Statement of Civil Society Delegates from Southeast Asia to 2012 Asia-Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF)

https://www.box.com/s/3b241c3dfbce983f2b90

Internet: Russia's new anti-Putin weapon [-It already is the new anti-Hun Xen weapon]

Irina Pravnichenko (C), volunteer coordinator for Citizen Observer, a non-profit and non-partisan group, speaks while training future observers to monitor March 4 presidential polls in Moscow

Members of the Solidarnost (Solidarity) opposition movement pretend to clash with fellow members during a street performance against police despotism in Moscow in 2011

Tuesday, February 28, 2012
By Anna Malpas and Laetitia Peron
AFP News

Russia's new Internet-savvy opposition is going online to protest and monitor the presidential elections on March 4, bringing its iPhones and Twitter into the fray against Vladimir Putin.

As jokes and spoof videos about Putin, expected to win back the presidency in Sunday's polls, spread like wildfire on social networking sites and YouTube, opposition activists are using the Internet to promote their cause.

After a slow start, Internet use has sky-rocketed in Russia in recent years and last year the country overtook Germany as having Europe's largest number of Internet users, a development the opposition have not hesitated to exploit.

US Internet Piracy Bills Find Little Support in Cambodia

Friday, 20 January 2012
Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC

"The bills could impact global use of the Internet, and so “is a problem for Cambodia.”

An online campaign this week to stop two Congressional bills aimed at regulating the Internet found broad support in Cambodia, where Web users are a small but growing group.

Internet juggernauts Facebook, Google and Wikipedia campaigned in one form or another on Wednesday, urging their users to oppose the Senate’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the House of Representative’s Protect IP Act.

Both bills are ostensibly to prevent online piracy, but opponents fear they could have far-reaching implications for basic freedoms and stymie the progress of the Internet.

Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.

Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.

The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.

Asia Pacific Internet Landscape 2011 [... unfortunately no data for Cambodia, Laos and Burma]

For additional information, please click the link below:

http://www.veedvil.com/ad-infographic/infographic-asia-pacific-social-media-statistics/

Sam Rainsy On The Campaign Trail Delivering A Typical Campaign Speech

Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy in a teleconference with party supporters in Cambodia

25 June 2011

SAM RAINSY ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL DELIVERING A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN SPEECH

Even though being forced into exile, opposition leader Sam Rainsy is on the campaign trail. With the January 2012 senatorial election looming, he is travelling from one province to another to meet with the 2,660 SRP elected commune councillors who, with some other 10,000 commune councillors from the dominant CPP and two small “royalist” parties, will be the only few privileged citizens allowed to cast their votes to elect Cambodia’s 61 senators early next year.

By clicking at http://tinyurl.com/6hhr2sw you can hear Sam Rainsy addressing a group of voters in Kampot province in a typical campaign speech. In only 15 minutes, Sam Rainsy concisely elaborated on the main issues facing Cambodia: land grabbing, deforestation, overfishing, depletion of natural resources, poverty, corruption, border delineation, illegal immigration, attempt by the ruling CPP to buy votes and to manipulate some other parties. He called for national unity around the SRP in order to prevent Cambodia from vanishing.

Actually, Sam Rainsy is “travelling” and “meeting” with people all over Cambodia only through the Internet, by means of videoconferences. Thanks to modern technologies, physical presence is not as important and cost-effective as virtual presence.

In Thailand, where national elections will be held in coming July, opposition leader tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra, who has also been forced into exile, has also been using the same modern technologies to address the electorate, on a much larger scale and with a much more sophisticated and expensive equipment.

SRP Cabinet

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The Internet Revolution

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Anonymity has its time and place

January 26, 2011
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

Anonymity has its time and place. The U.S. Supreme Court recognizes it as "a shield from the tyranny of the majority" -- not a bad thing! American forefathers' Federalist papers were written under a nom de plume, "Publius."

But in this Internet age, many anonymous postings are uninformed, misleading and ignorant. Some are venomous attacks to hurt and discredit.

On Nov. 29, 2010, Facebook product design manager Julie Zhuo's New York Times article, "Where Anonymous Breeds Contempt," cited psychological research that has "proven again and again that anonymity increases unethical behavior."

Zhuo contended that in the online world of total anonymity, "People -- even ordinary, good people -- often change their behavior in radical ways." She dubbed it the "online disinhibition effect."

Zhuo says "trolling" -- the posting of inflammatory, derogatory or provocative messages in public forums -- has its roots dating back to the 4th century B.C. Classical Greek philosopher Plato told the parable of the mythical ring of Gyges, which gave its owner the power of invisibility. A habitually just man with the Gyges ring would become a thief. For Plato, morality comes with full disclosure -- without accountability, a man behaves unjustly.

Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt

Jennifer Daniel and Sandi Daniel

November 29, 2010
By JULIE ZHUO
Op-Ed Contributor
The New York Times

THERE you are, peacefully reading an article or watching a video on the Internet. You finish, find it thought-provoking, and scroll down to the comments section to see what other people thought. And there, lurking among dozens of well-intentioned opinions, is a troll.

“How much longer is the media going to milk this beyond tired story?” “These guys are frauds.” “Your idiocy is disturbing.” “We’re just trying to make the world a better place one brainwashed, ignorant idiot at a time.” These are the trollish comments, all from anonymous sources, that you could have found after reading a CNN article on the rescue of the Chilean miners.

Trolling, defined as the act of posting inflammatory, derogatory or provocative messages in public forums, is a problem as old as the Internet itself, although its roots go much farther back. Even in the fourth century B.C., Plato touched upon the subject of anonymity and morality in his parable of the ring of Gyges.

Smart Mobile launches in Cambodia

Smart Mobile has become the latest mobile operator in Cambodia to officially launch commercial wireless services. The company is owned by Latelz, a subsidiary of Timeturns Holdings, which owns telecoms licences in southeast Asia and Africa. Thomas Hunt, the cellco’s CEO, said: 'Smart Mobile is very excited to offer its services to mobile users in Cambodia. We intend to be highly competitive with our pricing, service packages and promotions, and will also bring a fresh modern approach to customer service - one that focuses on living what we call the Smart life.' Smart Mobile offers mobile voice telephony, SMS and MMS capabilities, GPRS and high speed data access via EDGE technology, and a range of value added services including ring tones, caller ring back tones, pictures and video. In addition, Smart Mobile provides international calling and receiving, as well as global roaming.

Minister of Posts and Telecoms, So Khun, said at the launch ceremony: ‘Smart Mobile will contribute to the development of the telecoms sector. I hope other mobile providers will cooperate with Smart Mobile for interconnection to ensure fair competition and grow together for a win-win situation.’ The number of wireless players in Cambodia’s market has increased rapidly over the past two years and last month Vietnamese military-owned telco Viettel launched commercially under the Metfone banner, having attracted 100,000 subscribers after just two months of pilot operations.

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