Engineers online
http://www.web-ee.com/
For all the aspiring engineers, here something to cheer about. Dedicated to electrical engineering, this website not only features tutorials on various aspects of engineering subjects, but it also provides links to many specialised magazines and newsgroups. The site also features online calculators, forums and detailed notes on electrical components.
Downloading fun
http://www.typenow.net/themed.htm
Tired of using the same old Times New Roman and Courier New? Check out this website and let the fun begin. The website offers lots of different fonts based on movies and television shows. You can download as many as you want, but make sure that your friends do it as well, or the will not be able to read what you have written to them!
Hubble heritage gallery
http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/gallery.html
If you are interested in space and all the different satellites that are sent to explore it, you will definitely enjoy this website. It features photo galleries showcasing all the photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. You can also browse by categories such as solar system and galaxies.
Fun with kaleidoscope
http://www.zefrank.com/byokal/kal2.html
Here is something for you if you are really bored or stressed out. Given on this website are loads of little coloured images. Putting them in a given circle will give you really cool patterns on the kaleidoscope on the same page. The scientific reasoning behind it is also given if you are fascinated enough to find out.
Saturday, July 1, 2006
(Mis)Information Guaranteed
It is the same old story. You open your mailbox to find 30 new messages. And 20 out of those turn out to be forwarded emails. They tell you to further pass on the message if you want to continue using your free email and social networking services. Some go even further, and warn you of dire consequences if you do not forward those emails.
Of course, all this happens assuming that you actually bother opening these forwards in the first place. Chances are, most of you will simply select the entire lot of them and hit the “Delete” key without giving them a second thought.
This frequency of hoax emails is only one of the virtual trends, which have caused many people to label the internet as a place where the authenticity of the information available is extremely dubious. Where hoax emails are concerned, their extent is unlimited. Unverified news stories spread like fire around the internet and you will even find people attempting to update their anti-viruses to deal with viruses and worms which do not even exist!
But what is even more puzzling is that some people actually look forward to these emails. They sign online petitions thinking they are contributing to some worthy cause when, in reality, there is no cause. They even honestly believe that Microsoft and AOL can keep a track of one email and ascertain how many people forwarded it.
Also, when it comes to spreading hoaxes, emails are not the only means under fire. Scrapbooks on Orkut () are littered with misinformation. Probably the most common and the infamous scrap was one which called on all Muslims to boycott Nestle as it is a Danish product. Very few people bothered finding out that Nestle is a Swiss, and not a Danish company.
Certain websites are also notorious in spreading rumors around the internet. Since this medium has virtually no limits, it is not humanly impossible to keep a track of who is posting what information and how authentic it really is. It is very easy for a person to make an account at Geocities () and update it with forged news. What is worse, unless someone complains, the authorities at Yahoo! would never know what is going on.
On the outset, this entire scenario may sound very funny - probably something not worth giving notice to. But there are quite a lot of naïve people out there, especially those who are new to the internet, and they fall for these mails right away. Then, there is a whole circle of misinformation since these beginner users forward these emails extensively.
Incorrect information on websites can also have very negative implications since today’s student population relies heavily on the internet to do their research work. In many instances, they blatantly copy and paste information from articles and encyclopedias around the web, without giving a second thought to its authenticity. A common belief is that if it is on the internet, it has to be true. In fact, the reverse may be true at times as well.
On the other hand, there are some forwarded emails which are very genuine, but tend to suffer because no one takes them seriously. Sometimes, there are calls for donations which are very urgent, but since a level distrust regarding forwards has developed, no one will bother forwarding them or even doing a quick check to find out if they are for real.
Resultantly, you will find people who would rather block their search engines and stick to traditional newspapers and magazines for information. But the fact remains that there are places online where you
can get authentic information. The key is to know where to find it.
For instance, websites of those traditional sources of information which are already known to be relatively more authentic than the rest can be used to verify information from other, unknown websites. These sources include the websites for BBC World and CNN, along with local news channels.
Another key to avoid using incorrect information is to recognise “wikis” for what they are. Encyclopedias like Wikipedia () are totally edited by the common people, so there are chances that the information put up there could be unauthentic.
Where emails are concerned, formula is actually quite simple. When you receive a forwarded email, simply log onto Snopes (). This is an excellent website which has compiled all the information that is forwarded on emails into categories. Within the categories, it has listed specific forwarded emails and their status, that is, whether they are true or false. You can simply search for the email content that you received and get an update on its status. If you do not find the specific email which you received, you can use an online form to submit the contents of the mail. Snopes will then evaluate that content, give it a true or false status and add it to its website.
