The Role of New Media in the 2009 Iranian Elections

The Role of New Media in the 2009 Iranian Elections

This report discusses presentations and panel discussion in Washington,
DC, United States, on July 7 2009, in which new media practitioners, Iran
specialists, and interested observers attempted to clarify the role of new
media in the Iranian elections and the implications of these technologies
for future democratic movements. The report is the result of a Center for
International Media Assistance (CIMA) workshop in which approximately 150
people came together to discuss the impact of new communications
technologies in Iran...

http://www.comminit.com/en/node/304006/2754

Human Rights Reporting Handbooks for Journalists

Human Rights Reporting Handbooks for Journalists
This handbook collection was written to move forward the goal of the
organisation Journalists for Human Rights (jhr), which is to make everyone
in the world fully aware of their rights. "Creating rights awareness is
the first and most necessary step to ending rights abuses. By mobilizing
the media to spread human rights awareness, jhr informs people about human
rights, empowering marginalized communities to stand up, speak out and
protect themselves." jhr programmes promote Rights Media - the process of
writing, collecting, editing, producing, and distributing media that
create societal dialogue on human rights issues...
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/297008/2754

Twitter urges Murdoch to be open

Twitter urges Murdoch to be open
By Jonathan Fildes
Technology reporter, BBC News

[excerpt]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8368750.stm

Newspapers should become "radically open" if they want to make money in
the online world, the co-founder of social networking site Twitter has
said.

Biz Stone said that he would "love to see what happens" if newspaper mogul
Rupert Murdoch went ahead with plans to block Google from his websites.

"The future is in openness not [being] closed," he told the BBC.

Mr Murdoch recently said that search engines could not legally use
material such as headlines in search results.

Earlier this year, he said his News Corp business would start charging
customers for access to its websites.

News Corp owns the Times and Sun newspapers in the UK and the New York
Post and Wall Street Journal in the US.

Mr Stone said he should be allowed to "fail fast" with the proposal.

"They should be looking at this as an opportunity to try something
radically different and find out a way to make a ton of money from being
radically open rather than some money from being ridiculously closed," he
told an event organised by the National Endowment for Science, Technology
and the Arts (Nesta) in London.

Free Syllabics fonts Downloads (MAC & PC) plus keyboards

Free Syllabics fonts Downloads (MAC & PC)

Canadian Syllabics & Latin Scripts

Euphemia covers most languages which use the Canadian Syllabic script
including various Cree orthographies, Inuktitut and the historical
Carrier/Dakelh script (dulkw'ahke). Three fonts are available with free
end-user licences in TrueType-OpenType format (.ttf).

Pigiarniq, Uqammaq and the Inuktitut Keyboard Driver

Macintosh keyboards for Inuktitut are available with Mac OSX 10.3 or
later. They are compatible with both the version of Euphemia available
here as well as the version of Euphemia that comes with OSX, as well as
any other Unicode-encoded Inuktitut fonts or UCAS fonts. If you wish to
have the latest version, and/or a version of Euphemia that has the extra
features (smallcaps, old-style figures etc.) you can download the version
from this site.

http://www.tiro.com/syllabics/resources/index.html

--
GEORGE LESSARD

Information & Media Specialist
6402135 Canada Inc.

451 Norseman Drive
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
X1A 2J1, Canada

Yellowknife Land Line # (867) 873-2662
Yellowknife Cell # (867) 445-9193

Online Business Card:
http://lessardcard.notlong.com

Home e-mail media@web.net
Alternate e-mail: mediamentor@gmail.com

Home Pages http://mediamentor.ca
Online Activities: http://www.web.ca/~media/index.html
Photos: http://photosbygeorge.notlong.com
My Public Bookmarks: http://del.icio.us/themediamentor

Member:
Canadian Association of Journalists http://www.caj.ca
Canadian Artists Representation / le Front des artistes canadiennes
http://www.carfac.ca/
Canadian Artists Representation Copyright Collective http://www.carcc.ca/

