Gregarius » May 22, 2008

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(159 unread)

May 22, 2008
23:51
Summer Book Recommendations 2008
» ‎ NPR Most Emailed: NPR Most Emailed Stories

A printable list of lists. Get the details on Summer Book picks from all our critics.
» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us
23:40
Advice to Stop PTSD Diagnoses Triggers Probe
» ‎ NPR Most Emailed: NPR Most Emailed Stories

Concern that the government is trying to save money by curbing the number of diagnoses for post-traumatic stress disorder has been heightened by an incident at a Veterans Affairs hospital. An inquiry is under way, and a VA coordinator has been removed.
» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us

23:21
Cover Story: Exposed
» ‎ NYT > Most E-Mailed

What I gained — and lost — by writing about my intimate life online.

23:18
Mom sentenced to 20 years for keeping son in cage (AP)
» ‎ Yahoo! News: Most Viewed

AP - A mother was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday for keeping her 17-year-old adopted son caged in her home.

23:16
e-demokrati - The old e-democracy e-list from Sweden
» ‎ Del.icio.us Links - e-democracy

e-demokrati - The old e-democracy e-list from Sweden

23:03
Hot Coffee! Baristas' Bikini Trouble
» ‎ ABC News Video: Top Videos

Residents want to regulate coffee shop where baristas wear very little clothing.

23:00
Bell Canada Launches Its Own Online Video Store
» ‎ Slashdot - Your Rights Online

rsax writes "Bell Canada recently announced that it is launching a downloadable video store just as it is caught up in a government inquiry into its traffic-shaping practices. Some consider this a conflict of interest since several content providers were in the process of distributing TV shows using P2P technology before the Bell throttling issue started getting media coverage. Bell's FAQ states that it is not available for Mac users right now (and not Linux either of course) because they are using Windows Media DRM. They do, however, invite feedback on their site."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.

22:17
Ethnobase
» ‎ Del.icio.us Links - ict4d - ICTs for Development

Ethnobase is a web resource for ethnographic approaches to studying Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The site is based at the London School of Economics, Department of Sociology...

22:11
China's children wait to go home
» ‎ Reuters Video: Most Watched Videos

May 22 - Hundreds of displaced children wait to go home in the aftermath of the powerful earthquake that killed at least 40,000 people in China.

Permalink for 'Google_News___Online_campaigning/2008/05/22/Citizen_Journalism__In_With_the_New___Truthdig'

22:07

Citizen Journalism: In With the New - Truthdig

» ‎ Google News - Online campaigning

22:04
Some PDF to Word Converter | Some PDF - Free PDF to Word, PDF to Html, PDF to TXT, Text to PDF, PDF Image Extract convert tools
» ‎ Del.icio.us Links - nptech - Non-Profit Technology

Some PDF to Word Converter | Some PDF - Free PDF to Word, PDF to Html, PDF to TXT, Text to PDF, PDF Image Extract convert tools

22:00
Is It Time To Tap U.S. Oil Reserves?
» ‎ Most Popular Stories: CBSNews.com

With gas hitting a new high almost daily, members of Congress pleaded with the energy secretary to release the nation's 700 million barrel emergency stockpile, reports Nancy Cordes.
22:00
Court: Texas Had No Right Taking Sect Kids
» ‎ Most Popular Stories: CBSNews.com

A Texas appeals court said that the state had no right to take more than 400 children from a polygamist sect's ranch, a ruling that could unravel one of the biggest child-custody cases in U.S. history.
22:00
Obama To Replace Kennedy At Graduation
» ‎ Most Popular Stories: CBSNews.com

Barack Obama has agreed to deliver the commencement address at Wesleyan University in place of Sen. Edward Kennedy, who pulled out Thursday after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

21:51
Audit finds lax oversight in contractor payments (AP)
» ‎ Yahoo! News: Most Viewed

AP - An internal audit of $8.2 billion paid to U.S. and Iraqi contractors found that nearly every transaction failed to comply with federal laws or regulations aimed at preventing fraud.
21:46
Rice defends tough interrogation techniques (AP)
» ‎ Yahoo! News: Most Viewed

AP - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is defending tough interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects approved by the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11, saying they were necessary to protect the U.S. from new attacks.

