Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a
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EthanZ's musings on Africa, media and international development
Checked: 1 hour 45 min ago
Updated: 6 hours 45 min ago
Update every: 2 hours
EthanZ's musings on Africa, media and international development
John Hagel on serendipity
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Sat, 04/07/2009 - 12:21am
Futurist and consultant John Hagel caught my attention with a talk titled “Shaping Serendipity”. He’s introduced by John Seely Brown, his frequent collaborator. Brown and Hagel are writing a new book together, and a chapter focuses on serendipity. (And as a chapter in the book I’m failing to write is also on serendipity, I made [...]
Futurist and consultant John Hagel caught my attention with a talk titled “Shaping Serendipity”. He’s introduced by John Seely Brown, his frequent collaborator. Brown and Hagel are writing a new book together, and a chapter focuses on serendipity. (And as a chapter in the book I’m failing to write is also on serendipity, I made [...]
Aspen Ideas Festival: Immigration Reform
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 03/07/2009 - 8:14pm
I jogged (yes, me, jogging!) from Tim O’Reilly’s talk to a session on immigration reform at Aspen. I was still late, so I arrived during David Kennedy’s historical perspectives on American immigration. He reminds us that, despite our myths about people coming to the US out of a love of freedom, before World War 1, [...]
I jogged (yes, me, jogging!) from Tim O’Reilly’s talk to a session on immigration reform at Aspen. I was still late, so I arrived during David Kennedy’s historical perspectives on American immigration. He reminds us that, despite our myths about people coming to the US out of a love of freedom, before World War 1, [...]
Tim O’Reilly on Government 2.0
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 03/07/2009 - 7:12pm
Pioneering technology publisher Tim O’Reilly tells us that “government as a platform” is the definition of government 2.0. To explain to a non-technical audience what this means, he explains that his company specializes in finding innovations at the edge and amplifying them, through events, publishing and market research. This involves watching alpha geeks like Rob [...]
Pioneering technology publisher Tim O’Reilly tells us that “government as a platform” is the definition of government 2.0. To explain to a non-technical audience what this means, he explains that his company specializes in finding innovations at the edge and amplifying them, through events, publishing and market research. This involves watching alpha geeks like Rob [...]
Aspen Ideas Festival: Surveillance society
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 03/07/2009 - 5:47pm
Elliot Gerson of the Aspen Institute introduces a conversation titled, “Your life in a surveillance society”. The discussants are Jack Balkin, legal scholar and philosopher at Yale Law School and Admiral Mike McConnell, former director of the National Security Agency. Gerson offers examples of surveillance in our lives, including the airport, cameras to detect speeding, [...]
Elliot Gerson of the Aspen Institute introduces a conversation titled, “Your life in a surveillance society”. The discussants are Jack Balkin, legal scholar and philosopher at Yale Law School and Admiral Mike McConnell, former director of the National Security Agency. Gerson offers examples of surveillance in our lives, including the airport, cameras to detect speeding, [...]
Aspen Ideas Festival: Digital Natives
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 03/07/2009 - 3:06pm
This morning at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the Brian Lehrer show is being broadcast live as we act as breakfast-eating studio audience. The first guest is Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty. Lehrer introduces Pawlenty as the Republican’s Obama - young, smart, charismatic and a party leader, who was considered a front-runner for McCain’s running mate. Pawlenty admits [...]
This morning at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the Brian Lehrer show is being broadcast live as we act as breakfast-eating studio audience. The first guest is Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty. Lehrer introduces Pawlenty as the Republican’s Obama - young, smart, charismatic and a party leader, who was considered a front-runner for McCain’s running mate. Pawlenty admits [...]
Three secretaries, no waiting
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 03/07/2009 - 4:02am
In the closing “conversation” today at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Charlie Rose interviews former Secretaries of State Madeline Albright and James Baker and current deputy secretary James Steinberg. The conversation, unsurprisingly, begins with the recent protests in Iran. Secretary Baker saw the protests as encouraging, despite the violence against protesters. The protests were fueled by [...]
In the closing “conversation” today at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Charlie Rose interviews former Secretaries of State Madeline Albright and James Baker and current deputy secretary James Steinberg. The conversation, unsurprisingly, begins with the recent protests in Iran. Secretary Baker saw the protests as encouraging, despite the violence against protesters. The protests were fueled by [...]
