I'm at WordCamp NYC today, hopping from session to session of a superbly colorful schedule. I signed up partly to hang out with Jer, who's presenting twice this afternoon, and partly to learn what WordPress can do for me and for the SIPA academic community.
Economists estimate the impact of climate change at 5 to 20 percent of global GDP. Five percent. Doesn't sound too bad, right?
This map, courtesy of FiveThirtyEight via Strange Maps, shows what the world would look like without the countries that make up the bottom 5% of global GDP. For the record, that's sixty-four countries:
I finally got a chance to catch up on Google Reader today. Some things you should see:
Friend a Gorilla For one dollar a year, you can friend a gorilla through the Uganda Wildlife Authority. "Anyone can be a friend of a gorilla or follow specific gorillas living the forest on Facebook or Twitter for a minimum donation of $1. You will get updates on your gorilla friend(s), including photos, videos, and GPS coordinates, all of which are gathered by actual trackers that visit the gorillas daily."
I've been using Blogger for six years. It's seen me through angsty college musings, a public to-do list, the beginnings of a cooking blog, an ill-fated attempt at blogging in Russian, and an even iller-fated attempt at Rebekah auf Deutsch. Oh, and this here web log.
When I started blogging, WordPress.com didn't exist, and everyone I knew who wasn't using Xanga (cringe) or LiveJournal (ditto) was on Blogger. But as I've continued, more and more of my friends have defected, falling head over heels for WP's plugins and beautiful themes and shiny dashboards and seamless post tagging (Blogger was sadly late to the post categorization party) and integrated commenting (remember the days of Haloscan?).
This year's topic is climate change, and I'm equally excited to talk about the work another of my friends is doing. For the last six weeks I've been working with Global Voices on a project with MS Action Aid Denmark called Global Change.
Global Voices has paired its own bloggers — myself included — with students in the Global Change course, who have been studying climate change and climate justice in preparation for the United Nations Climate Change Conf Read Full Post
After I published an article for the Committee to Protect Journalists on citizen journalism during the Kampala riots, Shevonne Hunt of Australian radio show The Fourth Estate contacted me to talk about the role Twitter and blogs played in the crisis.
Solomon King (the force behind Ugandan blog aggregator Blogspirit and one of the most prolific tweeters during the riots) and I are featured in the show's most recent podcast. You can access it at The Fourth Estate (scroll down to the bottom, click "Show Episodes," and choose the episode from September 25).
I'm taking a class on the social impact of mass media. Tonight we discussed the printing press, and how print lends — now less than before, but I think it still applies — a legitimacy to thought that ideas that haven't been committed to paper lack.
Someone suggested that all new forms of media give increased levels of authority to the ideas they transmit — not just print, but radio and television as well.
I argued that this rule doesn't hold for the Internet, and I was promptly shot down by a surprisingly large number of people in the class. Their points were:
The Internet isn't a grand democratic commons. It's highly elite.
People do believe everything they read on the Internet. One example was a newspaper in Bangl Read Full Post
Things seem to have settled down somewhat in Kampala, where riots on Thursday and Friday caused at least nine and possibly as many as 14 deaths.
I've been glued to my laptop for the past few days, feverishly refreshing TweetDeck and Google Reader and paging through Blogspirit, hoping for news of friends in the city. I'm not the only one: accurate information has been hard to come by, and people both in and out of Uganda have relied on blogs and Twitter for much of their news about the riots. This is the subject of my most recent piece on Global Voices Online:< Read Full Post
In addition to censorship in China and Twitter in Tehran, I spent a decent part of this summer writing about Internet infrastructure in Africa. The summer had plenty of stories: damage to the SAT-3 cable in western Africa caused major Internet blackouts in Nigeria, Niger, Togo and Benin, a situation that hopefully won't happen again now that Nigeria's new GLO-1 cable has arrived.
But the biggest story of all was Seacom: a new cable connecting eastern Africa to the global undersea Read Full Post
Anyone who visits Jackfruity has probably heard of the Kampala riots by now. I put together a post for Global Voices Online last night on the situation in the city, and I'll be writing more as the situation continues.
