By Oiwan Lam

Michelle from interlocals.net has translated a story from Xinhua.net about the Chinese police officers' strategy and experience in micro-blogging,

By Silvia Viñas

Cristian Cambronero, from Fusil de Chispas [es], made an infograph with statistics on the use of social networks in Costa Rica.

By Layal Al Khatib

Lebanese blogger and software developer Mir analyzed the Lebanese blogs and shared her results in this post.

By Aparna Ray

In India, there has been an upswing in various Government-to-Citizen (G2C) e-Governance initiatives. Various government agencies and service providers are now embracing social media and other information and communication technology (ICT) platforms to engage citizens, optimize service delivery and reassure the public with respect to the government's transparency and accountability.

For example, we recently saw the Delhi Traffic Police (DTP) using Facebook to collect information about traffic violations. The Indore Police Department has been using a blog, Twitter, online and mobile complaint forms, a Google map of police stations and a digital crime mapper to track criminal activities in the region.

Indore Police - Digital Crime Mapper

The Maharashtra Police Department launched an SMS-based complaint tracking system (CTS), called “Turant Chovis” (”Within 24 Hours”), which promised to quickly redress citizen complaints by sending a first response within 24 hours and resolving the issue within 30 days. One of department's divisions, the Nasik Rural Police Department, even won appreciation at the Manthan Awards 2009 for their presentation on the modalities of the system and how they had achieved 96 percent success in implementing the Turant Chovis scheme.

Adoption of technology for better governance is not restricted to the police departments alone. Various state governments are also beefing up their e-Governance initiatives with use of interactive technology in areas such as citizen grievance redressal. The Sanjog Helpline is a single-window centralized grievance redressal system for the rural state of Orissa. Citizens can register grievances through a toll free number, fax or e-mail, as well as through the Sanjog Helpline portal in their villages. They can also at a later stage track and get acknowledgment of the status of their complaints. Jhansi, in Uttar Pradesh, has launched the Jhansi Jan Suvidha Kendra, a telephone-based grievance redressal system. The Madhya Pradesh government has an online complaint registration facility on its website. The site also allows tracking of individual complaints and displays statistics regarding the number of complaints received and successfully resolved.

Other departments such as the railways and income tax departments have also replaced some of their face to face interactions with online service delivery systems, presumably to make citizens' lives simpler and to take out human interactions from the service interface as part of their efforts to reduce corruption. Citizens can now file taxes and buy rail tickets online.

These initiatives all promise convenience, engagement, transparency and accountability. However, to what extent are they successful? What has been their impact? Have they indeed managed to bring about the much-desired end goals of increasing government transparency and accountability? Unfortunately we have not yet seen much evaluation of the impact of these initiatives on the ground as far as enhancing transparency and accountability are concerned, which gives rise to concerns that perhaps some of them are mere window dressing — feel-good initiatives with no real wind beneath their wings.

For example, take the case of complaint tracking systems. When a citizen register a complaint and try to track it, she gets a message that her complaint is “in process.” This is a quick response, but what does it really translate into, other than making her feel frustrated after seeing the same status over and over? In this case, she cannot even vent her frustration anywhere, as there is no face to face interaction!

Recently, an experience with the online railway booking system has left me more skeptical of these initiatives. It's true that the online railway booking system has made life easier. No need to queue at the counters, no need to pay an agent or middle-man to get confirmed bookings. However, try to get some refunds for a canceled ticket, and then you will face the music.  This January, when a train I was supposed to take was delayed for over 10 hours, I decided to cancel the ticket instead of wasting time at the station (the rules online clearly stated that full refund will be given if a train is more than 3 hours late). However, I could not cancel my ticket at the station, as a ticket booked online can only be canceled through an online application.

Upon filing an online refund application, I received an instant, polite mail saying that my refund was in process and that I could track my application online. After a couple of months I got back 50 percent of the cost of the ticket, and the online status read “case resolved.” But why only 50 percent, when the rules stated that the refund would be 100 percent? No answer. Repeated mails have resulted in instant polite replies that the mail is being forwarded to the right department, but till date, apart from politeness there has been nothing concrete to address my grievance. The help desk, though happy to help, has no power to sort out the issue — they also have no clue as to who is accountable and whom I can approach if I want to escalate the matter. Moreover, I am handicapped by the fact that online cases apparently have to be sorted out online, so I cannot approach any officer at the railway offices!

Instances such as these make one wary of the tall claims of government departments about e-Governance G2C initiatives that promise transparency and accountability. However, that is not to say that such initiatives are not welcome. They are steps in the right direction. However, merely installing tools and technology is not enough. The government needs to ensure proper implementation. There should also be monitoring and evaluation, not only by government bodies but also by civil society groups that can pressure the government to uphold their promises to increase transparency and accountability.