Elizabeth Alexander - Not Britney Spears
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 03/07/2009 - 4:01am
Anna Deveare Smith holds a conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Alexander, who was the inaugural poet at President Barack Obama’s election. Smith notes, “When I heard she’d been asked to compose a poem for the inauguration, I hollered out loud, but I wasn’t surprised.” Smith has brought three poems for Alexander to read, and invites her [...]
Anna Deveare Smith holds a conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Alexander, who was the inaugural poet at President Barack Obama’s election. Smith notes, “When I heard she’d been asked to compose a poem for the inauguration, I hollered out loud, but I wasn’t surprised.” Smith has brought three poems for Alexander to read, and invites her [...]
Property rights: so easy an Indonesian dog could do it.
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 03/07/2009 - 3:52am
I’m a bad blogger today, but a good conversationalist. Aspen isn’t bloggable in the same way as a conference like TED or Pop!Tech - we’re in a large music hall without wifi or power, and I’ve got the only laptop out in sight. And I’ve been spending less time transcribing sessions and more catching up [...]
I’m a bad blogger today, but a good conversationalist. Aspen isn’t bloggable in the same way as a conference like TED or Pop!Tech - we’re in a large music hall without wifi or power, and I’ve got the only laptop out in sight. And I’ve been spending less time transcribing sessions and more catching up [...]
George Dyson and critics of Darwin
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 02/07/2009 - 8:54pm
I’m at the Aspen Ideas Festival and still trying to get a sense for how this conference works. I arrived late last night and spoke in one of the early sessions this morning, along with Brooke Gladstone and Clive Thompson. Good fun, but it means I’ve only experienced the conference as a speaker, not as [...]
I’m at the Aspen Ideas Festival and still trying to get a sense for how this conference works. I arrived late last night and spoke in one of the early sessions this morning, along with Brooke Gladstone and Clive Thompson. Good fun, but it means I’ve only experienced the conference as a speaker, not as [...]
Israeli Ambassador to the US at Aspen Ideas Festival 2009
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 02/07/2009 - 8:52pm
The afternoon session at Aspen Ideas Festival today is a four hour “conversation”, involving a remarkable set of discussants. To give us a sense for gravitas, we open with “Fanfare for the Common Man”, played on timpani and brass. I guess this is to prepare us for speakers like Attorney General Eric Holder… who, unfortunately, [...]
The afternoon session at Aspen Ideas Festival today is a four hour “conversation”, involving a remarkable set of discussants. To give us a sense for gravitas, we open with “Fanfare for the Common Man”, played on timpani and brass. I guess this is to prepare us for speakers like Attorney General Eric Holder… who, unfortunately, [...]
Which coups count?
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 01/07/2009 - 6:00pm
There are countless ways to screw up a fragile democracy. Two aspects of the democratic process seem to be especially vulnerable - elections, and term limits. Recent events in Iran have reminded us that elections are surprisingly easy to rig if you’ve got adequate control of electoral commissions. (Ideally, you should never need to rig [...]
There are countless ways to screw up a fragile democracy. Two aspects of the democratic process seem to be especially vulnerable - elections, and term limits. Recent events in Iran have reminded us that elections are surprisingly easy to rig if you’ve got adequate control of electoral commissions. (Ideally, you should never need to rig [...]
The Open Translation Manual
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 30/06/2009 - 9:29pm
In a post last week about the Open Translation Tools summit in Amsterdam, I mentioned a “book sprint” that was working to put together a book on Open Translation. Well, they did it. It was released today, and it’s a damned fine piece of work. (I say that independent of the fact that they used my [...]
In a post last week about the Open Translation Tools summit in Amsterdam, I mentioned a “book sprint” that was working to put together a book on Open Translation. Well, they did it. It was released today, and it’s a damned fine piece of work. (I say that independent of the fact that they used my [...]
links for 2009-06-30
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 30/06/2009 - 4:03pm
%u2018How do we know what to translate?%u2019 Notes from OTT09, Amsterdam|Meedan Blog Lovely post from George at Meedan about one of the central problems with the polyglot internet - how do we know what we want to read if it hasn't been translated yet? (tags: translation language polyglot xenophilia internet bridging globalvoices meedan) NedaNet Resource Page Eric Raymond is [...]
