With the Olympics starting on Friday, there is so much to look forward to. I can’t wait to see the track & field events – especially the 1500 and 5000 meter races. Volleyball is always exciting to watch, and who doesn’t want to see Michael Phelps’s attempt for eight gold medals? However, what most people don’t realize that until this year, not everyone had access to this worldwide event.
Thanks to the popular video site, for the first time ever the Olympic Games will reach 77 territories that aren’t officially covered by Olympic sponsors, including South Korea, India and Nigeria, according to The Wall Street Journal.
YouTube will be streaming about three hours a day of exclusive content from the Olympics on a dedicated channel during the Games. However, viewers from outside those 77 territories will be blocked from the channel because of broadcast rights.
While it’s hard to believe that the Olympics weren’t available around the world before 2008, it’s pretty funny to think that the first year they will be available worldwide (via the internet) will be the same year the Olympics are taking place in Beijing – where open internet access has become such a hot issue.
It was reported a while ago that China was going to allow uncensored internet during the Olympics in Beijing next month. Well, apparently that’s not quite true anymore.
The New York Times reports that “since the Olympic Village press center opened on Friday, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages — among them those that discuss Tibetan issues, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown on the protests in Tiananmen Square and the Web sites of Amnesty International, the BBC’s Chinese-language news, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse.”
For reporters covering the games, it is important that they have access to the internet to research, communicate, and file their stories. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had negotiated with China to provide unregulated internet access, but China’s concern for their national security, particularly relating to Tibet, has trumped their one-time promise that there would be an open access for all.
In a world where some people are connected to the internet 24/7 via their cell phones or other devices, China’s decision to block certain sites and information from thousands of foreign reporters and their own citizens seems like quite a bold move.
What’s your take? Should countries have the right block certain sites that they believe are dangerous for their national security?
UPDATE (8/1)
The Associated Press is reporting that some sites have been unblocked at the main press center & media venues on Friday, after the IOC met with some Chinese officials.
Nicholas Negroponte took the stage with David Kirkpatrick at Fortune Brainstorm: TECH to address the crowd on where the One Laptop per Child project currently stands earlier this morning. Some excerpts below:
DK: Happy to have you on stage, along with your XO.
You have transformed a new way to get technology into the hands of kids across the world. However, you’ve often talked about goals that haven’t been achieved. How do you describe the state of OLPC?
NN: You need a certain amount of hype. Some of it was that. We had to change our targets as we began to see which countries really were going to put a full effort behind one laptop for every child in their country. Peru is going to do a million this year. If I was running a company that would be pretty good to go from $0-$200 million (if they were paying for each computer) in one market – in one year.
DK: Do you sometimes wish that you had made it a business and not a non-profit philanthropy effort?
NN:Never. What the non-profit does is create the mission for us. We don’t look at the developing world as a market, we look at it as a mission. When I go to each head of state they know that I am talking with them about a mission to transform education in their countries and not giving them a sales’ speech. It also allows us to attract the top talent that want to be part of a true mission, without even thinking about earning a salary.
DK: So the XO that you have with you does something different then the XO’s in the developing world right now?
NN:Yes, this is a dual-boot XO that runs both Windows and Linux (Negroponte boots in Windows for the crowd).
NN: We will kick-off a global “Give One, Get One” program within the next few months.
Disclosure: One Laptop per Child is a client of the Racepoint Group.
With the U.S. Olympic Trials for track and swimming now complete, it’s a good time to look at how the Olympic Games are affecting China. Besides the protests surrounding the conflict with Tibet and the massive tourism increase that China will see from the Olympics, some Chinese citizens will also be out of work for a couple months.
According to The New York Times, the city of Tianjin (located about 70 miles east of Beijing) has ordered 40 factories to suspend some operations for two months in order to improve the air quality during the Olympics.
The details around these closings are very unclear, and don’t address whether or not these workers will still be compensated for the time their factories are closed. In either case, I’d be shocked if China was prepared for everything that has happened so far as a result of hosting the Olympics, and wouldn’t be surprised if there’s many Chinese leaders that would have preferred to avoid this altogether.
2. Internet privacy has become an issue and China has had to ensure the Olympic Committee that it would allow all athletes and media to have full internet access during the games.
4. Some of China’s factories have to close down in order to decrease the pollution around the Olympic sites. The pollution is so bad that some countries are worried about bringing their athletes to Beijing too far in advance of their events.
Can you imagine running a marathon in that city with that much pollution? What’s your take on China as the Olympics quickly approach?