Flarf, the poetry of Googled search terms - thestar.com

Flarf, the poetry of Googled search terms - thestar.com

http://www.thestar.com/living/article/726499--flarf-the-poetry-of-googled-search-terms

Riddles; is curry an acid or a base; are dreads sexy; the difference
between a sea and an ocean; fish that clean other fish; the life and times
of Scrooge McDuck; what's my zip code; where does the money go? -By Kate
Dawson and Ori Barbut, from 'Searchbar History Vol. 1'

Worldwide Earthquake Notification Service

Worldwide Earthquake Notification Service

https://sslearthquake.usgs.gov/ens/

This system provides automated free email and email-based SMS text message
notification for worldwide earthquakes.

The U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program Earthquake
Notification Service (ENS) is a customizable system provided free to
everyone. You can receive earthquake notifications for any earthquakes
located by the ANSS/NEIC (Advanced National Seismic System/National
Earthquake Information Center) in the U.S. and around the World.
Information for earthquakes in the U.S. is generally available within 5
minutes; information for earthquakes elsewhere in the World is generally
available within 30 minutes.

Customizable Options:

* Functional in English and Spanish
* Specify your local time zone
* Specify affiliation
* Aftershock exclusion option
* Update Notifications option
* Defer Notifications option
* Add, remove, or change multiple email addresses (up to 15)
* Define multiple notification profiles
* Activate/Deactivate each profile individually
* Set notification magnitude thresholds for night and day hours
* Receive emails in 3 formats: long, short (for pagers and cell
phones), and raw CUBE format messages.
* Create a notification profile region from a list of predefined regions
* Create a rectangular profile region from four specified lat/lon points
* Specify a circular profile region from a center point and radius, or
pick it on a map
* Make a custom polygon profile region by picking points on a map, or
uploading XML
* Select seismic networks to receive events from (scientists only;
default is to receive from all networks)
* Remove profiles
* Manage/Delete account

NASA and Microsoft Allow Earthlings to Become Martians

NASA and Microsoft Allow Earthlings to Become Martians - To enroll as a
virtual Martian citizen and start exploring, visit

http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/welcome

This site was created under a Memorandum of Understanding between
NASA/JPL-Caltech and Microsoft.

‘Daily Show’ Producers, Writers Say They’re Seriou s about Media Criticism

'Daily Show' Producers, Writers Say They're Serious about Media Criticism

http://mediachannel.org/blog/2009/11/daily-show-producers-writers-say-theyre-serious-about-media-criticism/

[excerpt]

"Daily Show" producer Ramin Hedayati spends his morning flipping back and
forth between the "Today Show" and "The Early Show," glancing at major
news sites and political blogs and reading The New York Times. When he
gets into the office, he scans through news shows recorded on the office's
13 TiVos and looks for glaring inconsistencies, misleading reports and
humorous soundbites.

While watching Sean Hannity's coverage of an anti-health-care-reform rally
at the Capitol last week, he knew something wasn't quite right. "I
remember saying to myself …'There couldn't be a more beautiful day for
this rally.' Then all of a sudden it went to cloudy footage," said
Hedayati. "Hannity used footage from Glenn Beck's 9/12 rally to make his
rally look bigger … We were surprised that no one else caught it."

Hannity responded last week to the show's uncovering of the inconsistency,
saying the video switch-up was an "inadvertent mistake."

While its touts itself as a comedy show first and foremost, "The Daily
Show" is also an unabashed media critic and ombudsman of sorts that
exposes journalists' wrongdoings and shortcomings.

Switzerland takes Google to court

Switzerland takes Google to court

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8358908.stm

[excerpt]

Web search giant Google faces a court case in Switzerland because of
privacy concerns over its Street View service.

The application allows a 360-degree view of any street-level location.

"Numerous faces and vehicle number plates are not made sufficiently
unrecognisable," said data protection commissioner Hanspeter Thuer.

Google said it was disappointed by the move. The firm says it is sure that
Street View is legal in Switzerland and will "vigorously contest" the
case.

Line of sight

Mr Thuer is especially concerned about people shown in sensitive locations
such as hospitals, prisons or schools.