%u2018How do we know what to translate?%u2019 Notes from OTT09, Amsterdam|Meedan Blog Lovely post from George at Meedan about one of the central problems with the polyglot internet - how do we know what we want to read if it hasn't been translated yet? (tags: translation language polyglot xenophilia internet bridging globalvoices meedan) NedaNet Resource Page Eric Raymond is [...]
links for 2009-06-29
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Mon, 29/06/2009 - 4:03pm
Keeping News of David Rohde%u2019s Kidnapping Off Wikipedia - NYTimes.com The New York times worked hard to keep the kidnapping of David Rohde out of the news. It required some serious work to keep it out of Wikipedia, including Jimmy's personal intervention. (tags: news reporting journalism wikipedia information socialmedia afghanistan pakistan) Translators Scoff at LinkedIn%u2019s Offer of $0 [...]
Keeping News of David Rohde%u2019s Kidnapping Off Wikipedia - NYTimes.com The New York times worked hard to keep the kidnapping of David Rohde out of the news. It required some serious work to keep it out of Wikipedia, including Jimmy's personal intervention. (tags: news reporting journalism wikipedia information socialmedia afghanistan pakistan) Translators Scoff at LinkedIn%u2019s Offer of $0 [...]
links for 2009-06-27
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Sat, 27/06/2009 - 4:02pm
Web Ecology Project Colleagues at Berkman analyze the first 18 days of data from tweets about the iranian elections. It's a much bigger phenomenon than the Moldova data set, with many more participants, but has a similar Pareto distribution. Fascinating to see how common retweeting was within the set of data. People are raising concerns about [...]
Web Ecology Project Colleagues at Berkman analyze the first 18 days of data from tweets about the iranian elections. It's a much bigger phenomenon than the Moldova data set, with many more participants, but has a similar Pareto distribution. Fascinating to see how common retweeting was within the set of data. People are raising concerns about [...]
Notes and reflections from the Open Translation Tools Summit 2009
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 26/06/2009 - 8:54pm
If you want to know what people around the world are thinking and feeling, you need help from a translator. Recent events in Iran are a reminder that the internet and citizen media aren’t enough to give us access to events throughout the world - we need tools and strategies for bridging language gaps as [...]
If you want to know what people around the world are thinking and feeling, you need help from a translator. Recent events in Iran are a reminder that the internet and citizen media aren’t enough to give us access to events throughout the world - we need tools and strategies for bridging language gaps as [...]
links for 2009-06-26
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 26/06/2009 - 4:03pm
Israeli Radio Show Captivates Iranians - WSJ.com A radio show by an Iranian jew in Israel shows the power of old media in a digital age - shortwave radio (tags: media radio iran israel diaspora) Bloggasm Tweets coming out of Iran are retweeted an average of 57.8 times A small study suggests that tweets that appear to come [...]
Israeli Radio Show Captivates Iranians - WSJ.com A radio show by an Iranian jew in Israel shows the power of old media in a digital age - shortwave radio (tags: media radio iran israel diaspora) Bloggasm Tweets coming out of Iran are retweeted an average of 57.8 times A small study suggests that tweets that appear to come [...]
Twitter and the news cycle, perfect together
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 26/06/2009 - 2:47am
It’s nice to be listened to. I guess. Maybe. Though I now find myself wondering whether I wouldn’t be better off shutting up. I saw the first reports of Michael Jackson’s death on Twitter around 6pm. I ran a little script I threw together some weeks ago called “twitcent” to see just how many tweets would [...]
It’s nice to be listened to. I guess. Maybe. Though I now find myself wondering whether I wouldn’t be better off shutting up. I saw the first reports of Michael Jackson’s death on Twitter around 6pm. I ran a little script I threw together some weeks ago called “twitcent” to see just how many tweets would [...]
links for 2009-06-23
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 23/06/2009 - 4:04pm
Why We Protest - IRAN The fine folks at anonymous - the people who brought you those scientology protests - offer online bulletin boards and messaging services for Iranian activists. Points for solidarity, but unclear if these will remain accessible to Iranian dissidents very long. (tags: internet censorship activism elections anonymity iran bbs iranelection) The Proxy Fight for [...]
Why We Protest - IRAN The fine folks at anonymous - the people who brought you those scientology protests - offer online bulletin boards and messaging services for Iranian activists. Points for solidarity, but unclear if these will remain accessible to Iranian dissidents very long. (tags: internet censorship activism elections anonymity iran bbs iranelection) The Proxy Fight for [...]