By Ndesanjo Macha

Videos from Maker Faire Africa 2010: “The following videos provides impressions of the Maker Faire and gives some Makers the chance to present their projects.”

By Karlo Mikhail Mongaya

It's just the beginning of September but already “Merry Christmas” and other Yuletide season-related comments are becoming the top twitter trend today. Many around around the world are wondering about the early Twitter Christmas greetings:

jracineui: The President just announced the end to combat operations in Iraq, yet Jessica Alba and ‘Merry Christmas' are top trends…
Brian_GriffinFG: Twitter: The only place where people celebrate Christmas in August. Merry Christmas everyone.
Lord_Voldemort7: #somewhereintheworld confused people are tweeting Merry Christmas. It'll be a gift if I even let them live until Christmas.
BiebersBusiness: You know the world's gone crazy when Merry Christmas and Sydney Dalton are TT's.

Filipino tweeps explains this in relation to the world's longest Christmas season in the Philippines:

markdariel: 115 days to go before Christmas day here in the Philippines! :)) Merry Christmas to all. Feel the cold breeze of air these “Ber” months! :))
BlauEarth: Merry Christmas☺ September na pala. In the Philippines, it's the start of d Christmas season. I bet you Escueta started playin' Jingle Bells
briankingkong: The world's astounded that Merry Christmas is trending. What they should know is that September's start of Christmas in the Philippines. :))
aaselma: I guess Filipinos are behind the numero uno trending topic “Merry Christmas” because in the Philippines, Christmas begins in September. :)

GVO Author Tonyo Cruz explains this in more detail:

Yes, folks, the world's longest Christmas has officially started in the Philippines today, Sept. 1, and we Filipinos expect radio stations to begin playing Christmas carols, and the malls to be donned with Christmas decorations. We would be remiss as Twitter users if we Filipinos would not spread Christmas cheer throughout Twitter also starting today.

Why the extraordinarily long Christmas? Nothing fancy about the reason, except that we equate Christmas to the arrival of the “-ber” months, the months that end with (-ber), which used to herald cold weather (brrr…).

There will be a brief pause to our Christmas celebration, when the nation marks Undas on Nov. 1. But Christmas festivities are expected to resume the next day.

Philippine Christmas goes on high gear starting on Dec. 16 when Catholics start a “novena” of special masses (Misa de Gallo) every day at 3am. On Christmas Eve, there's the Misa de Aguinaldo at around midnight.

With the long “preparation”, no wonder Christmas Day is the most anticipated, most joyous day in this land of feasts. No feast could rival Christmas in the hearts and minds of Filipinos.

By Janine Mendes-Franco

Luis Felipe Rojas “can’t help but wonder about how, in the 21st century, an island that is so close to the country which exhibits the greatest digital advancement, can be traveling in the opposite direction.”

By Lee Yoo Eun

Twitter has scored again in South Korea with a live weather report during a typhoon that pounded Korean Peninsula today. The typhoon Kompasu battered the country immediately prior to and during rush hour — shattering glass, uprooting trees, tearing down walls and even destroying a stadium. People have tweeted to notify others which routes are not blocked by trees and flying signboards and have (re)tweeted recent updates and uploaded photos of chaotic scenes.

Typhoon Kompasu (compass, in Japanese) was in the  Seoul metropolitan area for only five hours, but it hit hard enough to cause the devastating scenes pictured below. The strongest tropical storm to hit the area in 15 years, has paralyzed metro operations, caused massive power outages, and forced airlines to cancel or divert. As the typhoon reached its maximum strength at around 5 to 6 am local time, tens of thousands of commuters encountered its destructive power on their way to work. These photos were tweeted by citizen journalists to show others what the storm has done around their location and give tips on road conditions.

@demoon84: 종합운동장 펜스도 태풍 앞엔 어쩔 수 없네여 http://twitpic.com/2kclkp

Even the general stadium did not stand a chance against the typhoon.

@demoon 84: 길거리는 아수라장입니다… 태풍 정말 무섭네여

The street is in total pandemonium. The typhoon is truly horrifying.

@runintosky: 맞은편 아파트 창문이랑 난간이 다 떨어졌어요..

The window glass and (balcony) rails have all fallen down from the apartment across.

@tomato 1981 : 홈플러스 간판 떨어졌어요.

The ‘Home Plus' [note: Korean version of Walmart] signboard has fallen down.

@drumboy83: 압구정 갤러리아 앞 상황입니다 참고하세요 http://twipl.net/AklW

This is the current situation in front of Galleria (department store) at Apgujeong, for your reference.

Many shared tips on traffic conditions;

@taiji410: #gangnam_ 은마파출소에서 휘문고올라가는 언덕 우측 가로등이 쓰러져있었는데… 아까 6시30분쯤… 도로 절반을 막아서 중앙선 넘어 올라갔네요~ 흐아~ 지금은치웠을래나… http://yfrog.com/3dn1qjj

#gangnam [note:name of district] A street lamp that stood at the right side of a road connecting the Eun-ma Police station to the Hui-mun high school has been toppled…at around 6: 30 am…It was blocking about the half of the road, I had to cross the center lane (to pass that point)…Has anyone cleared that away by now?

