I am a Kiva-Lender since january 2010 and I still think, it is a great project! To get more informations about Kiva, just watch this great video and take a look at the Kiva press material and statistic informations.

comedians.comedycentral.com hosts a gigantic archive of clips from stand-up-comedians! At least by my taste you will find a lot of unknown but excellent people there.

My favorite is Patton Oswald‘s take on US-politics. He shows us how real historic developments may seem quite strange through the eyes of a person living a decade ago:

Barack Obama (Wikipedia) already has a guaranteed place in the history books, no matter how many of his aims he will be able to reach. He has – with a little help from his supporters and voters – already made this world a bit more tolerant and better. He is the first “black” president of the US. He is an intensive user of new forms of communications for political processes. And last but not least he has become an idol of the loving father and modern husband, who sees his wife not only as ornament but as equal partner.

“Exact!”, will be the answer of like-minded Obama fans. “Again a pitiable naive, caught by propaganda”, the conservative critics will comment. But what makes me so sure that the harmony shown by the presidential couple isn’t indeed fake? What if Barak in reality is an asshole, who smiles in the lenses of journalists and otherwise loves to be served by others? In this case I would like to point to a picture shown on the official Flickr account of the White House.

Meanwhile everyone has seen the clip on Youtube, in which the president kills a fly during a interview on television (Link to the clip on Youtube). Not so known by far is the picture, taken after this in which he collects the dead insect from the floor (Link to the picture at Flickr).

I love symbolic pictures. And this one shows alongside other things that the president of the United States of America even beside all his responsibilities and everything he has to bear in his mind, instinctively needs to go down in this expensive suit for a dead fly. I don’t care, if he did it out of respect for the creature, out of respect for the cleaning staff of the White House or just because his wife trained him this way.

I like the picture. And I like Obama

Leading to War” is a documentary about the prologue of the recent war in iraq. You can download it for free, stream it or watch it on Google-Video.

Wikipedia says:
“Presented chronologically from President Bush’s State of the Union Address in January, 2002 (the Axis of evil speech), and continuing up to the announcement of formal U.S. military action in Iraq on March 19, 2003, the film presents selected interviews, speeches, and press conferences given by Bush and his administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. Non-U.S. sources include British Prime Minister Tony Blair.”

The topic is interesting anyway, but the film and its internetpage leadingtowar.com are as well a good example for political communication in our times.

More information

I was quite suprised to find a fake cam in Hamburg yesterday. From the distance it looked quite real but a look from a closer distance discovers that it is just made from cardboard.

I’m not quite sure whether it’s a scare tactic of the government or just locals, but either way it looks like fearmongering. This isn’t the first story of a fake camera you’re likely to hear, either; fake speed cameras are also an existent threat, and act as a form of social placebo to encourage responsible driving. Responsible walking, though? I think it tends to toe the line between Big Brother and crime prevention.

Imagine if someone had placed a VeriSign logo on Foxy Bingo or Amazon, only for you to find out it was simply a jpeg tacked onto the site? You’d be shocked, and I think the same applies here. The main issue I have with it is, as you can quite clearly tell from the photograph, it’s not the most convincing of fakes when you get close enough. I think it relies on the fact that most people are unwilling to scrutinise their immediate environment. Ignorace is bliss, right?

On Wortvogel (german link) I have discovered the following news: Now Southpark can be watched over hte Internet. For free, in a legal way, with great picture quality and in original voices. I don`t even want to think about other series to jump on that train as well, because I assume that the productivity in the States and Europe itself would dramatilcy decrease – besides the film industry of course.

But enough words: Enjoy www.southparkstudios.com!

Yesterday I got a mail from the European Youthpress (a non-profit-organization which is by the way doing quite impressing work) that featured a blogentry on a american Google blog about special tools for non-profits. And indeed on www.google.com/nonprofits/ a new page has been created that shows in detail a list of services which either save time and money or help to find and engage supporters.

Of course something like Gmail, Docs or Calender is known and expected in such a list. But honestly I have to confess that I have never before heard about the Google Grants programme. It offers organizations from the US and 15 other countries (here is a list) a certain amount of free Google Adwords-Ads to gain more visitors for their own webpage. Another nice thing that I have never heard of seems to be Google Checkout (Wikipedia, official page). It is a online payment system that under certain circumstances can be used by non-profits without a fee until 2009. (Just a side information: The German GoogleWatchBlog criticized in november that the system could only be used with credit cards: link.)