Chris Csikszentmihayli and a complex vision of citizen media
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 18/06/2009 - 2:44pm
Chris Csikszentmihayli opens the morning’s session at MIT’s Knight News Challenge conference with an overview of his view of the world - “It’s my view from MIT - MIT wouldn’t endorse it, they’ve been quite specific about that,” he quips, a reference to the university’s unfortunate decision not to grant him tenure. Chris is now [...]
Chris Csikszentmihayli opens the morning’s session at MIT’s Knight News Challenge conference with an overview of his view of the world - “It’s my view from MIT - MIT wouldn’t endorse it, they’ve been quite specific about that,” he quips, a reference to the university’s unfortunate decision not to grant him tenure. Chris is now [...]
Iran, citizen media and media attention
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 18/06/2009 - 1:23pm
It’s been an interesting few days for people who study social media. As the protests over election results have continued in Iran, and Iranian authorities have prevented most mainstream journalists from reporting on events, there’s been a great deal of focus on social media tools, which have become very important for sharing events on the [...]
It’s been an interesting few days for people who study social media. As the protests over election results have continued in Iran, and Iranian authorities have prevented most mainstream journalists from reporting on events, there’s been a great deal of focus on social media tools, which have become very important for sharing events on the [...]
Business models and the future of media - MITKNC
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 17/06/2009 - 11:00pm
MIT’s Center for Future Civic Media is hosting the annual meeting of Knight News Challenge winners at MIT. In typical MIT fashion, we’re given technical goodies to play with - nametags that include a massive QR code and small, flashing devices designed to remind us that we should make sure to mingle and “spread our [...]
MIT’s Center for Future Civic Media is hosting the annual meeting of Knight News Challenge winners at MIT. In typical MIT fashion, we’re given technical goodies to play with - nametags that include a massive QR code and small, flashing devices designed to remind us that we should make sure to mingle and “spread our [...]
links for 2009-06-17
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 17/06/2009 - 4:03pm
The Revolution Will NOT Be Twittered | techPresident Tom Watson warns of the dangers of viewing the Iranian protests via a lens of US politics and suggests that Andrew Sullivan and others are overemphasizing the social media role in these events. (tags: activism technology socialmedia iran twitter moldova criticism election protest) Goje Sabz Goje Sabz offers reasons why the [...]
The Revolution Will NOT Be Twittered | techPresident Tom Watson warns of the dangers of viewing the Iranian protests via a lens of US politics and suggests that Andrew Sullivan and others are overemphasizing the social media role in these events. (tags: activism technology socialmedia iran twitter moldova criticism election protest) Goje Sabz Goje Sabz offers reasons why the [...]
Cluetrain at Ten - a conversation at Berkman
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 16/06/2009 - 11:12pm
Ten years ago, when the internet was young and innocent, four provocateurs posted their manifesto, The Cluetrain Manifesto. It was snarky, it was smart, it sold well, and it influenced a lot of thinking. It’s ten years old now, and it’s worth asking how it aged. So Jonathan Zittrain is questioning David Weinberger and Doc [...]
Ten years ago, when the internet was young and innocent, four provocateurs posted their manifesto, The Cluetrain Manifesto. It was snarky, it was smart, it sold well, and it influenced a lot of thinking. It’s ten years old now, and it’s worth asking how it aged. So Jonathan Zittrain is questioning David Weinberger and Doc [...]
Beth Kolko and Design for Digital Inclusion
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 16/06/2009 - 5:57pm
Beth Kolko manages the Design for Digital Inclusion research group at the University of Washington, a group that includes undergrads, grads and faculty across fields, focusing on a wide variety of topics: technology in Central Asia, non-instrumental uses of techology, technology and autism, games for development, and other topics. Uniting her work is a basic questions [...]
Beth Kolko manages the Design for Digital Inclusion research group at the University of Washington, a group that includes undergrads, grads and faculty across fields, focusing on a wide variety of topics: technology in Central Asia, non-instrumental uses of techology, technology and autism, games for development, and other topics. Uniting her work is a basic questions [...]
links for 2009-06-16
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 16/06/2009 - 4:05pm
CNN%u2019s Coverage of Iran Protests Criticized - NYTimes.com New York Times on CNNFail, twitter-based criticism of CNN's failure to cover Iranian protests in depth and on the ground (tags: media news iran twitter cnn cnnfail) El Oso Archive Cloud Intelligence David Sasaki's beautiful, imaginative, hopefull and more than slightly cyberutopian post about cloud intelligence, the theme of [...]
