Of course, we’re not in the same league. But this post on Mashable on efforts by the US Library of Congress to archive information on the web resonates deeply with my own efforts to archive web content in Sri Lanka at risk of disappearing. With now around to 15 billion tweets, it’s good news that [...]
Archive | May, 2010
A TEDGlobal 2010 Fellow
I’ve been selected as a TED Global Fellow for 2010. As one of the first of two Sri Lankans to receive a TED fellowship – the other being Roshini Thinakaran, based in the US - I see this a significant affirmation of the raison d’être of Groundviews and the potential of new media and ICTs to bear [...]
Regime change via ICTs. Not. But bearing witness?
Evgeny Morozov is not a technocrat, and this is the single most refreshing aspect about his writing and presentations. Unlike my own work, anchored to using ICTs to prise open, strengthen and sustain democratic dialogue and dissent under repressive regimes, Evgeny’s work is fascinating – and vital – because of his emphasis of and evidence [...]
What is going on in Pakistan?
First, in 2008 they blocked YouTube in a way that brought down the whole site. They have certainly learnt from this mistake, and have now gone and blocked access to the site completely within the country without being a nuisance for the rest of us. Perhaps they were worried about the rising popularity of Elijah [...]
Unique perspectives on the end of war in Sri Lanka
“I am an Indian pediatrician who served with the Indian Medical Team at Menik Farm IDP center. The point I am trying to raise is this we were managing scores of infants with bullet / shell blast injuries (some festering, mostly healed). It gives an idea of the extent of collateral damage suffered by [...]
https://www.google.com launches: Encrypted searching gets a boost
Though it doesn’t guarantee confidentiality from prying eyes if one’s computer is compromised through a trojan, virus, keystroke logger or other localised means, the launch of Google’s SSL search page comes as very good news. It’s not yet available for Google Sri Lanka, but I expect it will soon. As Google notes, With Google search [...]
Google Latitude for human rights activists
I’ve written about Google Latitude earlier on this blog. What dedicated GPS devices like a Garmin did in the past, most mobile phones can now do out of the box. Location mapping is a new dimension in web services, and while platforms like Ushahidi are in the limelight for using location data via mobile phone to, [...]
Recording of HPCR’s live seminar on “ICT and Protection: Can Information and Communication Technology Enhance Humanitarian Action?”
On 12 May, I delivered a presentation in my capacity as Special Advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation to a web seminar on ICT and Protection: Can Information and Communication Technology Enhance Humanitarian Action?, organised by the Humanitarian Law and Policy Forum at Harvard University. The original recording of the entire web cast can be streamed [...]
Meeting Ushahidi’s Juliana Rotich
After nearly 2 years of email contact, I had the pleasure of meeting in person and for the first time, Ushahidi’s co-founder and TED Fellow Juliana Rotich in Geneva last week. Disarmingly charming and with a deliciously wicked sense of humour, we talked about the more interesting requests Ushahidi has received to use its platform [...]
World Radio Switzerland addresses ICT4Peace and Crisis Information Management (CiM)
Last Thursday (13 May), World Radio Switzerland interviewed Daniel Stauffacher, Chairman of the ICT4Peace Foundation on the use of ICTs in peacebuilding as well as in crisis information management (CiM), such as that designed for and deployed in post-earthquake Haiti earlier this year. World Radio Switzerland is part of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, Switzerland’s national [...]
