RConversation

Tsunami news: blogs and wikis

Want to know which areas were worst-hit by the Tsunami, which aid agencies are bringing aid to whom, and what is needed where? If you want to know how you can help, you don't need to comb the newspapers and news sites. You don't even need to pick your way through Google search results. Just go to the Tsunami Help blog. (hat tip to Smart Mobs)  Glenn Reynolds points to a number of bloggers who have been covering the Tsunami with firsthand accounts and photos. This includes great stuff by Malaysian blogger Jeff Ooi, who impressed us all at Harvard earlier this month.

Wikinews has a Tsunami news page. This is their first big global breaking story. It will be interesting to compare and contrast over the next few days: which format does a better job at rounding up the details, casualty numbers, other info, etc?  Which format sticks with the story and informs the public better with the information it wants and needs? The traditional news updates via Reuters, AP, and CNN.com? Or Wikinews?  Hit the "comments" section and let me know what y'all think.

I have myself expressed skepticism in the past about Wikinews.  I think the wiki format might be better suited to some kinds of stories than to others. But if the wiki community rises to the occasion, the tsunami story presents a real opportunity for Wikinews to prove its worth. People are going to want a one-stop place to get the full update on everything going on with the Tsunami. Different people are going to be looking for different information. No news roundup can please everybody, but a wiki just might... if it keeps up-to-date fast enough.

We are, of course, assuming that Wikinews is getting its casualty numbers from professional media reports. So one could argue that this is a case of Wikinews complementing the work of professional media, rather than eliminating the need for professional journalists. Which leads me to another question: to remain competitive should the news agencies be setting up wiki pages for the information they're gathering on natural disasters - or any other breaking story for that matter?   

BloggerCorps has 1st success story... where to go from here?

BloggerCorps has had its first success story in Kentucky: Bob Cornett reports that his education-focused grassroots group has found a local blogger to help them build a blogging strategy, thanks to our site. Unfortunately the other two organizations - in England and the Middle East - have not been so lucky. I think the main reason for this is that nobody is pointing to these announcements on their blogs.

BloggerCorps is an experiment in the un-organization. It has no physical presence. It's a blog. It is  about matching up non-profits and activist organizations with bloggers living in their areas who are willing to volunteer time to help them blog.

So in order to succeed, Bloggercorps needs the help of bloggers everywhere to do what they do best: blog about it and link to it. That's the most important way you can help make a difference. We also need a sizable group of people with ties to nonprofits and activists, with guest author privileges on the Bloggercorps blog, who will post new announcements about people seeking help.

With nobody else posting (and nobody else requesting author privileges), Bloggercorps has gone dormant for the last month.  I got swamped with several conferences and writing deadlines. I had hoped that other people would sign up for authorship and post stuff but nobody did. I'm thinking we should maybe migrate it from Typepad to WordPress - or maybe Civicspace? - in order to make that process easier. I am open to suggestions.

A bit of history: After I first blogged the idea a huge meta-discussion ensued about tools and structures, and it seemed like we'd get so bogged down in that, nothing would ever move forward.  And since John Stanforth had kindly seized the bull by the horns, gotten the domain name and set up the BloggerCorps blog on Typepad, it made sense to just proceed with that structure and see what came of it. I still don't think it's a failed experiment... it just needs a lot of people actively posting on it, linking to it, and blogging about it so that other bloggers can find out about worthy organizations in their local areas who could use their help... if they could only find each other.

I'm open to suggestions and would very much like people to let me know if they'd like author privileges on BloggerCorps. We'll get you set up. Meanwhile, I hope all you fellow bloggers out  there will put it in your aggregators and link to the posts whenever you see an appeal by an organization you think is worthy of help.

Japanese teenage girls are shaping your tech future

Thanks to my friend Dave M. for pointing out an article in SFGate by Jeff Yang: The Gadget Gap: Why does all the cool stuff come out in Asia first?

Read the article to find out why... and why a lot of Japan's coolest stuff never makes it to the U.S. at all.  Also learn why teenage girls are the driving force of Japan's technological bleeding-edge. (In the U.S., it's middle-aged men.)

Based on my own experience living and working in Japan, Yang's analysis is spot on. Especially this:

There's another basic reason Japanese gizmos are cooler than ours, and a reason many of the best tech pickings are restricted to the domestic market. Simply put, Japanese companies (aided by government subsidies and cheap financial-sector loans) have spent billions of dollars in building out key infrastructure -- for example, widespread ultra-high-speed cell-phone networks and readily available broadband Internet access. (Japan is, after South Korea, second in the world in fast-Internet access penetration; the United States is 10th, behind such global tech giants as Belgium.) America's mediocre digital foundation means that devices like DoCoMo's bleeding-edge FOMA phones -- capable of such feats as mobile videoconferencing -- wouldn't work here even if they were available.

Yang also points us to a couple of good websites where you can find out what you might have been getting for Christmas if you lived in a more advanced country: Dynamism.com and I4U.

Global Voices Radio

Thanks to Benjamen Walker for helping me put together this online radio story about the Global Voices conference.  The Global Voices wiki and blog are going gangbusters, discussing future projects and putting together a Manifesto/covenant.  We are also posting the raw audio of the conference on the blog.

I had a great time putting together that radio spot. After I get through the holidays, run my half marathon, and get through the three conferences I'm involved with in January, I want to start podcasting.

What conferences, you ask? One is a small private one on the internet in China not posted online, one is something I'm organizing on "Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility," and the third is the World Economic Forum, where I will be a panelist at a session on blogging and will also help lead the blogging team for the Forum Blog.