@TheAPLLL: 7호선도 청담대교 건널때 서행하느라 모든 역에서 1분씩 정차하네요…

Line 7 stops for a minute at every station after taking a lot of time in crossing the ChungDam bridge…

@cocmoon: RT @Twit_Korea: 강풍에 아파트 베란다 유리창이 깨지고 있습니다. 신문지에 물을 적셔서 유리창에 붙이면 깨짐이 방지된다네요. -재난대책본부 #태풍_ 곤파스 http://twitpic.com/2kcl4c

The window glass is shattered by the strong wind. To prevent the window from shattering, attach water-soaked newspapers into the window. – Disaster Prevention and Countermeasures Headquarters #Typhoon_Kompasu

With almost all above-ground sections of the city's subway lines out of service, commuters have undergone the worst transportation disaster in years, but Twitter has made it more manageable for some.

By Silvia Viñas

Juan Arellano writes [es] about quenoteroben.pe [es], a site that allows users to report thefts in Lima using Google Maps technology. The post includes two video interviews with the site managers, Gabriela Quevedo and Rudy Jordán.

By Onnik Krikorian

With national television in Armenia and Azerbaijan controlled directly or indirectly by the authorities or government-linked individuals, there is little opportunity for independent reporting. This is especially true in the case of the simmering conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh.

The war, fought in the early 1990s, left 25,000 dead and forced a million to flee their homes. Few ethnic Armenians remain in Azerbaijan, and ethnic Azeris also left Armenia, while attempts to negotiate a lasting peace continue to falter. Skirmishes, however, still occur on the front line despite a 1994 ceasefire agreement.

Communication between the two sides is also discouraged and, for most citizens, impossible. Even so, new and social media is slowly starting to fill the information void and circumvent official or self-imposed restrictions in place on objective reporting free from negative stereotyping, propaganda and occasional misinformation.

The independent media organization Internews, for example, is just one example of peace building initiatives migrating online. Although traditional video reporting, the Internet is perhaps the only medium through which such films can be seen and distributed. Such stories are rarely, if ever, reported in the mainstream media.

Part of a project implemented by British NGO Conciliation Resources, and already mentioned on Global Voices, some of the reports are very original and unique indeed. In Download, for example, virtual conflict teaches a previously addicted online gamer in Azerbaijan a lesson on the futility of war.

Download (English Subtitles) from Internews Armenia on Vimeo.

Meanwhile, former residents from Shusha, a once mainly Azerbaijani-inhabited town in Nagorno Karabakh known to Armenians as Shushi, remember their lives before the war. Negotiations to end the conflict contain provisions for the return of IDPs to their former homes in a phased implementation of any settlement.

Shusha Under Canvas (English Subtitles) from Internews Armenia on Vimeo.

Although the conflict was accompanied by numerous cases of ethnic cleansing and the tit-for-tat expulsion of minority communities, there are reportedly as many as 20,000 people of Armenian origin still living in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital and a few hundred ethnic Azeris in Yerevan, the Armenian capital.

Most are women or the children of mixed marriages, but in both cases, they keep a low profile. However, My Niece From The Caucasus profiles an Azerbaijani woman who remained in ethnic Armenian-populated Karabakh. Internews Armenia follows her on a journey to to meet with her family now living in Ukraine.

My Niece From The Caucasus (English Subtitles) from Internews Armenia on Vimeo.

The same theme is examined in At the 8th Kilometer, a joint production between Internews in Armenia and Azerbaijan. The film looks at the lives of women from mixed marriages now separated from their biological families. The report also includes an interview with an ethnic Armenian woman still living in Azerbaijan.

At The 8th Kilometre (English Subtitles) from Internews Armenia on Vimeo.

A more positive story, however, is told in All Films About Love, a touching look at an Armenian man still married to his Azerbaijani wife. Despite being directly affected by the war, the two pensioners remain together and say their love is as strong as ever.

All Films About Love (English Subtitles) from Internews Armenia on Vimeo.

Very definitely, it is the jointly produced films where the project shines. In Spectrum, for example, artists in Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan ponder the conflict as well as the need for communication, understanding, and peace through their work.

And in Kamancha-nameh, two musicians talk of their love for the same instrument which is part of both country's musical tradition. Despite attempts by the media to focus on the differences between the two nations, the report shows how similar they actually can be.

Spectrum (English Subtitles) from Internews Armenia on Vimeo.

Kamancha-nameh (English Subtitles) from Internews Armenia on Vimeo.

But perhaps one of the strongest collaborations, My Enemy - My Friend, details the experience of Armenians and Azerbaijanis held captive or taken hostage by the other side. It also reports on the work of two men on both sides of the front line who work tirelessly to free or exchange them.