In the end, it all comes down to actually making an effort to eliminate misinformation rather then lamenting incessantly about it. Of course, the key question which arises in this context remains: when the internet is supposed to be one place where a wealth of information is available, why do we have the tendency to add to the rate at which it is spreading misinformation?
Hot spots
The Following are a few websites that you can use to eliminate the menace of email hoaxes for good.
Hoax busters
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
This is a very useful website which has also listed down all the hoax emails. Along with Snopes, you can use this to find out which emails you receive are hoax and which are not. Also, it will give you details on what are hoax emails in the first place.
Virus myths and hoaxes
http://vmyths.com/
Use this website to combat the threats of non-existent viruses and worms. There is absolutely no need to make the rest of the innocent internet users paranoid. When you receive a so-called virus alert, log on to this website. It has an alphabetical listing of all those viruses and worms which exist in your email inbox.
Common internet and email hoaxes
http://www.3oddballz.com/hoaxes/
This website has organised all the forwarded mail that you can receive into various categories. There are sections for junk emails, urban legends, hoaxes, rumours and virus threats. Likely chances are that a forward email you receive will fall into one or more of these categories.
Of course, all this happens assuming that you actually bother opening these forwards in the first place. Chances are, most of you will simply select the entire lot of them and hit the “Delete” key without giving them a second thought.
This frequency of hoax emails is only one of the virtual trends, which have caused many people to label the internet as a place where the authenticity of the information available is extremely dubious. Where hoax emails are concerned, their extent is unlimited. Unverified news stories spread like fire around the internet and you will even find people attempting to update their anti-viruses to deal with viruses and worms which do not even exist!
But what is even more puzzling is that some people actually look forward to these emails. They sign online petitions thinking they are contributing to some worthy cause when, in reality, there is no cause. They even honestly believe that Microsoft and AOL can keep a track of one email and ascertain how many people forwarded it.
Also, when it comes to spreading hoaxes, emails are not the only means under fire. Scrapbooks on Orkut () are littered with misinformation. Probably the most common and the infamous scrap was one which called on all Muslims to boycott Nestle as it is a Danish product. Very few people bothered finding out that Nestle is a Swiss, and not a Danish company.
Certain websites are also notorious in spreading rumors around the internet. Since this medium has virtually no limits, it is not humanly impossible to keep a track of who is posting what information and how authentic it really is. It is very easy for a person to make an account at Geocities () and update it with forged news. What is worse, unless someone complains, the authorities at Yahoo! would never know what is going on.
On the outset, this entire scenario may sound very funny - probably something not worth giving notice to. But there are quite a lot of naïve people out there, especially those who are new to the internet, and they fall for these mails right away. Then, there is a whole circle of misinformation since these beginner users forward these emails extensively.
Incorrect information on websites can also have very negative implications since today’s student population relies heavily on the internet to do their research work. In many instances, they blatantly copy and paste information from articles and encyclopedias around the web, without giving a second thought to its authenticity. A common belief is that if it is on the internet, it has to be true. In fact, the reverse may be true at times as well.
On the other hand, there are some forwarded emails which are very genuine, but tend to suffer because no one takes them seriously. Sometimes, there are calls for donations which are very urgent, but since a level distrust regarding forwards has developed, no one will bother forwarding them or even doing a quick check to find out if they are for real.
Resultantly, you will find people who would rather block their search engines and stick to traditional newspapers and magazines for information. But the fact remains that there are places online where you
can get authentic information. The key is to know where to find it.
For instance, websites of those traditional sources of information which are already known to be relatively more authentic than the rest can be used to verify information from other, unknown websites. These sources include the websites for BBC World and CNN, along with local news channels.
Another key to avoid using incorrect information is to recognise “wikis” for what they are. Encyclopedias like Wikipedia () are totally edited by the common people, so there are chances that the information put up there could be unauthentic.
Where emails are concerned, formula is actually quite simple. When you receive a forwarded email, simply log onto Snopes (). This is an excellent website which has compiled all the information that is forwarded on emails into categories. Within the categories, it has listed specific forwarded emails and their status, that is, whether they are true or false. You can simply search for the email content that you received and get an update on its status. If you do not find the specific email which you received, you can use an online form to submit the contents of the mail. Snopes will then evaluate that content, give it a true or false status and add it to its website.