21:01
Talk of the Town: "Idol" winner
» ‎ Reuters Video: Most Watched Videos

May 22 - Talk of the Town brings you the latest in movie, music and celebrity news.

20:46
Brown facing meltdown as Labour crash in Crewe
» ‎ guardian.co.uk: Most viewed

Gordon Brown facing gravest crisis of premiership as Tories celebrate first byelection gain in a quarter of a century with 17.6% swing

20:44
Tunisia: Carthage Palace under the Spotlight
» ‎ Global Voices - Cyber-Activism

“Tunisian cyberactivists from Nawaat.org are successful enough in besieging Carthage presidential palace, on Google Earth, with tens of human rights videos,” writes Tunisian blogger Sami ben Gharbia.

20:17
Brooklyn Bombshells at Spring Gala for Coney Island USA (pic)
» ‎ Rik Panganiban's Click Heard Round the World

Cute / scary picture of the "Brooklyn Bombshell" group at the Coney Island USA Spring Gala yesterday night, taken by Carl Saytor. Left to right: me, Vintagewhore, Miss Behave, Sugarplum, Shana, Felix and Brendan. Not pictured: BluesforCP, Akemi, Patrick, Zev and Cathy.

I think we're screaming "Braaaiiiiinnnnssss!" (Hmmmm, zombie lindy hoppers. I think I have something there.)

20:03
mLIfe Events
» ‎ Del.icio.us Links - e-democracy

mLIfe Events

19:52
San Francisco (autoritas) [Flickr]
» ‎ K-Government

Carlos Guadian posted a photo:
19:52
San Francisco (autoritas) [Flickr]
» ‎ K-Government

Carlos Guadian posted a photo:
19:52
San Francisco (autoritas) [Flickr]
» ‎ K-Government

Carlos Guadian posted a photo:
19:52
San Francisco (autoritas) [Flickr]
» ‎ K-Government

Carlos Guadian posted a photo:
19:52
San Francisco (autoritas) [Flickr]
» ‎ K-Government

Carlos Guadian posted a photo:

19:50
Neighborhood Diaries: the challenge of digital literacy
» ‎ Rising Voices

It has been long since we last wrote about the Neighborhood Diaries, a citizen journalism project of Kalam: Margines Write, an organization based in Kolkata, which provides creating writing programs to marginalized youths in India.

After successful nine workshop sessions the project took a break throughout February and March this year because the participants were busy with their school exams. However for the educators there was no break. Urbi and Bina were developing and refining their blogging skills with the help of Aparna Ray from Global Voices.

The innovative curriculum of grooming citizen journalists from scratch is very well done by Neighborhood Diaries project and it is well-detailed. Inspired by Neighborhood Diaries, Kalam had conducted in March-April a series of workshops with a Kolkata-Based social communications organization. The aim is to engage para (neighborhood) clubs “with a mandate of social development, helping them to go beyond performing certain altruistic activities with the community throughout the year, equipping them to take on the role of para resource centres.” Read more about it here and here. I hope the neighborhood centers will also include blogging and other citizen media activities in their agenda.

The workshops of Neighborhood Diaries resumed on 23rd of April facing many challenges. Reconnecting with the young citizen journalists after the long break was a daunting task as only half of the twelve participants were present. Some of them moved away and could not be informed and some of them were involved in other projects. But hope is there because most of them promised to be regular in the future.

The 10th Session taught them how to type and send emails. The obstacles in the words of Urbi Bhaduri, the facilitator are:

Most of them have not handled computers and keyboards before, so this will take a lot of time and practice. Additionally, there is a language barrier in using the English interface. However, each of them logged in to their personal account using their passwords, and sent a basic email to the rest of the group. They typed in Bangla, using English alphabets.

While discussing with the participants on their next assignment they chose to write about the footpaths in their para (neighborhood), the footpath dwellers, the tiny food stalls on the footpaths.