Riots in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, have led to the deaths of at least nine people (BBC) as members of the Baganda ethnic group clashed with police and military forces on Wednesd Read Full Post
The arrival of the GLO-1 submarine cable in Lagos this weekend has West African bloggers excited. GLO-1 connects Nigeria and 13 other West African countries to the global telecommunications system via Europe, bringing new bandwidth to the region.
In late July, damage to the SAT-3 cable — which until last weekend was Nigeria's only link to the global communications system — crippled bank services and Internet access throughout the country. Approximately 70 percent of the country's bandwidth was affected.
The summer of 2009 was a hectic one for online social media: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a bevy of other sites fell under the censors' axe in China and Iran as political events — namely the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and the Iranian presidential election — shook both countries.
If you've been having a hard time keeping track of whether Twitter is accessible in Tehran or if Fallujah is blocked Facebook, you're not alone. Luckily, I just completed a project for the OpenNet Initiative to help you out.
Based on testing conducted in 2008-2009, ONI has compiled data on the most frequently blocked social media sites around the world. We are proud to present five new Read Full Post
My next piece is up at Global Voices Online — it's a profile of Kenyan blogger Haute Haiku, who covers the GLBT African blogosphere for Global Voices. Check it out:
Five days ago, the Appfrica tech blog reported an Internet blackout in Benin, a West African country roughly the size of Ohio. The outage, which also affected neighboring Togo, Niger and Nigeria, was caused by damage to the SAT-3 submarine communications cable, which links Portugal and Spain to South Africa via the West African coastline.
The arrival of an undersea cable that will increase bandwidth and lower Internet access costs throughout Africa has sparked debate and interest in the African blogoshere. Seacom, which links South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique to Europe and Asia, went live on Thursday, connecting eastern and southern Africa to the global broadband network.
Johannesburg, Nairobi and Kampala received their connections on Thursday, and Addis Ababa and Kigali are expected to follow. The cable's arrival was originally scheduled for early July, but pirate attacks off the coast Read Full Post
According to the Chinese government, Namibia — a southern African country with a population of 2 million — does not exist.
Government censors ordered Chinese search engines to show no search results for the country's name this week, following a corruption scandal involving a Chinese tech company's dealings with Namibia's government.
The company, Nutech, was formerly run by the son of Chinese president Hu Jintao. It is under two separate investigations by Namibian and European Union officials for allegedly using illegal methods, including Read Full Post
As drought spreads throughout East Africa, more than three million Ugandans are at risk of starvation. According to a recent Oxfam report, the famine is the result of spectacular climate change in the region. Massive floods in 2007 ruined crops and eroded fields throughout northern and eastern Uganda. The current drought, which is also affecting neighboring Kenya, has worsened the food shortage and led to the current crisis. Hunger has Read Full Post
Liveblogging Giorgos Cheliotis's presentation on Mapping the Global Commons: A Quantitative Perspective on Free Cultural Practice at the Berkman Center. Please excuse misrepresentation, misinterpretation, typos and general stupidity. Cheliotis is interested in measuring the use of the Creative Commons content pool. How much content exists? How free/open is it? How fast is it changing? How much of it is being remixed and fed back into the pool?
You can try to count everything individually, or you can use estimates, community-specific data, external reports and local knowledge. There's an inverse relationship between the scale and the accuracy/richness of your data.
Ben Wikler of Avaaz.org is at the Berkman Center today to talk about new models of online organizing.
Wikler begins by explaining net-centered vs. broadcast-centered online activism. The Internet is a little bit like the Brazilian butterfly flapping its wings, causing a thunderstorm in Belgium — except we are all butterflies, and it can be hard to tell how we can act together to (for example) bring rain to the hypothetically drought-stricken Belgium.
We surveyed media coverage of the extractive sector and interviewed African journalists who had training in business and economic reporting. Our goal was to identify the training practices that are most helpful in teaching journalists how to encourage Read Full Post
WordPress blocked. Guatemala follows China's exampleCrossposted on the OpenNet Initiative blog
Guatemala's ongoing political crisis, which began with the murder of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg and has been fueled largely by YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and blogs, reached a new level over the weekend when several ISPs began blocking access to WordPress.com.