My Enemy - My Friend (English Subtitles) from Internews Armenia on Vimeo.

Breaking many stereotypes, one can't help but realize how narrow coverage in the mainstream media of both countries is with regards to the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh as well as the possibility for Armenians and Azerbaijanis to live in peace. Now, however, such reports can be found on the Internet.

Global Voices will continue to monitor developments in the use of new and social media in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. A special coverage page is available here. Special thanks to Konstantin Geodakian, Technical Director at Internews Armenia, for enabling embedding of the videos on Global Voices.

By Rodrigo Penalba · Translated by Silvia Viñas · View original post [es]

Image from Flickr user Jorge Mejía Peralta, jorgemejia, used an Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license.

The 2.0 Meeting of Blogs and New Media (2.0 Encuentro de Blogs & Nuevos Medios [es]) took place on the 12 and 13 of August, in Managua, Nicaragua, increasing the value of blogs and new media as citizen spaces for social participation in the country. The event was made possible with support from the Cultural Center of Spain in Nicaragua (Centro Cultural de España de Nicaragua [es]).

During its first edition [es] in 2009, the meeting focused on traditional and print media and writers that were migrating toward an online platform. In its second edition, 2010, creators of “native” web content were invited, from independent bloggers to corporations, social activists and even political organizations.

The meeting included guests from Guatemala (Stephanie Falla, from Maestros del Web [es] and 120Segundos.com [es] ), Renata Avila (lead of Creative Commons Guatemala, Global Voices author, also involved in other digital experiences), Cristian Cambronero (from FusilDeChispas.com [es], National Journalism Prize for Costa Rica 2010), Monica Brenes (University of Costa Rica, project La Carpio en Linea [es]), Marcela Alfaro (from Cocoa Interactive [es]), and several Nicaraguan bloggers from different backgrounds, locations and with distinct purposes for the Internet.

The meeting generated a lot of coverage from the local Twitter community (more information can be found on the site twittnic.com) which voted [es] for the tag #nicablogs10, and followed the event weeks before it began. On traditional media, like magazine Confidencial, the event was covered through various articles on web editions, later listed on the event's official blog [es], including interviews with the creators of the projects La Carpio En Linea [es], 120Segundos.com [es], Group Todo por la costa caribe [es] (Everything for the Caribbean Coast), and even video coverage for an outlet that is essentially a print weekly:

Rodney Dávila, collaborating with Confidencial.com.ni [es], wrote:

Conversar de blogs es trastocar temas sobre la diversidad, desarrollo cultural, participación e incidencia ciudadana, producción de contenido para nuevos medios, innovadores usos en aplicaciones móviles. Temáticas que fueron abordadas en el 2.0 Encuentro de Blogs & Nuevos Medios, que se llevó a cabo recientemente en la Universidad Centroamericana.

Talking about blogs means touching on subjects about diversity, cultural development, participation and citizen influence, content production for new media, innovative uses in mobile applications. Topics that were discussed in the 2.0 Meeting of Blogs and New Media [es], which recently took place in the Central American University.

Maricela Kauffman, historian for Turkulka.net [es], wrote for the project's blog:

El 2.0 encuentro de blogs & nuevos medios demostró que la cibercultura es también una “buena práctica” local; una oportunidad, una plataforma donde las sociedades centroamericanas están promoviendo proyectos innovadores, apropiándose de nuevas tecnologías, difundiendo el conocimiento local en el mundo urbano. Bienvenidos los nuevos espacios en donde “la transparencia es la nueva objetividad” (David Weinberger). — Desde la Galaxia Gutenberg a la Galaxia Internet; la transparencia es el objetivo

The 2.0 Meeting of blogs and new media showed that cyberculture is also a local “good practice”; an opportunity, a platform where Central American societies are promoting innovative projects, appropriating new technologies, spreading local knowledge in an urban world. Welcome the new spaces where “transparency is the new objectivity” (David Weinberger).From the Gutenberg Galaxy to the Internet Galaxy; transparency is the objective [es]

Emila Persola in his presentation [es] placed an emphasis on the impact of blogs in our context:

En ese sentido, yo no creo haber superado aún la idea romántica de tener un blog y considero que en términos generales aún no se supera tampoco en el país. Y no se supera no solo por una falta aún necesaria de conectividad, sino también porque aún falta un compromiso de los blogueros por desarrollar, por un lado, una disciplina de publicación y por otro, aprender a contrarrestar a las coyunturas locales.

In that sense, I don't think I have gotten over the romantic idea of having a blog and I think that in general my country has still not gotten over the idea either. And we have not overcome the idea not only because of a lack in connectivity, but also because we still lack a compromise from bloggers to develop, on the one hand, a publishing discipline and on the other, learn to counteract local situations.

