Stories about Technology from December, 2013
Malagasy Genius Seeking Happiness off the Grid
Malagasy genius decides that what he wants is a normal life, away from all the public attention..
South Korean Pres. Vows Pre-emptive Strikes on Social Media Rumors
Is South Korea government gearing up toward social media censorship? The latest official remark by President Park (full transcript [ko]) had Korean net users worried. Park, addressing “those rumors spreading via social media”, said “if the government let these things happen, it will bring chaos nationwide” and added “bear in mind that...
The Best of Infoactivism LATAM 2013
The SocialTIC team lists "The Year's Best in Latin American Infoactivism," projects and events that inspired them to use the TIC to generate social impact in 2013.
What It's Like Growing Up In The Maldives?
Journalist and blogger Hilath Rasheed shares a Maldivian's thoughts in Facebook on “How is it like growing up in Male'/Maldives”: From Ibrahim Lirar: The most honest answer I can give now is that “it is scary and constricting”. Information was so tightly control until recently. Very few among us grew...
Impact Of Social Media In The Delhi Elections
Prior to the Delhi Legislative Assembly election (4 December 2013) the Delhi Election Commission vowed to monitor the social media for political campaigns looking for breach of model code of conduct by the candidates. However the commission later said that there were loopholes in monitoring and it is virtually “impossible”...
Pussy Riot Free to Tweet at Last!
Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova are already micro-blogging up a storm.
Iran: Revolutionary Guards “Hacked” Opposition Sites
Revolutionary Guards in Kerman province claims its cyber forces hacked nine opposition sites. A few weeks ago, several netizens were arrested in Kerman,accused of acting against national security and collaborating with foreign networks, providing content for counter-revolutionary sites.
DIY Galaksija Computer, Bedrock of Serbia's IT Industry, Turns 30
Thirty years ago in Yugoslavia, young inventor Voja Antonić and his team created a personal computer that users could build at home, using tools and parts readily available in stores.
Chat is a Dirty Word in Iran? WeChat Blocked
A popular smart phone application that enables access to social media is now blocked in Iran.
World Forum for Democracy 2013: Connecting Citizens and Institutions
Everything you need to know about the World Forum for Democracy 2013 in Strasbourg, with some personal impressions.
Innovation: A Spell Checker for Bambara Language
Fasokan in Mali reports on the creation of an app to help spell check texts in Bambara [fr] : Il est disponible sur les traitements de texte et outils bureautiques libres et gratuit : Open Office, Libre Office, Néo Office, et sur les ordinateurs Windows, Mac, et Linux. Qu’est-ce qui...
Tour Builder, Another Google Service Not Allowed for Cubans
Google maintains that it bases its decision on the provisions of the United States' economic embargo on Cuba.
Don't Just Retweet Blood Donation Requests. Donate!
Dr. Roshan Radhakrishnan at Godyears asserts the importance of donating blood and wonders about the fate of all the blood request retweets in his Twitter timeline: Does anyone ever come to the aid of those tweets? Do you honestly know anyone who has seen a retweet and taken a break...
Japan's Open Data Catalog Launches Beta Version
Data.go.jp, a website that aggregates publicly available data by Ministries and Agencies of the Japanese government, launched its Beta version on December 20, 2013. Datasets by 21 governmental organizations and 567 groups are available under Creative Commons License Attribution 2.1 Japan detailed in the Terms of Use. This comes as a...
3 Initiatives Working to Make Niger a Better Place
Positive stories from Niger are a few and far between these days, thanks to economic hardship combined with threats of terrorism. Three projects are trying to change that.
New Version of Brazil's Marco Civil Submitted to the House of Representatives
On December 11, congressman Alessandro Molon (PT-RJ) submitted to the Brazilian House of Representatives the new version of the Marco Civil.
Bangla Blogging Community Gears Up For The Fifth Bangla Blog Day
On December 15, 2005, Bangla Blogging started its journey through the largest Bangla Blogging platform Somewherein.net [bn] and the community grew larger every year. A section of the Bangla bloggers’ community started to observe December 19 as Bangla Blog Day since 2009. The fifth Bangla Blog day will be celebrated...
Made in Togo: A 3D Printer Built from Recycled E-Waste
Afaté GNIKOU is an IT engineer in Togo who wanted to tackle two important goals: create the first 3D printer from Togo, reduce the alarming number of E-waste dumped into his country. Here is a presentation of the 3D printer project, called W.AFATE : A. Gnikou is a member of...
A French Version of NSA Electronic Surveillance Program?
Etienne Papin, a Paris-based lawyer expert in internet rights, explains the details of a bill that was approved by the French Senate on December 10: La loi de programmation militaire (Military Planning Act). He describes the bill as the French version of NSA mass electronic surveillance data mining program [fr]...
Trinidad & Tobago: Tech Tips
ICT Pulse shares 5 useful tips to help you get the most out of your computing devices.
Global Voices Meetup in Porto: Journalism, Citizenship and New Media
Journalists, amateur media practitioners, citizens and organisations dedicated to independent projects of online communication will meet in Porto on 14 December 2013 at the invite of Global Voices.