Those guys from Google are really amazing, aren`t they. Regulary they start something new that is so practical and simple that everyone uses it. Just look at the list of tools, they already offer. Of course I like the possibilities they are giving to non-profit organizations to work more efficient. Unfortunately in the cold light of the day maybe the company gives things away for free, but the more people use their services, the bigger is their monopoly.

Sad but true: Even though I think of myself as beeing aware of the dangers and risks, such a monopoly can bring to us and our digital society in the future, I still use a lot of this stuff myself. Maybe I am just to lazy to look out for alternatives, maybe there are in most cases no appropriate alternatives or maybe I am just a big optimist. Anyway: If you run an NGO, a club or any other institution that meets the requirements, why don`t you try the Google Grants programme as the testimonials on their page do really sound promising.

Reporters without Borders have published a new edition of the “Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents�. The date was choosen to mark the Online Free Expression Day.

As it says on the RwB-Page:

The handbook offers practical advice and techniques on how to create a blog, make entries and get the blog to show up in search engine results. It gives clear explanations about blogging for all those whose online freedom of expression is subject to restrictions, and it shows how to sidestep the censorship measures imposed by certain governments, with a practical example that demonstrates the use of the censorship circumvention software Tor.

The leaders of authoritarian countries are becoming more and suspicious of bloggers, these men and women who, although not journalists, publish news and information online and who, worse still, often tackle subjects the so-called traditional media dare not cover. In some countries, blogs have become an important new source of news. It is to protect this source that Reporters Without Borders has updated its handbook

Via netzpolitik.org (german)

Greenpeace has started a new campaign against whaling and this time I didn`t learn about it from the press but – thanks to the world wide web – from an e-mail that I got directly from the campaign ship “Experanza”. As a result of the neverending coincidences and developments in life I had several years ago the chance to get to know the London-based photografer Jiri Rezac, who now joined this mission to contribute his skills.

Jiri is not only a nice person, but also the list of countries, he has traveled to, the topics, he has taken pictures for, the variety of languages, he is able to speak and last but not least the list of known media around the world, in which his work has already been published, are so long and fascinating that a short sum-up would simply not do it, and regarding this I would like to point out to the bio on his homepage as well as to that one on the greenpeace campaign blog.

Though he is in my eyes the impersonated adventurer or cosmopolitan and lives a life that many people dream of, from the words in his blog (here, here and here) can be seen that even for somebody like him the current travel is something new and exciting. For several months he will be onboard the “Esperanza” (wikipedia-page|official page of the ship|interactive tour).

The webcam onboard delivers a new picture every 60 seconds.

Not less fascinating is, that todays technique makes it possible to have a mail-conversation with somebody on a moving ship in the middle of the ocean on the other side of the planet. The Esperanza has a webcam that sends a new picture every 60 seconds.

Well, that is it so far. Please take a look at the campaign blog weblog.greenpeace.org/whales/ which in my honest opinion is a great use of modern forms of communication for an important topic. But you should as well consider a visit on Jiri’s page: jirirezac.com. There you can find among other things a detailed monthly documentation of his work from 2001 till 2005 as well as several special projects.

> Greenpeace campaign blog: Blog | RSS-Feed
> Blog by Jiri Rezac: Blog | RSS-Feed

The ones of you, who understand German could as well visit the german blog for the campaign. And if the name “Zwischen Walen und Harpunen” (“Between Whales and harpoons“) is to complicated, just remember the domain “http://195.137.170.166“.

I have just founded a group on Facebook, that I myself missed until now. It is called “People who believe that we can make the world a little better with blogging” and I think the name speaks for itself. It would be great that this group would be joined by a lot of bloggers from all over the world to learn from each other, exchange their experiences and develop some positive ideas together.

Here the group information:

So, everyone who can identify himself with this idea is warmly welcome in “People who believe that we can make the world a little better with blogging“.

I don not think, that there are a lot of people left who didn`t hear about Facebook until now, but if you belong to them, you will find some general information about it here in Wikipedia.

Just got this:

“Cafebabel.com, first european media in seven languages [300 000 visitors unical and one million of pages viewed each months] is changing. We are about to launch a new project, called ‘Babel Reporters’, which consists in ‘generational’ features focused mainly on Eastern Europe.

The concept is to increase the quality of our editorial offer, while sustaining the economic viability of cafebabel.com. Once realised, the reportages should be sold to a wide range of national media. Of course, cafebabel.com supports the travel costs and participants will be retributed for their coverage.