Javier Barrera, from 1001medios.es, created a podcast episode dedicated to “the small corners of the Internet.” You can download the podcast, in Spanish, here. In the same post Javier reviews the participating blogs and bloggers [es].

Rafael Chacón, Interactivity Senior Producer for BBC Mundo, presented via Skype about how BBC Mundo uses social networks to spread and find stories and sources:

Ahora ustedes también participan en la generación de noticias, pero además llegan a ellas de forma distinta: sus amigos las recomiendan y las comparten en las redes sociales, hablan de ellas en sus blogs personales.

Now you also participate in generating news, but also you reach news in a different way: your friends recommend them and share them on social networks, you talk about them in your personal blogs.

The comments from his presentation are now part of a post on his editor blog in “Un (BBC) Mundo Más Social [es]” (A More Social BBC Mundo).

Conexiones [es], a new blog dedicated to investigative journalism, covered the event:

Iniciativas de cómo incidir en la sociedad a través de blogs y nuevos medios alternativos en la web, crear participación entre la comunidad desde esos espacios, generar contenido y conocimiento, fueron los temas expuestos hoy en el auditorio Xavier Gorostiaga de la Universidad Centroamericana (UCA)… Decenas de personas, interesadas en desarrollar blogs y nuevos medios a través de la web 2.0, estuvieron atentos a la ponencia de nicaragüenses y centroamericanos sobre el desarrollo de sus blogs y el impacto que han logrado con éstos. La actividad es organizada por la Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) y el Centro Cultural de España en Nicaragua (CCEN).

Initiatives on how to influence society through blogs and new alternative media on the web, create participation in the community through these spaces, generate content and knowledge, were the subjects presented today in the auditorium Xavier Gorostiaga in the Central American University (UCA)….Dozens of people, interested in developing blogs and new media through the web 2.0 were attentive to the presentations by Nicaraguans and Central Americans about the development of their blogs and the impact they have made with them. The activity was organized by the Central American University (UCA) and the Cultural Center of Spain in Nicaragua (CCEN)

Blogger Emila Persola was interviewed [es] by local newspaper El Nuevo Diario because of the 2.0 Meeting:

No hay que dar tregua. Hay que contribuir más bien a criticar esa idiosincrasia del nicaragüense, pues en el fondo no es digna de admiración. Somos un pueblo muy intolerante, desafortunadamente esperanzado más en las bendiciones o maldiciones que provengan del cielo, que en preocuparnos por encontrar una conciencia capaz de superar nuestro atraso económico, social, político y hasta espiritual.

One must not “let up.” One must contribute to criticize the Nicaraguan idiosyncrasy, because after all it is not admirable. We are a very tolerant people, unfortunately more hopeful about the blessings or curses that come from heaven, than about worrying for finding a conscience capable of overcoming our economic, social, political and even spiritual delay.

Other media that covered the event include the European Press Agency [es], the Enlace Académico Centroamerican [es], the Tulum Magazine [es] from Guatemala, and El 19 Digital [es].

Image from Flickr user Jorge Mejía Peralta, jorgemejia, used an Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license

On Flickr there is a set of images dedicated to the 2.0 Meeting, with pictures under a Creative Commons license, courtesy of Jorge Mejía. The images from this post come from the same set.

Maestros Del Web after the 2.0 Meeting created a “Guía para organizar en 5 pasos un evento de tecnología e internet,” (Guide to organize a technology and Internet event in 5 steps) where part of the process of the event's organization was taken into consideration. Like previously mentioned, Maestros del Web participated in the event, represented by Stephanie Falla. The guide includes these points, among others:

El curador o equipo organizador … debe plantear un conjunto de ideas claras para transmitir en el transcurso del mismo:

The curator or organizing team … should come up with clear ideas to share during the event

No se trata de llenar un auditorio de gente que habla una después de otra, sino crear un discurso que entre en la gente, en los participantes, en los otros expositores, y en los medios de comunicación que cubran el evento.

It's not about filling up an auditorium of people that talk one after the other, but rather creating discourse among the people, the participants, the presenters, and the media that is covering the event.

Rodrigo (Peñalba) agrega que el discurso se va creando desde como se agrupan los temas de los expositores, sea una charla técnica, una charla de una experiencia de trabajo, o una conferencia con preguntas y respuestas o si es una sesión de vídeo charlas:

Rodrigo (Peñalba) adds that the discourse is created when the presentation subjects are grouped, be it in a technical speech, a speech about a work experience, or a conference with questions and answers or a session of video talks.

Que cada expositor entienda lo que se le esta pidiendo exponer y de como calza en el programa en general. De ese modo puede preparar el enfoque de su participación acorde a la idea básica general que fijamos para diseñar el evento.