We have got a few interesting stories from the participants posted in the project blog in Rising Voices. A footpath (sidewalk/pavement) is meant for pedestrians. But its space is vital for those who need a free space to sell something to earn their livelihood or just to spend the night. Thus ‘footpath stories’ bring to us a whole new dimension of footpath.

Tania writes about a footpath vegetable seller:

“Like this, she fights for a living every day. She knows she will have to go on facing the challenges of living out in the open in different seasons like summer, winter and the rains.
In the rains, the pavements are often swept away by water, causing her a lot of problems. Apart from this, people are always walking on the footpaths. She has to live with them walking all over her space. But she is compelled.”

Footpaths are also home for these people. Jyotsna tells about their perils:

“Often out of the blue, police cars come to dismantle them from their pavement homes. Then they try to hide their possessions as best as they can to prevent them from being confiscated by the police. “

The Day 11 was frustrating as it came to an abrupt end within half an hour. While the participants were trying out their new Bangla blog “Bowbazar Diaries” the cyber café computers shut down and the café technician was not available.

The main challenge it seems to impart digital literacy to the participants:

It is a whole new world for these youth, as they hail from extremely marginalized communities, and everything starting from the interface in English, getting a feel of the keyboard, and the idea of having a “cyber address” (in the form of one’s own email id or blog space) as compared to a “geographical address” is completely new.

The 12th workshop was postponed due to an accidental death of a kid in the neighborhood, who was close to some of the participants. It was rescheduled on 19th of May and on this day the participants went out to survey the street food in their locality.

Urbi Bhaduri sets the prelude: “Bowbazar’s street food is mouth watering and very affordable”. So the idea of a writing assignment on street food seemed tempting. And what a joyful thing for the participants was that!

“Under a reddish stormy sky with the dust blowing into their faces, things getting blown away and being carried along the old streets of Bowbazar by the wind in its wake, the intrepid six chose their favorite foods. Each was given Rs. 10/- to taste whatever they wanted. Rahul wanted chowmein but, unable to make his way to it, settled for kachori (fried chapatti like things with a stuffing of spicy pulses). Robi wanted to invest his allowance wholly on tea.”

Like Urbi we are eager to learn what the participants wrote from this assignment.

19:25
McCain's gay marriage clash with Ellen
» ‎ NEWS.com.au | Most Popular | Most Popular World Stories

US presidential candidate John McCain clashes with Ellen DeGeneres on her TV show over her plans to marry Portia de Rossi.

19:03
Op-Ed Contributor: Puerto Rico’s Moment in the Sun
» ‎ NYT > Most E-Mailed

The U.S. is overdue in re-engaging with Puerto Rico, which landed in our lap as a stepchild of imperialism in 1898, and which we have never seen clearly.

19:01
Explosions in Medellin, Peddlers in Madagascar, Street Food and Footpaths in Calcutta
» ‎ David Sasaki

Every two weeks we feature four to five posts by Rising Voices participants as a way of showcasing some of the finest content from new voices that are typically ignored by both traditional and new media.

In order to make new voices heard, however, we must be willing to hear them. Please take twenty minutes out of your day to read their posts, and to offer comments of encouragement.

Thanks to Romina Oliverio from Argentina/Canada/Peru, Nihan Zafar from the Maldives, Victor Kaonga from Malawi/Sweden, Rebekah Heacock from Kansas/Uganda, Hamid Tehrani from Iran, Mohamed Nanabhay from South Africa/Qatar, Nicholas Laughlin from Trinidad and Tobago, Juliana from Colombia, Lova from USA/Madagascar, and Joan from USA/Madagascar for all their supportive comments on the blog posts featured two weeks ago. (Given the readership of this blog, shouldn’t there be a few more Americans on that list?)

Reality at the University by Catalina Restrepo

Catalina Restrepo, who will represent the HiperBarrio project at the Global Voices Summit in Budapest in June, studies Social Work at the University of Antioquia. She was in class earlier this month when she and her fellow classmates heard a series of explosions on campus. Juliana Rincon’s translation of Catalina’s post explain what happens.