Reports of the blocking first reached Twitter on June 26, when user Read Full Post
Uganda: Millions More to Wed As Govt Doles Out Mosquito Nets
"When we asked the couples why they have chosen this particular time to enter holy matrimony, they all had the same answer: that government was going to give them free wedding gowns!" said a source at Peter's Church of Uganda in Kampala. The source added that when they investigated further, they realized that the couples were referring to the government's recent announcement to distribute over 17 million free mosquito nets to combat malaria, which is the leading killer disease in the country. According to health officials, malaria kills 320 people daily.
The New Vision is reporting that Patrick Otim, a Pader-based freelance journalist, was arrested and charged with treason along with 10 other men. The group was allegedly forming a rebel organization to fight against the Ugandan government:
They allegedly mobilised logistical support for their rebellion, which included satellite phones, solar panels, Global Positioning System (GPS) machines, black polythene sheets, gum boots, walkie talkies, laptops and fire-arms.
The 11 suspects appeared before Buganda Road Court Magistrate Geoffrey Sayekwo but were not allowed to enter plea because the court did not have jurisdiction. They were unkempt.
Sayekwo read out the charges before sending them on remand to Luzira Prison. They face a second, alternative charge of concealing treason.
The suspects, according to the charge sheet, committed the offence between 2006 and May 2009 in eigh Read Full Post
The Design for Digital Inclusion group at the University of Washington, which Kolko heads, works on a variety of topics, including tech in Central Asia, the Global Impact Study, the impact of public access to ICTs, technologies for youth with autism, games for development, and more.
Kolko focuses on three main questions: what ICTs are adopted in diverse communities and why? What do people in these communities do with these ICTs? How can we design better technologies for these users?
We assume that ICTs have universal meanings across cultural contexts, but the functions of these technologies vary widely from culture t Read Full Post
Last Tuesday I was at the Berkman Center for "The Second and Third Enclosures", a presentation by poet and cultural critic Lewis Hyde on what he calls "our 'cultural commons,' that vast store of ideas, inventions, and works of art that we have inherited from the past and continue to produce."
Hyde is working on a book about why these ideas and works of art should be owned by the commons, rather than by individuals. His thesis is that limiting ownership of creative works also limits human creativity in ways we can't begin to imagine (mostly because there's no way to know that we're missing out on them).
I've been trying for a week to write up my notes from the event, but I keep getting bogged down by amusing quotes (see: "beating back the bounds," "fattening your muse") and a train of thought that winds through Read Full Post
The latest news in the world of Internet censorship is about China's Green Dam software, which ostensibly protects Chinese children by filtering out pornographic Web sites.
China has recently announced that all PCs sold in the country must come with the software, beginning on July 1, 2009. Critics say Green Dam will be used to crack down on Internet users, making it even more difficult to access uncensored information from China.
In addition to blocking sites that include keywords such as "pornography" and, somewhat less justifiably, "touch" and "play," the software also filters out images that have a high percentage of "skin colored" pixels. Oiwan Lam at Global Voices Read Full Post
I met Lokman last July in Budapest for the 2008 Global Voices Summit, and in February I had the great fortune to spend a week with him and 10 other Global Voices team members in Miami for We Media.
Lokman's writing his dissertation on how the Internet is driving institutional changes of journalism in a globalized world. His talk yesterday covered the research he's been doing on Global Voices, a project that aggregates Read Full Post
I'm spending the summer in Cambridge, interning for the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Today I went to the office for the first time, met the 30-something other interns and started putting faces with names.
(Note: I am terrible with directions. Sometimes things work out, and I end up finding a metro station that can get me back home (see: St. Petersburg, New York). Other times, I end up fending off the persistent attentions of a motorcycle taxi driver named Edward.)