CNN%u2019s Coverage of Iran Protests Criticized - NYTimes.com New York Times on CNNFail, twitter-based criticism of CNN's failure to cover Iranian protests in depth and on the ground (tags: media news iran twitter cnn cnnfail) El Oso Archive Cloud Intelligence David Sasaki's beautiful, imaginative, hopefull and more than slightly cyberutopian post about cloud intelligence, the theme of [...]
links for 2009-06-13
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Sat, 13/06/2009 - 4:03pm
Pulitzer Center Pulitzer Center is taking a close look at Somaliland and the stresses that are arising due to an unrecognized government. It's a key issue, and good to see Pulizter taking a close look, though there's not much reporting here yet. (tags: Somalia somaliland africa reporting journalism conflict) Maker Faire Africa - Aug 14th - 16th, Accra, [...]
Pulitzer Center Pulitzer Center is taking a close look at Somaliland and the stresses that are arising due to an unrecognized government. It's a key issue, and good to see Pulizter taking a close look, though there's not much reporting here yet. (tags: Somalia somaliland africa reporting journalism conflict) Maker Faire Africa - Aug 14th - 16th, Accra, [...]
How China blocks the letter “F”
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Sat, 13/06/2009 - 1:38am
My friend and colleague Hal Roberts is one of the internet’s top censorship and filtering researchers. When Chinese authorities announced that a client-based piece of filtering software called GreenDam would be required for installation on new PCs, Hal downloaded the software and spent a good chunk of this week trying to understand how it works. [...]
My friend and colleague Hal Roberts is one of the internet’s top censorship and filtering researchers. When Chinese authorities announced that a client-based piece of filtering software called GreenDam would be required for installation on new PCs, Hal downloaded the software and spent a good chunk of this week trying to understand how it works. [...]
Invented languages, cosmopolitan dreams
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Sat, 13/06/2009 - 12:09am
Arika Okrent has a thing for languages. Born in Chicago, she got good enough at Hungarian to teach in Hungary, and learned ASL while getting a masters degree in linguistics at Gallaudet, the world’s leading university for the deaf. Somewhere in the course of a University of Chicago PhD in psycholinguistics, things took a turn [...]
Arika Okrent has a thing for languages. Born in Chicago, she got good enough at Hungarian to teach in Hungary, and learned ASL while getting a masters degree in linguistics at Gallaudet, the world’s leading university for the deaf. Somewhere in the course of a University of Chicago PhD in psycholinguistics, things took a turn [...]
links for 2009-06-12
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Fri, 12/06/2009 - 4:04pm
Jonathan Torgovnik's photographs of children born of rape during the Rwandan genocide. - By Mia Fineman - Slate Magazine Powerful article about a photo series, focusing on the children of rape in Rwanda. The mothers photographed had been raped by Hutu militamen during the genocide, and the photographer interviewed them away from their children, then photographed [...]
Jonathan Torgovnik's photographs of children born of rape during the Rwandan genocide. - By Mia Fineman - Slate Magazine Powerful article about a photo series, focusing on the children of rape in Rwanda. The mothers photographed had been raped by Hutu militamen during the genocide, and the photographer interviewed them away from their children, then photographed [...]
links for 2009-06-11
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 11/06/2009 - 4:02pm
Foreign Policy: Exclusive Interview with Morgan Tsvangirai Elizabeth Dickinson of Foreign Policy interviews Morgan Tsvangirai on the challenges of coalition government in Zimbabwe (tags: africa zimbabwe economics politics interview foreignpolicy tsvangirai mugabe) Global Voices Online Caste Based Communities on Orkut Mirror India%u2019s Splintered Society Interesting overview of caste-based social network communities on Orkut, Facebook and other sites by [...]
Foreign Policy: Exclusive Interview with Morgan Tsvangirai Elizabeth Dickinson of Foreign Policy interviews Morgan Tsvangirai on the challenges of coalition government in Zimbabwe (tags: africa zimbabwe economics politics interview foreignpolicy tsvangirai mugabe) Global Voices Online Caste Based Communities on Orkut Mirror India%u2019s Splintered Society Interesting overview of caste-based social network communities on Orkut, Facebook and other sites by [...]