As business issues around globalization, sustainability, green IT and social responsibility become crucial for any corporate communications strategy, Racepoint Group is excited to announce today a deepening and expansion of our corporate and public affairs capabilities.
Racepoint has added David Whitmore as executive vice president of our new Washington D.C. offices.David will be heading a growing office that now includes: Brian Lunde, senior consultant of issues management and government relations; Timothy Binning, senior consultant of issues management and government relations; and Rich Blewitt, senior advisor crisis and issues management (who joined Racepoint several months ago).
The new Washington D.C. office will join our offices in Boston, London and San Francisco.
Using Racepoint Group’s expertise in digital and social media, the Washington D.C. practice will deliver a next-generation corporate practice to help companies enhance their reputations and navigate the challenges of 21st century communications.
For more information, read our press release on the new offering.
Dunkin’ Donuts pulled an advertisement featuring Rachel Ray this week when the scarf she was wearing caused a massive stir.
Critics complained that the black and white frayed scarf looked like a kaffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress – which some say symbolizes Muslim extremism and terrorism, according to the Boston Globe.
Little Green Footballs was the first to claim that Dunkin’ Donuts was promoting terrorism:
I didn’t believe this story when people first started emailing about it; but sure enough, it’s true. Dunkin Donuts, the venerable old fried dough seller, is the latest American firm to casually promote the symbol of Palestinian terrorism and the intifada, the kaffiyeh, via Rachael Ray: Dunkin’ Breakfast Choices.
It was with some dismay that I learned last week that Dunkin’ Donuts spokeswoman Rachael Ray, the ubiquitous TV hostess, posed for one of the company’s ads in what appeared to be a black-and-white keffiyeh.
The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons.
Dunkin’ Donuts has decided to pull an Internet ad featuring the compulsively perky Rachel Ray because a handful of blithering idiots said they objected to a scarf she was wearing; that the scarf resembles a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men that some associate with jihad. Where do I begin going into how utterly lame and stupid this is.
Do you think people are being too sensitive to Ray’s scarf?
Can you imagine living under a government that cares so little for your wellbeing that it deliberately fails to notify you of an impending natural disaster?
More than 100,000 people have died or gone missing at the hands of the cyclone that tore through Burma on May 2 – regulations and censorship boards created under the military dictatorship of Than Shwe ban free press, providing the Burmese people with no warning, and no forum to speak to the atrocities they have been facing.
The 30 Days for a Million Voices campaign has enlisted the help of celebrities to create poignant and thought-provoking video messages each day of the initiative, with the ultimate goal of raising money and awareness, bringing the truth about Burma to light.
A few of the startling facts I’ve learned from this campaign:
Political activist Aung San Suu Kyi – the world’s only imprisoned recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize -has been on house arrest for 12 years for fighting for human rights and democracy in Burma
3,200 villages in Burma have been destroyed under the illegal military regime
For public healthcare, Burma ranks 190th out of 191
For freedom of expression, Burma ranks 164th out of 168
W2 Group is working with Fanista to raise awareness and activism, through Racepoint Group’s media outreach and Digital Influence Group’s viral marketing campaign, which includes developing a Facebook application and social networking badges promoting burmaitcantwait.org. DIG will also be contributing $10 to the U.S. Campaign for Burma for every non-spam comment or trackback made to this post.
Make your voice heard in support of a country of people that have no voices. Find out how you can take action today.
Over the last two years in working with the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project I’ve had the opportunity to strategize, choreograph and execute on several major announcements. This week however, was a bit different from the rest. We’ve worked with major corporations as part of this project. AMD, Google, eBay and Nortel are all represented on the One Laptop per Child board of directors. This week though we had the pleasure of working with Microsoft and the folks from Waggener Edstrom in officially announcing the availability of Windows on OLPC’s XO laptop.
A major announcement in the eyes of Microsoft and the folks we work with at One Laptop per Child. It was an announcement that took an amazing amount of collaboration and professionalism on both sides of the table to make it “real.” Given where One Laptop per Child has been and how its roots grew from the open source community, it also took a bit of juggling to clearly explain the intentions of creating a dual-boot XO laptop that will still offer a Linux operating systems in addition to the $3 Windows Student Innovation Suite.
But don’t be fooled by all the technical speak. In the end of the day, this agreement really comes down to both organizations realizing that they can work together to reach and help educate the children of the world. It has been a long strange trip over the last three years.