Each presenter must understand what they are being asked to present on and how it fits with the general program. This way they can prepare the focus of their presentation according to the basic general idea that we set to design the event. The participants

The blogs and projects that presented in the event are the following:

• BBC Mundo [es]
• ‘Espacio Comunicación Alternativa-ECA’, from the Group for Sexual Diversity from Carazo [es], Nicaragua. Their blog is up since 2007 and it supports initiatives in favor of sexual diversity.
• Cocoa Interactive [es], Costa Rica. Presented on how businesses can use Social Networks to collaborate and participate with their client and collaborators.
• Confidencial [es], Nicaragua. Presented on how a print weekly is changing its editorial line to generate web content, with multimedia resources.
• Emila Persola [es], Nicaragua
• Freddy Quezada [es], Nicaragua
• Fusil de Chispas [es], Costa Rica
• La Carpio En Línea [es], Costa Rica. Works to visualize the agenda of the people in the La Carpio de San José neighborhood in Costa Rica, improving the way that traditional media focuses on the neighborhood.
• Leogg [es] / comuNIdad [es], Nicaragua. Presented on how free software communities use the web to generate sympathy, participation and collaboration with the Free Software philosophy.
• Movimiento Social Nicaragüense ‘Otro Mundo Es Posible' [es], Nicaragua. Presented on how they have created collaboration networks with communities in Nicaragua and Central America.
• penalba.info [es], Nicaragua. Event Curator.
• Primer Palabra [es], Guatemala. Renata Avila from Primer Palabra participated in the Meeting, but her presentation was on the use of ICTs and new media to create hyperlocal online communities.
• SIMAS – Servicio de Información Mesoamericano sobre Agricultura Sostenible [es], Nicaragua. SIMAS produces several blogs about ICTs in rural zones and agricultural producers:
  • The importance of the Committees of Drinking Water and Sanitation [es] (CAPS)
  • The importance of consuming local seeds [es]
  • Another blog which visualizes the efforts and struggles of rural families [es]
• StephanieFalla [es], Guatemala
• Sueños del Caribe [es], Nicaragua. A blog by Ronald Hill, where he writes opinion post articles on the Caribbean Coast.
• Telefonica Movistar, Nicaragua. Presented on the use of new media for internal corporate use in a transnational corporation.
• Todo Por La Costa Caribe / Facebook [es], Nicaragua
• Videocanal de Fabio Buitrago [es], Nicaragua. This Youtube channel started as an escape from work that Fabio produced, and it recently became a TV show on Cable [es].

To summarize what each of these blogs do would merit writing several post summarizing the work of each of them and the many other blogs that could not be presented on during the event's official program. We invite you to visit all of them; the participation of these bloggers is what made the Meeting a success. We hope to see you there next year!

Disclaimer: Rodrigo Penalba was a Coordinador for the event.

By Tomomi Sasaki

The second edition of the web industry event WISH [ja] was held on August 28th.

The brainchild of Agile Media Network's Motohiko Tokuriki [ja], this event derived from a heated debate last year about how to perceive the Japanese web. Global Voices covered the debate in a three part series that collected responses to the question, “Is the Japanese web disappointing?”. The inaugural WISH 2009 attracted four hundred people on a weekday night and the event hashtag #wish09 became a Twitter Trending topic. (read the Techcrunch report)

This year, several hundred people gathered in Roppongi to attend the half-day event, while thousands more tuned in to watch the presentations on UStream and NicoNico Douga.

From the organizer's website:

昨今、「ガラパゴス」という言葉の流行にも見られるように、一般に日本の製品やサービスは国内だけの市場に最適化され、グローバルに展開しにくくなっていると言われています。 ただ、実際には、個人やベンチャーから大企業まで、世界を狙える新しいサービスやガジェットが生まれ続けてはいるものの、なかなかその実態を利用者に知られる機会がなく、利用者を増やすのに苦労しているのが実情です。

「WISH 2010」では、ウェブ関連の 「サービス」や「端末」を開発されている様々な企業・個人の皆様に、多数のメディアやブロガー、ツイッターユーザーに対し てサービスや端末をアピールするプレゼンテーションの機会を提供することにより、まだ知名度が低いけれども可能性のあるサービスや端 末が飛躍するきっかけとなることを目指しています。

As the recent spread of the word “Galápagos” shows, it’s said that Japanese products and services are optimized solely for the Japanese market, which makes it difficult to appeal on a global level. Actually though, many new services and gadgets that have this potential are produced by entities of all sizes; individuals, venture companies and large corporations. However, this situation rarely has the chance to make itself known to us, and enterprises face an uphill climb in growing their user base.

WISH 2010 provides an opportunity for individuals and corporations developing web-related services and devices to reach out to the media, bloggers, and Twitter users. They have the potential but not the visibility, and the event aims to help them take flight.

