September 30, 2005
*PoliticsOnline Asks the Readers*
Uganda has begun a $1 million advertising campaign with CNN to change its image abroad, which includes online advertising. This has us wondering - have other countries used online advertising to improve their images? If you know something, share it with us!
Starting this October, millions of television viewers around the world will be shown a different picture of Uganda, away from war, disease, corruption, major criticisms that have seen the country's image abroad take a nosedive in the last few months. Uganda has sealed a $1 million deal with CNN called ‘Brand Uganda’ which will include sponsorship and advertising on the Inside Africa show on CNN, CNN Online and CNN Travel Magazine.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509250291.html
***PoliticsOnline Asks the Readers***
Hiring PR firms to campaign and buy ad space to promote a country’s image is not unusual –Following 9/11 Middle Eastern countries rushed to take out advertising space to tackle image problems in the United States-- what is unusual is that Uganda’s campaign includes an online advertising piece. Do you know of any other online country advertising buys? Submit your ideas to editor@politicsonline.com.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 29, 2005
Internet Voting for Displaced New Orleans Residents
With residents displaced and dispersed throught Louisiana and the United States, the city of New Orleans is considering providing Internet-based voting fort its residents in the February mayoral election.
Check out these resources to learn more about Internet voting proposals in New Orleans. Katrina Spurs Internet Election http://searchcio.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid19_gci1129153,00.html Louisiana to Study Plan for Internet Voting Post-Katrina
http://searchcio.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid19_gci1130226,00.html
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 26, 2005
The Great Firewall of China
The Chinese government has imposed more restrictions intended to limit the news and other information available to Internet users, and has further restricted the scope of content permitted on Web sites.
Over the Weekend, China imposed a new set of laws regulating the Internet, effective immediately.
China Tightens Its Restrictions for News Media on the Internet
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/26/international/asia/26china.html?th&emc=th
China Sets New Rules on Internet News
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/25/AR2005092500310.html
Great Firewall: China's model for a Censored Net
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0925china-internet25.html
Posted by Buzz Webster at 01:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 22, 2005
Planning Ahead for Hurricane Rita
The folks who brought us the Katrina PeopleFinder project are one step ahead of Hurricane Rita -- they have begun compiling web-based resources that can be deployed to assist those affected by Rita.
Visit the Hurricane Rita help wiki at: http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Hurricane_Rita
Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 20, 2005
Grassroots Activism Gets Organized
Who should online grassroots activists support in the 2006 elections? Tell Democracy for America who you think the next All-Star grassroots candidate should be.
This week, Democracy for America is hosting an online instant run-off vote to determine which Congressional candidate will receive our first DFA-List endorsement of 2006.
Last week, we held the first round of voting, narrowing the field of 60 Congressional candidates down to 10. This week, we are holding an Instant Run-off Vote to determine the winner.
Results are updated hourly and can be seen at BlogForAmerica.com. Voting closes on Saturday, September 24 at 5:00 pm Eastern Time.
Vote Here: http://tools.democracyforamerica.com/housevote/
Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 15, 2005
Join in the First Ever National Conversation!
What are others saying? Share and compare your views.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 14, 2005
Google Earth - A Threat to Democracy?
Is Google Earth a threat to international security, or is it not telling us anything we didn't already know? Nations and the media weigh in...
Thailand, the Netherlands and other countries have expressed their concern over information available on Google Earth.
The Federal Government of the United States admits there are privacy and possibly security concerns about Google Earth, an internet service which allows any computer user to zoom in on satellite image of their own or someone else's backyard.
But Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said Google Earth really didn't add to information already in the public domain. The government would act if it thought it or other web services posed a security risk, he said.
Google Earth Threatens Democracy
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/13/google_earth_threatens_democracy/
No additional risk from Google Earth: Ruddock
Google Earth becomes a Cause of Concern for Thai Security Agencies
Dutch politicians say Google Earth images help terrorists
http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=9618
Posted by Buzz Webster at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 12, 2005
Search Engines Set Out to Find Missing Persons
Don't know where to begin your search for a Hurricane Katrina survivor? Two companies have built specialized search engines to scour the scores of online missing person bulletin boards.
Scores of bulletin boards aimed at finding missing persons have popped up on the Internet since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and two companies have built specialized search engines to help scour them.
Lycos, the 10-year-old search company based in Waltham, Mass., searches at least 20 bulletin boards and missing persons Web sites every four hours to capture data for its service (lycos.com/katrina), while Yahoo retrieves information every hour from 15 large sites and many smaller ones for its engine (news.yahoo.com/katrinahelp).
Engineers for Lycos said they started the site Aug. 31 after noticing the proliferation of places for posting such information. Users initially had to go to each site and conduct a separate search, said Steve Quince, a director of engineering for Lycos. "We're not so much trying to solve the fragmentation as we are trying to accommodate it," he said.
