Tech Stream
Posts Tagged ‘ social media’
Iran: Activism and Social Media
16 June 2009
ABC News Online has just launched a special feature with coverage of the political unrest in Iran and how social media tools like Flickr, Youtube and Twitter are being used to broadcast eyewitness reports of violence and protests. But internet users and activists in the country say that the government is blocking access to these kind of sites and disrupting transmission of SMS text messages. There’s more at ABC News Online, including integration of twitter and flickr streams.
Tech Stream 016
5 June 2009
Listen and download: MP3
Electronic waste waiting to be recycled. Photo from Flickr by Eric Dykstra.
We’re marking World Environment Day in the Tech Stream this week. Jeff Angel, Executive Director of the Total Environment Centre tells us about Australia’s new electronic waste recycling scheme. Janet Leslie from Canon Australia explains their e-waste initiatives and ‘green’ calculators. And Elanto Wijayono from Green Map Indonesia introduces us to Open Green Maps – a set of online tools to help communities map natural, cultural and sustainable resources in their area.
But we kick off the program with the blocking of websites like Twitter and Flickr in China this week. Thursday was the 20th anniversary of the Chinese military’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. Myself and Steve Holland from Connect Asia speak with a local Twitter user as well as Jeremy Goldkorn from Danwei.org and Beijing-based technology observer Kaiser Kuo. Radio Australia News Online also has a great feature on the anniversary. Lastly, technology journalist Adam Turner has the lowdown on Google Wave.
The entire program can be heard from the MP3 link at the top, and you can subscribe to the podcast with the link on the right. Feel free to leave a comment below on any of the content in the Tech Stream this week.
Social web blocked in China
3 June 2009
China is blocking access to social networking and social media websites ahead of the 20th anniversary of a bloody crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Sites like Twitter, Hotmail and Flickr were blocked on Tuesday and Microsoft also reported that access was blocked to their new Bing search engine.
The story is being covered today by Radio Australia News who report that internet users filled chatrooms with protest after access to Twitter was denied on Tuesday. And Reuters reports that “Access to video-sharing site YouTube, owned by Google, has been blocked in China since March, after overseas Tibetan groups posted graphic footage of China’s crackdown on protests by Tibetans in 2008.”
The Tech Dynasty blog on CNET Asia also covered the blocks yesterday and says that “anyone in China who spends any amount of time online has weathered these blocks before” and so has recommended some good sites to overcome them. There are also unconfirmed reports on Twitter that the #gfw (great firewall of China) has been removed from the ‘trending topics’ section. We’ll have more in the Tech Stream program, on Radio Australia news and on our own Tech Stream twitter feed.
UPDATE 05/06/2009: Connect Asia covered this on Thursday morning, you can hear Steve Holland’s story from this link, and ABC News Online provided excellent coverage of the anniversary.
CeBIT: Webciety and Hiive
15 May 2009
Listen and download: MP3
I spent a lot of time at CeBIT Australia 2009 in the Webciety area and met a lot of the teams whose web-based services were on display. Next week in the Tech Stream we’ll meet up with two of them, Travellr and Devnet, but the buzz this year was around Hiive Systems. The Australian startup won this year’s “Early Innovation” award for their service and client tracking software, Affinity. Their founder and Managing Director is Geoff McQueen and I somehow managed to drag him away from prospective clients to talk about Hiive Systems and the Webciety concept. You can listen to our chat with the MP3 link at the top of the story.
The Future of Conferences
15 May 2009
The Future Tense program this week have been looking at the changing nature of conferences:
The word ‘conference’ is synonymous with bad food, hard chairs and boring speakers. At least it is for many of us. But it doesn’t have to be that way and, in fact, it’s already changing. We speak with three conferencing professionals about conferences past and future and the way the industry is adapting to meet changing consumer expectations.
You can listen and download the audio from the program or read the transcript.
Life Matters: To Tweet or not to Tweet
8 May 2009
The Life Matters program this morning had an interesting discussion, and some talkback too, on the growing interest and media attention given to social network tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. One of their guests was Iggy Pintado, a former marketing manager with IBM, and a self professed Super-Connector. He’s also the author of the book Connection Generation which argues that “connection determines our place in society and business – and if you’re not online you’re off the scene”. His dad and son also join in! You can follow the conversation as it evolved on twitter (using the #lm tag) or download the audio from this link, or the Life Matters website.
Remix the ABC’s genes
1 May 2009
2009 is the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth, and across the world special projects and events are taking place to mark the anniversary. The ABC, here in Australia, is opening up its archival material to the Gene Pool. You can use the archives for inspiration – or adapt, recombine and remix them any way you like. Gene Pool is a collaborative project, sitting within the Pool – a social media project developed by ABC Radio National. You can also use the Pool to upload music, photos, videos, documentaries, interviews, animations and more. Anyone from around the world can take part and contribute to its ongoing evolution, and feel free to share your efforts with us here in the Tech Stream.
More stories on the 200 year anniversary since Charles Darwin’s birth can be found at ABC Radio National.
Twitter for breakfast
9 April 2009
Listen and download: MP3
I’ve found myself becoming a reluctant evangelist for Twitter in the past couple of weeks, and I’m not the only one. Many people in the media, marketing and technology industry seem to be in the same boat. This will change, and in fact it already is as more people start using the service. But being able to clearly define what makes it such an interesting and effective communication and networking tool is still a little hard to do.