He also said that the height of the camera was problematic because it
allowed a view over fences, hedges and walls, meaning that more could be
seen from Street View than by a normal passer-by.

Copyright Watch

Copyright Watch

Copyright Watch collects and monitors copyright laws from all over the world.

http://www.copyright-watch.org/

The details of copyright law used to be important for only a few in the
creative industries. Now, with the growth of the Internet, we are all
authors, publishers, and sharers of copyrighted works.

Our dream was to build a user-friendly resource of national copyright laws
to help citizens of the world undertake comparative research. We wanted to
raise awareness of the importance of balanced copyright law in the
information society, and draw attention to points of commonality and of
difference in countries' laws and legal traditions. We also wanted to
create an information sharing resource, where copyright watchers could
post information about proposed amendments to their own copyright laws,
and understand the changes in others.

We hope that Copyright Watch will be a resource maintained and driven by
the Access to Knowledge community and that copyright monitors in each
country will help to keep this information up to date and relevant.

Finally, we hope that Copyright Watch will help document the importance of
copyright to all aspects of cultural life and human freedom. Balanced and
well-calibrated copyright laws are extremely important in our global
information society. The smallest shift in the legal balance between the
rights of copyright owners and users of copyrighted knowledge can destroy
or enable business models, criminalize or liberate everyday behaviour, and
transform or eradicate new technology. A law that is passed in one nation
can quickly be taken up by others, through bilateral trade agreements,
regional policy initiatives or international treaties. We all need to keep
watch.

An open source project, to pioneer “community funded reporting.”

What is Spot.Us About?

Spot.Us is a nonprofit project of the Center for Media Change and funded by various groups like the Knight Foundation.

We are an open source project, to pioneer "community funded reporting." Through Spot.Us the public can commission journalists to do reporting on important and perhaps overlooked topics. Contributions are tax deductible and if a news organization buys exclusive rights to the content, your donation will be reimbursed. Otherwise, all content is made available through a Creative Commons license. It's a marketplace where independent reporters, community members and news organizations can come together and collaborate.

You can learn more about us at our Press Page, the FAQ's page.
http://spot.us/

NY Times story on the pacific garbage patch. It's twice the size of texas! http://bit.ly/KcJBB

Story: Dissecting the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
In the science section of the New York Times November 10th, 2009 you'll find a story from Lindsey Hoshaw on the Pacific Garbage Patch. This story was partly funded by the Spot.Us community and is credited as such.
http://spot.us/stories/252-dissecting-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch

- - - - -

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iSC_k8BSFHlGN6nbX0mpFbUaF1Tw


New York Times publishes 'crowd-funded' article
(AFP) – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON — The science section of The New York Times contained an unusual article on Tuesday. The story about a huge floating garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean was not written by a Times reporter but by a freelance journalist whose expenses were paid by hundreds of donors in an experiment in "crowd-funded" journalism.

The travel expenses for journalist Lindsey Hoshaw's trip were raised through Spot.Us, which describes itself as a "nonprofit project to pioneer 'community funded' reporting."

Spot.Us, according to its website, allows the public to "commission investigations with tax deductible donations for important and perhaps overlooked stories.

"It?s a marketplace where independent reporters, community members and news organizations can come together and collaborate," it says.

The website lists 6,000 dollars in donations for the Pacific garbage patch story from more than 100 people.

Among the listed donors are Web luminaries such as Craig Newmark, the founder of classified site Craigslist, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and others.

Spot.Us is a project of the Center for Media Change, a San
Francisco-based non-profit.

- - - -

- - - - -

Spot.Us has been covered and talked about by traditional news organizations like the New York Times, NPR and PBS as well as new media giants like TechCrunch and Wired. Below is a sampling which should give you sense of just how much attention Spot.Us is making for our innovative approach to funding journalism.
http://www.spot.us/pages/press/

Twitter, Internet Undermine Canada Election Rules

Twitter, Internet Undermine Canada Election Rules
As Canadians in four electoral districts spread right across the giant
country cast ballots on Monday to fill vacant seats in the House of
Commons, Elections Canada asked a newspaper to remove from its website a
story revealing initial results from one constituency where voting had
ended early. The agency did not notice reporters had been discussing the
same by-election results on the microblogging network Twitter, which is
accessible across Canada. [Reuters]

[excerpt]

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Twitter 1, Elections Canada 0.