Peddlers by Lomelle

Very few of us will ever visit Majunga, a port town on the northwest of Madagascar (not to mention capital of the 18th century kingdom of Boina). But thanks to the descriptions of FOKO bloggers like Lomelle, we can get a much better feel of what it is like to be a local there. This post, translated by Simp, describes Majunga’s many mobile peddlers who walk around town in the blistering heat selling fish, milk, glass, coffee, and more.

Day 12: Street food survey by Urbi Bhaduri

Once again the Neighbourhood Diaries project in Calcutta, India has proven itself one of the most innovative of all Rising Voices projects in terms of group activities. This past week each of the young citizen journalists were given ten rupees to spend however they would like on food items around the neighborhood. Ten rupees, it should be noted, is less than a quarter dollar in the United States, but even a quarter goes a long way in Bow Bazaar. Urbi’s post on the Neighbourhood Diaries project blog explains how the young citizen journalists will become food reviewers for the week.

Footpath Stories by Tania and Jyotsna

Now that we know more about the Neighbourhood Diaries project itself, let’s get to know two of its participants. Tania introduces us to Debi Shau, a vegetable-seller from Koley Market who now, without family to depend on, calls an open footpath her home. Jyotsna, meanwhile, introduces us to Bhabani another resident of a footpath in Bowbazaar who lives there with both her mother and son. Jyotsna and Tania describe the living conditions along Bowbazaar’s footpaths, reminding us of the forgotten citizens of the global village.

Thanks for all of your support.

18:57
PERFECT DRESS FOR GROOM'S MOM FAILS TO GET BRIDE'S APPROVAL (Dear Abby)
» ‎ Yahoo! News: Most Viewed

Dear Abby - DEAR ABBY: I have recently gotten to know a lovely lady I'll call "Judith," whose son is being married in August.

18:39
Mother Jones Ripped Off by ABC?
» ‎ Dan Gilmor et al - Center for Citizen Media

Looks like it: ABC “Exclusive” On McCain and the Anti-Islam Pastor: Was MoJo Robbed?

ShareThis

18:27
'Cougars 4 Cook' sign was our first clue (AP)
» ‎ Yahoo! News: Most Viewed

AP - "Cougars 4 Cook."

18:17
Dead man walking has life spared
» ‎ NEWS.com.au | Most Popular | Most Popular World Stories

THE parole board in the US state of Georgia spared a convicted killer from execution hours before he was due to die by lethal injection today and commuted his sentence to life in prison.

18:08
Am I Done with Facebook? Twitter FTW!
» ‎ Phil Windley's Technometria
I got a message from Facebook today saying that someone had friended me. I realized I didn't care. Not that I didn't care about the person who'd friended me--I didn't care about Facebook. It's been weeks since I was there and my life is pretty much the same.

I think the reason is Twitter. Twitter is much more social, much more interesting, and the plethora of clients (including any mobile phone with SMS) means that I don't have to remember to go check the site to see what's happening. Twitterific displays a solid stream of the 140 character thoughts of my friends.

Because of Twitter, today I know:
- There were tornados in Denver and Laramie
- Twitter posted an article about their architecture on their blog
- There's a blogger dinner tonight in Salt Lake City
- @tylerwhitaker and @bradbaldwin aren't going to carpool to the blogger dinner
I like that.

Twitter has scaling problems even though their user base is reportedly quite small. As Nik Cubrilovic points out, Twitter isn't like Wordpress or Digg. Twitter is a group forming network (GFN). When a Metcalfeian network adds another user, the number of potential connections goes from N² to (N+1)². When a GFN adds one more user, the number of potential connections goes from 2^N to 2^(N+1). In case it's been a while since you'd done that math--it's a big difference.

To make this more real, consider TechCrunch's twitter account. When TechCrunch, with almost 18000 followers, sends a message, that results in 18000 messages--one to each follower. This is like the phone system with infinite, always-on conference call capability. Sure, you can do things internally to collapse some messages, but you're still dealing with exponential growth.