The walk from my apartment to Berkman is simple: Read Full Post
Uganda's Internet penetration rate is a little over six percent, a number that prevents large swaths of the population from joining Uganda's blogren or accessing the global blogosphere. For one village, the Guardian and Observer'sKatine Project is working to change that.
Since October 2007, the Katine Project has tracked the impact of a dedicated £2.5 million ($4 million) AMREF development project in Katine, a rural sub-county in northeastern Uganda (virtual tour). In addition to providing general news about Uganda and tracking developments in five key project areas, the projec Read Full Post
Jackfruit comes to Kansas: I found this abomination in my parents' grocery store this week. I am horrified.Just a quick note to let you know about two upcoming opportunities for Ugandan journalists:
Inter-ethnic & Conflict Workshop Deadline: June 1, 2009 Mid-career practitioners from Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) member organizations from Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique are invited to apply to attend a development journalism workshop titled "Interethnic and Conflict Reporting," to take place in Nairobi, Kenya from June 22-26, 2009.
Read more and download an application at the CBA web site.
So much for the Ugandan Best of Blogs Awards. The blogren have jumped ship to the Honest Scrap Award, an informal, apparently international bloggers' honor-slash-meme that's been making the rounds in East Africa.
As far as I can tell, the award entered the Ugandan blogosphere through Ugandan Girl, who got it from Afronuts in Nigeria. Ugandan Girl passed it to Eizzy, Read Full Post
Zemanta, a Firefox extension that automatically suggests related tags, links, photos and articles for your blog posts and e-mails, is running a competition to encourage blogging for worthwhile causes. The five blogs that get the most votes will each win $3,000.
I'm doing some spring cleaning, one part of which is a much-needed reorganization of the files on my hard drive. In the process I found some notes from my trip to the Balkans last summer.
Besim hurried out to us from under the awning of one of the countless tiny cafes lining Baščaršija Square. "Ladies," he called, "you need a room, maybe?" We were the worst sort of travelers, trudging through the old part of the city under the weight of trendy hiking backpacks designed for treks at much higher altitudes. Besim's advance spared us the embarrassment of winding our way through an endless maze of narrow cobblestone streets in search of a hostel that had once managed to impress the writer of our guidebook, and after a moment of whispered debate we agreed to see the room.
Long-time readers of this blog may remember my ill-fated trip to the creepy wonderland known as Didi's World. Now, from the Atherstones in Uganda, the true story of Kampala's most famous amusement park:
The legend of Didi's World begins over ten years ago, when these same rides and structures resided in Italy. Evidently, someone was killed on one ride, so the generous Italians donated all the equipment to Africa.
For a class this semester, I wrote an article on gay rights bloggers in (mostly East) Africa. Since so many of them are blogren or connected to the blogren, I thought I'd share it with you. If you know of other gay rights bloggers in the area (or if you happen to be one yourself), especially women, please let me know in the comments — I'm putting together a new Google Reader list.
Dr. James Nsaba ButuroUganda is the only country in the world whose cabinet includes a Minister of Ethics and Integrity. The position is currently held by Dr. James Nsaba Buturo, who has been charged with developing and coordinating the implementation of a national anti-corruption policy. Instead, Dr. Buturo has chosen to focus his political career on what he considers Read Full Post
Last month I attended The Darfur Debate, a conversation between African political expert Mahmood Mamdani and Darfur advocate John Prendergast. In case my arbitrary points-laden round-up wasn't enough, you can now watch the video yourself, courtesy of Columbia's YouTube account:
Let me know if you agree with my assessments of Prendergast's sartorial choices.Read Full Post
February's cabinet reshuffle has Ugandan bloggers making 2011 election predictions.
Among the new appointments President Yoweri Museveni made was the posting of his wife Janet as state minister for Karamoja, a region in northeastern Uganda that has been plagued by conflict and extreme poverty for decades.
While some bloggers think the high-profile appointment could bring much-needed attention to the region, others are more skeptical.