Struggles with isolationism continues and one expression of this might be is how the phrase Galápagos Syndrome has taken a firm root in our vocabulary, as mentioned above in the WISH 2010 introduction. Galápagos Syndrome is a term, self-deprecating at best, that was coined to describe how Japanese cellphones have evolved in its own way, incompatible and increasingly irrelevant to the rest of the world. The concept has broadened to explain unique development in other industries and generalized to include describing an inward looking mindset.

WISH 2010 started with a panel discussion [ja] between Yoshikazu Tanaka (founder and CEO of Gree), Akinori Harada (COO of Mixi) and Hiroki Eda (manager at Digital Garage and the project manager for the business development of Twitter Japan) to the topic of “how the Japanese web should aim to go global”.

Should a company start out aiming to reach a global audience, or first focus on capturing the local market? This talk is especially interesting as Mixi is spurring their overseas efforts. Japanese startup culture and the difficulty of getting funding were also discussed. Harada brought up the fact that many of the suicide victims in Japan are small business owners; Japanese business owners are literally running their companies at the risk of their own lives.

@shinyai:

原田：腹をくくれというサムライ精神で起業させるという考えではダメ。リスクをとらないというのもどうかと思うが、大企業に入れるような人間が、起業に目を向けるような環境が必要。 #wish10

Harada: “Of course there is some element of risk involved, but asking for a do-or-die samurai spirit to start a business is not acceptable. We need an environment where people that would normally enter large corporations would consider starting their own company.”

Tanaka thrilled the audience with tales of overcoming financial hurdles in the early days, while both he and Harada encouraged startups to be more agressive and open-minded about raising funds.

@kakuit:

徳力「サービスが流行るのと，お金が入ってるタイミングにはズレがある。GREEが流行り始めた時期はAdsenceで？」田中「全然。GREEにはクレカのキャッシングで凌いでいた時期がある。楽天のボーナスで返済。」 #WISH2010 #WISH10

Tokuriki: “There is a gap in timing from when a service becomes popular and for it to make money. Did you use revenue from Adsense to support GREE in the beginning?”
Tanaka: “Not at all. I used credit on my credit card at times to pay for the server fees and returned it with my summer bonus from Rakuten [where I worked at the time].”

@toshi_t:

原田「24時間没頭できると思ったら、まず資金調達するべきです。資金調達で3年没頭できるということを想像してみて欲しい。」 #wish10

Harada: “If you find something that you want to pour your energy into 24 hours a day, go raise funds. Imagine this - you can find enough funding to devote yourself for three years [without worrying about money].”

Next were fourteen presentations and demos. Head over to Asiajin or Techcrunch to read a full list of the services.

The winner was the e-book publishing platform Puboo by paperboy & co.. As an expansion of their popular book review community site Booklog, Puboo allows anyone to write and publish a book online. Their name comes from the word “publish” and the sound of a baby, or something new, being born.

Mainichi Shimbun's @norimineshigeto, one of the judges, tweeted:

#wish10 「ブクログのパブ－」は現代のガリ版だと思う。誰もが簡単に自分の表現を形にでき、発表の場がある。そこで人と本が出会い、人と人が出会い、人が世界とつながり、新しいものが生まれる。戦後ガリ版刷りの同人誌などによって多くの優れた文化が生まれたのと同じことが今後起こると思う

I think Paboo is like a contemporary mimeograph. Anyone can have their thoughts take shape and have a place to publish it. Once out in the wild, something new is born because it brings together people and books, people and people, and people and the world. I think we'll see a revolution in the same way that many remarkable cultures arose from mimeographs and doujinshi (self-published works, mostly by amateurs) after WWII.

A performance [ja] by singer Kohmi Hirose, one of the first celebrity figures to embrace Twitter in Japan, followed the presentations. Coordinator Hiromi Okuda explains [ja] that they are looking to innovate the music publication platform and this event was an experiment to bring Hirose and engineers, who have the potential to build that platform, together in the same room.

By Gregory Asmolov

Coordination center of Ushahidi-based "Help Map". Photo by Anton Gerdo

The role of social networks and the blogosphere is usually viewed through a context of transparency and accountability. Social media activists can help in exposing the state’s failures and holding the government accountable. During this summer's wildfires [ENG], however, the role of the Russian media was more than that. Bloggers not only exposed the government’s unaccountability but demonstrated a high degree of solidarity and self-organization in fighting the disaster.

The activity of the Russian online community wasn't limited to helping wildfire victims. Bloggers created units of volunteer firefighters, went into the field and eventually provided immediate response. Along with the comprehensive instructions on how to become a firefighter, how to fight various types of wildfires, and what equipment volunteers should have, the Internet provided a platform for 24-hour coordination and exchange of information about the rapidly changing situation.

The fact that bloggers had to take matters into their own hands sent a message that was much stronger than any critique of the government. To some extent, Russian bloggers filled the gaps created by the government. This situation might surprise since quite often the ability of the Russian blogosphere to cause any effect beyond the virtual space was more than debatable.