In the end, it all comes down to actually making an effort to eliminate misinformation rather then lamenting incessantly about it. Of course, the key question which arises in this context remains: when the internet is supposed to be one place where a wealth of information is available, why do we have the tendency to add to the rate at which it is spreading misinformation?
Hot spots
The Following are a few websites that you can use to eliminate the menace of email hoaxes for good.
Hoax busters
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
This is a very useful website which has also listed down all the hoax emails. Along with Snopes, you can use this to find out which emails you receive are hoax and which are not. Also, it will give you details on what are hoax emails in the first place.
Virus myths and hoaxes
http://vmyths.com/
Use this website to combat the threats of non-existent viruses and worms. There is absolutely no need to make the rest of the innocent internet users paranoid. When you receive a so-called virus alert, log on to this website. It has an alphabetical listing of all those viruses and worms which exist in your email inbox.
Common internet and email hoaxes
http://www.3oddballz.com/hoaxes/
This website has organised all the forwarded mail that you can receive into various categories. There are sections for junk emails, urban legends, hoaxes, rumours and virus threats. Likely chances are that a forward email you receive will fall into one or more of these categories.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Webwatch
Time to invent
web.mit.edu/invent/
How many of us have thought about inventing something on our own? Here is your chance to learn something about the legal aspect of inventions. You can catch a few tips from the Inventor’s Handout available on this website. The handout gives details for everything you need to know about patents and intellectual property rights. To motivate you, there is also a section on “Inventor of the Week.”
web.mit.edu/invent/
How many of us have thought about inventing something on our own? Here is your chance to learn something about the legal aspect of inventions. You can catch a few tips from the Inventor’s Handout available on this website. The handout gives details for everything you need to know about patents and intellectual property rights. To motivate you, there is also a section on “Inventor of the Week.”
Let’s talk Geography
www.talkgeography.com/
If you ever thought you were “weird” because you love geography as a subject, think again. Here is a website that is totally dedicated to the discussion of various topics related to the subject. These are basically the forums where you can make an account and start posting. You will find different rooms for geography news, physical geography and human geography.
The eminent few
nobelprize.org/physics/
Did you know that the first ever Nobel prize for Physics was awarded in 1901 to Wilhelm Röntgen for his discovery of X-rays? This website is a haven for all those of you who want to learn more about the Nobel prize for Physics. You can not only read up on the different winners and their discoveries but also go through the articles which they have written.
Flying high
invention.psychology.msstate.edu/
This website will take you into the minute details of how airplanes came about. You can watch movies and view photo galleries of the initial flights. There are models of early planes on display as well. All in all, this website will definitely make you appreciate the comforts of modern commercial airlines.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Webwatch
Ask the rocket scientist
www.aerospaceweb.org/question/
Have you ever been interested in rockets and airplanes? Would you like to learn more about how they function? If yes, then log on to this website where a host of rocket scientists are ready to answer your questions. All answers are given in detail with illustrations so that you can understand the difficult concepts as well. You can also access the archives of questions put previously.
All chemicals
www.allchemicals.info/
Looking to clear a few concepts? Confused about simple terms in chemistry? This is one website which has a list and description of all the terms related to chemistry arranged in alphabetical order. A great plus for the website is that all the definitions are short and precise so that you don’t have to spend ages to find the relevant information.
Tracing mathematics
www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/
Do not let the word “history” put you off. This website traces the history of mathematics in the most interesting manner. There are categories like “Arabic mathematics” and “Indian mathematics.” In these categories the website features articles and timelines related to how mathematics evolved in these regions.
Having the last laugh
www.amasci.com/freenrg/arrhenus.html
This article may seem a bit informal when you read it first. However, it raises a very important point. All throughout history, inventions have been laughed at and ridiculed but eventually have ended up becoming a necessity. Read this article to learn all about science and scepticism.
www.aerospaceweb.org/question/
Have you ever been interested in rockets and airplanes? Would you like to learn more about how they function? If yes, then log on to this website where a host of rocket scientists are ready to answer your questions. All answers are given in detail with illustrations so that you can understand the difficult concepts as well. You can also access the archives of questions put previously.
All chemicals
www.allchemicals.info/
Looking to clear a few concepts? Confused about simple terms in chemistry? This is one website which has a list and description of all the terms related to chemistry arranged in alphabetical order. A great plus for the website is that all the definitions are short and precise so that you don’t have to spend ages to find the relevant information.
