-
The official announcement from ICANN.
0 Comments
links for 2009-10-30
-
"By the middle of next year, Internet surfers will be allowed to use Web addresses written completely in Chinese, Arabic, Korean and other languages using non-Latin alphabets, the organization overseeing Internet domain names announced Friday in a decision that could make the Web more accessible."
Caribbean Free Radio #51 – 3canal: Dreaming of India
Caribbean Free Radio #51 - 3canal: Dreaming of India [19:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1969)
(L to R) Fashion designer Robert Young of The Cloth with Wendell Manwarren and Roger Roberts of Trinidad and Tobago rapso band 3canal. Wendell and Roger are wearing jackets Robert designed for their upcoming tour of India.
Caribbean Free Radio #51 is a command performance of sorts recorded at Little House, home of 2/3 of my house band 3canal. I was summoned there last night to talk with Wendell Manwarren and Roger Roberts about their upcoming tour of India.
Also discussed: Roger’s participation in the New York City Marathon (bib #18722, in case you’re interested) this coming Sunday! I’ve just signed up with the Marathon’s Athlete Alert service so I can track Roger’s progress on race day.
Caribbean Free Radio #51 - 3canal: Dreaming of India [19:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1969)
links for 2009-10-29
-
Doesn't somebody from the Caribbean want to apply for a Nieman Journalism Fellowship at Harvard?
links for 2009-10-22
-
Researching–or want to research–the public impact of ICTs on the Caribbean? Apply for an Amy Mahan fellowship today!
-
"I don't know what's worse: this act of vandalisation in the name of philistine "beautification"; or the fact that it was probably the result of considered good intentions (of the kind that pave the proverbial road to perdition); or even the fact that I feel slightly guilty bothering about the whole thing, in the midst of a prolonged nationwide social collapse with far more urgent symptoms. Why am I troubling myself about an obscure piece of public sculpture instead of picketing Whitehall or UDECOTT or the EMA or the office of the Leader of the Opposition or the constituency office of the MP I didn't vote for?"
-
Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica doing respectably, at #28 and #23, respectively, and Guyana (tied #39) has risen in the rankings, overtaking Surinam (#42). DR, Haiti and Cuba–predictably–near the bottom of the pile. But where's the rest of the Caribbean?
-
Given the rapid pace of growth/change in urban areas, somebody should be doing this in every city in the world.
links for 2009-10-21
-
"Unless a great many people learn the basics of online crap detection and begin applying their critical faculties en masse and very soon, I fear for the future of the Internet as a useful source of credible news, medical advice, financial information, educational resources, scholarly and scientific research. Some critics argue that a tsunami of hogwash has already rendered the Web useless. I disagree."
-
"Technology and access to internet has advanced so much in the past years, that some will argue that there is no longer a question of whether people in remote areas will soon communicate online. Rather, we should talk about what forms of communication will take place."
-
“Digital access is essential to first class citizenship in our society. Without digital, you lack full access to information, you are second class economically and even socially,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of Knight Foundation. “If a job application at Wal-Mart or MacDonald’s must be made online, how can we pretend that we have equal opportunity if significant portions of our communities don’t have access? Libraries can be part of the solution.”
As seen on the streets of Accra
As seen on the streets of Accra from Georgia Popplewell on Vimeo.
Like most countries in the developing world, my own included, Ghana has a vast informal economy in which street vendors play an important role. According to a 2003 study done by the Natural Resources Institute in collaboration with the Food Research Institute and the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Ghana, street vending employs over 60,000 people and has an estimated annual turnover of over US$100 million with an annual profit of US$24million. Given the pace at which a city like Accra has been growing in the past decade, I’d imagine you’d have to multiply the ’03 figures by several to arrive at a current estimate.
The video above offers only a minute and relatively uninteresting sampling of the range of items I saw on sale on the streets of Accra. A more complete list would include:
hats, caps, neckties, fans, sponges, clocks, full-length mirrors, volumes of Kwame Nkrumah’s speeches, electric lamps, copies of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, kente-patterned boxes of tissues, briefcases, eyeglasses, world maps, culturally inappropriate colouring books, foodstuff, fruit, including apples neatly packaged in stacks of two and three in long, narrow plastic bags, chewing gum, candy, garden shears, footballs in Ghana colours, dog leashes and muzzles, cufflinks, SIM cards, mobile phone airtime, Livestrong-style wristbands, television antennas, razors, toilet paper, shoe polish, shoe brushes, pens, garments, framed paintings.
links for 2009-10-20
-
Netherlands-based MetropolisTV is looking for video journalists to join their global network.
-
Kajsa Hallberg Adu's take on Mo Ibrahim's decision not to award an African governance prize this year.
links for 2009-10-17
-
Nikipedia does me one better and outlines the measures contained in CARICOM’s proposed Model Professional Services Bill that could make life very difficult for Caribbean journalists.
Caribbean journalists, do you wish to be “regularised” by CARICOM?
Posting this notice circulated this morning on Facebook by the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT, when are you going to get yourselves a proper, public-facing web site?). A copy of the document in question can be viewed here. I urge others to publicise this matter widely:
"Wesley Gibbings, president of the ACM [Association of Caribbean Media Workers], says:
This is to advise of the imminent introduction of a Model Professional Services Bill to Caricom member states which calls for, among other things, the registration and licensing of media workers.
The bill is meant to 'regularise' and harmonise standards among professionals in a wide range of categories under the ambit of the CSME.
The subject was raised at a CSME workshop in St Lucia on October 12 by Caricom officials.
I have already advised that this matter is not subject to negotiation. It is a well-established fact that the licensing of journalists constitutes an outright threat to freedom of the press and other rights. There is also a growing body of international judicial precedents which determines its unlawful nature.
The ACM is moving quickly to nip this in the bud. We are inviting a senior Caricom official to discuss this matter with us at the forthcoming conference and fifth biennial general meeting in Grenada on December 10-12. Hopefully, the outcome will be a very clear message to have this withdrawn as a proposal to Caricom member states.
This is dangerous territory and I am urging all of us to use the tools at our disposal to publicise this issue and to act decisively to ensure the model Bill, especially as it relates to media workers, does not reach anywhere near our parliaments.
We will be mobilising international support for the campaign."
links for 2009-10-16
-
Important post from Guy Berger about government reactions to more active civic participation in Namibia and Botswana. (via @oso)
Ghana: A lesson in branding
It’s hard not to take notice of South African telecoms giant MTN’s presence in Ghana, thanks at least in part to the colours in its logo. Vodafone, the country’s flagship telecoms operator, does a fair amount of this kind of branding as well, but Vodafone red can’t hold a candle to MTN yellow, especially under the West African sun.
There’s a branding/design lesson in there somewhere.
[Video] Talking about the Obama Nobel in Ghana
Filmed this down and dirty little video yesterday at the National Museum in Accra, Ghana. In it I ask three Africans–two Ghanaians and an Ethiopian–what they think about Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize win.
Visual tendencies
The things you discover, along the way, about the way you see things.
“Manhattan Valley Viaduct (yellow cab)” – New York, September 2009
“Manhattan Valley Viaduct (town car)” – New York, September 2009
“Cae la noche (rojo)” – Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain, November 2007
“Cae la noche (negro)” – Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain, November 2007