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Saturday, August 30, 2008

انطلاق مسابقة "دويتشه فيله" لتتويج أفضل المدونات حول العال

وسط اهتمام خاص بالقارة السمراء
انطلاق مسابقة "دويتشه فيله" لتتويج أفضل المدونات حول العالم



موقع المسابقة على الإنترنت

دبي - العربية.نت

للسنة الخامسة على التوالي، تنطلق مسابقة "دويتشه فيله" العالمية للمدونات في 31 أغسطس/آب 2008، لتتويج أفضل المدونات والبودكاست ومدونات الفيديو، وسط اهتمام خاص بالمدونين الأفارقة.

بعد التعديلات التي أدخلت على مسابقة "البوبز" (وهو الاسم الرسمي لمسابقة دويتشه فيله العالمية للمدونات)، لهذا العام من ناحية الشكل والتصميم، دخلت اللغة الإندونيسية ليصبح بذلك عدد لغات المسابقة 11 لغة.

ومن خلال التصميم الجديد، تم إدخال العديد من المزايا الحديثة، بالإضافة إلى رابط خاص بالمدونات على الصفحة الرئيسة، ويمكن من خلالها معرفة أماكن تواجد المدونات حول العالم، حتى مع إمكانية معرفة ذلك في المدن التي تتواجد فيه هذه المدونات، هذا بالإضافة إلى البحث من خلال تحديد اللغة.

وستختار هيئة التحكيم العالمية -في اجتماعها السنوي في برلين- أفضل المدونات، ليس فقط من القارة السمراء، ولكن من جميع دول العالم. ويتوقع القائمون على المسابقة أن يكون لهيئة التحكيم الكثير من العمل، خاصة وأنه في العام الماضي تم ترشيح أكثر من 7 آلاف مدونة، علما بأنه يوجد اليوم أكثر من 8 آلاف في موسوعة المدونات "البلوغوبيديا"، والتي يمكن من خلالها ملاحظة التنوع في المدونات العالمية.

وستقوم هيئة التحكيم في يوم 27 نوفمبر/تشرين الثاني 2008، بإعلان الرابح في مسابقة هذا العام، التي ترعاها العديد من المؤسسات الإعلامية، من بينها موقع العربية.نت كشركاء إعلاميين.

عودة للأعلى

مسرح للمدونين الشباب

وكان المدوّن الإفريقي من الكونغو، سيدريك كالونجي، حاز جائزة العام الماضي لأفضل مدونة باللغة الفرنسية. وعن التغيير الذي طرأ بعد فوزه بالمسابقة يقول "أصبحت مدونتي أكثر شهرة، فزاد عدد زوارها، بالإضافة إلى استقبالي العديد من الرسائل الإلكترونية. كما كتب العديد من المدونين الشباب في إفريقيا إليّ، طالبين النصائح".

وأشار كالونجي إلى أنه يعمل في هذا المشروع مع بعض الشباب الكونغوليين، الذين سيقومون بالتدوين في جميع أنحاء الدولة، مبينا أنه سيقوم بمساعدتهم من الناحية التقنية من أجل إنجاح هذا المشروع.

وبينما كان كالونجي يعتقد أنه في جمهورية الكونغو الديمقراطية والكاميرون وساحل العاج يتواجد أنشط المدونين على مستوى القارة السمراء، إلا أن الوضع في بعض دول القارة الأخرى قد أخذ منحى مختلفا. ففي مالي مثلا يعتبر الإنترنت من التقنيات المكلفة جدا لمعظم المواطنين، إلا أن تطور المدونات فيها يسير بشكل ملحوظ. وتعتبر جيني ميرسير، مسؤولة شبكة التبادل للمصورين الأفارقة، أن الاهتمام بالتدوين في مالي قد بدأ ينشط، قائلة "يستخدم الهاتف النقال لدى الكثيرين هنا من أجل توثيق الصور وتبادلها بين الأصدقاء. وبهذه الطريقة يتم تبادل المعلومات حول المستجدات التقنية أو أفضل الأفلام أو الانتخابات البرلمانية في مالي أو كذلك تبادل المعلومات الدينية".

عودة للأعلى

تقنيات حديثة

ويعتبر الكثير من الخبراء أن استخدام الكمبيوتر لأغراض التدوين في إفريقيا قد لا يدخل حيز التنفيذ بشكل كبير، خاصة وأن الكثير من المدونين يستخدمون الهاتف الخلوي النقال في كتاباتهم واستخداماتهم الأخرى، هذا إلى جانب استخدام تقنية الميكوويفز أو ما يعرف بـ"تويتر" (Twitter). ومن الصعب الآن التكهن بما إذا كان هذا هو مستقبل الاستخدامات التقنية، ولكن عدم وجود شبكة اتصالات مخصصة لذلك يدفع بالاعتقاد إلى أن استخدام الهاتف النقال للإنترنت سيأخذ رواجه.

ويرى عميد البحث العلمي في مركز (FING – (Forum Internet and new Technology) الفرنسي، أن "تأخير البنية التحتية للاتصالات في إفريقيا يعطي الفرصة لاستخدام تقنيات أخرى. ويسعى أصحاب القرار إلى الحصول على المعلومات حول التقنيات الحديثة في العالم بهدف تخفيض تكاليف البنية التحتية إلى أكبر قدر ممكن".