Blogret* and technology entrepreneur Jon Gosier was interviewed by Jonathan Marks at SXSW this month. Marks writes:
I'm very impressed with the work of Jonathan Gosier, not only because of the pioneering work he is doing in the fledgling IT sector in Kampala, Uganda, but also because of the quality of his contributions to his blog appafrica.net. He believes that building sustainable businesses and using local talent is key - so obvious, yet so often missing in daily practice.
*blogren, masculine, singular New Media in Development Communications class last semester was published this week on DigiActive and reviewed by Pambazuka News. The abstract:
The proliferation of mobile phones in Africa is transforming the political and social landscape of the developing world, empowering people to source and share their own information and to have a greater say in what comes to international attention. This paper compares the use and impact of mobile technology in three recent African elections: Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Kenya.
In Nigeria’s April 2007 presidential election, a local civil society organization used free software to collect over 10,000 text message reports from vot Read Full Post
Some of you may notice that all the posts here are now sans comments. It's not because I suddenly got defensive about Rev's ribbing or because I wanted to get rid of Martin Ssempa's famed tirade.
It's part of a grand WordPress rollover that will happen sometime in the next...er...year? Or so? And having all new comments in Blogger will make preserving all of your lovely thoughts much, much easier.
So: goodbye, Haloscan, and hello, brave new world.Read Full Post
Uganda's bloggers are increasingly using their blogs as forums for literary expression, and online poems, short stories and multi-part novellas are becoming increasingly popular.
Carsozy is one of the blogren's most prolific creative writers. His series, The Devil's Bonfire, is the story of Simon Katende, a young Kampalan who leaves the city to visit his grandfather and gets mixed up in things he doesn't understand:
He was halfway to the bar when he saw her, his entire body froze and his mouth opened in shock, the glass slipped from his fingers and fell to the ground.
It's been a long time since I've written anything for Global Voices, but this week's fire at Owino Market prompted enough of a blogger response (and I've been sufficiently inspired by my week in Miami with ten other GV-ers) that I had to post a round-up:
A massive fire gutted Kampala's Owino Market early Wednesday morning, seriously injuring five people and destroying thousands of stalls. As many as 25,000 traders, mostly women, are estimated to have suffered losses.
Owino, also known as the Nakivubo Park Yard and St. Balikuddembe Market, is Kampala's largest market and has been at the center of several controversies involving leasing rights. Recent plans to build a new bus terminal at the Nakivubo Stadium next door have sparked anger among vendors, who will lose their space if the development proceeds as planned.
Almost two years ago Josh at In an African Minute posted a guide for tourists on how to spend a weekend in Kampala. He included such highlights as bribing a fisherman to borrow his canoe for an afternoon and relaxing afterward in Kabalagala with the mixed plate, Mama's vegetarian Ethiopian special.
Things have changed since then, largely due to November 2007's Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Cafe Pap, Josh's Saturday afternoon pick, has lost the widescreens and upped the charge for wi-fi, allowing itself to be usurped by the delicious coffee at continential fusion restaurant La Fontaine, where an hour of wireless costs just $1.50.
Lotus Mexicanas, operated by the same couple that owns New York Pizza Kitchen in Garden City, serves up fresh strawberry margaritas and qu Read Full Post
I'm in Miami this week for the We Media conference, which brings together "leaders and ideas shaping media, business, communication, technology, education and participation in the connected society."
Among yesterday's events, which included a video presentation by David Plouffe and a brainstorming session on the future of business, media, education, philanthropy and government (in under two hours, no less), my favorite was something called "Decoding the Culture."
Led by marketing strategist John Fischer, along with TheKnot.com founder David Liu and Darryl Perkins of the Hip Hop Caucus, Decoding the Culture started with Coca-Cola and cleaning products and ended with teledildonics.
Louisiana jackfruit, from the Hong Kong Food Market in Gretna, LA. Courtesy of Sonia Smith.I'm taking a little break from the media-tech-Africa jumble that's normally Jackfruit of the Week to point you all to a hilarious/amazing/inspiring project one of my housemates is working on.
1) Maybe I'm just being crotchety and pessimistic, but is it really news that the United States has been assisting the Ugandan military in its less-than-successful attempts to confront the LRA? Operation Iron Fist comes to mind.