Cubrilovic points out that this feature creates some serious engineering problems getting Twitter to scale. AL3X at Twitter argues that they're not blind to the problems and they're working on them. There are dozens of people blogging about what kind of architectural solutions might lead to better uptime at Twitter. AL3X's final plea: if you're so smart, come work for us. Good answer.

Tags: facebook social+networks twitter

18:07
Hangover, what hangover? United's stars prove the restorative power of a cup win
» ‎ guardian.co.uk: Most viewed

After dramatic 6-5 penalty shootout victory Man Utd party for seven hours in Moscow

18:07
Twitter in Action as Breaking News Warning System: Colorado Tornado
» ‎ E-Media Tidbits
greeleytribune.com The Greeley Tribune offered some of the best MSM coverage of today's Windsor, CO tornado. But I first heard the news on Twitter.

Earlier this afternoon, while I was working at my home office in Boulder, Colo., fellow blogger Karoli (who lives in Calif.) sent me a message on Twitter: "@agahran you out there? What's going on in CO?"
A little baffled, I responded: "@Karoli What's going on in CO in what respect? Fast-changing weather, other than that I'm just working. Seeing Indy Jones movie tonight."
She then posted something that got my full attention: "@agahran I'm seeing reports here on twitter of one killed near touchdown of tornado in Ft. Collins." And seconds later: "@agahran one killed, school badly damaged."
Ft. Collins is just about an hour north of Boulder. I have close friends who live there, and they have a child in elementary school. I figured, though, that they had more important things to do at the moment than take a phone call from me. I sent a text message to my friend asking if all was well, and continued my information scan.
I went straight to the National Weather Service site -- which is, I must say, a usability nightmare for someone seeking information about local severe weather in a hurry! I tried posting to Twitter links to specific NWS storm warnings, but apparently those pages are generated with session-specific URLs and so are useless if you send them as links to other Web users. (For future reference, it's probably best to post links to NWS pages for state-specific current watches, warnings, and advisories -- like this one for Colorado, so they can find the most up-to-date info for their part of the state.)
Next I jumped to the Ft. Collins Coloradoan site, where I found this report on the storm. That's where I learned that the tornado actually touched down in Windsor, a town several miles southeast of Fort Collins (and much closer to the town of Greeley). Karoli sent me a links to video and photos of the large tornado, shot by a 9News team. I watched the video while looking out my window and noticing the sky above was growing darker. (UPDATE: Here's more 9news video from during and after the tornado )
I tried tuning in online to Colorado Public Radio News, and then to Boulder community radio KGNU, but both offered only regular programming. I tried the local 9News site, but their video player didn't work in the first two Web browsers I tried. (Yes, I could have gone downstairs to turn on the TV, but I was already getting so much info online that I didn't feel compelled to do that. I felt I could monitor the situation better from my computer.)

tweetscan.com Here's what Twitter users were posting about the Windsor, Colo. tornado today.

