U.S. Secretary Of State Calls WikiLeaks Releases 'Attack On The International Community'

Interactive Database of leaked US embassy cables, no leaks from Yerevan

The Guardian has put up an interactive map and a searchable database, which makes it easier to navigate through thousands of leaked documents which were provided to the newspaper by the whistle-blowing site Wikileaks on Sunday.
Read more »

State of the Mobile Web, October 2010

Armenia's favorite mobile browser is Opera Mini. Opera Software, the company behind it, has published its annual State of the Mobile Web report. Here are some itneresting findings realted to Armenia.

• Page-view growth since October 2009: 176.9 %
• Unique-user growth since October 2009: 39.6 %
• Data transfer growth since October 2009: 190.7 %
• Page views per user: 1,380
• Data transferred per user (MB): 12
• Data transferred per page view (KB): 9

Read more »

Free Wi-Fi in the Center of Yerevan

VivaCell-MTS will start providing experimental free Wi-Fi service in 4 areas of Yerevan, A1+ reports.
Read more »

The Russian Warrior and His iStone

found on the net

Armenian Journalists Temporarily Detained in Kars

In the city of Kars, Turkey, at 1 pm on Nov. 19, the staff of GALA TV were detained by local national security service officers.
Read more »

Armenia: YouTube, Facebook Emerging as Reform Tools in Yerevan

I’m reposting here a highly optimistic article about Internet in Armenia by Marianna Grigorian. Marianna, a respect journalist and my good collegue, contacted me asking to respond to some questions. Too bad, I was busy and responded only after she had sent the article in. As Marianna told me, if I had responded earlier, her article might have a totally different perspective. Pity.

Other than that, the article makes a great read, but its rather unrealistic. I’m quoted here, but the quote comes from a discussion we had much earlier.

This is the second story on YouTube and social media I’ve seen so far, which is arriving at wrong conclusions. Hopefully, Sunday will give me time to say a word or two on what I really think on those scandalous YouTube videos. Meanwhile, Marianna’s article is below.

Read more »

Armenia is 110th with 0% of Tweets

"A World of Tweets", specialized website which puts together Twitter statistics with geography reveals, that Armenia is the 110th among 211 countries which have twitted since it went live on November 1st. Sadly, the website doesn't offer any other statistics. However, given the size of Armenia's population and the small number of active twitterers that I have come to know about, 110th place is not bad at all.
Read more »

What is New Media for Armenian journalists and bloggers

The Media in Armenia and Azerbaijan: Effective or Affective?

From The Caucasian Knot By Arpine Porsughyan

Many academics argue that the influence of the media is especially strong in environments where citizens depend on a limited number of news sources. In contrast, when citizens have alternative sources of information they are less subject to the potential effects of media. Following this argument, how affective is the media in Armenia and Azerbaijan in establishing an image of the “other” in an environment where over 90 percent of the populations choose television as their primary source of information on current events with over 40 percent choosing family, friends, neighbors and colleagues as their second main source?

Read more »

South Caucasus: Study of Tolerance in The Media

Հանդուրժողականությունը լրատվամիջոցներում

View more presentations from Artur Papyan.

Full research in English is available for online viewing here

Armenia Online: Increased awareness, no visible result from social network activities

ArmeniaNow has quoted me in an article. I didn't like the article and think, that the quote from me is brought out of context, but decided to post it here just for the sake of remembering about it.



Scandalous Armenia-related video materials have recently increased in YouTube video-sharing website and social networks, resulting in heated discussions on social and mass media websites. 
Read more »

A Life on Facebook

“Click-to-Share Democracy” in Armenia

Simon Blogian has written a great article for Ararat Online Magazine is called Armenia’s Click-to-Share Democracy and explores the recent netivisim (Internetnet activism) boom in Armenia. I'm quoted there too :))

Women abused in their homes, conscripts humiliated in the military, and children abused at schools. None of the above are new phenomena in post-Soviet Armenia. But that’s the impression one gets by observing Armenia’s social networking. Day after day, YouTube videos (largely shared through Facebook) emerge depicting human rights violations, followed by societal anger, activism, and some government action.

Read more »

Jack PC - the computer in/on the wall

The Jack PC from Chip PC Technologies offers a neat and novel thin-client desktop computing solution where the computer doesn't just plug into the wall, it is the plug in the wall. Running on power provided by the ethernet cable that also connects it to the data center server, the computer-in-a-wall-socket supports wireless connectivity, has dual display capabilities and runs on the RISC processor architecture – which gives the solution the equivalent of 1.2GHz of x86 processing power.
Read more »

Fun: How Smartphone Users See Each Other

iPHone vs Android vs Blackberry via C-Section Comics

PS: there's also a cartoon about my dumbphone Nokia 6300 at C-Section Comics... I didn't like it, grrrr :(

The Future of Internet: Service Web 3.0

Wordpress Celebrates 1 Million Mobile Users

Wordpress, one of the world's largest blogging services (maybe the largest after partnering with Microsoft Live Spaces) has just passed 1 million mobile users mark across all platforms. 

