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This is the World Bank's blog on governance and anti-corruption. It aims at providing a space for debate and knowledge sharing on this critical field of development. | Learn more...

netizens

When blogging becomes an issue: worst places to be a blogger

Submitted by Alfredo on Tue, 2009-05-19 18:29

Blogs have changed the way people put into practice concepts such as voice and freedom of expression.  In a matter of minutes, anyone who has access to a computer with internet connection can create a blog and start posting ideas, experiences, opinions, pictures and videos that will be become available to more than 1.5 billion internet users in the world.

Also, blogs' features enable two-way communication and interaction between users, very different to the "static" dynamic of traditional websites. Most important, people can do all of these things at no cost.

However, the expansion of the blogosphere has also triggered negative reactions, especially in environments where censorship and control of information still prevail. Touching on several of these reactions, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) launched a special report in which it highlights the "10 worst countries to be a blogger."

 

Talking about a revolution: governance, web 2.0 and Digital Bangladesh

Submitted by Tanya on Fri, 2009-05-08 11:54

Around March 4, someone posted on YouTube a thirty to forty minute clip from a meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and army officials. It showed the confrontation between angry army officials and the PM on her decision to negotiate with the mutineers rather than take military action.

Within hours, the clip had spread to the four corners of the world. Facebook users put the YouTube link in their status, bloggers wrote about the video, related articles were dug up, and TV stations around the world discussed the meeting and its implications on the newly elected PM and the army. (All of these applications are considered a part of Web 2.0, where Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web).

Eyes Wide Open? Olympics, Netizens and Web Governance

Submitted by Kaufmann on Fri, 2008-08-15 08:46
A week has elapsed since the opening of the Olympics. China (along a few other countries), is showing that they are also a world athletic power to reckon with. But I was also making the point in my previous blog entries that the Olympics (or the August lull…) should not give license to governance going on leave for a while… So I brought up Russia vs. Georgia, Pakistan vs. Taleban at the Afghan border, Zimbabwe leader vs. his people, and likewise in Darfur. And in the last blog entry here I only very briefly mentioned China’s internet censorship issues during the Games.
 
The complex internet censorship by the authorities in China, dubbed by many as the “Great Firewall”, seems to be more aptly be characterized as “Net Nanny”, according to blogging and cites by Rebecca MacKinnon, a founder of Global Voices and expert on internet and blogging censorship issues (also  here).