So I jumped back to Twitter for more leads -- specifically TweetScan, a good tool for searching Twitter for current posts that use specific keywords, like tornado. This yielded several useful points of reference, such as a link to the Greeley Tribune's blog-like, quick-updates-style coverage. Also on Tweetscan I saw mentions that the tornado-bearing storm was now heading toward Loveland, Colo. (closer to Boulder), with a link to the Loveland Reporter-Herald's warning.
I then remembered that someone had set up a Twitter account, COtweeters, that Twitter users in Colo. use to share local information -- usually about informal get-togethers, but occasionally for other things. I suspected that, like me, some other locals might have Twitter running on their computers (or alerts coming to their cell phones) but not be paying attention to mainstream media at the moment.
So to give locals a heads-up, I posted: "@COtweeters: Tornado hit Windsor. Whole Front Range under tornado watch today." I followed up by posting links to the reporting by some local news sites, as well as the text of some NWS updates, ending with: "THE STORM THAT PROMPTED THE WARNING HAS HAS MOVED INTO LARIMER COUNTY AND NO LONGER APPEARS TO BE PRODUCING A TORNADO."
...The point of this tale is to show how Twitter's popularity has reached the point that it can be a valuable early warning system to nearly anyone -- including journalists and news orgs.
So, if you haven't done so already:
1. Set up some Twitter accounts: This takes just a few seconds. You'll need one "official" one for your news org (like KPBS News did), and then make sure reporters have individual accounts.
2. Learn to use Twitter when it's not an emergency. Twitter is extremely easy to use and fast to learn -- but it does take a little time to get comfortable with.
3. Find local Twitter users by searching TwitterLocal for a radius around a state, city, or zip code. Subscribe to the RSS feed for the result of that search in your feed reader you can check it periodically for an overview of local discussions. Use TwitterLocal to identify some local users you can follow on Twitter regularly. With experimentation and experience, you'll figure out which local users tend to offer the best tips and insight. And of course, whenever news breaks anywhere, Twitterlocal can help you find what people from the affected area are posting.
4. Learn to use TweetScan to check up on breaking news or events. There are some tricks -- like today, searching for "tornado" was far more useful than "Colorado," "CO," or "Fort Collins." Again, it's better to figure that stuff out when you're not covering a breaking story.
Of course, Twitter cannot and should not replace traditional reporting techniques, like calling sources and getting photographers on the scene. But this service has become extremely popular, which makes it a powerful resource for timely, diverse information. On May 15, Web analytics firm Compete.com reported that each month Twitter attracts 1.2 million users worldwide, a quarter of whom are "heavy users." So whenever your newsroom is chasing a breaking story anywhere in the world, it's probably a good idea to have someone watching Twitter and passing along useful leads from it to your reporters.
...The Boulder skies are clear again, now. And my Ft. Collins friend just texted me back to say all is well with his family.

18:04
Running mate sought as Obama shifts gear
» ‎ guardian.co.uk: Most viewed

Democratic party officials disclose that the frontrunner has sanctioned hunt for a vice-presidential candidate

18:02
HBO revisits 2000 election with 'Recount'
» ‎ CNN.com - Most Popular

Read full story for latest details.

18:01
YouTube starts citizen journalism channel
» ‎ Global Voices - Cyber-Activism

Getting citizen journalism videos more airtime has just gotten easier: YouTube video uploading website has opened a new channel exclusively for citizen videos named CitizenNews. Vloggers who specialize in reporting what is going on where they live can now subscribe to the channel and let the world know what is going on.

Following, the invitation made by YouTube and presentation of Olivia who will be in charge of the CitizenNews channel:

One of their featured videos are produced and taped by Miyong G. Kuon from South Sudan, who reports about the conditions in refugee camps, where it can get sweltering hot, or flooded whenever it rains too hard:

Let me take the opportunity and tell you that Global Voices already has its own YouTube channel, where all the videos I've posted on my articles have been marked as favorites and many of the producers have been subscribed to, and even some videos which didn't make it into articles, but are still quite good and interesting.

If you have any videos you would like to see written about in this video blogging section, please send me an email (available through my author page) or write in a comment with a short explanation of why you think it is an important video to showcase, and I'll do my best to include all your requests.

17:52
Polygamists win in court
» ‎ Reuters Video: Most Watched Videos

May 22 - A Texas appeals court ruled the state went too far when it raided a polygamist sect's ranch and seized more than 460 children.

17:45
Radcliffe femur injury is blow to Olympic hopes
» ‎ guardian.co.uk: Most viewed

Paula Radcliffe has fractured her femur, rendering her chances of being fit for Beijing almost non-existent

17:27
Tech security firms target mobile
» ‎ Reuters Video: Most Watched Videos

May 22 - New security dangers on mobile devices spell opportunity for technology security firms.
17:19
McCain begins VP search
» ‎ Reuters Video: Most Watched Videos

May 22 - Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has begun his search for a vice presidential running mate.

17:12
Boys 'enjoyed' killing two-year-old
» ‎ NEWS.com.au | Most Popular | Most Popular World Stories

TWO brothers, aged seven and nine, have told psychiatrists how they slowly and coldl

Gregarius » May 22, 2008

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