Manal and Alaa's bit bucket free speech from the bletches

had to sit through a most boring meeting suffering from all the ills of donor lead development. being optimistic I had my note taking application open and ready here is a glimpse of what my notes say  read more »

• is the universal declaration of human rights relevant on any level that other than law
• we operate on the assumption that the media monopoly will remain as is forever. the very reality of citizen journalism, lower costs of running satellite channels, new players in the global media market are not registered at all and no effort is spent on trying to imagine the future of the media landscape
• the quality over quantity helix is one of those ideas that are never challanged, even though it is always promoted as a radical idea that goes contrary to common belief.

written for the APC blog

Nothing drives home the fact that you are a geek more than realizing you feel more comfortable talking to the intellectual property lawyer than to all these perfectly normal human journalists.

Yeah I got stuck in this media conference and it's like it's designed to intimidate me, from the selfish people who won't give you a ride from the airport to the formal functions.

But the worst part is explaining why you are here: "Erm, you see, I'm a blogger!".

What the hell does that mean? it's not a job, it's not an identity, and it shouldn't be treated as something soooo exciting.

I do have a blog (a much overrated one at that). It has become an important part of my life, but so is email. I don't walk around calling myself an emailer do I? And I don't get invited to conferences just because I send a lot of emails.  read more »