July 31, 2008
China Becomes Largest Nation On The Web
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With more than 253 million chinese people online and 500 million mobile-phone users, the Chinese Government may start to see signs of strain against their big brother grip on the Net from chinese netizens.
According to statistics taken from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China has outpaced the US's online population, which has been at the forefront of Internet usage since records began to be kept of online users.
71% of the US's population has taken to the Net compared to China's 19%, a number that has increase by 56% from last year. The potential of China's net penetration is set to reach 490 million by 2012.
The chinese government has recently been attacked by Western journalists for their planned censorship of the media during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. China's Net economy, according to a recent BBC article, "still has a long way to go to match or exceed that of the US or even that of South Korea." Censorship may play a large part in the difference of Chinese net firms reported total revenue, $5.9 billion, compared to US firms' advertising revenue at $21.2 billion.
Hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens are seeking web access; however, they are only getting a mere glimpse of the actual breadth of the entire Internet. How will China's government be affected by the continuing onslaught of Internet users? How would the Web change if these chinese netizens were allowed to access all portals and features of the Web, with no government censorship?
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 25, 2008
Add to List of Germans' Favorite Things: Beer, Bratwursts and Barack...Online
The online coverage of Barack Obama's European tour stop in Germany is still ongoing. The video of Sen. Obama's speech ranks second on Technorati's Top Videos.
On Thursday, Barack Obama addressed a crowd of over 200,000 people in Tiergarten, Berlin while his campaign covered the speech in real-time online.
The official 24:40 minute long YouTube video of Obama's speech has been viewed 102,014 times at 6pm on Friday, but as techPresident points out, YouTube view count was stuck at 63,000 for hours, leaving it impossible to tell the actual number of views the speech has received.
Four major German broadcasters carried Obama's speech live in both German and English including German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, and all- news channels ntv and N24.
German Weekly Newsmagazine Der Spiegel in print and online sums up Obama coverage in Germany with their headline this morning reading, "Germany meets the Superstar." The leading German daily newspaper Zeit Online had three of its top five stories featuring Obama.
Bernhard Mullmann, a program exec at ZDF, has said of the extraordinary amount of coverage, "This is an unprecedented level of coverage for a U.S. presidential candidate...but I think it is justified because of the level of interest with Obama in Germany...It is comparable with President Kennedy's legendary visit (to Berlin in 1963). Both in the hopes Germans have that Obama will bring change in the U.S. and also in the hype and way his speech is being staged for political purposes."
Our take - With the Internet, people around the world have been able to view, often in real-time, Sen. Obama's speeches on issues that greatly affect their country as well as ours. In this new era of global digital politics, Obama's speech will go down in history as one of the most important early milestones.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 23, 2008
16 Million Pakistanis Join Anti-Terror Movement Online
The Yeh Hum Naheen Foundation, a Pakistan-based NGO, has launched the world’s biggest anti-terrorism campaign, collecting over 16 million signatures at a rate of 2 million signatures per day.
YHN Foundation has set up 6000 Ambassadors around Pakistan to sign people up, launched an online petition on their website and created an SMS campaign for those who condemn terrorism and need an outlet to voice their opinions. The Yeh Hum Naheen Facebook group has 3,490 members and is steadily growing.
The goal of the online petition is create global awareness: The majority of Muslims and Pakistanis do not condone terrorism and those who perpetrate these acts of terrorism do not do so in the name of Islam. This powerful message of tolerance, peace and harmony is based on the essence of Islam as a faith.
The petition that millions of Pakistanis are signing states:
“Are we the ones who deprive mothers of their children? Are we the ones who deprive children of their fathers’ affection? Are we the ones who are destroying our own futures?”
Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 18, 2008
What's Hot: Will JibJab Do It Again?
The Spiridellis brothers have come a long way from their 1999 garage-based beginnings with JibJab.
With over 2 million registered users, they've created a legacy for viral satirical videos that is clearly tough to follow.
