web 2.0 – viewpoint-east.org

Alexander Lukashenko loves Sweden

Posted on March 11, 2010 at 08:59.

Category: belarus, by sophie engström, sociala medier, web 2.0
Tags: alexander lukashenko, beatrice ask, belarus, FRA, piracy, social media, web 2.0

(Läsningstid: 2 minuter)

Alexander Lukashenko has a political reputation that few wants to be confused with, and one can think that also Swedish politicians would try to avoid being confused with his ideas of running a country. But unwillingly the Swedish government has got a new fan, and perhaps a fan they never wanted to have, and that is, again, Alexander Lukashenko.

Alexander Lukashenko from wiki

Recently the Swedish Minister of Justice, Beatrice Ask, got a request from Alexander Lukashenko, where he asks her to start an exchange project, where Belarus government can learn more about how to reduce economic crime on Internet. I am however sure that this is not Alexander Lukashenko real intentions. Sweden did more than a year introduce the FRA law, that actually gives a certain department the right to track and read all emails and sms’ that crosses the border. The idea is to try to track down terrorists, which of course is complete nonsense. Sweden has a long tradition of tracking its own citizens. (It is no wonder we are the land of accurate statistics on all the moves the citizens takes.) Many in the Swedish piracy movement interpets this as a new way to violate human rights in Sweden (and other countries), and also because FRA can sell the information to anybody they want to!

I am pretty sure Alexander Lukashenko understand how the Swedish government can use all the information they track from the email and sms’ that crosses the border. (To be clear: all emails in Sweden cross the borders. Servers have a very unpatriotic style and don’t really care which server it communicates with, inside or outside Sweden, the server never care.)

It is however very easy for me to be ironic, sitting here in a country with freedom of speech, but I am really worried that this interest of Alexander Lukashenko in Internet, is more and more threatening all activity on Internet in Belarus. And outside the borders! I think it is high time that we, the blogging swarm that wants to help the citizens of Belarus to get freedom of speech and a free internet, to speaks up! At least I will do all in my power to try to high light all this crimes against human rights!

Gender Equality in Ukraine

Posted on January 18, 2010 at 15:49.

Category: sociala medier, ukraine, web 2.0
Tags: Berlusconi, gender, gender watch, presidential election 2010, social media, Tymoshenko, Ukraine, web 2.0, wiki, wikigender, wikiprogress, Yanukovych

(Läsningstid: 2 minuter)

wikigender is a very interesting and needed project. I agree with it, even though I often hesitate for more “separatistic” movements like that. When it comes to gender equality i think it should be mainstreamed, not separated form the general debate or issue. But if you are looking for certain information about gender situation I think it is a great project. (I also think wikiprogress is a really great idea! It is when I see projects like that i understand the extreme impact web 2.0 and social web actually have on IRL).

I also think the wikigender page about Ukraine is great, since you can find several interesting articles in the bottom, and especially then the gender watch.

But women’s representation in parliament, in Ukraine, really… well, suck. 7,1% actually makes me wishing I have had chosen an other field for my interest! But on the other hand, one might say that this only shows how smart women are compared to men; I mean, who wants to be in that swamp of corruption and stupidity anyway? And when it comes to real changes for greater gender equality my assumption is that both candidates (again) suck in that regard… I would even call Yulya Tymoshenko the worst gender equality enemy Europe has… well, possibly after Berlusconi : ))) But according to the lastest pull Yanukovych is leading with 10.5% over Tymoshenko. And since I don’t like any of them, I can’t say I feel much interest in who wins. The country need to make many changes, however, none of the two candidates are serious when they mean that want to change. And please prove me if I am wrong!

Tymoshenko and Janukovych from todays Kyiv Post

Sociala medier i kampen mot valfusk

Posted on December 3, 2009 at 14:11.

Category: by sophie engström, sociala medier, ukraina, ukraine, web 2.0
Tags: flickr, piratpartiet, presidential election 2010, social media, twitter, Ukraine, web 2.0

(Läsningstid: 2 minuter)

Under förra presidentvalet 2004, som senare ledde till den orangea revolutionen, rapporterades det om det flera oegentligheten. De första uppgifterna som kom ut om valfusk och förhindrande av valprocedur var ofta via internet. Detta ledde till att man valde att stänga ned en server som användes av en organisation som bland annat ställde sig bakom den nuvarande presidenten, Viktor Jusjenko. Idag är nästan alla överens att kommande presidentval i januari MÅSTE gå rätt till. Denna gång får inte internationella övervakare rynka på näsan åt den ukrainska demokratiska viljan.

Ett försök att stärka valprocessen är Internviews-Ukraine’s Twitter projekt. Vitaliy Moroz, från Internews-Ukraine, säger till Olya Vesnjanka för Deutche Welle att Ukraina ofta har varit arena för innovativ och kreativ journalistik, och avser aktioner som de jag nämnde ovan, samt att Livejournal användes som en politisk debatt och nyhetsrapportering under förra presidentvalet.

Tanken med Internews-Ukraine’s projekt är att utbilda journalister (och gärna bloggare) runt omkring i Ukraina, till att skapa ett twitter flöde som synliggör oegentligheter under valkampanjen 7-17 januari. De också lyfter fram de politiska frågorna även om de är väl medvetna om att kan inte kan ha en politisk debatt på Twitter, eftersom siten bara erbjuder 140 tecken per status uppdatering!

Journalisterna i projektet ska därför inte bara få utbildning i hur de rent tekniskt twittrar, exempelvis från mobil, utan också hur man kort, endast några tecken, uttrycker saklig och begriplig information. (Helt uppenbart är att undertecknad borde gå en sådan kurs, då jag verkligen har svårt att uttrycka något sakligt, kärnfullt och framförallt kort 😉 ) Allt material som twittras ska sedan smalas upp av en större portal som samlar blogginlägg, twitter, bilder från exempelvis Flickr, på en och samma sida. Jag föreställer mig att den eventuellt kan se ut som piratpartiets Live-ström.

Om detta kommer att motverka att presidentvalet 2010 blir lika smutsigt som förra, låter jag vara osagt. Men faktum är att förra valet kanske “räddades” just av att de som kritiserade situationen under valet faktiskt använde sig av ny teknik för att sprida information!

För den som är intresserad kommer jag att under december månad publicera en liten artikel med intervjuer med några dem som stod bakom förra presidentvalets flashmobs och spektakulära serverflyttar.