US develops ‘panic button’ app for pro-democracy activists!!!!!!

The US State Department has so far launched a dozen apps to help aid pro-democracy activists around the world, including a "panic button" app that wipes a cell phone's address book.

In an uncharacteristically cool move, the United States government has allotted millions of dollars to develop technology meant to aid pro-democracy activists around the world, Reuters reports.

A cell phone “panic button” app, for instance, will completely wipe a phone’s address book, and automatically send out an emergency signal to other activists. Under development by the US State Department, this activist app is one of a number of new technologies the US is promoting to help spread democracy in countries with oppressive governments.

“We’ve been trying to keep below the radar on this, because a lot of the people we are working with are operating in very sensitive environments,” said Michael Posner, assistant US secretary of state for human rights and labor.

At the helm of the State Department’s democracy-spreading technology initiative is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who’s pushing the expansion of Internet freedoms to help fuel citizen-led movements that use social networking services like Facebook and Twitter. The plan follows a wave of pro-democracy demonstrations in countries across the Middle East and Northern Africa.

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Posted in: activists,china,egypt,firewall,Michael Posner,Middle East,news,pro democracy,US government,US State Department

If Facebook reenters China, how will it compete!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rumors suggest Facebook will break back into China, but it's success there isn't guaranteed. These entrenched Chinese social networking sites have grown in Facebook's absence, and may give the western newcomer a run for its money.

Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009, when riots in the country’s Xinjiang region led to severe crackdowns on Internet use. Since then, statements from Chinese officials and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have hinted at the possibility of cooperation between the two, if a compromise between the nation’s overbearing censorship and Facebook’s “openness” can be reached.

Now it looks as though… something is going on. What exactly that may be is still up in the air, but numerous reports say Facebook is working with China to come up with a solution. According to Marbridge Consulting as well as a few blogs, a post on Sina Weibo from Hu Yan Ping, the founder of a Chinese market research firm claims that Facebook will be collaborating with Baidu to build an entirely new social networking site. Ping wrote, “Facebook really is about to enter China, the agreement is signed. A domestic website will work with Facebook to create a new site. This new site it not interlinked with Facebook.com. Will this live or die in China?”

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Posted in: cgossips,china,china facebook,facebook,facebook in china,If Facebook reenters China,Renren,Sina Weibo,Social Media,social networking,social networking sites,Tencent,twitter

Using Baidu to reach the 338 million online users of China

Search marketing activity in China is on the rise, Baidu is now becoming the new  ‘Silk Route’ to China’s booming online market.  Owing to the departure of Google from China, many experts claim that this new giant  is now ready to overtake big names in online search.

Let alone the fact that China’s 338 million can drive big volumes locally, even if they don’t interact with global audiences, the few players that currently operate from the US in the realms of organic and paid search are making huge profits using Baidu.

However, there are still a few entry barriers that put many small search businesses off from entering the Baidu deal, such as, having sites in Chinese, plus also having to have your sites hosted in China are some of the initial difficulties. Once you are through with the basic steps, you will find that Baidu pretty much operates on the same principles are other SEs. You can buy Paid Listings, optimise your site for Organic Search and even rules such as Comprehensive Rank Index the equivalent of Google’s Quality score for paid ads are in place.

There is a growing interest in the Western World specially in the US and given the language and cultural differences it would still take a while for these bandwagoneers to get a firm foothold in the market. For now, its game on for the Chinese literate or the resourceful marketers  who can invest in hiring locals to overcome these barriers.

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Posted in: baidu,china,news,The Social Network becomes winner of Golden Globe Awards

WORLD NEWS

In the age of 24x7 TV channels facts are not sacrosanct and the only things that matter are screaming headlines, half-baked theories and silly opinions. The Karmapa affair is a good example of this malaise. Now the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has given a clean chit to the Karmapa Lama in the case involving seizure of foreign currency from ‘his’ monastery. But HP chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has refused to comment on the clean chit to the Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorje, from the Central agencies which looked into the alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act by the Tibetan leader.

However, while speaking to some Tibetan reporters at Dharamsala on Thursday, Dhumal sang a diiferent tune. 

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Posted in: china,Gandhi’s Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World,lama,news