2) The article claims, "The Ugandan government has tried coaxing Mr. Kony out. But the International Criminal Court in The Hague has indicted him on charges of crimes against humanity, and he has long insisted the charges be dropped." We've talked about this Read Full Post
Bungee jumping Jinja jackfruit, courtesy of Mr. KingTED is one of my favorite things in the world: a blend of technology, entertainment and design (hence the acronym) plus a hefty dose of international affairs, science and the arts. Case in point: a talk on African fractals by ethno-mathematician Ron Eglash. I could get lost for hours (and have) in the twenty-minute video presentations on everything from the mystery behind Lost to Read Full Post
As part of a side project for a professor of mine, I've spent much of this week buried in New York University's Tamiment Library, combing through the archives of Picture Magazine, a leftist newspaper published daily in New York from 1940-1948.
Today I relived the entire Allied invasion of Europe, including the Italian surrender, the takeover of Rome, D-Day and the liberation of Paris. When I go back on Saturday, the Soviets will reach Auschwitz.
It's strange to read through these archives, day by day, already knowing what will happen: knowing that the first mention of "forced labor" in Poland in late 1941 will eventually lead to a 1944 photo essay that includes a picture of a pile of shoes discarded by Jewish gas chamber victims; anticipating American troops landing at Normandy. Reading brave articles that claim that the war will be ov Read Full Post
This month's (impromptu) Uganda Blogger Happy Hour was nothing short of perfect. It was the two-year anniversary of the first UBHH. Rev, who's been a lovable yet aggravating presence since the very beginning, was on his very best behavior (this unfortunately means I have very little to write about). And, proof that the blogren are continually growing, there were new faces. Like I said, perfect.
Voting opened yesterday for the 2009 Bloggies, the "Web's longest-running blog awards," and of the five blogs in the running for Best African Weblog, two originated in Uganda.
Appfrica has its finger on the pulse of African IT, including podcasts from last December's Facebook Dev Garage in Kampala and an interview with Blogren Superstar Benge Solomon King. It's also available in Luganda.
Jackfruit on Long Bien Bridge from Hanoi Mark on FlickrI'm back in New York after a whirlwind trip to Kampala, where I communed with the blogren (more later) and waxed nostalgic. I got in last night and hit the ground running today with a lecture on Pareto efficiency, delivered by the son of a French-Argentine football player. I love New York.
The new semester is starting for lots of people, including my friend and former blogret* Josh Goldstein, who together with Read Full Post
On a flight this morning from New York to Chicago, I was seated next to a couple heading to visit their son. It was snowing, and I mentioned that I hadn't yet seen snow in New York this winter because I'd been traveling so much. They asked where I was coming from, and when I told them I'd just been in Uganda, the man laughed and said, "You must be hungry."
I didn't know how to tell him that I'd eaten better in Kampala than I do in New York — Greek salads, macaroni and cheese, malai kofta, apple pie. I didn't know how to erase this image of Africa he seemed to have, where people scramble for the few grains of rice that drop off a passing World Food Program truck or where babies bathe, if they bathe, in bracken water collected in a filthy ditch.
It's not that he's entirely wrong, which I think is why I have trouble describing Uganda to someone who's never been there. Parts of the country, those scarred by conflict or disease, provide perfect footage for Wo Read Full Post
Last November Abidjan-based blogger Théophile Kouamouo started the "Why I Blog About Africa" meme. Global Voices posted a round-up of responses from both Francophone and Anglophone bloggers, and now I've been tagged by Hash at White African. So, here goes:
I write about Africa because of the boda-boda driver I had earlier this week, who pleaded, "You add me 1000, you see I have no shoes!" and then told me I could come to Masaka with him and be his sister and his wife (exactly how this would work was unclear).
I write about Africa because two years ago, when I would come to Bubbles O'Leary's Irish Pub in Kololo to use the free Read Full Post
Blogren: I'm back. I got in on Sunday and have been successfully avoiding ffene since.