Tracing mathematics
www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/
Do not let the word “history” put you off. This website traces the history of mathematics in the most interesting manner. There are categories like “Arabic mathematics” and “Indian mathematics.” In these categories the website features articles and timelines related to how mathematics evolved in these regions.
Having the last laugh
www.amasci.com/freenrg/arrhenus.html
This article may seem a bit informal when you read it first. However, it raises a very important point. All throughout history, inventions have been laughed at and ridiculed but eventually have ended up becoming a necessity. Read this article to learn all about science and scepticism.
Saturday, June 3, 2006
The never-ending bane
Published in Sci-Tech World
Feast your eyes on the following, copied verbatim from a few scrapbooks around the popular social networking website, Orkut http://www.orkut.com.
“Once upon a time there lived a guy his name was syed tayyab, he writes poetry and work for “nestle” the kit kat company. he was graduate and love to sit alone in park and chat with frnds on net... do u know who he is????? “meeee” lol will u be my frnd?
a:-yes
b:-no
ur answer?”
Another example:
“where you? M at Orkut. I likes ur profile. Don’t mind u have much friends, have me too”
And another one...
“heello how are you buddy? was viewing urs friend’s profile and saw urs pic there. achi lage thought chalo baat kertay hain. so am from islamabad do let me know if u wana talk”
Here is yet another one:
“Hi:) where in london do u live i’m eager 2 know just cuz i wanna make some friends of mine as well. Well now that I’m here, i think i should wid a lil help from u, take care karo larki:)”
You may be laughing your head off. We all have laughed silly over these. But we have also ranted about it, shaken a fist at our computers and come close to banging our heads against the wall. But nothing, absolutely nothing, seems to dissuade all those “desperados” who seem to have an infinite amount of time on their hands to write and copy/paste “frandship” scraps on just about every girl’s Orkut profile that they come across, hoping against hope that one of the many will reply.
Enough has been written about these “frandshippers” and their annoying habits on these very pages. There are girls who have proceeded to write in capital letters on their profiles that they do not want strangers adding them.
So why don’t people listen? It seems that everything goes right over the head of these people, who either think girls are as weird as they are to fall head over heels over a scrap written in atrocious English, or they have this drive to add as many girls as they possibly can to their profile to impress their equally weird friends.
Ever received profile invitations from guys you don’t know? Join the club.
When it comes to finding out a logical reason for this mania, there are many people who argue that some girls invite such messages given that most of them have extremely photogenic photo- graphs on display and seem to have gone through a dictionary to make their personal profiles sound (sickly) romantic. But if you closely look at the profiles in general, almost every girl seems to be a victim of these scraps.
It does not matter that she keeps a minimum amount of information on her profile or that she does not put photographs of herself either in the display picture or her album. Frandshippers abound everywhere, with no end.
Another impetus to these people is that annoying feature of Orkut which has recently been introduced. If you visit someone’s profile, it will log your visit and the person whose profile you visited will know you were there. It is all well if you visit the profile of your friend. But what if you read someone’s post on the community and decide to visit their profiles? There are instances where the profile you visit turns out to be that of a would-be friendship scrapper who is delighted that you visited his profile and decides he wants to know who you are.
But regardless of the reason, let us face the heat. Basically it all comes down to this: how to deal with these people so that they keep away from your profile for good.
First, my advice is to keep a “low” profile in every sense of the word, especially the personal details. Also, remove all your personal photographs from the album as well as display picture. Even though this will not prevent friendship messages, at least you will not have people telling you that you are the cause of these scraps.
Secondly, the key is to unite. Get together and make a “Death to Frandship” group blog or a community on Orkut. Invite all those girls to join who have either been a victim or want to put a stop to this friendship drama. Whenever any of you get an annoying, desperate scrap, spring into action. Not only should you post it on the blog/community verbatim, but also post the name and link of the person who sent you the message.
All the members of the community can then add that person to their ignore list simultaneously. It also will not hurt to report the profile as bogus and notify the authorities that the person is harassing you. If you do it in a large number there is no way the powers-that-be on Orkut will ignore you.