Both search engines comb the Family News Network of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Nola .com (the Web site affiliated with The Times-Picayune, a New Orleans newspaper), Craigslist and the Katrina Safe List by the Cable News Network. Yahoo also scours its own bulletin boards dedicated to cities affected by the hurricane, universities and relief centers.
The online boards started with desperate posts for rescues and medicine drops. But they continue to be inundated with queries from people trying to reconnect with family members - and pets - after being evacuated to other cities.
"This is not just about finding the missing or deceased," Mr. Quince said. "It's about families trying to figure out where their families went."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/12/technology/12lycos.html
Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 08, 2005
3D Virtual Communities Join Katrina Relief Effort
Residents of online gaming communities are joining in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, virtually.
The momentum within online gaming communities to organise help and donations for the Hurricane Katrina relief effort is gathering pace.
Virtual worlds Second Life and There are using their community and technology to let players donate funds from within the games.
In Second Life, a virtual memorial has been created, where residents have been donating and placing virtual candles.
The companies behind There have also pledged to match gamers' contributions.
"In support of these Community efforts and in response to this disaster, Makena Technologies, together with The Maya Foundation, will match the Community's contribution up to $50,000," a statement on the website read.
'Lindens' to dollars
In Second Life and There, players or residents build the neighbourhoods and virtual structures within. They work in a similar way to the Sims games.
Both games are more like physical worlds which focus on social interaction over gameplay.
One Second Life resident called ReallyRick Metropolitan constructed the computer generated memorial for those who perished.
Virtual worlds are places in which people can hang out, build and interact
Within hours, virtual candles were constructed and placed around it, as well as other virtual tributes.
A clickable sign in the game takes residents to a Yahoo page where they can donate directly to the Red Cross.
A contribution system to turn Linden Dollars, Second Life's virtual currency which players use to trade in virtual goods, into to dollars is also being developed.
It lets residents directly contribute their in-world currency to the relief effort, according to one of the Second Life official bloggers.
Residents can pay Linden dollars (L$) from their accounts to a donation box. The resident who owns the box converts the funds to "real-world" money and sends that to the American Red Cross.
"As with any act of charity, therefore, donating is an act of trust," said Second Life blogger, Wagner James Au.
The Second Life residents have collected at least $3,300 (£1,793) in "real-world" money.
They have also been holding in-world events, such as raffles, virtual item auctions, dance parties, casino-style game sessions, and live radio DJ telethons to raise L$, according to Wagner James Au.
"The fact that people in Second Life interact [as] avatars seems to make them more generous, more compassionate," he told the BBC News website.
"Perhaps because being together in an online world gives them the distance and abstraction not to be overwhelmed by the true horror of the event, while still feeling that connection, and that desire to connect, with others who are similarly galvanized by the tragedy."
Gamers relief
A dedicated aid programme for gamers, called Gamers Relief, has also launched a website to collect funds from gamers who want to help.
Its aim is "to rouse the gaming community and provide a means for them to aid those struck by the worst natural disaster in the history of the US."
"Usually gamers get a bad rap, especially in the US," co-founder Casey Ayers told the BBC News website.
"There has been lots of legislation lately that has blamed video games for violence. So this is a great opportunity for game lovers and the industry as whole to help people in need."
The gaming community has been moved to organise donations
The site is run by a network of volunteers within the gaming community which runs the Advance Media Network (AMN), a website community dedicated to video gaming news.
"We ask that gamers do without just one game, accessory, or console that was on their shopping lists and put this money toward the greatest cause of all - hope," a message on the Gamers Relief website reads.
The site, which went live on Monday, also hopes it can whip up some momentum from bigger media sites.
"Large sites are getting on board. We ask that anyone with a site or any form of media outlet places the Gamers Relief logo on their site with a link to donate," co-founder Sean O'Neill from AMN told the BBC News website.
"We have also been in talks with game publishers and developers who are looking to help. It's been incredible, and it's just the start."
Some people may be wary of contributing to a pool of funds, via the secure Paypal online payment system, that then gets forwarded to the American Red Cross.
But Mr O'Neil and Mr Ayers stressed that 100% of the funds would be going directly to the American Red Cross.
"We have seen many people exploiting services like this," said Mr O'Neil. "I want to make it clear we are giving all the funds to the Red Cross.
"We will be providing the paperwork to show this at the end of each week to any press or media outlets who request it.
"This was the fastest way we could set up such a fund. On top of that many of the larger companies who are looking to get involved are asking for follow-ups in terms of a paper trail which we are happy to provide.
"We are working to find better ways to tackle this issue in the future."
Last week, Sony Online Entertainment, which is behind the hugely popular Everquest II massively multiplayer online game, said it had introduced an in-game donation command line.
By typing in a /donate command, players are automatically taken to the American Red Cross's Hurricane 2005 relief page where they can donate.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4219030.stm
Posted by Buzz Webster at 02:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
September 06, 2005
Location-Specific Katrina Information Reported on Google Map
See how badly your neighborhood was impacted by Katrina or tell others what you know using the location-specific map at: www.scipionus.com/.
