one's perspective, has reached its climax), now that Georgia has decided not to take part in this year's event in Moscow, following the European Broadcasting Union's demand that the lyrics of the 'We Don't Wanna Put In' song are either changed or a different song entered. Russia's own entry is causing controversy now as well, however.
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I guess this story is supposed to make us Haitians proud of something , just because it involves the USA...