In this era of smartphones and the Internet, the federal elections agency
is struggling to enforce a rule that bans the general broadcasting of
voting results until all the polls have closed.

As Canadians in four electoral districts spread right across the giant
country cast ballots on Monday to fill vacant seats in the House of
Commons, Elections Canada asked a newspaper to remove from its website a
story revealing initial results from one constituency where voting had
ended early.

The agency did not notice reporters had been discussing the same
by-election results on the microblogging network Twitter, which is
accessible across Canada.

One journalist even sent a Twitter message saying "Oh dear. Have just
realized I may have been violating law because of my poor understanding of
Twitter". Elections Canada did nothing.

It is little wonder that critics use terms like absurd and archaic to
describe a provision that, in large part, comes from an era before the
Internet was born.

The rule -- part of the Canada Elections Act -- aims to prevent abuses in
the world's second largest country. Canada has six time zones, which means
results from the East start to come in while polls are still open in the
rest of the country.

To head off the chance that the majority could somehow be influenced by
early voting, media organizations are banned from nationally broadcasting
any results until the last polling station has closed.

http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCATRE5A94XM20091110

Afiche forum pour envoyer aux membres

ARTS, LA CULTURE et l’ÉDUCATION

FRANCO-CANADIEN

À YELLOWKNIFE

Samedi 14 novembre  9H00-16H00

9H00-12H00 

• Mot de bienvenue;
• Déroulement de la journée;
• Présentation de l’infrastructure des arts et de la culture au
• Canada français (dont la FCCF);
• Dossier Arts et Éducation :
• portrait général des enjeux, b) Sommet en éducation, c) Table nationale en arts et éducation (TAACI), d) Trousse du passeur culturel, e) Tables en art et éducation dans les provinces et territoires;
• Partage d’informations sur les liens entre arts et éducation aux
• TNO et les défis.

 

 12H00-13H00 

Buffet froid sur place

• Musique d’ambiance sur place par des musiciens locaux
• Lancement du livre Traces de vie par un Collectif Des Ainés TNO

 

13H00-16H00

• Positionnement des arts et la culture francophone dans l’enseignement et l’éducation
• Formation d’un comité arts et éducation aux TNO
•  Vision, mission, rôle des associations et répertoire des ressources culturelles et artistiques aux TNO                
• Comment les communautés pourraient mieux utiliser les ressources disponibles;        
• Formation d’un comité de suivis

Samedi le14 novembre

Northern United Place

SurveyMonkey.com - Powerful tool for creating web surveys. Online survey software made easy!

SurveyMonkey.com - Powerful tool for creating web surveys. Online survey software made easy!

Web.ca 's E-mail Service

A very good and low cost text based e-mail syste supplied by a Toronto, Ontatio Canada not-for-profit http://www.web.ca for details

in reference to: Web Networks - Login (view on Google Sidewiki)

China to ban beating web addicts

China's ministry of health has moved to ban the use of physical punishment
to treat teenagers addicted to the web, according to draft guidelines.

There are dozens of treatment centres offering to wean youths, mostly
boys, from spending hours on the web.

Many of them are military-style boot camps that rely on tough programmes
of physical exercise and counselling.

Two boys were beaten at separate camps earlier this year, one died and the
other was severely injured.

"When intervening to prevent improper use of the internet we should...
strictly prohibit restriction of personal freedom and physical
punishments," the ministry said in a draft guideline quoted by Reuters
news agency.

[excerpt]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8344002.stm

Training resources from Media Helping Media

These training modules have been put together to offer ongoing help to
journalists in transition states, post-conflict countries, and areas where
freedom of expression is under threat.

The only condition for using these modules is that you let us know if you
spot any typos. Many have been written on planes, in departure lounges and
in hotels and they may contain spelling errors.