Katrina Information Map - This map is intended for the use of people affected by Hurricane Katrina who have or are trying to find information about the status of specific locations affected by the storm and its aftermath. If you have information about the status of an area that is not yet on the map, please contribute so that others may get that much needed information.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 03, 2005
Housing Classifieds for Hurricane Victims
The folks at MoveOn.org, better known for its left-leaning politics, established a unique Web page, HurricaneHousing.org, which is seeking to match those willing to house the thousands of displaced victims with those victims.
"The folks at MoveOn.org, better known for its left-leaning politics, established a unique Web page, HurricaneHousing.org, which is seeking to match those willing to house the thousands of displaced victims with those victims.
While success is not likely to come until victims or their families are able to gain Internet access, postings for available homes, apartments and duplexes are soaring and, as of Friday night, some 77,000 locations throughout the country were listed for victims to choose from."
With the vast number of entries from those eager to help out, offers from Wisconsin try to soften the blow of potentially cold Wisconsin winters by saying, "It is cold in Wisconsin in the winter," they said, "but the house is warm and cozy." A Green Bay family offering a home for use was more obtuse. "Our winters are actually warmer than you think," they said in their offer.
http://www.madison.com/tct/home/photo/index.php?ntid=52859&ntpid=0
Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 01, 2005
Online Lost and Found for Hurricane Evacuees
From rescue pleas to an online lost and found to reunite displaced people with worried relatives, people are turning to the internet for help in Katrina's aftermath.
The age-old tools when searching for a missing loved one, a flier and Scotch tape, would seem to be useless this time, and people desperate for word from sons, daughters, parents or friends are turning to a different kind of lamppost.
"I really need to find my Dad," read a posting on Craigslist.com, a Web site better known as a place to buy or sell or rent, or look for love. The "lost and found" link for the New Orleans Craigslist, normally little used, was flooded yesterday with what is becoming the Hurricane Katrina version of an old-fashioned missing poster.
"I think some of them are being read," said Ava Dezara, 31, who posted the note looking for her father. "There's so many of them, I really don't know." A native of the devastated Ninth Ward of New Orleans, she lives in Reno, Nev., and has not heard from her father, who still lives in the neighborhood.
"I've heard from my sister. Neither she nor I have heard from my dad," she said by telephone yesterday as she scrolled down the growing Craigslist page. "Oh, my goodness, there's tons of them."
Under the heading "Submit Your Own Stories" on the Times-Picayune newspaper's Web site, www.nola.com, were similar messages, reminiscent of the missing posters that fluttered in New York City after the Sept. 11 attacks and throughout Indonesia after the tsunami last year.
But in addition, the newspaper created another category: People Needing Rescue. Dozens of people have posted notices begging the authorities to rescue their relatives from attics or buildings where they are believed to be trapped.
"Please help," one read. "About 400-500 people are gathered at the church on 5069 Willowbrook Drive, 70129 ZIP and are waiting for help. They have no food and water is rising. Please help."
The author, Trang Nguyen, 28, posted the note from Arlington, Tex., yesterday afternoon, and said a few hours later that she had not heard any good news yet. "They're still there," said Ms. Nguyen, whose parents know people from the church. "They've been swimming around, gathering each other in the church area." She said she tried to call the authorities, but could not get through and so turned to the Internet. "That was the only way."
In Indianapolis, Angelnet Johnson, 33, a New Orleans native, said she believed she had better luck getting help for her brother at his home on South Galvez Street. She posted a note yesterday morning on Craigslist, and when she spoke again to her brother, whose phone was working, he told her that help was on the way, she said.
"And when I called back two hours later, it just rang," she said. "I think it must have helped. I just was hoping. I figured if I left it at a news station, that some reporter or somebody would forward it to the search and rescue people."
There is no way to tell if the postings are working, short of anecdotes.
Alex Kehr started a new Web site yesterday devoted to posts for the missing, findkatrina.com. By yesterday evening, the site had almost 500 postings, many with thumbnail pictures of the missing. "I am actually about to start programming a part of the site that allows people to post their success stories," the site's creator wrote in an e-mail message yesterday. "So far I have not heard any stories of people finding loved ones because of Find Katrina. That might be because the site opened today, though."
At Craigslist, some links normally devoted to romantic, personals-ad-style connections, like men and women looking for someone they met in a bar or locked eyes with on a subway, also carried notices for the missing. Other links, like the more-risqué "casual encounters," included two postings yesterday from men apparently looking to turn the hurricane into an opportunity for a date.
"I will give you free shelter in New York and pay for you to get here," said a man identifying himself only as a 25-year-old on Long Island. "I will help you get back on your feet. You can come stay with me if you are a young attractive female that has just lost everything in the hurricane. I live on Long Island and I am willing to open my home to you."
Perhaps less than altruistically, he added, "Please send pic."
Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