Another thing which I have noticed most people doing, and which you must never do, is to scrap the person back asking them things like “who are you” or “do I know you” or “why did you add me?” You may not realise it, but even this innocent sounding scrap is a world of encouragement to those desperados and chances are you will never be able to get rid of them. If you have an invitation from a person whose profile you do not recognise, simply hit the “deny” button and add that person to your ignore list immediately. In the rare case that the person turns out to be someone you know, simply explain you were taking precautionary measures. There is no need to feel embarrassed.
And this brings us to the most important thing. Never feel guilty about doing any of the above. There are people who feel that the friendship mania is just a hyped-up situation and that the best thing to do is to ignore it. But the situation at present is a glaring proof of the fact that ignoring the problem is not the solution. You can ignore one scrap and hit delete and never think about it again. But what if there are people out there sending tons of friendship invitations and scraps and you are just sitting and taking it instead of doing something about it?
So think outside the box, take the initiative and tell yourself that you will do everything you can to dissuade people from scrapping you for friendship.
Feast your eyes on the following, copied verbatim from a few scrapbooks around the popular social networking website, Orkut http://www.orkut.com.
“Once upon a time there lived a guy his name was syed tayyab, he writes poetry and work for “nestle” the kit kat company. he was graduate and love to sit alone in park and chat with frnds on net... do u know who he is????? “meeee” lol will u be my frnd?
a:-yes
b:-no
ur answer?”
Another example:
“where you? M at Orkut. I likes ur profile. Don’t mind u have much friends, have me too”
And another one...
“heello how are you buddy? was viewing urs friend’s profile and saw urs pic there. achi lage thought chalo baat kertay hain. so am from islamabad do let me know if u wana talk”
Here is yet another one:
“Hi:) where in london do u live i’m eager 2 know just cuz i wanna make some friends of mine as well. Well now that I’m here, i think i should wid a lil help from u, take care karo larki:)”
You may be laughing your head off. We all have laughed silly over these. But we have also ranted about it, shaken a fist at our computers and come close to banging our heads against the wall. But nothing, absolutely nothing, seems to dissuade all those “desperados” who seem to have an infinite amount of time on their hands to write and copy/paste “frandship” scraps on just about every girl’s Orkut profile that they come across, hoping against hope that one of the many will reply.
Enough has been written about these “frandshippers” and their annoying habits on these very pages. There are girls who have proceeded to write in capital letters on their profiles that they do not want strangers adding them.
So why don’t people listen? It seems that everything goes right over the head of these people, who either think girls are as weird as they are to fall head over heels over a scrap written in atrocious English, or they have this drive to add as many girls as they possibly can to their profile to impress their equally weird friends.
Ever received profile invitations from guys you don’t know? Join the club.
When it comes to finding out a logical reason for this mania, there are many people who argue that some girls invite such messages given that most of them have extremely photogenic photo- graphs on display and seem to have gone through a dictionary to make their personal profiles sound (sickly) romantic. But if you closely look at the profiles in general, almost every girl seems to be a victim of these scraps.
It does not matter that she keeps a minimum amount of information on her profile or that she does not put photographs of herself either in the display picture or her album. Frandshippers abound everywhere, with no end.
Another impetus to these people is that annoying feature of Orkut which has recently been introduced. If you visit someone’s profile, it will log your visit and the person whose profile you visited will know you were there. It is all well if you visit the profile of your friend. But what if you read someone’s post on the community and decide to visit their profiles? There are instances where the profile you visit turns out to be that of a would-be friendship scrapper who is delighted that you visited his profile and decides he wants to know who you are.
But regardless of the reason, let us face the heat. Basically it all comes down to this: how to deal with these people so that they keep away from your profile for good.
First, my advice is to keep a “low” profile in every sense of the word, especially the personal details. Also, remove all your personal photographs from the album as well as display picture. Even though this will not prevent friendship messages, at least you will not have people telling you that you are the cause of these scraps.
Secondly, the key is to unite. Get together and make a “Death to Frandship” group blog or a community on Orkut. Invite all those girls to join who have either been a victim or want to put a stop to this friendship drama. Whenever any of you get an annoying, desperate scrap, spring into action. Not only should you post it on the blog/community verbatim, but also post the name and link of the person who sent you the message.
All the members of the community can then add that person to their ignore list simultaneously. It also will not hurt to report the profile as bogus and notify the authorities that the person is harassing you. If you do it in a large number there is no way the powers-that-be on Orkut will ignore you.
