Blog Action Day 2010

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Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion around an important issue that impacts us all. This year's theme is 'water'.

Please register your blog here and participate on October 15th, the blog action day.

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The Islamic Community Center In Ground Zero - An Inside Story on CBS

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See and hear for yourself the truth behind all the fuss and propaganda.

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An example of citizen media

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In Bangladesh citizen media is yet to flourish. Now in the age of audio and video technology in our hand (cellphone, digital camera etc) we should be seeing more instances like this video depicting the anomalies in our societies and systems:



[In this video: a student is being tortured by a teacher of Notre Dame College in a very uncivilized way.)

And the job of citizen journalists are not to create sensations or make judgment on any piece of evidence. It is the job of the media and the society to take the issues forward and resolve the problems the citizen journalists expose. I wish I could see any Bangladeshi media investigating this incident and make a full report of it.

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Mixed Grill and Es Teller

@ D'nanta Bistro, Jalan Panglima Polin, Jakarta - an exclusive Indonesian restaurant.

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Why we need online RSS reader clients

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Ever since I started to use rss readers it changed my life. Earlier I used to read newspapers regularly by actually going to the sites. But instead I subscribe to certain newspapers and certain keywords in Google search and I can follow news or opinions targeted to a specific region or community at ease.

However, it seems rss could not appeal to many people who want more dynamic and updated information. Twitter, Facebook etc. provided them with more real time information withing the community. I have nothing against them but have doubts whether they will ever cater my special needs as Twitter updates are not stored somewhere to get hold on to. Your only option is to search and you get information overload and might miss the actual news.

I didn't even notice that people are talking about the death of rss readers. I realized after Bloglines announced that it is going to shut down on 1st of October, 2010. I should have seen it coming as there were reports suspecting the demise of Bloglines.

Bloglines quoted Steve Gillmor as a reason for their decision:

..being locked in an RSS reader makes less and less sense to people as Twitter and Facebook dominate real-time information flow. Today RSS is the enabling technology – the infrastructure, the delivery system. RSS is a means to an end, not a consumer experience in and of itself. As a result, RSS aggregator usage has slowed significantly, and Bloglines isn’t the only service to feel the impact.. The writing is on the wall.
 


And more so it struck to me as I tried to switch to a suitable rss reader replacement. I already use Google reader for monitoring Rising Voices Projects and keeping an eye on the development of new media in general. So I have tried for other online rss reader options (to access from anywhere) and found that Wasabi, Rojo, Newsgator - these services does not exist anymore. Pluck went down in 2007 and the rest of them followed.

Now we need to give a serious thought on what should be the way forward. Why should I invest my time in Google reader if it is going to shut down in near future? Mathew Ingram argues that rss is not dead, but but merely evolving. But we need more online based services so that we do not feel like we are pawn to Google's free service monopoly.

Does anybody have a suggestion which online rss reader client can I use except Google Reader?

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The Eid Exodus

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In comparison: The city crowds going back to their home towns and villages during Eid Holidays -

In Bangladesh

Courtesy Facebook user Baakbakum

In Indonesia:

Image courtesy Megatriks99

In Indonesia this tradition of going home during the Eid holidays is called Mudik.

Tomorrow is Eid-ul-Fitri in Indonesia and the exodus has started a couple of days ago. 2.2 million out of a population of 9.6 million are expected to leave Jakarta this week.

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