Since we want to create a team of professionals ‘euro-reporters’, we are looking for young but experienced journalists and photographers. The applicants should have a first significative experience in journalism (ideally having previously worked as free lance), have good contacts in local medias, speak english or french fluently and being curious and autonomous.

Please send asap your CV and application letter at Prune Antoine via redaction@cafebabel.com.”

Just received the information that young journalists from all over Europe have the possibility to take part in the “European Young Journalist Award on EU Enlargement issues“, which has been officially launched in Brussels on november 15th. The title is: “Enlarge your visionâ€?.

The organiser is the European Commission, Directorate-General for Enlargement, in cooperation with the European Youth Press association. The objective of the competition is to encourage young journalists to reflect on and express their views on the European Union’s enlargement policy.

During its 50 year history, the European Union has grown from originally 6 member states to 27. With a population of close to 500 million inhabitants, today’s Union is much stronger and more influential than with its 6 member states and a population of less than 200 million. Enlargement is one of the EU’s most powerful policy tools. The pull of the EU has helped to transform Central and Eastern Europe into modern, well-functioning democracies. More recently it has inspired farreaching reforms in the candidate and potential candidate countries (Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, as well as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244). All European citizens benefit from having neighbours that are stable democracies and prosperous market economies. Enlargement is a carefully managed process which helps the transformation of the countries involved, extending peace, stability, prosperity, democracy, human rights and the rule of law across Europe.

Young European citizens in particular are taking advantage of this community of diverse values and cultures, as it is getting easier for them to travel and learn other languages through EU exchange programs. In the long run, they are the ones who will benefit most from EU enlargement. By formulating their ideas of the future Europe, young journalists are important opinion-leaders for their generation. In the framework of the competition, participants are asked to submit a recently published article (publication date between January 2007 and March 15, 2008). On the special competition website (www.EUjournalist-award.eu ) they can find articles on the EU enlargement, written by their colleagues, as inspiration for their journalistic work. Entries for the competition can be written in one of the official EU languages or one of the languages of the candidate and potential candidate countries.

At the end of the competition each participating country will select a national winner and all 35 winners will undertake a 3 day trip through Western Balkan countries together. In addressing the young competitors, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn said: “I welcome the launch of this competition and look forward to learning more about the views of young journalists on the enlargement policy. They are important opinion-leaders for their generation. I would like to invite them to share their experiences and visions of our common European future. Their ideas will further nourish the debates that will determine the shape of our continent.�

National juries made up of media representatives will select the winning article from each country in April 2008 and the articles will be published on the competition website. All the 35 winners will be invited on a trip through Western Balkan countries and will have the opportunity to participate in a conference with media representatives from various countries in June 2008. “Winners will not only be awarded but also get the chance of exchanging with experienced colleagues and media professionals. With this award we foster a network of young journalists between EU countries, candidate and potential candidate countries�, underlined Anna Siitam, spokes-woman for European Youth Press as the umbrella organisation of 48.000 young journalists in Europe.

For information on how to enter the competition, please visit www.EUjournalist-award.eu

“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

Donald Rumsfeld

I have to say, that even though I might possess the ability to get easily fascinated by nice and creative things, I was nearly left without words by Rumsfeld’s upper quote which somebody has choosen to present on his Facebook profil. And I was absolutely astonished when I just discovered an article in the Slate Magazine from the year 2003, named “The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld – Recent Works by the Secretary of Defense“, where several quotes have been uncovered as what they are: Serious pieces of art.

In America as well as in England recently two new ideas have been developed to organize the work in pr even more efficient.

The British are testing a system which allows important representatives from politics and economics to be on a group photo without any need to get physicial contact or even be at the same place at the same time like the group. A first test of this system acomplished by the english secretary of culture James Purnell wasn`t very much successful though.

Screen Shot from the article in the Telegraph, which is linked above.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, thought that press conferences would be so much more harmoncial and as well faster when they would be done without any single journalist. Having workers to ask the questions also gives the possibility to prepair much nicer answers. You don`t think so? Well:

I just have found this excellent clip on YouTube. May seem to be a little kitschy or overdone to some people, but in fact it contains quite a lot of wisdom.

Ok, this is a small and short one. I do not really have a clue about the news-categories at CNN, but I could have imagined that it is rather a topic for “Politics”, “World” or perhaps even “U.S.”, when the CNN chief news executive (who?) is “stepped back”, because of some critical remarks about the growing number of dead journalists in Iraq. Well, it seems that the colleagues found it rather “entertaining”.