Another thing which I have noticed most people doing, and which you must never do, is to scrap the person back asking them things like “who are you” or “do I know you” or “why did you add me?” You may not realise it, but even this innocent sounding scrap is a world of encouragement to those desperados and chances are you will never be able to get rid of them. If you have an invitation from a person whose profile you do not recognise, simply hit the “deny” button and add that person to your ignore list immediately. In the rare case that the person turns out to be someone you know, simply explain you were taking precautionary measures. There is no need to feel embarrassed.
And this brings us to the most important thing. Never feel guilty about doing any of the above. There are people who feel that the friendship mania is just a hyped-up situation and that the best thing to do is to ignore it. But the situation at present is a glaring proof of the fact that ignoring the problem is not the solution. You can ignore one scrap and hit delete and never think about it again. But what if there are people out there sending tons of friendship invitations and scraps and you are just sitting and taking it instead of doing something about it?
So think outside the box, take the initiative and tell yourself that you will do everything you can to dissuade people from scrapping you for friendship.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Webwatch
Game theory
http://www.holycross.edu/departments/biology/kprestwi/behavior/ESS/ESS_index_frmset.html
For those of you who are interested in the game theory, check out this comprehensive website. It not only makes use of text but of simulations as well. And it makes one thing clear: game theory is not just for the economists. It is for biologists as well, which is what makes this website truly unique.
Volcanology
http://denali.gsfc.nasa.gov/research/volcanology.html
Have you always been fascinated by how volcanoes work? Here is one website which is dedicated to different aspects of volcanoes. You can read all about the hazards of volcanoes, how they are monitored, what their topography is and how did different mountains that were prone to volcanic eruption fare in history.
http://www.holycross.edu/departments/biology/kprestwi/behavior/ESS/ESS_index_frmset.html
For those of you who are interested in the game theory, check out this comprehensive website. It not only makes use of text but of simulations as well. And it makes one thing clear: game theory is not just for the economists. It is for biologists as well, which is what makes this website truly unique.
Math guru
http://www.terc.edu/mathequity/gw/html/
If you are one of those students who have always ended up cursing mathematics, here is a website which can rescue you from the misery. It features various software which comprise games designed to clear your mathematical concepts. You can browse them by age or in an alphabetical order and read detailed descriptions and reviews.
All things scientific
http://scienceblogs.com/nosenada/
This website is actually the blog of Kevin Vranes, who has a PhD in physics, oceanography and climatology. And predictably, he blogs extensively on scientific events and issues, commenting on the different news stories as well as posts by other bloggers. This is one blog which definitely makes for an interesting and enlightening read.
Volcanology
http://denali.gsfc.nasa.gov/research/volcanology.html
Have you always been fascinated by how volcanoes work? Here is one website which is dedicated to different aspects of volcanoes. You can read all about the hazards of volcanoes, how they are monitored, what their topography is and how did different mountains that were prone to volcanic eruption fare in history.
Saturday, May 6, 2006
Freedom of Expression
Published in Sci-Tech World
6th May 2006
Freedom of expression is one slogan that is raised quite frequently these days. Whether it is an individual or an organisation, suddenly everyone has realised that they should be able to exercise their right to express themselves without being subjected to restraints. At the same time, they are quick to point out that absolute freedom is not what is sought, but rather a freedom to express oneself with responsibility.
A group of concerned individuals and organisations met at Makati City, Manila, from to April 19 to 21, 2006. The three-day conference was held under the aegis of the South East Asian Press Alliance and the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism. It was titled, “Free Expression in the Asian Cyberspace”. The participants were mainly bloggers, podcasters and/or human rights activists.
The aims of the conference, as outlined by Roby Alampy, Executive Director of SEAPA, were to discuss how individuals and organisations can better explore opportunities to exercise their freedom of expression in the online world and combat the different threats which are arising from it.
In the opening speech, Sheila Coronel, executive director of PCIJ, not only discussed the use of blogs as an alternative media in the hands of people without big resources, corporate names or profit motive, but also narrated the background of the PCIJ blog. The PCIJ blog which was put up last year found itself in the middle of a huge scandal only six weeks later when it uploaded taped conversations of the president with election officials.
“In the last year, there have been one million downloads of that recording and the mobile-phone ring tones that nameless composers fashioned from snippets of the phone conversations. Half a million downloaded the transcript of the conversation in the past year. When our blog crashed, because of the sheer number of downloads, the blogging community came to our rescue, putting up mirror sites where the recording could be accessed,” explained Ms Coronel.