Also, please credit Media Helping Media (or the author if it is a module
written by a guest) with a mention and a link if you refer to them online.
If you have a training module you would like to make available, please use
the contact us form and let us know.

http://www.mediahelpingmedia.org/content/section/6/234/

# Basic journalism training ( 16 items )
This section contains modules covering basic journalism training. There
will be some overlap with other sections, particularly as many media
organisations now have converged news operations, but we have tried to
store these modules in the most appropriate categories for the bulk of the
content they contain. Please, click through to the other setions, too. If
you want to add to this section, please use the contact us form and your
contribution will be considered for inclusion.

# Advanced journalism training ( 4 items )
This section contains modules covering advanced journalism training. There
will be some overlap with other sections, particularly as many media
organisations now have converged news operations, but we have tried to
store these modules in the most appropriate categories for the bulk of the
content they contain. Please, click through to the other setions, too. If
you want to add to this section, please use the contact us form and your
contribution will be considered for inclusion.
# Editorial ethics ( 9 items )

This section contains modules covering the ethical issues that journalists
face day-to-day, such as balance, impartiality, integrity, fairness, taste
and decency, offence, privacy, etc. They are continually updated to
reflect social and cultural changes. It is important that these modules
are continually revisited and kept fresh. If you want to add to this
section, please use the contact us form and your contribution will be
considered for inclusion.
# Media management ( 3 items )

This section contains modules covering media management. These training
courses cover all management aspects from how to run a newsroom to how to
manage a news business. If you would like to contribute a module to the
series, please use the contact us form and your contribution will be
considered for inclusion.

# Online and multimedia ( 7 items )
This section contains modules covering online and multimedia journalism.
There may be some overlap with other sections, particularly as many media
organisations now have converged news operations, but we have tried to
store these modules in the most appropriate categories for the bulk of the
content they contain. If you want to add to this section, please use the
contact us form and your contribution will be considered for inclusion.

# Social networking ( 10 items )
This is a new section of Media Helping Media. We should have loads of
material available here already, but the fact is that we have been slow
off the mark. Now we are aiming to make up time rapidly. If you would like
to contribute a resource (no payment, it's done for the love of it),
please let us know by using the contact us form. You can follow us on
Twitter @helpingmedia.

# Media strategy ( 4 items )
This section contains modules covering media strategy. These training
courses cover how to set a content strategy and run a converged news
operation in order to deliver content to multiple outlets. If you would
like to contribute a module to the series, please use the contact us form
and your contribution will be considered for inclusion.

# Refugee media ( 1 items )
This section deals with how refugee communities can set up and operate
successful news organisations in areas which are often poorly covered by
the mainstream media. The author, T.P. Mishra (left) set up a media
operation in the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal over an eight year
period. Now living in New York under a refugee resettlement project,
Mishra, the author of 'Becoming a Journalist in Exile' has put together a
number of guides for those who want to follow his lead.

Bhutan media group seeks international support

Bhutan media group seeks international support http://www.mediahelpingmedia.org/content/view/519/1/

Monday, 02 November 2009

Trainee journalists on one of the courses - Photo Mona Rath Pokhrel A media support group, run by Bhutanese journalists living in exile, is looking for international support in order to continue to develop its media training programmes and to campaign for media freedom in the region. The Media Network Bhutan (MNB), run entirely by volunteers, is approaching its third anniversary. It claims its training courses have helped hundreds of Bhutanese journalists living in the refugee camps in Nepal. The aim now is to bring together the overseas Bhutanese refugee communities that have been resettled in the West in order to strengthen their media skills and to mobilise them in a campaign for media freedom within Bhutan.

* Google opens OneBox music service *

* Google opens OneBox music service *
Search giant Google enters the online music market with a new service for
finding and buying music online.
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/technology/8331290.stm

* Canada jails Rwandan war criminal *

* Canada jails Rwandan war criminal *
A Rwandan man convicted of war crimes is jailed for life by a Canadian court,
without the prospect of parole for 25 years.
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/americas/8333046.stm