Lewis Hyde and the enclosure of silence
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 09/06/2009 - 6:48pm
Lewis Hyde, poet, critic and intellectual historian, has been hard at work on a book about “the commons”, and specifically the notion that ideas should be part of a cultural commons, not treated as private property, as they often are today. The idea of commons is an ancient one, from medieval Europe, where lands, streams, [...]
Lewis Hyde, poet, critic and intellectual historian, has been hard at work on a book about “the commons”, and specifically the notion that ideas should be part of a cultural commons, not treated as private property, as they often are today. The idea of commons is an ancient one, from medieval Europe, where lands, streams, [...]
links for 2009-06-09
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 09/06/2009 - 4:05pm
mySociety Blog Archive What the government doesn%u2019t understand about the Internet, and what to do about it Provocative Tom Steinberg essay on what the (UK) government doesn't understand about the internet and how the government could use the net better (tags: internet activism web2.0 uk change egovernment government policy mysociety tomsteinberg) Monitor: Mapping a better world [...]
mySociety Blog Archive What the government doesn%u2019t understand about the Internet, and what to do about it Provocative Tom Steinberg essay on what the (UK) government doesn't understand about the internet and how the government could use the net better (tags: internet activism web2.0 uk change egovernment government policy mysociety tomsteinberg) Monitor: Mapping a better world [...]
Goodbye to Bongo
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Mon, 08/06/2009 - 11:23pm
Omar Bongo is dead. He died while undergoing cancer treatments in a Barcelona hospital. Can’t say I’ll be sorry to see him go. The late leader of Gabon could be proud of the fact that his oil-rich nation was significantly more stable than others in West Africa. But his 41-year rule was a naked kleptocracy, [...]
Omar Bongo is dead. He died while undergoing cancer treatments in a Barcelona hospital. Can’t say I’ll be sorry to see him go. The late leader of Gabon could be proud of the fact that his oil-rich nation was significantly more stable than others in West Africa. But his 41-year rule was a naked kleptocracy, [...]
Beyond Broadcast 2009. Beyond overwhelmed.
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 04/06/2009 - 10:19pm
I’m having a blast at Beyond Broadcast despite fighting off a bad cold. The organizers have done a great job of moving beyond the usual suspects and bringing in people I’m thrilled to listen to, like Nouneh Sarkissian of Internews Armenia, talking about the innovative work her group is doing linking Georgian, Armenian and Azeri [...]
I’m having a blast at Beyond Broadcast despite fighting off a bad cold. The organizers have done a great job of moving beyond the usual suspects and bringing in people I’m thrilled to listen to, like Nouneh Sarkissian of Internews Armenia, talking about the innovative work her group is doing linking Georgian, Armenian and Azeri [...]
Local Perspectives at Beyond Broadcast 2009
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 04/06/2009 - 8:51pm
The opening panel discussion at BeyondBroadcast is titled “Local Perspectives” and it invites citizen media innovators from around the world to show off their work. Unfortunately for the schedule, the panel includes six terrific speakers, roughly twice as many as could fit in the allotted time. Myoungjoon Kim of MediaAct in Korea, a community media [...]
The opening panel discussion at BeyondBroadcast is titled “Local Perspectives” and it invites citizen media innovators from around the world to show off their work. Unfortunately for the schedule, the panel includes six terrific speakers, roughly twice as many as could fit in the allotted time. Myoungjoon Kim of MediaAct in Korea, a community media [...]
Beyond Broadcast ‘09 - Sandra Ball-Rokeach on Ethnic Media
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 04/06/2009 - 4:09pm
Sandra Ball-Rokeach, professor at USC Annenberg, is interested in the ways in which communities use media to tell stories to themselves and to others. In introducing her, Dean Wilson notes that she refuses to look at one media at a time - instead, she looks at complex communications infrastructures and their interaction with “geo-ethnic communities”, [...]