“Throughout the crisis, we posted our blog breaking news reports, analysis and unedited documents and audio material that allowed our readers to sift through the original information themselves,” she further elaborated.
It is no surprise then, that the PCIJ blog was the first in the country to be sued for libel. Sedition charges were also brought up against some of the posts and a few cases are still pending. Projecting the truth is not always easy. This fact was reiterated by the delegates from Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore and Burma who talked about the respective lack of press freedom in their countries and how they are using the internet as a platform to reach out to the people.
Specifically, Kunda Dixit, publisher of Nepali Times outlined the positive and negative aspects regarding the power of the internet. According to him, the internet has a diaspora reach - the entire world can know what is going on since the internet cannot be shut down like a print publication. Plus, there is a non-news format and the use of multimedia and opinion polls to inform as well as invite feedback.
Steven Gan, founder and editor of Malaysia Kini explained in the conference how the internet is the only medium in Malaysia which is not owned by the big corporations. The government too, is relatively lenient with the online medium which is why malaysiakini.com was up and running. However, it did get into trouble after it refused to reveal the identities of a few columnists and letter-writers.
The result was a raid on its offices during which computers were seized and documents were searched. However, in July 2005, the case was officially closed and computers were returned in batches. This goes to prove that the truth does prevail sometimes.
But when it does not, one can always return to the internet. Filipino journalist-blogger Manuel Quezon III, gave a few suggestions to those who wanted to push an issue online. He emphasised that the information must be mirrored on several websites so even if one is taken down, the others remain intact. Also, it is vital not to voice strong opinions on the information and let the public decide what stance they want to take.
Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of Global Voices Online outlined the challenges for the online community. A major challenge is of course to bridge the digital divide. It is all too well to talk about alternative media and its potential. But the fact remains that there are people who do not even know the meaning of the word “blog.”This brings one to the next challenge and that is to do away with the myth that blogging is an elitist activity which has nothing to do with the masses.
Pakistani speakers got a chance to project their issues on the second day of the conference. Dr. Awab Alvi, who is recently running the “Don’t Block the Blog” campaign to get the blogspot ban lifted in Pakistan, spoke on the issue itself which has adversely affected many Pakistani bloggers. Mr. Owais Aslam Ali of Pakistan Press Foundation spoke about the language barrier and how essential it is to put some effective translation services in place to make the internet accessible to all. It is important to analyse in this context: is the internet giving a voice to everyone or is it amplifying the voices that are already there?
A crucial issue discussed at the conference was how 9/11 had resulted in national security laws and the resultant clampdown on online freedom of expression. Jeff Ooi from Reporters Sans Frontiers reported that threats to press freedom had come in the name of anti-terror laws in different countries, with many cyber dissidents being arrested and incarcerated.
There was also an emphasis on the ethical issues in blogging. These were outlined by Melinda Quintos de Jesus from the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility. She pointed out that bloggers had to imbue the same values as a journalist especially if they were reporting news through their blogs — they had to be balanced, fair and accurate.
There were various workshops, most notable being the one on internet security. How to know if you are being blocked or monitored and ways to get around it. It was conducted by Ethan Zuckerman of the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School and Nart Villeneuve. A survey was also conducted to assess how one could build up on whatever the conference had achieved and take further steps towards online freedom.
In short, the conference was informative as well as enlightening and it did make one appreciate the level of online freedom in one’s own country, given the extreme cases that were presented by some South East Asian countries. But in the end, it all comes down to one point — it is all too well to talk about the internet and freedom of expression. But how is one going to overcome the digital divide throughout Asia to ensure that everyone enjoys the same sort of freedom?
6th May 2006
Freedom of expression is one slogan that is raised quite frequently these days. Whether it is an individual or an organisation, suddenly everyone has realised that they should be able to exercise their right to express themselves without being subjected to restraints. At the same time, they are quick to point out that absolute freedom is not what is sought, but rather a freedom to express oneself with responsibility.
A group of concerned individuals and organisations met at Makati City, Manila, from to April 19 to 21, 2006. The three-day conference was held under the aegis of the South East Asian Press Alliance and the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism. It was titled, “Free Expression in the Asian Cyberspace”. The participants were mainly bloggers, podcasters and/or human rights activists.
The aims of the conference, as outlined by Roby Alampy, Executive Director of SEAPA, were to discuss how individuals and organisations can better explore opportunities to exercise their freedom of expression in the online world and combat the different threats which are arising from it.