I know happy hour usually takes place the last week of the month, but I'd love to see you all. Dee suggested that I call an impromptu, mid-month reunion. How does next Thursday, January 15 at 7:00pm sound? Mateo's?
I leave today for two weeks in Kampala, a trip I've been looking forward to since I left Uganda 15 months ago. While there, I'll be doing research for a professor at Columbia University as part of my master's program in Economic and Political Development.
Training session through BBC's Communicating Justice programThe research includes a survey of African journalists in Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda who have received training in business/economic reporting. The goal is to contribute to a better understanding of the effect that journalism training has had on the media climate in these countries Read Full Post
Birthday jackfruit via Jill York. She notes that "it's a disney world jackfruit, grown in epcot's 'living with the land.'"I closed out 2006 with a list of predictions for 2007, including the death of Museveni from gout (still waiting) and the discovery of Salim Saleh's closet shrine to Jay-Z (less probable, though not entirely impossible). Those were strange times.
San Francisco Demonstration in Solidarity with Gaza, from isa eUnless your holiday season involves complete and total hibernation, you've probably heard about this weekend's attacks in Gaza. More than 350 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed so far, and neither Israel nor Hamas shows any sign of backing down.
A few minutes ago I got an e-mail from Jill York announcing that the Israeli Consulate in New York will be holding a press conference this afternoon to field questions about Israel's offensive. Slight twist: they'll be holdi Read Full Post
To commemorate World AIDS Day 2008, the Global Voices team has created a Google map of HIV-positive bloggers around the world. Africa only has two entries so far, one in the DRC and one in Botswana. The map is a work in progress, so if you know of anyone in Uganda (or elsewhere), please email Global Voices Public Health Editor, Juhie Bhatia.
For those of us who have spent long hours in front of blank computer screens, watching the empty status bar at the bottom of our browser windows, hoping to see a tiny increment of movement that would indicate our desired site was finally loading: wait no more.
A fellow GV-er has just sent out a list of three simples sites that will tell you Read Full Post
The Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative is a local Ugandan non-profit that uses digital technology, including a blog, SMS and online forums and audio files in English and local languages, to help farmers in Uganda share information about health, agriculture and education. Check it out:
Image from Desmond BlogBarack Obama has been called, by everyone from Columbia Law School professor Eben Moglen to media expert Jeff Jarvis, "the first candidate elected by the internet." By all accounts, online fundraising was a major factor in propelling Obama to the top, and his new Read Full Post
As I mentioned last week, Columbia University's international affairs blog, The Morningside Post, is hosting a global liveblog of the election returns today.
Columbia professors David Epstein, Andrew Gelman, Brigitte Nacos and Sharyn O'Halloran will join bloggers from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Singapore, Germany, Mexico, Japan, Russia, India, Switzerland, Canada and Brazil to comment as results come in and to offer opinions and analysis on the election's domestic and international Read Full Post
My sentiments exactly.In six days, Americans will be rid of George Bush.
I'm pausing to let that sink in. It Sounds. So. Good.
Elections haven't always been a big thing for me. Eight years ago I failed the AP U.S. History test because my teacher spent an entire semester discussing hanging chads instead of Eisenhower and the Space Race. Four years ag Read Full Post
Sam Gregory, Program Director of the video-based human rights organization Witness, is in a class of mine today, talking about the use of video for human rights advocacy. Questions of effectiveness, ethics and accessibility below:
Jackfruit Ganesha via RuchiiSome research I'm doing on crowdsourcing in crisis is starting to take (nebulous, uncertain) shape via my Delicious account. Some highlights:
The "crisis mapping" section of iRevolution, the blog of Fletcher School PhD candidate Patrick Meier, is a glorious treasure trove of histories, plans and possibilities for digital mapping based on crowdsourced information in conflict early warning and prevention syst Read Full Post
Artocarpus heterophyllus via Russian in Brazil on FlickrMidterms are kicking in this week, and I'm trying to juggle six classes, SIPA's blog, Bayit life (including a three-hour dinner in our sukkah yesterday), research responsibilities and some other stuff I've probably forgotten. Among the fifteen tips my econ professor gave us for taking the midterm:
What to do if you freeze. I hope it does not hap Read Full Post
Jackfruit closeup courtesy of aldenhg on FlickrI ran into a friend of mine last Thursday. "I woke up this morning feeling like today was a holiday," she said, with obvious glee at the prospect of watching Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin humiliate herself yet again on national television.