Sandra Ball-Rokeach, professor at USC Annenberg, is interested in the ways in which communities use media to tell stories to themselves and to others. In introducing her, Dean Wilson notes that she refuses to look at one media at a time - instead, she looks at complex communications infrastructures and their interaction with “geo-ethnic communities”, [...]
links for 2009-06-04
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 04/06/2009 - 4:04pm
Global Voices Online Global Lullabies: The Arrorr Project Beautiful Global Voices post on lullabies around the world (tags: globalvoices lullaby culture music) Episode 80 - June 3 & 6, 2009 | Spark | CBC Radio My conversation with Nora Young on social translation. Interview on CBC radio (tags: radio mine cbc translation language)
Global Voices Online Global Lullabies: The Arrorr Project Beautiful Global Voices post on lullabies around the world (tags: globalvoices lullaby culture music) Episode 80 - June 3 & 6, 2009 | Spark | CBC Radio My conversation with Nora Young on social translation. Interview on CBC radio (tags: radio mine cbc translation language)
Henry Jenkins on civic media at Beyond Broadcast 2009
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Thu, 04/06/2009 - 1:51am
Beyond Broadcast 2009, the fourth edition of a conference that focuses on the future of public service media in a digital age, starts today in Los Angeles at the USC Annenberg school. Dean Ernie Wilson notes that it’s a rainy day in the middle of an economic depression, a tough time to get excited about [...]
Beyond Broadcast 2009, the fourth edition of a conference that focuses on the future of public service media in a digital age, starts today in Los Angeles at the USC Annenberg school. Dean Ernie Wilson notes that it’s a rainy day in the middle of an economic depression, a tough time to get excited about [...]
Lokman Tsui on hospitality, journalism and Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 03/06/2009 - 10:40pm
What do you choose to study when you’re a Dutch media scholar of Chinese descent? You could focus on Chinese internet filtering, a rich, provocative and depressing topic of study. You could study the ways in which Dutch society is wrestling with cultural difference and cultural complexity, with the emergence of nationalist attitudes in the [...]
What do you choose to study when you’re a Dutch media scholar of Chinese descent? You could focus on Chinese internet filtering, a rich, provocative and depressing topic of study. You could study the ways in which Dutch society is wrestling with cultural difference and cultural complexity, with the emergence of nationalist attitudes in the [...]
Watching the police
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 03/06/2009 - 10:39pm
A UN report on extrajudicial executions in Kenya has recommended that Kenya’s police chief and attorney general both resign. At issue in the report are more than 500 killings of civilians by police, in the wake of the 2007 elections, in a campaign against a regional land rights movement and a campaign against a criminal [...]
A UN report on extrajudicial executions in Kenya has recommended that Kenya’s police chief and attorney general both resign. At issue in the report are more than 500 killings of civilians by police, in the wake of the 2007 elections, in a campaign against a regional land rights movement and a campaign against a criminal [...]
links for 2009-06-02
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 02/06/2009 - 4:04pm
allAfrica.com: Africa: AFDB Approves $66 Million for West African Submarine Optic Fibre Cable (Page 1 of 1) African Development Bank puts $66m of financing towards the MainOne cable (tags: africa cable telecommunications internet nigeria ghana southafrica mainone sat3) MainOne cable company Information on the MainOne cable, designed to connect West Africa to Portugal, with drops in Ghana, Nigeria and [...]
allAfrica.com: Africa: AFDB Approves $66 Million for West African Submarine Optic Fibre Cable (Page 1 of 1) African Development Bank puts $66m of financing towards the MainOne cable (tags: africa cable telecommunications internet nigeria ghana southafrica mainone sat3) MainOne cable company Information on the MainOne cable, designed to connect West Africa to Portugal, with drops in Ghana, Nigeria and [...]
What percentage of the Internet is in English? In Chinese?
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Tue, 02/06/2009 - 12:53am
I gave a talk at the New Museum in New York City on Saturday, along with Omar Wasow, the co-founder of Black Planet. It was good fun - Omar and I are nerds of the same generation, and as he showed slides of his beloved VIC-20, I found myself throwing devil horns in a gesture [...]
I gave a talk at the New Museum in New York City on Saturday, along with Omar Wasow, the co-founder of Black Planet. It was good fun - Omar and I are nerds of the same generation, and as he showed slides of his beloved VIC-20, I found myself throwing devil horns in a gesture [...]
Mr. McLaughlin goes to Washington
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Sun, 31/05/2009 - 10:11pm
I gave a talk in Washington DC a few weeks ago, and had a strange realization - with a change of political administration, I know a whole lot more folks than I used to in my nation’s capital. Two old friends showed up to my talk, both people I know from Berkman Center events and [...]