In the opening speech, Sheila Coronel, executive director of PCIJ, not only discussed the use of blogs as an alternative media in the hands of people without big resources, corporate names or profit motive, but also narrated the background of the PCIJ blog. The PCIJ blog which was put up last year found itself in the middle of a huge scandal only six weeks later when it uploaded taped conversations of the president with election officials.
“In the last year, there have been one million downloads of that recording and the mobile-phone ring tones that nameless composers fashioned from snippets of the phone conversations. Half a million downloaded the transcript of the conversation in the past year. When our blog crashed, because of the sheer number of downloads, the blogging community came to our rescue, putting up mirror sites where the recording could be accessed,” explained Ms Coronel.
“Throughout the crisis, we posted our blog breaking news reports, analysis and unedited documents and audio material that allowed our readers to sift through the original information themselves,” she further elaborated.
It is no surprise then, that the PCIJ blog was the first in the country to be sued for libel. Sedition charges were also brought up against some of the posts and a few cases are still pending. Projecting the truth is not always easy. This fact was reiterated by the delegates from Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore and Burma who talked about the respective lack of press freedom in their countries and how they are using the internet as a platform to reach out to the people.
Specifically, Kunda Dixit, publisher of Nepali Times outlined the positive and negative aspects regarding the power of the internet. According to him, the internet has a diaspora reach - the entire world can know what is going on since the internet cannot be shut down like a print publication. Plus, there is a non-news format and the use of multimedia and opinion polls to inform as well as invite feedback.
Steven Gan, founder and editor of Malaysia Kini explained in the conference how the internet is the only medium in Malaysia which is not owned by the big corporations. The government too, is relatively lenient with the online medium which is why malaysiakini.com was up and running. However, it did get into trouble after it refused to reveal the identities of a few columnists and letter-writers.
The result was a raid on its offices during which computers were seized and documents were searched. However, in July 2005, the case was officially closed and computers were returned in batches. This goes to prove that the truth does prevail sometimes.
But when it does not, one can always return to the internet. Filipino journalist-blogger Manuel Quezon III, gave a few suggestions to those who wanted to push an issue online. He emphasised that the information must be mirrored on several websites so even if one is taken down, the others remain intact. Also, it is vital not to voice strong opinions on the information and let the public decide what stance they want to take.
Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of Global Voices Online outlined the challenges for the online community. A major challenge is of course to bridge the digital divide. It is all too well to talk about alternative media and its potential. But the fact remains that there are people who do not even know the meaning of the word “blog.”This brings one to the next challenge and that is to do away with the myth that blogging is an elitist activity which has nothing to do with the masses.
Pakistani speakers got a chance to project their issues on the second day of the conference. Dr. Awab Alvi, who is recently running the “Don’t Block the Blog” campaign to get the blogspot ban lifted in Pakistan, spoke on the issue itself which has adversely affected many Pakistani bloggers. Mr. Owais Aslam Ali of Pakistan Press Foundation spoke about the language barrier and how essential it is to put some effective translation services in place to make the internet accessible to all. It is important to analyse in this context: is the internet giving a voice to everyone or is it amplifying the voices that are already there?
A crucial issue discussed at the conference was how 9/11 had resulted in national security laws and the resultant clampdown on online freedom of expression. Jeff Ooi from Reporters Sans Frontiers reported that threats to press freedom had come in the name of anti-terror laws in different countries, with many cyber dissidents being arrested and incarcerated.
There was also an emphasis on the ethical issues in blogging. These were outlined by Melinda Quintos de Jesus from the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility. She pointed out that bloggers had to imbue the same values as a journalist especially if they were reporting news through their blogs — they had to be balanced, fair and accurate.
There were various workshops, most notable being the one on internet security. How to know if you are being blocked or monitored and ways to get around it. It was conducted by Ethan Zuckerman of the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School and Nart Villeneuve. A survey was also conducted to assess how one could build up on whatever the conference had achieved and take further steps towards online freedom.
In short, the conference was informative as well as enlightening and it did make one appreciate the level of online freedom in one’s own country, given the extreme cases that were presented by some South East Asian countries. But in the end, it all comes down to one point — it is all too well to talk about the internet and freedom of expression. But how is one going to overcome the digital divide throughout Asia to ensure that everyone enjoys the same sort of freedom?
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