Nicholas (Negroponte) has known Bill (Gates) his entire adult life and a little over three years ago they first talked about collaborating in getting laptops in the hands of children across the world. Of course it was Gates who later would publicly tell Negroponte to “Get a decent Computer.” At that time Microsoft was not interested in pursuing any collaboration that promoted or even seemed to promote open source software. Of course, at the time, One Laptop per Child was also little more then Nicholas’ vision and didn’t have a working machine. Three years later, it was a chance encounter between Nicholas and Bill that got the sides working towards a collaboration again as the astute David Kirkpatrick describes in his story on the announcement for Fortune:
“It was a chance meeting Negroponte had with Bill Gates at last year’s Clinton Global Initiative that enabled today’s news to happen. Negroponte suggested the two organizations restart talks that had fizzled earlier, and Gates was receptive.”
I was with Nicholas at CES in January when the discussions really took off and Nicholas met with Microsoft’s Craig Mundie to discuss how One Laptop per Child could incorporate windows into a machine that would still offer the sugar interface that the open source community had created.
I’m not going to get into the debate over open source or windows. But it’s obviously where a lot of the attention and dialogue has been since reports started surfacing after CES that One Laptop per Child was close to an agreement with the folks from Redmond. The intention of a making available a dual-boot laptop should officially end that debate all together in my mind.
Let’s let the governments (ministers of education) decide what works best for the children of their country and work jointly with them in making sure this technology is correctly deployed and implemented into their school systems.
As James Utzschneider of Microsoft echoed several times in interviews on Thursday, what they have been asking for is the XO Laptop with windows on it.
“A lot of Ministries of Education would like to see Windows running on that cute little green-and-white laptop.”
“The one truly global language is Windows and more people speak it than English.”
If One Laptop per Child has to speak Windows to truly reach the children of the world, then so be it. As Kirkpatrick sums up nicely, OLPC has made the industry titans take notice of the need and demand for laptops in developing world and with Microsoft supporting its efforts it has a better chance to reach children across the globe.
“There’s no question OLPC has had a catalytic effect on the industry so far. With its partnership with Microsoft, it could finally start having the effect Negroponte has always wanted it to have – on kids.”
David should have specified that “it could finally start having an effect in masses,” because as you can tell by the video I imbedded above (Courtesy of OLPC President Chuck Kane), the project is already having an effect on hundreds of thousands of children across the world (especially in Peru and Uruguay).
Microsoft and Windows will make it possible to potentially affect hundreds of millions.
Disclaimer: Although I represent One Laptop per Child, the views reflected in this blog post reflect my personal opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of One Laptop per Child or Microsoft.
When it comes to grocery shopping, it has always been a question of paper or plastic – but not anymore. With reusable bags now in style, some stores (and China) are ready to do away with plastic bags.
Reuters reported today that China launched an initiative to ban plastic bags as of June 1. The Chinese government is putting pressure on the manufacturers of the plastic bags through tax hikes on plastic bag production, in attempt to limit the amount of litter in China’s countryside.
Although it’s unclear how well this ban on plastic bags will work, China’s efforts are impressive, especially during a time when the country had been targeted by avid protesters around its treatment of Tibet.
Back in the United States, Whole Foods decided to go plastic-free. USA Today reported that Whole Foods stop offering disposable, plastic grocery bags in all 270 stores in the USA, Canada and United Kingdom as of Earth Day, April 22. According to Whole Foods, this change will keep roughly 100 million plastic bags out of the environment during the time period of April 22 to the end of 2008.
Whole Foods has replaced plastic bags with the option to purchase reusable ones for just 99 cents. The reusable bags are 100% recycled, and customers receive 5 cents of their purchase every time they reuse a bag.
Over the past few weeks the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been working tirelessly to remove hundreds of pictures, messages, and other materials from Facebook in order to enhance Israel’s security and privacy. It has been reported that some Israeli solders posted pictures of advanced weapons training, interiors and exteriors of bases – including the equipment inside them – and troop exercises and locations.
The Jerusalem Postreported this week that an Israeli solder was sentenced to 19 days in prison for uploading a certain picture on their Facebook profile:
The IDF would not comment on the exact nature of the photograph, but said the punishment was in proportion to the committed offense.
Sources said the soldier in question would be punished for taking pictures on a military base without permission. The incident marks the first time that a soldier has been tried and sentenced for this kind of offense.
The BBC added that the soldier was serving with an elite intelligence unit of the IDF.
This incident provides a stern warning for other soldiers who are thinking about posting photos – not just in Israel, but around the world. As internet features like Facebook and Google Earth evolve privacy is becoming more and more important – not just for the military, but everyone.
In fact, earlier this month a couple in Western Pennsylvania sued Google because they said images of their home (see below) available through ‘Google Street View’ violated their privacy and devalued their property.
