In a country where Valentine’s Day bears broad similarities to Prom Night, romance is serious business.

Hence there’s a bit of hubbub about the first Khmer-language ‘friend finder’ (wink wink) / dating app ‘Matchstix‘, going strong since its July launch.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/swipe-right-bringing-hook-apps-cambodia
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/13885/matchstix-delivers-cambodia—s-first—-friend-finder—-app/

Tinder-style functionality in Khmer language? Many parents will be appalled at the idea. But in a country that is phone-crazy, with more sim cards than citizens, it may be hard to avoid.

But let’s see what the target group – young, urban, literate Cambodians – derive from it. Already, the product team is setting its sights on a bigger target – Myanmar, one of the few countries in the region where regulation will be tough to enforce. (See below).

Cambodia is a country that adores the concept of romance in music and film, but is still deeply conservative.  As recently as 2006, wives of government officials wanted a ban on 3g phones, on the rationale they’d enable mistresses. https://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/senior-officials-wives-want-3g-phones-banned-1118/

I’d expect future apps to be used as a family effort – as we are seeing in the Indian diaspora.

Looking back to Cambodia’s very first BarCamp (Sept 2008), following on the heels of our 2007 Blogger summit.

As with the prior meeting, we were amazed regarding the enthusiasm, as many people came from near and far.    

Opening talk in Khmerlish by sponsor Microsoft. They also handed out shirts with their logo which one of our participants quietly noted were a knockoff of a global brand (Izod, I think?)  

‘One Laptop Per Child’

Thomas Wanhoff on Twitter  

Bart Geesink: Low Power Computing

  Huy Eng & Makara from sponsor House32 check out a newfangled Kindle.      
Yours truly on how to ‘Kill Your Email’.

http://jinja.apsara.org/2008/09/kill-your-email-barcamp-phnom-penh-presentation/

“How to Speak Japanese”  

Angilee Shah on Writing

‘The Usual Suspects’. I can spot Tharum, Chantra; who else?

At the very end, a quiet attendee raised his hand and praised the gathering. He was from one of Cambodia’s Ministries, I believe it was the Ministry of Interior. It was not clear if he was attending in a private or public capacity. But that’s Cambodia for you.

Full album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jinja_cambodia/sets/72157658284272458

I attended in 2010, made new friends, and learned cool new things.
Oh, also: under a year later, I got a job based on the knowledge I’d acquired there.
I returned in 2013 to share what I learned with Open Development Cambodia, completing the circle.
Others are similarly enthusiastic. Here is a home-made film from 2013′s session.

Would I recommend you apply? Heck yeah.
If you are at the intersection of information technology and social change, give it a go.

Here are some links to past Mekong ICT adventures, and below you can find some sketches I’ve drawn.

http://jinja.apsara.org/2010/06/bopha-chiang-mai-2010/
http://www.jweeks.net/june-bugging.html
http://www.jweeks.net/tag/mekong-ict
http://jinja.apsara.org/2013/05/mekong-ict-camp-2013/
http://siewphewyeung.org.kh/keep-it-simple-stupid-exhibition-july-01-14-rik-reay-gallery/
http://sketchmekongict.tumblr.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/slugdog/sets/72157633559530874

——————

Mekong ICT Camp 2015 CALL FOR APPLICATIONS!

Mekong ICT Camp is a biannual training workshop on information, communication, and technologies for citizen media, community health, and civil society development in Mekong sub-region.

The 2015 camp is a five-day activity will bring together the eventual six existing development projects from each Mekong countries and provide them enabling environment to work with their team mentors and partner to sharpen their solutions. The team has 5 days of the camp to turn ideas into a prototype with the help of the camp facilitators who provide process guidance, monitor the progress, and ensure that all team are on track. At the end of the camp, each team will present their work in front of the judges as well as other stakeholders.

Expected participants are Developer, journalists, and social workers. Participants are welcome from every countries and territories, although large of the allocation will goes to Mekong sub-region, which including Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand,  Vietnam and Yunnan, China.

The 4^th Mekong ICT Camp 2015

Date: 8-12 June, 2015

Place/ Country  Leaning Resort, College of Innovation Thammasat University, Chonburi, Thailand.

Organised by  Thai Fund Foundation in partnership with Opendream and Foundation for  Internet and Civic  Culture

The main themes for this year is: BIG DATA

For those from the Mekong-region: we will sponsor all your travel, accommodation and program costs, but we ask for a contribution of USD50 from each participant.

This also includes people who are originally from elsewhere but currently working in projects that related to developments of Mekong.

Small numbers of PARTIAL sponsorships (camp fee and accommodation, but not travel cost) are available for people from outside Mekong.

Participants, once selected, will be entitled to subsidy and/or reimbursement for a round-trip ticket from your residence, visa application, food and accommodation. All documents and materials for courses will be provided.

*** Application deadline is April 5, 2015. ***

For the ease of processing, we only accept Online Application.

Please kindly forward to whom it may interested.

Application form and more details at  http://mekongict.org/apply

For 2015 Camp inquiries, please feel free to contact mekongictcamp@gmail.com

Mekong ICT Camp Project is under The Thai Fund Foundation

Address; 2044/23, New Phetburi Rd., Huai Khwang, Bangkok 10310 Thailand

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

Join us: http://2014.barcampphnompenh.org