Thanks, Ethan.

So I emailed Ethan about some stuff and complained about a boring date I recently went on. He replies oh so sympathetically:

Uh, no offense, but you have to be the world's most intimidating dinner date:

RMack: Well, I used to be CNN 's bureau chief in Beijing, but it wasn't challenging enough, so I moved to Tokyo and became bureau chief there as well. What do you do?
Date: Uh, I'm an accountant.
RMack: So what do you like to do in your spare time? Me, I'm training for a half-marathon and helping reinvent media through weblogs. And you?
Date: Uh, I collect comics...

Gag X-mas gifts for single people

Unfortunately these gifts aren't on sale in U.S. stores. But maybe Joi will buy some for us... ;-)

A woman's lap for men:

 

...and a man's arm for women:

Gotta love Japan!

Workers strike - and blog - in China

Chinese workers (mainly women from poor provinces) are on strike at a factory in Southern China run by Uniden, a Japanese manufacturer that supplies Walmart with mobile phones. Guess what? The strikers have a blog! (Hat tip to  Isaac Mao and Fons Tuinstra.) 

As usual, the Chinese  media has not covered the story.  But the striking workers are using the blog and bulletin board posts to get the news out.  Reports say they've also been using SMS text messaging to organize.

According to the NYT, in order to earn a basic monthly salary of about $58, the young women employed by Uniden's Shenzhen factory are required to work 11-hour days, including three hours of mandatory overtime. About half of their wage goes to pay for lodging in company dormitories. The factory won't give sick leave except in very serious cases, so workers are required to use the factory clinic where medicines are much more expensive than elsewhere.  The NYT also cites workers who say many underage girls are employed at the factory. This is how Walmart manages to be so cheap.

The blog, which was started on December 15th, includes updates on negotiations with factory management, links to articles written outside China about the strike and other labor issues in China, and documents pertaining to labor laws and workers' rights in China.

I'm checking with people in China to find out whether it's possible to access the blog without a proxy server.

Manifesto for a better Global Conversation

For those of you who couldn't make the Global Voices workshop on Saturday, check out an overview I wrote for Personaldemocracy.com.

People have been writing many thoughtful things in reaction to Global Voices. They include Jay Rosen, Chris Lydon, and Dan Henninger in this WSJ op-ed.

The group is now collectively writing a manifesto. Further reversions will be appearing on the wiki. All suggestions are welcome. Here is what we've got so far:

We believe in free speech, both in protecting the right to speak and extending access to the tools of speech. We define speech broadly to include many media that facilitate expression.  

The broadest right of free speech has always extended primarily to those who owned technology for publishing and distribution, beginning with the printing press. It is now possible for anyone to publish, broadcast and have access to a distribution channel via the Internet. It is our goal that everyone who wants to speak can be heard.

We believe in the power of direct connection and the freedom to connect. The bond between individuals from different worlds is personal, political and powerful.

We seek to create bridges that cross the gulfs that have traditionally divided us. When we cross these gulfs, we understand each other more fully, work together more effectively, and act more powerfully. With these bridges, we can do together what we could only dream of doing alone.

Direct connection is its own reward. However, in a world full of challenges, it is also the best path to building a future that is freer, fairer, more sustainable and more prosperous.

While we’re all committed to our own work as individuals, we also recognize our common interest and goals. We each speak for ourselves, but we’re all in this together. We pledge to respect, listen to, assist, and learn from one other. We are Global Voices.

Feel free to visit the blog and add your two cents.

My friend detained in China

My friend Liu Xiaobo (pictured on the right) was taken away by police late Monday Beijing time, according to the NYT and China Digital News.

Since the 1989 Tiananmen square protest movement he has had much experience with arrest, detention, and house arrest.

I hope I will live to see the day when I no longer have to worry about my Chinese friends disappearing.

UPDATE: Liu and two other intellectuals have now been released, after police held them overnight for questioning.

A new movement is launched!

Wow. Global Voices Online, our daylong international bloggers' workshop held as part of the Berkman Center's Internet & Society conference, was a stunning success.  Special thanks to my brilliant colleague Ethan Zuckerman and the collective brilliance of the assembled bloggers and technologists from all over the world.  I didn't have time to blog the sessions as they went along, but plenty of others did. They included David Weinberger, "j", Jeff Jarvis, Jeff Ooi, Isaac Mao (in Chinese), Alex Steffen, John Lebkowsky (participating remotely via IRC), Matt of "Blackfive", Tim Oren and many others... according to Technorati and Feedster.

"Global Voices" is now the name of a new movement. As Ethan says in his summary of our next steps: "We’re all in this together, and something big is happening."

This is a movement of global cyber-citizens. We are developing a manifesto, which includes the following core beliefs and goals:

1) we believe in free speech – and act to defend it and extend it

2) we believe in direct connection between people in ways which allow us to consider ourselves part of a bigger here and wider us – and we act to bring flows of tools, money and attention to bear on creating channels for those connections to develop

3) we believe in planetary citizenship along international norms – and we act to empower campaigns to make the world fairer, freer, more prosperous and more sustainable.

Saturday's meeting included people from a broad political spectrum. I hope the Global Voices movement will remain broad and inclusive. Occasionally there were disagreements. But one thing was very clear: neither left nor right has a monopoly on the desire for free speech and a more open, global citizens' dialogue. As Ethan says, we're all in this together.

So if these values speak to you and if you think you'd have something to contribute, check out the Global Voices blog for more details.