Re: press enquiry from UCLA/interview
paola....@gmail.com
use in thaialnd current political crisis' I thought we could start a
thread.
I place a few questions below please feel free to add more
These questions are primarly aimed at
Don, who is an observer of the current political crisis, Derek, who
could drill his figures once more in search of some relevant data, all
thai speakers on this list, who may have some information on the topic
and any other data mining architect who is capable of doing a search
for relevant keywords for us using a combination of Thai language
skills and online search skills. This would be Korakut or his clone.
Everyone else s thougths on the topic will be welcome too
The results, if meaningful, will be collated into a collaboratively
developed article for Ucla Magazine. This is an attempt to respond to
an input earlier on this list
> My name is Angilee Shah and I am the managing editor of AsiaMedia
> (www.asiamedia.ucla.edu) published by the UCLA Asia Institute in Los
> Angeles.
>
> I read about your bloggers' meeting on Sunday and thought I'd write a
> quick note. I'm interested in how blogs are being used in Thailand to
> deliver news, particularly in light of political instability. And
> ideas or links to blogs would be much appreciated.
>
QUESTIONS
- what percentage of thai blogs contain the respective thai words
politics/DEMOCRACY
- how many political blogs are popular in Thailand, how are they used,
and what do they say
- assuming the answer is many, please give some figures and examples
- assuming the answer is not many, then why? are they perceived as
not effective? is it becuase only a small percetage of the population
is internet literate and has access?
and what can be done to encourage their use? would online
collaboration tools use be perceived as beneficial?
-is the current government carrying out any initiative to increase
peoples literacy as to make participatory democracy more effective in
this couantry?
- do we know of any online political campaigns?
other questions? answers?
art...@gmail.com
- what percentage of thai blogs contain the respective thai words
politics/DEMOCRACY
Don't know.
But for the related keywords, they would be:
politics, economics, democracy, demonstration, Thaksin, Taksin, Tuksin,
Sondhi, Sonthi, tuthaprajan, get out, ...
- how many political blogs are popular in Thailand, how are they used,
and what do they say
some of them could be
http://pinporamet.blogspot.com/
http://fringer.org/
http://storythai.com/user/yodmanudying/
http://etatdedroit.blogspot.com/
http://thaifriendforum.blogspot.com/
http://greenmercy.blogspot.com/
http://sanpaworn.vissaventure.com/
.... but warn you that this list is also bias,
as they will be of course lots of blogs that I never heard of.
other popular political-related blogs could be found from
mblog (blog service by manager.co.th) and bloggang (by pantip.com),
as at least a large amount of their audience are likely to interest in
politics.
also you could add http://onopen.com/ , while itself is not a blog, but
a large number of its regular contributors, including its editor, are
bloggers.
-is the current government carrying out any initiative to increase
peoples literacy as to make participatory democracy more effective in
this couantry?
hmm.... may be not.
- do we know of any online political campaigns?
there're some:
the first one is half-online/half-offline,
http://tuthaprajan.org/
it is a petition to start an impeachment process for our PM.
while many prs are done online (website, forward mails, link
exchanges),
the actual process (the petition itself) is done offline, as, by law,
it needs physical signature.
another petition is http://petition49.org/
i think this one is operately solely online.
other campaign i found interesting is
http://www.thaksingetout.org/
which it provide a small banner code to put on your website
... similar to getpovertyhistory campaign.
hmm.. and that's my take.
Art (bact')
http://bact.blogspot.com/
paola....@gmail.com
I d like to know something about you, where you are, wht you do
how come yu re so clever about blogs in Thailand
cheers
pdm
--
Paola Di Maio
Systems Analyst
www.content-wire.com
art...@gmail.com
more "serious",
i'm currently working in Berlin/Potsdam, Germany
... on something half-computer/half-human (no, not cyborg :P)
i think i will applied to be a phd student "soon" ... but that "soon"
is already 13 months :| well, it will happen one day..
hmm... you can take a look at my personal website:
not very update, but most of them still valid.
i do blogging for about two years (since Jan 2004),
in the beginning it's about my study,
computational linguistics/information retrieval stuffs,
then things around me, ... and now it seems like my blog has no theme
at all - -"
(politics, new media art, citizen media, programming, blah blah, ... so
unrelated).
about the popular politics blogs list,
warn you again that it is biased ... they are blogs that i frequently
read + found that there're lots of other readers as well.
if anyone serious in finding the list, s/he should investigate
her/himself,
may be starting from these two blog providers:
http://weblog.manager.co.th/
http://www.bloggang.com/
(there're more Thai blog/diary providers, but less political)
cheers,
Art
Michel Bauwens
I remember we were in touch once around the P2P Foundation.
I have a possible suggestions. If we would have any thai-language volunteer, he could ask important thai-language blogger to summarize, even if only once a month, what they have been talking about -- but this time in English. That would give a rolling blog that would be of great interest worldwide. It would only take someone to regularly remind them.
Michel
News Archive at http://integralvisioning.org/index.php?topic=p2p ; P2P Theory foundational essay at http://integralvisioning.org/article.php?story=p2ptheory1 ; The Foundation for P2P Alternatives is at http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Main_Page ; The Foundation's Blog is at http://blog.p2pfoundation.com/; summary essay on P2P Theory, at http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499; Delicious P2P tags, at http://del.icio.us/mbauwens
paola....@gmail.com
It is a great pleasure and surprise to find peer academics
in Thailand who are interested in sharing their background and work
via email, and on a public list. This is important.