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Internet Politics

cover of Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics

Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics

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  • ISBN: 978-0-415-42914-6
  • Binding: Hardback
  • Published by: Routledge
  • Publication Date: 14th August 2008
  • Pages: 528

About the Book

The politics of the internet has entered the social science mainstream. From debates about its impact on parties and election campaigns following momentous presidential contests in the United States, to concerns over international security, privacy and surveillance in the post-9/11, post-7/7 environment; from the rise of blogging as a threat to the traditional model of journalism, to controversies at the international level over how and if the internet should be governed by an entity such as the United Nations; from the new repertoires of collective action open to citizens, to the massive programs of public management reform taking place in the name of e-government, internet politics and policy are continually in the headlines.

The Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics is a collection of over thirty chapters dealing with the most significant scholarly debates in this rapidly growing field of study. Organized in four broad sections: Institutions, Behavior, Identities, and Law and Policy, the Handbook summarizes and criticizes contemporary debates while pointing out new departures. A comprehensive set of resources, it provides linkages to established theories of media and politics, political communication, governance, deliberative democracy and social movements, all within an interdisciplinary context. The contributors form a strong international cast of established and junior scholars.

This is the first publication of its kind in this field; a helpful companion to students and scholars of politics, international relations, communication studies and sociology.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction Andrew Chadwick and Philip N. Howard Part 1: Institutions 2. The Internet in US Election Campaigns Richard Davis, Jody C. Baumgartner, Peter L. Francia and Jonathan S. Morris 3. European Political Organizations and the Internet: Mobilization, Participation and Change Stephen Ward and Rachel Gibson 4. Electoral Web Production Practices in Cross-National Perspective: The Relative Influence of National Development, Political Culture, and Web Genre Kirsten A. Foot, Michael Xenos, Steven M. Schneider, Randolph Kluver and Nicholas W. Jankowski 5. Parties, Election Campaigning and the Internet: Toward a Comparative Institutional Approach Nick Anstead and Andrew Chadwick 6. Technological Change and the Shifting Nature of Political Organization Bruce Bimber, Cythia Stohl and Andrew J. Flanagin 7. Making Parliamentary Democracy Visible: Speaking to, With and For the Public in the Age of Interactive Technology Stephen Coleman 8. Bureaucratic Reform and E-Government in the United States: An Institutional Perspective Jane E. Fountain 9. Public Management Change and E-Government: The Emergence of Digital Era Governance Helen Margetts Part 2: Behavior 10. Wired to Fact: The Role of the Internet in Identifying Deception During the 2004 US Presidential Campaign Bruce W. Hardy, Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Kenneth Winneg 11. Political Engagement Online: Do the Information Rich Get Richer and the Like-Minded More Similar? Jennifer Brundidge and Ronald E. Rice 12. Information, the Internet and Direct Democracy Justin Reedy and Chris Wells 13. Toward Digital Citizenship: Addressing Inequality in the Information Age Karen Mossberger 14. Online News Creation and Consumption: Implications for Modern Democracies David Tewksbury and Jason Rittenberg 15. Web 2.0 and the Transformation of News and Journalism James Stanyer Part 3: Identities 16. The Internet and the Changing Global Media Environment Brian McNair 17. The Virtual Sphere 2.0: The Internet, the Public Sphere and Beyond Zizi Papacharissi 18. Identity, Technology and Narratives: Transnational Activism and Social Networks W. Lance Bennett and Amoshaun Toft 19. Theorizing Gender and the Internet: Past, Present, and Future Niels Van Doorn and Liesbet Van Zoonen 20. New Immigrants, the Internet, and Civic Society Young-Chen Kim and Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach 21. One Europe, Digitally Divided Jan Van Dijk 22. Working Around the State: Internet Use and Political Identity in the Arab World Deborah L. Wheeler Part 4: Law and Policy 23. The Geopolitics of Internet Control: Censorship, Sovereignty and Cyberspace Ronald J. Diebert 24. Locational Surveillance: Embracing the Patterns of Our Lives David J. Phillips 25. Metaphoric Reinforcement of the Virtual Fence: Factors Shaping the Political Economy of Property in Cyberspace Oscar H. Gandy, Jr. and Kenneth Neil Farrall 26. Globalizing the Logic of Openness: Open Source Software and the Global Governance of Intellectual Property Christopher May 27. Exclusionary Rules? The Politics of Protocols Greg Elmer 28. The New Politics of the Internet: Multistakeholder Policy Making and the Internet Technocracy William H. Dutton and Malcolm Peltu 29. Enabling Effective Multistakeholder Participation in Global Internet Governance Through Accessible Cyberinfrastructure Derrick L. Cogburn 30. Internet Diffusion and the Digital Divide: The Role of Policymaking and Political Institutions Kenneth S. Rogerson and Daniel Milton 31. Conclusion Philip N. Howard and Andrew Chadwick

About the Author(s)

Andrew Chadwick is Professor of Political Science and Founding Director of the New Political Communication Unit at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Internet Politics: States, Citizens, and New Communication Technologies (Oxford University Press), which won the American Sociological Association Communication and Information Technologies Section Outstanding Book Award.

