As a regular business/leisure traveller and web addict, wifi access is very important to me. And this is one of the great things about living in Vietnam – virtually every café, bar and restaurant has free wifi, meaning I’m never far away from a connection. Sadly, the same cannot be said of hotels, at least not all of them.
The first BarCamp was held in 2005 in Palo Alto, CA. Since then it has quickly spread around the world and 22-23 October Cambodia will be hosting its fourth BarCamp at the University of Puthisastra.
They are open, participatory workshop-events, the content of which is provided by participants. Typically centered around tech subjects such as Open Source Technologies and Cyber-Security it is nonetheless an unconference with a variety of subjects being presented, completely up to those interested in participating.
The Mirror, Vol. 15, No. 709
The Internet – specially the two Social Networks of Facebook (more here) and Twitter (more here) – brought hundreds of millions of people world-wide in new ways into special relations of – mostly public group – communication. Both networks have also thousand of active participants in Cambodia.
Recently, there was also a discussion started about the fact that many people in Cambodia use Romanized Khmer on these networks - “Urgent!!! We have to promote the usage of Khmer Unicode, or else the Khmer language will disappear and Romanized Khmer will replace our language in the cyberworld.”
Since a couple of weeks ago, there was confusing and contradicting information about Internet accessibility in Cambodia – not in general, but as a result of interference and censorship. Some web sites, critical of the government, were not accessible.
There were several confusing aspects:
The Mirror, Vol. 15, No. 701
I have been a supporter of Free Open Source Software – FOSS – for several years, and in 2010, I learnt so much more about how FOSS could be used in order to help tackle copyright issues of software and even more, of an important sector of a developing country like Cambodia, such as education. So, I grabbed a chance to join the FOSS Asia event which took place in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam from 12 to 14 November last year.
With all due respect to those who toil at Phnom Penh's LOVE FM station, it's not a radio station I or many of my friends care to listen to for the music, Anglo males in their mid-fifties clearly not being their primary target market.
Fortunately download speeds have increased in Cambodia enough to make internet radio a viable option for the music lover of any age. And the radio apps available for the iPhone have made me an absolute convert to internet radio. The multitasking capability of IOS 4.0 means I can listen to internet radio AND use the iPhone for other time-wasting activities simultaneously.
UPDATE: Launch was successfull, See more impressive pictures from the balloon rising into the sky over Cambodia into the space.
It might be a bit late, but due to travel and connections issues I could not find the time for this review. The headline might be a bit misleading: Of course there is no space ship, but actually something is leaving Cambodia into the outer space. It looks like a weather balloon, and it is supposed to launch today depending on a Go from the builders.
Barcamp Phnom Penh (25 and 26 September this year) attracts visitors from around South East Asia and beyond. If this is your first visit to Phnom Penh, below are some pointers that might be useful.
Airlines and getting there
If you are in South East Asia, the best way to get to Phnom Penh is via the budget airlines. You can get these for around 150to 200 USD.
AirAsia (From Malaysia and Thailand)
The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 673
“Phnom Penh: Cambodia starts to create legislation against cyber crimes as legal mechanisms for the country to help to deal with cyber crimes and other negative impacts relating to technology, that are happening in Cambodia, in the region, and around the world.
“A workshop about the creation of legislation against cyber crimes was held in the morning of 13 July 2010 at the Council of Ministers, and government officials, officials of national and international organizations, and representatives of Internet Service Providers, of telecom companies, of technology companies, of publication institutions, and of other relevant fields participated in the workshop.
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