I was going to make this the Palin Edition of Jackfruit of the Week, commenting snarkily on pieces like this:
The problem with Ms. Palin’s candidacy is that John McCa Read Full Post
Tonight the United Nations Studies Program at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs is hosting a panel on the world food crisis titled "Hunger turns to anger: a priority of the United Nations?" Jeffrey Sachs, UN Under-Secretary-General Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UN Under-Secretary-General of Humanitarian Affairs Sir John Holmes, and International Federation of Agricultural Producers President Ajaykumar Manubhai Vashee are presenting. I've been tapped to cover the event for The Morningside Post, but I'll also be liveblogging below:
These gigantic jackfruits are... gigantic. Hat tip: Jillian York.I've been reading a lot about ethnic conflict this week to prepare for two presentations I'm giving next month, but rather than quote something, I'd like to point you to two related links that came my way today:
Never Again in Sri Lanka is a set of video clips in English, Sinhala and Tamil that commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1983 anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka. The videos were originally broadcast on Sri Lankan television and have been collected Read Full Post
Baby jackfruit via Don Fulano This week I was offered a spot on the editorial staff The Morningside Post, Columbia University's international affairs blog. I'll be working a lot with outreach and video, as well as helping to roll out a shiny new design that will better showcase the variety of our content. I'll also be blogging about media, technology and development (and maybe a celebrity or two). Meanwhile, I urge you to check out the wealth of archived po Read Full Post
Over the past two years I've experimented with a feature on this blog called "Jackfruit of the week," most recently last November. It's usually a picture of (what else?) a jackfruit accompanied by some of the most intriguing things I've read or seen that week, similar to Chris Blattman's Links I liked posts.
For the next two years, I'm going to try to make JOTW a regular occurrence by basing it on things I'm reading or watching for class. My degree is in Economic and Political Development with a focus in (new) media, so most of the things I share here will be vaguely related to things like Internet and political development, but there might be the occasional piece of statistics humor. Without further ado:
I moved to New York earlier this month to start grad school at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. I've been neglecting most things online during the process of packing/traveling/unpacking/buying lots of stuff that I already own but that didn't make the ruthless weight and space requirements for the move and was consequently left in Kansas.
I've settled in to my new home, made it through the first week of orientation (including 14 hours of the euphemistically titled "Math Camp") and procured Internet access. Now that I'm online again, I realize it's BlogDay 2008.
Everyone told me Dubrovnik would be the highlight of my trip to the Balkans last week. The Adriatic is what seas should be, they said. The city walls are beautiful. Croatians are so nice. You'll f Read Full Post
The March 10 protests in Lhasa on the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule immediately won the sympathy and support of Western me Read Full Post
One of my strongest memories from Uganda is riding the bus between Kampala and Gulu, watching the land — green, thick, damp and hilly in Kampala, at times stifling and claustrophobic — fla Read Full Post
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Mamdani vs. Prendergast</a></h4>
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Tonight <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmood_Mamdani">Mahmood Mamdani</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Prendergast">John Prendergast</a> will fight to the death share a <a href="http://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/get.php?brand=sipa&id=32171&vt=detail&context=standalone">civil debate</a> on the situation in Darfur, an event I)
tweeting from the debate, and you can follow along below.
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<div class="dateheader"><a href="/blogspirit/feed.php?y=2009&m=03&d=20">March 20, 2009</a></div>
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mobile activism in african elections</a></h4>
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A paper I wrote for <a href="http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/an115-fac.html">Anne Nelson)
New Media in Development Communications class last semester was published this week on 
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This month's (impromptu) Uganda Blogger Happy Hour was nothing short of perfect. It was the two-year anniversary of the 
As I mentioned 
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