Philip N. Howard is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington, and directs the World Information Access Project (www.wiareport.org). He is the author of New Media Campaigns and the Managed Citizen (Cambridge University Press), which won book awards from the American Sociological Association and the International Communication Association.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Democracy digitised

Democracy digitised

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Katty Kay goes behind the scenes to investigate the power of the internet in the US election as John McCain falls foul of a viral video.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

The power of female blogging

The power of female blogging

By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

mommy blogger
'Mommy blogs' are starting to attract lots of traffic

The message was loud. It was clear. It was simple.

"Take the money."

Spelling it out was Gina Garrubbo, executive vice president of BlogHer, which claims to be the biggest online community for women who blog.

Ms Garrubbo made her comments at Blogher's recent conference in a session that aired concerns mommy bloggers have about selling out by displaying adverts on their sites or testing out products.

"Everyday I talk to Fortune 500 companies and they care. They care about supporting you on your terms. It is your opportunity. Build the business. Write the rules," said Ms Garrubbo.

Changing landscape

Female blogging is a growing phenomenon.

In 12 months the BlogHer network has mushroomed from 180 bloggers to 2,200.

According to comScore Media Metrix, community based women's websites are now tied with political sites as the fastest growing category online.

blog her conf08
Blogging is about giving women a voice and sense of community many said

"Today, women are not only the most powerful consumers in the world, we're also the power users of Web 2.0 and social media technologies," said Lisa Stone, BlogHer co-founder.

That willingness to harness the web has resulted in a community of 36 million women who write and read blogs, said Ms Garrubbo. And that gave them clout among advertisers.

"There are millions of dollars to be made," she said. "Online media is taking away from traditional media and blogging is a new medium just like mobile is a new medium. Mommy blogging is one of the biggest and most influential sectors."

The influence they have with readers is what will help companies sell the next new car, telephone or tomato sauce, Ms Garrubbo told the BBC.

One figure aired at the conference suggested that 64% of the audience who read BlogHer blogs have bought something on the recommendations of the blogger.

Ms Garrubbo warned that companies that want to pitch to these women had best not rely on the old standards.

"These women are changing the nature of advertising in this space. Advertisers need to treat these women intelligently and speak to them differently," she said. "The game has changed."


We are the backbone of this economy and getting paid for blogging is getting paid for raising our voices.

Catherine Connors, Her Bad Mother

In a print magazine advertisers could use old standards such as heels, lipstick and sex to sell but that would not work via blogs, she said.

"In this medium women are creating their own terms in their own voice," she said.

General Motors, a sponsor of the conference, said it recognised that things have changed and the traditional market has fragmented.

GM spokeswoman Natalie Johnson told the BBC "I'm here because I want to meet more of the mommy bloggers. It's important for us to get to know this particular audience as well as other bloggers out there.

"Today we are seeing a change in how people communicate. They want their voices heard. Sure they listen to the message but today they say 'hey here's our take on this.' Bloggers want to have a say and we run a big risk not talking to them."

Ethical stance

The conference hosted more than 40 commercial brands including General Motors, LeapFrog Nintendo and HP leading some to acknowledge the problems being paid for blogging presents.

blog her gina garrabbu
Garrubbo: "There is a major business opportunity waiting to happen"

"With so many people paying attention to what we are saying there is a tendency for some to write things they think will be commercially acceptable, " warned Lindsay Ferrier of Suburban Turmoil.

Advice on how to deal with such a conflict came from Maria of Immoral Matriarch who urged bloggers to "keep it real".

"As long as you are honest. If you love the product or TV show, I want to hear 'you.' I don't write with the intention of making money, but if anyone wants to give it to me I will take it. But you are not going to censor me.

"If I want to curse or say something politically incorrect, I am going to say it," she added.

Cash call

The truth is that few bloggers make significant sums from blogging. Most earning about $100 (£50) a month. As Heather of Rookie Moms put it, "I make enough to pay for quite a nice lunch once a month."

There were tales of women who had given up work and taken to blogging full time and of others who wrote books and also became full time writers.

Heather Armstrong pays her mortgage from what she makes spilling details of her life and that of her children on Dooce.com. Her husband Jon quit his job to handle the technical side of the site.

catherine connors
Connors: "Blogging is about raising our voices"

"We live as comfortably as we did when Jon worked full time and I was at home," said Ms Armstrong whose early forays into blogging got her fired from her job as a web designer.

Many women at the conference struggled with the idea of making money from their blogging.

"This (blogging) has become so much about advertising and money and you are either being courted by the advertisers or you are not," said Rachael Mosteller, author the Sarcastic Journalist blog.

For Catherine Connors of Her Bad Mother, who attended with her baby son Jasper, making money was no bad thing.

"Getting paid for blogging is not getting paid for mothering," said Ms Connors. "Mothering is a part of the economy that isn't recognised. It's hard work. We are the backbone of this economy and getting paid for blogging is getting paid for raising our voices."
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