Webbed Feet, Web Log » cambodia blog

Cambodia’s Blogger Diaspora

Jinja — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 11:01:49 +0000

In the (ancient) days before Facebook dominated Cambodia, our small but tiny community of bloggers (AKA ‘Cloggers’) was full of enthusiasm.

Many of them became ‘trainers of trainers’ via the ‘Personal Information Technology Workshop‘, holding weekend workshops for university students and getting them started on email & basic blogging.

These included Hou Virak, Bun Tharum, ‘Big Kalyan’, ‘Little Kalyan‘, Be Chantra, Chak Sopheap, Nearirath Sreng, Lux Mean. A new face at the time was Kounila Keo.

Many of these ‘blog evangelists’ have found a niche for themselves as writers, pundits, organizers and advocates, and used their online presence as a combination of CV / writing sample / profile. Many have gotten overseas scholarships and jobs based on their heightened profile and reputation. (Virak’s now in Kenya!) Why are they in demand? There’s a need for representative Southeast Asian / Cambodian voices in global conversations.

In a nutshell, that was my encouragement to a younger crowd at this year’s BarCamp Phnom Penh: share your thoughts — and you’ll meet other people who want to engage with your views. Simply share and people will want to share with you too. News, opinions, and opportunities.

Case in point: ‘Clogher‘ Chak Sopheap regularly blogged about human rights, contributed to the Global Voices blogging aggregation platform, and landed a postgraduate scholarship in Peace Studies in Japan. She regularly chronicled her work and opinions working in the field of human rights, and received accolades as a pundit and commentator, moving from personal blog opinions to public editorials.

My oped on Australia-Cambodia refugee deal, "an affront to human rights" #cchrcambodia pic.twitter.com/CYkCRTaSb8

— Sopheap Chak (@sopheapfocus) October 1, 2014

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/analysis-and-op-ed/affront-human-rights

Her efforts to engage the global community in contemporary human rights concerns took her to many regional and international meetings. She also ‘gave back’ to the local community by joining the team that brought ‘BlogFest Asia’ to Cambodia.

This week she was lauded by President Obama and profiled on Voice Of America in her role as the head of Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR). It’s very gratifying to see one of the ‘home team’ getting international praise.

Does the USA government ‘stand with’ civil society? Well… this can certainly be seen as a chance to hold the States to this public commitment. And if anyone can leverage this, Sopheap and CCHR are up to the task. Bravo!

Above: Chak Sopheap & VOA team (photo credit: CCHR)

Linkage:
“Obama Praises Two Civil Society Activists” (Voice Of Democracy (In Khmer) http://vodhotnews.com/24472
“Obama Honors Slain Activist, Praises Rights Worker” (Cambodia Daily)
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/obama-honors-slain-activist-praises-rights-worker-68364/
“Human Rights Deteroriating in Cambodia, Says Activist”
http://youtu.be/rEidqq4h7SM (Video link)
“Obama Honors Two Cambodian Rights Workers” (Voice of America)
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/obama-honors-two-cambodian-rights-workers/2460908.html
Obama praised Cambodian human rights activists and forestry (Radio Free Asia (In Khmer))
http://www.rfa.org/khmer/news/human-rights/Obama-admire-Cambodian-rights-and-forest-activists-09242014081814.html
“President Obama addresses the 2014 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting”
http://youtu.be/eEZrZcIYAPA (Video Link)
“Remarks by the President at Clinton Global Initiative” (Transcript)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/23/remarks-president-clinton-global-initiative
Cambodian Center For Human Rights Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cambodian-Center-for-Human-Rights-CCHR/206984670430
US Embassy In Cambodia Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/us.embassy.phnom.penh/photos/a.390395653223.168690.79770243223/10152478435913224/?type=1

Blogger Meetup September 2013

Jinja — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 07:50:31 +0000

(Above: bloggers on Google Hangout.)
It used to be that IT meetups were about *blogs*.
(Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Yes, I’m that old.)

On Saturday the 7th, Anirudh invited us for an informal blog meetup.
Talk ranged from the election to upcoming Burma IT events, as well as just general catching up.

There were lots of folks chatting on Google Hangout (above). I couldn’t even get my Ubuntu laptop into the local Wi-Fi, and my Iphone was too old to download Hangout. Clearly, connectivity is up, and so is the sophistication of the tools we use. (I’m forcing myself to learn new tricks.)

In past days we’d gather at anyplace with decent Wi-Fi (and caffeine (above)). Occasionally I’d host ‘Geek O’ Clock‘ at the House32 offices. But meetings ‘IRL’ (in real life) don’t happen that much these days, which made it all the more welcome.

It was easy to connect up, and great to chat to some of the other’dinosaurs’ / IT wonks. After the meet some of us stopped off to check out Ritthy Ou’s regular ‘Politikoffee’ meeting. (Every Saturday 2:30-5:00pm at BBC Cafe).

Below: Anirudh makes a new friend

BarCamp Battambang 2013

Jinja — Mon, 27 May 2013 03:42:57 +0000

[Note: This post will be revised as I sort out my many photos & videos!]

BarCamp Battambang was held on May 25-26th; I hadn’t been up to visit in nearly a year.

Thanks to friends for recording my talk and taking photos & video!

Let BarCamp Change Your Life on Vimeo.

Still polishing the video, here are some shorter excerpts:

The Value of IRL

Anti-Social Media

I’ve collated a huge list of supplemental links (videos, presentations, blog posts) — please do check them out! http://goo.gl/xsDWO

Open Dev Cam rocked the house with a presentation in Khmer and English…

There were also showings from Cambodian Center for Human Rights, and Urban Voice weathered two power outages without breaking stride. (At one point, talking about blackout mapping!)

By far the most popular presentation (on the very last day) was simply titled ‘Love’ (by Yim Vanne) and seemed to share a practical methodology for finding a partner, from what I could garner peeking in the window.

Like most presentations in this Camp it was exclusively in Khmer, a new trend?

Unsorted Flickr photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jinja_cambodia/sets/72157633712597511/

[More details to follow once I sort out all my links and photos!]

TechCamp Phnom Penh 2013

Jinja — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 07:31:56 +0000

Some very brief tidbits from Cambodia’s first TechCamp!
http://techcampphnompenh.wordpress.com

So pleased to see the Open Development Cambodia team ‘walk their talk’! That’s my team!

Above: US Ambassador Todd asked us to ‘like’ his Facebook page. (Not what I would ordinarily expect in a diplomatic intro. )

Yrs truly w/host (and blogger) Soma Norodom. Looking to be a fun and informative event!

Postscript: A ‘Storify’ listing of tweets & blogs. http://storify.com/techcampglobal/techcamp-phnom-penh
More pictures (VOA Khmer): http://goo.gl/aDyif Tharum’s brief writeup: http://tharum.com/blog/2013/03/14/techcampphnompenh.html

Publish Your E-Book in Ten Steps (BarCamp Angkor Talk)

Jinja — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:54:09 +0000

This last weekend I presented on E-Books in a ‘lightning session’ at BarCamp Angkor.

I would enjoy talking more about e-book publishing, especially since it’s a new sector sorting itself out.
I’ve been developing Khmer language e-books with Our Books Cambodia, and taken an initial foray into e-publishing with a collection of my own comics.

There are lots of areas to explore, and some obstacles I’d advise to avoid. Hoping I can talk in more detail about publishing platforms, ‘Digital Rights Management‘, cross-platform promotion, Khmer language e-books, and much much more at future tech and publishing events!

Linkage: https://delicious.com/slugdog/ebookangkortalk

Above: doing a ‘shout out‘ to BarCamp Hong Kong, happening the very same day!