I have been working at a University here for almost a year, and all
lecturers seem to be badly stressed out with overwork and not much
interested in research.
Even more challenging, they are not interested in talking about their
academic interests.
I have only found 2 Thai researchers who have written a paper around
semantic technologies published recently, from Asian Institute of
Technology. I think I wrote to them asking for some contact and they
never replied. So you are important to us!
I am going to be in Europe for a couple of months April and May, but
Germany is not in my pathway. Will try to stretch to Amsterdam and
Edimburg if I manage.
Me too, have been looking for PhD, but its a challenge to find the
right combination of department, supervisor, topic etcetera
But I am learning a lot in the process
My areas of work are a combination of online information process
design, I have a lillet background in AI but with a focus on knowledge
and expertise automation, rather than spatial or motion
I was fascinated last weekend to see that Massimo carried sample
robots in his backpack, and that you have cool Thai toy robots on the
market. Can't wait to put my hands on one of them, (as if I hadnt
enough on my plate already)
Your contribution is very valuable, and yes, although the list you
provide is partial, is definitely a good start.
Please do send us a summary of thai blogging scene whenever you have a
moment. A simple link with a few lines summarising the blogs that
appear to you to be meaningful
may be useful, when you have the change
Please let us know if you d like to be added as editor
to blogconthai
cheers
PDM
Art
From: Michel Bauwens
Date: Thurs, Mar 23 2006 11:39 am
I have a possible suggestions. If we would have any thai-language
volunteer,
he could ask important thai-language blogger to summarize, even if only
once
a month, what they have been talking about -- but this time in English.
That
would give a rolling blog that would be of great interest worldwide. It
would only take someone to regularly remind them.
----
Michel,
I think Khun "Fringer" (of fringer.org fame) may interest in this "job"
krub,
her English is very good and now already doing bi-lingual blog.
from her about page: http://fringer.org/?page_id=9
"Hi everyone. Welcome to Fringer.org, my personal webpage that is meant
more as a place to collect my writings in one place, rather than an
on-line "diary" the way most other blogs are. My musings,
impressions, and writings here are written in two languages - Thai
and English. In general, writings about Eastern stuff will be in
English, and writings about Western stuff will be in Thai except when I
talk about Thai books, Thai songs, or Thai movies that have no English
subtitles. I do this to try to do my little part in helping bridge the
understanding gap between the two hemispheres."
I can leave her a msg regarding this krub.
cheers,
Art
p.s.
While I'm also interest in doing this as well, I'm not sure how
consistent I can be.
(I'm really an inconsistent then-on-then-off guy, Ajarn Korakot know
this :P).
Basically speaking, I'm happy to contribute krub, but feel a bit
uncomfortable
if I'm the only one (that means if one day I'm turned to a lazy mode,
which it will happen for sure, there'll be no fallback .. and that's of
course not good).
Art
Date: Thurs, Mar 23 2006 11:57 am
> I have only found 2 Thai researchers who have written a paper around
> semantic technologies published recently, from Asian Institute of
> Technology. I think I wrote to them asking for some contact and they
> never replied. So you are important to us!
haha, and I do a very late reply as well.
> Me too, have been looking for PhD, but its a challenge to find the
> right combination of department, supervisor, topic etcetera
A technology that will enable people to be more actively particate in
politics,
... Political Informatics ? haha ... may be too mixed/messed up :P
Indeed I'm thinking about going back to Thailand.
I feel that, not only my language skill is pulling me back ...
but probably the context of research as well.
vaguely speaking (as I don't know how to put it precise),
i think i can better related myself to Thai society,
and I think that's important if I'm going to do something social
technology
(oh .. opinions please).
After my contract here is end, I will seriously looking for options in
Thailand.
(Michel, are you teaching something at Chiang Mai ? ;) )
> I was fascinated last weekend to see that Massimo carried sample
> robots in his backpack, and that you have cool Thai toy robots on the
> market. Can't wait to put my hands on one of them, (as if I hadnt
> enough on my plate already)
If you're in touch with AIT guys, there's new comsci faculty who is
really into
robot stuffs. His name is Matt : http://www.cs.ait.ac.th/~mdailey/ .
Before AIT he was a lecturer at SIIT (that's why I know him, albeit
never met physically)
and involve in the institute's RoboCup team. I think he is cool :)
> Please let us know if you d like to be added as editor
> to blogconthai
Please add me, and let's see what can I do (and not do!).
cheers,
Art
Michel Bauwens
Michel
Angilee
at UCLA, the person who asked the initial question for this thread.
Thanks so much Paola for helping me out and asking such insightful
questions.
And thanks so much for all your wonderful responses -- what a vibrant
and active community you have here! I'd be so interested in the
translation/blog summary project you have going here. It's hard for me
and others here to understand what is happening in Thailand without
language skills. And as a side note, we're always looking for good
contributors to get this kind of boundary-cutting news across our
international audience. Please feel free to write if you are interested
in publishing with us -- I certainly look forward to seeing what you
all have to say.
Best,
Angilee
ang...@international.ucla.edu
Art
Now she is on leave, and will reply back to this group after Apr 16 :)
cheers,
Art