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.