In 2004, JibJab was a real breakthrough with their brilliant "This Land" satirical election video. By the end of the 2004 election cycle, Jibjab's election videos were seen over 80 millions times, on every continent, including Antarctica. At one point, their web traffic was three times that of the official Bush and Kerry sites combined.
JibJab recently released a video parody poking fun at all things election '08. Their latest political satire is dubbed Time for Some Campaignin" after Bob Dylan's "The Times, They Are a-Changin'".
The Spiridellis brothers make no claims of trying to top their past success with JibJab; rather, they admit that it would be "impossible" and tried to "make the best video humanly possible without repeating ourselves."
In a blog post, they wrote, "This year, our desire to do something new manifested itself in our STARRING YOU!® technology. Thanks to our incredible technology team, users can upload photos, cut out heads, and put themselves, family and friends into the latest election video."
Our take: JibJab '08 lacks a bit of the originality and edge of their '04 version and the boys seem to essentially acknowledge this...copying the same model that once propelled them to online fame just seems a little lame this time around...but we'll wait to see the number of views before we retire them into the viral video hall of fame.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 16, 2008
The U.K. Utilizes E-Petitions
From Log on to a number of different websites, including the Prime Minister’s and the National Assembly for
These petitions range anywhere from "Allow the Red Arrows to Fly at the 2012 Olympics," (which has received 437,717 signatures on the Prime Minister’s website), to a petition on investigating the reorganization of the monarchy (on the National Assembly for
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears is behind the move away from the traditional way of collecting ‘names on papers’ to e-petitions, making it easier for both governments and citizens to communicate since they are submitted and reviewed directly through government websites.
The widespread introduction of the e-petition in the is revitalizing participation in government and making it easy and accessible for both supporters and champions of causes and issues to be heard.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 11, 2008
India Premier Candidate Goes Online to Reach 100 Million First-time Voters
With over 100 million first-time voters entering the election landscape within the next year, a massive online grassroots movement in India is inevitable.
As one of the youngest emerging economies in the world, India has more than 666 million people under the age of 35. This young demographic is being tapped by an 81 year old Hindu nationalist, L.K. Advani of the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP.
Sen. Barack Obama's campaign tactics intrigued the Premier candidate, who has been studying Sen. Barack Obama's online campaign as a guideline for how to garner youth votes. The Washington Post reports, "For a few months, a small team of political strategists, computer specialists and management graduates in New Delhi has been studying Obama's speeches and slogans, Website, campus outreach and rhetoric of change."
Advani plans to use cellphones and the Internet as channels of communication between his party and India's young voters. Currently, there are over 185 million mobile phone subscribers in India, a number that increases by 5.5 million every month.
Our Take: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and the Obama camp should be incredibly flattered. Regardless of language, culture, income or country, the Internet will continue to work as a universal tool for political networking and global social action. The ability of countries such as India and the United States to organize, empower and mobilize hundreds of millions of voters will continue to improve.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 08, 2008
World's Online Marketplace Can't Sell Votes
The "buy/sell anything" mentality on eBay has been taken to a new level: For sale - a vote in the 2008 US Presidential election. Starting bid: $10.
Max Sanders, a 19 year old student, tried to sell his upcoming vote in the 2008 US Presidential election on eBay, a popular online platform where millions of items are bought and sold each day. He has been charged with one count of bribery, treating and soliciting, and a felony. The felony was filed under an 1893 law making it illegal to offer to buy or sell votes. Sanders could serve up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Luckily for Sanders, there were no bids made on the vote, who claims the whole thing was a joke. He has since taken down the post. The two criminal actions involving selling a vote deal with the idea that elections must be based on concepts not bank accounts and that each American citizen is entitled to one vote; therefore, they cannot buy a second vote.
TechCrunch has posted news coverage on the incident.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 02, 2008
Sweden’s E-Mail Eavesdropping Law Causes Online Uproar
Over 6.6 million e-mails have flooded the inboxes of Swedish lawmakers who recently passed what has been called "the most far-reaching eavesdropping plan in
Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
