barcamp Nashville, '08

 
We’ve been a little busy around here, at the Center Of All Evil, recently, but today we got to lay out a little, and go do something fun. We went to BarCamp Nashville, at the Sommet Center.  

Today is Blog Action Day, a day when bloggers take time out from whatever their normal subjects are, to focus a spotlight on attention on issues that matter.  This years subject of Poverty is entirely appropriate, considering the fact that the US economy, and the World economy, seem to be spinning out of control.

But, before we consider our shaky financial situation to be impoverished, think about all those people in the world, who don’t even have a roof over their heads.   The teeming crowds of Calcutta’s street people, who’s only “valued possession” is their meter and a half of sidewalk, at a specific location on the street, where they and their family have been sleeping for the past 3 generations.  We don’t have it bad, by half, yet.

So, if you use that social microblogging site/tool Twitter, you know that you can follow people, and generally interact in the global swarm of twitterers, tweeting about everything from #nashvillegas (to find gas, during the recent gas shortage), to #nashdebate (the recently completed presidential debate, at Belmont University.  Recently, they’ve come up with a game of virtual tag, where you get tagged, blog about it, and then tag six other bloggers.

Well, I’ve been tagged by one of my more recent twitter acquaintances, someone who shares a common interest in Jazz music.  Giazzpet tagged me, and so I get to tell you six things about me, that you don’t already know from this blog.

It all starts with a law, passed in 1948, requiring publishers to register officially before setting up a new publication.  The law contradicts Article 21 of the Italian Constitution which guarantees the right to free expression.  It’s likely that the law was put in place after the fall of Fascism, to regulate extremist publications.  Italian society became used to a very bureaucratic approach to freedom of the press.  If you run an unregistered publication, you are guilty of “stampa clandestina” or running a clandestine publication.

So what’s this got to to with the Internet you ask?

We’ve been online for just a hair over 2 months now, and more importantly we’ve been using Google Analytics for just over a month, and we thought you might like a little information on who’s been visiting this site. We’re not gonna name any names, but here’s some of the interesting statistics.

Burma born blogger Ko Htike is one of a handful of people fighting to present the real story, as it happens, from Burma.

He’s working out of London, posting reports, videos, and pictures of what’s really going on, behind the walls of oppression in Burma.

Reporters without Borders reports that Burma is #164 of 168 nation-states, in terms of press freedom, with the country’s internet access being locked down and controlled tightly by the two state run Internet service providers, and only 0.56% of the population having access to the Internet.

Ko Htike communicates with dissidents in-country, (mostly in the Buddhist groups), and has given them a voice to provide information on what’s going on in Burma.

Originally, his blog had a literary theme, but has been transformed over time into a virtual news agency for the dissident population in Burma, which has been controlled by a totalitarian regime for more than 20 years.