I gave a talk in Washington DC a few weeks ago, and had a strange realization - with a change of political administration, I know a whole lot more folks than I used to in my nation’s capital. Two old friends showed up to my talk, both people I know from Berkman Center events and [...]
links for 2009-05-30
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Sat, 30/05/2009 - 4:03pm
Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology %u2022 The Register The Register's take on the Wikipedia ArbCom scientology decision, which treats a set of IPs as open proxies (tags: internet wikipedia community wiki religion scientology controversy theregister) Why Wikipedia was wrong to ban Scientology | Net Effect Evgeny Morozov warns that Wikipedia banning edits from Scientology's IPs is a) ineffective and [...]
Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology %u2022 The Register The Register's take on the Wikipedia ArbCom scientology decision, which treats a set of IPs as open proxies (tags: internet wikipedia community wiki religion scientology controversy theregister) Why Wikipedia was wrong to ban Scientology | Net Effect Evgeny Morozov warns that Wikipedia banning edits from Scientology's IPs is a) ineffective and [...]
CIRC09 - Mapping, Circumventing, Translating, Sharing
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 27/05/2009 - 10:23pm
I’ve written in the past about my friend and colleague John Kelly’s excellent work visualising connections in different blogospheres. His best known research is on the Persian-language blogosphere, where his analysis of linking behavior showed clusters around liberal and conservative politics, but also around poetry. Subsequent analyses have seen clustering around different factors. Russian blogs [...]
I’ve written in the past about my friend and colleague John Kelly’s excellent work visualising connections in different blogospheres. His best known research is on the Persian-language blogosphere, where his analysis of linking behavior showed clusters around liberal and conservative politics, but also around poetry. Subsequent analyses have seen clustering around different factors. Russian blogs [...]
CIRC09 - Censorship and surveillance on the Chinese Internet
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 27/05/2009 - 10:20pm
Liao Hang Teng of the Oxford Internet Institute is interested in ways that Chinese internet authorities are mediating between chaos and control. He introduces us to two terms - zhi and luan 亂. Zhi means “order, governance, control or cure”, while luan means “disorder, instability and chaos”. People in China talk about history in terms [...]
Liao Hang Teng of the Oxford Internet Institute is interested in ways that Chinese internet authorities are mediating between chaos and control. He introduces us to two terms - zhi and luan 亂. Zhi means “order, governance, control or cure”, while luan means “disorder, instability and chaos”. People in China talk about history in terms [...]
links for 2009-05-27
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 27/05/2009 - 4:34pm
What An African Woman Thinks: The Dialogue on Development: Heart, Mind, Hand "it’s not the heart that is in the wrong place, it is the hand that is responding in the wrong way." Rombo reflects on criticizing proponents of African aid based on ideas, rather than questioning their intentions. Smart, important post. (tags: africa aid ideas development [...]
What An African Woman Thinks: The Dialogue on Development: Heart, Mind, Hand "it’s not the heart that is in the wrong place, it is the hand that is responding in the wrong way." Rombo reflects on criticizing proponents of African aid based on ideas, rather than questioning their intentions. Smart, important post. (tags: africa aid ideas development [...]
CIRC09 - The Global Network Initiative
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 27/05/2009 - 4:27pm
(I’m at the 7th China Internet Research Conference at the Annenberg School of Communications. Information on participating is here.) The second session at the China Internet Research conference is a roundtable on the Global Network Initiative, an association of academic institutions, corporations and nonprofit institutions working on a set of best practices for corporations to follow [...]
(I’m at the 7th China Internet Research Conference at the Annenberg School of Communications. Information on participating is here.) The second session at the China Internet Research conference is a roundtable on the Global Network Initiative, an association of academic institutions, corporations and nonprofit institutions working on a set of best practices for corporations to follow [...]
2009 Chinese Internet Research Conference
Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development a - Wed, 27/05/2009 - 2:00pm
I’m at the 2009 Chinese Internet Research Conference at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. My colleague Hal Roberts and I are presenting some of our research on circumvention tools this afternoon, and I’m enjoying the chance to catch up on research in a field I don’t know a ton about [...]
I’m at the 2009 Chinese Internet Research Conference at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. My colleague Hal Roberts and I are presenting some of our research on circumvention tools this afternoon, and I’m enjoying the chance to catch up on research in a field I don’t know a ton about [...]