Read more »

YouTube was banned in Turkey for this video

Turkey has reimposed a ban on YouTube after the site refused to remove footage linked to a political sex scandal that erupted earlier this year. The footage in question shows Turkey’s main former opposition leader, Deniz Baykal, meeting a female staffer in a hotel room for a romantic tryst. Baykal resigned in May after the video surfaced.

Watch part of the footage here.

Via Turkaget

The Myth of the Liberal Media: The Propaganda Model of News

http://www.mediaed.org

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky demolish one of the central tenets of our political culture, the idea of the "liberal media." Instead, utilizing a systematic model based on massive empirical research, they reveal the manner in which the news media are so subordinated to corporate and conservative interests that their function can only be described as that of "elite propaganda."

“Armnet Awards” Competition Has Started!

I’m usually quite skeptical about various competitions and was even more skeptical about “Armnet Awards”, when the organizers declared, that it’s the first competition of Armenian Web sites, I discarded it as plain silly. Today, however, I received an email from Avetis Avagian, the owner of Circle.am rating portal, my Twitter friend and a person whom I trust. The message changed my attitude towards the Armnet Awards, so I decided to share it with you too.

Read more »

Censorship Never Gives Up

Via Areg Harutyunyan

'Feeding Radishes' to True Food Connoisseurs

The top story of one of newly established Armenian online news sites blew my mind. Here's the full article:

Republicans win at least 230 of 435 seats in House of Representatives

According to information, the Republicans will win a decisive victory in the U.S. Congress elections, grabbing at least 230 out of the 435 seats in the lower chamber of the representatives.According to the preliminary forecasts the Democrats will receive 163 seats in the lower chamber. Meanwhile, it was reported that President Barack Obama’s Democrats will retain the majority in the Senate, remaining with 51 out of 100 seats. 

PS: Եթե հայերենում նման բողկերը էլի մի կերպ ուտվում են` անգլերենում արդեն լրվի ամոթ է... աղաչում եմ, էս նորահայտ սայթերին ասեք, երկրի ժուռնալիստիկայի անունը վերջնականապես չխայտառակեն... :(

From here.

The Difference Engine: Beyond content

"THE old-media world of newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television networks has a daunting task ahead of it. New-media upstarts like internet TV, social networking, mash-ups, web stores and online gaming—with their ability to stream content direct to smart phones, tablets, e-readers, laptops and game consoles—have begun to eat the green-eyeshade brigade’s breakfast, lunch and tea," the Economist writes.
Read more »

The International Hrant Dink Award is waiting for your nominees

The International Hrant Dink Award winners will be announced on September 15th, 2011.

Every year, the Award will be presented to individuals, organisations or groups that work for a free and just world free from discrimination, racism and violence, who take personal risks for achieving those ideals, who break the stereotypes and use the language of peace and by doing so give inspiration and hope to others. By means of this Award, the Hrant Dink Foundation aims to remind to all those who struggle for these ideals that their voices are heard, their works are visible, they are not alone, and also to encourage everyone to fight for their ideals.

This year proposals for nominations will be accepted from October 15th 2010 to April 15th 2011.

How can I submit nomination?

You can submit your nominations until April 15th 2011, either by filling in the nomination form on the website www.hrantdinkaward.org or by sending us your nominations to the below postal address:

Hrant Dink Vakfi

Halaskargazi Cad. Sebat Apt. No: 74/1

Osmanbey, Sisli 34371

Istanbul, TURKEY

Providing detailed information about your nominee will help the International Jury in the selection process.

International Jury

2010 Jury of the International Hrant Dink Award consists of Adalet Agaoglu (author), Baltasar Garzon Real (judge, the Award Winner of the International Hrant Dink Award 2010), Boris Navasardian (The President of Yerevan Press Club), Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Member of the European Parliament), Hasan Cemal (journalist), Irene Khan (former Secretary General of Amnesty International), Judith Butler (feminist intellectual), Rakel Dink (The President of the Board of Directors of the Hrant Dink Foundation) and the Representatives of the Conscientious Objection Movement –Turkey (the Award Winner of the International Hrant Dink Award 2010).

For further information:

Nora Mildanoglu

Award Committee Coordinator

E-mail: award@hrantdink.org

Tel: +90 212 240 33 65