Bearing Witness: Submit content on IDPs and Police brutality in Sri Lanka to win a Flip Ultra video camera

I’ve just announced over on Groundviews a new competition aimed at strengthening critical citizen journalism on two vital issues confronting polity and society in post-war Sri Lanka – the conditions facing Internally Displaced Persons (IPDs) and growing reports of Police brutality. Details of the competition, the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, can be [...]

The humanitarian catastrophe in Menik Camp and media coverage

On Friday, 14th August, Groundviews was the first in Sri Lanka to go public with the story that torrential rain in Vavuniya was severely affecting thousands of IDPs interned in Menik Camp. We followed up our breaking news report with the first images from the flood affected Menik Camp. Today, Groundviews followed up with more [...]

Ushahidi’s Goma release incorporates features from ICT4Peace Foundation’s crisis information management prototype

Ushahidi’s launched a major new update to their platform called Goma. I’m looking forward to downloading their new thin client mobile apps. Their J2ME app does not yet support the Blackberry Bold, so I’m going to download the Windows Mobile version of it on a Samsung i780 later today. I was very pleased to see [...]

Sunday Times in Sri Lanka – Another groundbreaking first in online journalism

Unhappy with “hosting” Twitter, the Sunday Times has now converted its own Twitter feed to, get this, a protected account. Not that the Twitter feed of the Sunday Times worked in the first place. This is to my knowledge the only Twitter feed in the world today belonging to a traditional media owner that has [...]

Northern Province website re-launched. But where is it?

The Ministry of Defence website notes that the government’s website for the Northern Province was recently relaunched. As the MoD notes, The website which is to be regularly updated contains information of the development activities underway in all the five districts, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mulltativu, Vavuniya and Jaffna. The website can be described as a comprehensive [...]

Online identity: Real or fake for a reason?

The Economist has a short but effective write up about online identity based on a recent survey on ‘real names’ vs. pseudonyms in pen names. We have wanted to encourage (not require) readers to use their real names when commenting on The Economist web site. Our hope is that increased use of real names will [...]

Pushing “big media” in Sri Lanka?

Though I missed it, Nalaka Gunawardene’s presentation at the Sri Lanka launch of Asia Media Report 2009 has found it’s way to his blog. Nalaka’s is Sri Lanka’s most insightful writers on the media. His presentation at this event squares with my own keynote presentation delivered at the Sri Lankan chapter of the South Asia [...]

Google Earth gives more detailed information on destruction in Darfur

I first covered Crisis in Darfur over two years ago. Google and the US Holocaust Museum are now providing more detailed information through Google Earth of atrocities on the ground. As Google notes in its Google Earth blog, Now the Museum is providing, through its partnership with Google Earth, the most detailed picture to date [...]

Twitter’s down and Facebook is slow, not just for Sri Lanka

One never knows when a site doesn’t load in Sri Lanka whether the good folk at SLT have blocked it to protect our morals. Fearing the worst when Facebook was sluggish and Twitter refused to load, went to Google and found two sites that are quite handy. The first, Is Twitter Down?, is a site [...]

Neda Agha-Soltan’s mother speaks out

The murder of Neda Agha-Soltan is one of the most watched and viral videos and viscerally compelling stories that came out of Iran this year. Neda’s mother was interviewed by the BBC recently. This is one answer. How would you like your daughter to be remembered? I don’t want people to forget her. People – [...]