So, what caused such an extraordinary effect?

Failure of the government as a trigger for online cooperation

There are several explanations. The skeptical approach says the major reason for the awakening of Russian netizens is a high degree of personal threat. Unlike other cases, the wildfires affected the entire population of Moscow. An anonymous user explained [RUS] this approach to Lenta.ru:

Когда горела Сибирь, нам было, честно говоря, пофигу. Когда пожар был в соседнем лесу, мы ковыряли в носу на даче и загорали под солнышком. Когда сгорела Выкса, мы проснулись и вскрикнули: “Власти бездействуют!” Через полчаса мы припомнили какую-то там бучу с Лесным кодексом и кинулись к компьютеру. Через час блогосфера бурлила. А на следующий день, когда Москву заволокло дымом, нам стало страшно, и мы бросились работать на благо страны.

When Siberia was burning we, honestly, couldn't care less. When the wildfires were in the neighboring forest, [we were doing nothing], sunbathing in the countryside. When Vyksa was destroyed by fire, we woke up and shouted: “The government isn't doing anything!” Half an hour later, we recalled something about the Forest Codex and we rushed to our computers. An hour later, the blogosphere was boiling. Next day, when the smog covered Moscow, we got frightened and rushed to work for the good of our country.

Beyond the cynical point of view, however, high degree of cooperation might be explained with two factors. On the one hand, cooperation was empowered by a shared understanding that the government has failed to get the situation under control and, moreover, didn't want to be held accountable for it. On the other hand, it was information technologies that provided both information exchange and tools for coordination and effective collaboration.

The feeling of total distrust in the government was one of the major leitmotifs in the online discourse around wildfires. Anna Baskakova, an art expert who took an active part in firefighting, published an appeal to Sergey Shoigu, the Russian Minister of Emergency Situations. The appeal received over 2,400 comments and became one of the most popular posts of the week. Baskakova wrote [RUS]:

… у меня исчезли последние детские иллюзии, связанные с тем, что кто-то там, наверху, о нас заботится и нас защищает (нет, я не о Боге, я говорю о руководстве страны и о Вас в том числе). Теперь я стала взрослым человеком и рассчитываю только на себя.

… I've lost the last childish illusions that someone up there is taking care of us and protecting us (no, I'm not talking about God, I'm talking about the leadership of the country, you included). Now I've became an adult and count on myself only.

One of the peaks of the bloggers' dissatisfaction with the government was the moment when PM Vladimir Putin co-piloted a firefighters' plane [EN]. It was widely recognized as a PR action. Some bloggers wondered if Putin had a legal right to co-pilot. One of the bloggers asked [RUS]:

Премьер-министр тушит пожары; Премьер-министр реанимирует 80-летних бабушек; Премьер-министр сеет пшеницу. А кто управляет страной?

The prime minister is fighting wildfires; the prime minister is resuscitating 80-year-old grandmothers; the prime minister is seeding wheat. And who is running the country?

In a sarcastic post titled “Innovation in firefighting,” Leonwolf listed [RUS] ways in which the government was putting out the fires. It included:

• “Administrative method” (marking a wildfire situation as “closed” in a special journal);
• Firefighting by setting a forest on fire first - in order to show off the firefighting efforts by activists of the Russian ruling party “United Russia”;
• Firefighting by praying for the rain;
• Firefighting by Photoshop [EN];
• Firefighting by “rynda” [EN] etc.

One of the sharpest responses to the government's actions was provided by Yulia Latynina, an Echo Moskvy journalist. She claimed [RUS] that the state system reached a new degree of failure when even Putin’s presence wasn't bringing about any changes:

Мы видим, что система по-прежнему не функционирует. Над Москвой стоит смог, московские морги переполнены. Лужков даже не вернулся из отпуска. Система продолжает выделять 9 млрд. рублей на чистую воду, переименовывать милицию в полицию. Здорово, ребята, давайте лучше не милицию в полицию переименуем, а сразу, как кто-то пошутил в блогах, ВАЗ переименуем в БМВ, те же самые три буквы. И тремя буквами всё это накроется.

We can see that the system is still not functioning. Moscow is covered by smog, Moscow morgues are filled beyond capacity. Luzhkov [Moscow's mayor] hasn't come back from vacation. The system continues to allot 9 billion rubles for clean water, renames militia to police. It's great, guys, let's rename not militia to police, but, as some blogger joked, VAZ [a Russian car factory] to BMW - the same three letters. And by three letters all of it will be covered [a hint at a popular Russian curse].

"Have you signed up to volunteer?". An illustration by a LJ user ryskan.

Technology helps online communities to replace government

The wildfires showed that with the help of technology, online community can replace both the functions and the structures of the government.

One of the most significant signs of the government's failure was the fact that bloggers had to buy equipment - including fire hoses - for official units of professional firefighters. Igor Cherskiy, one of the leaders of online volunteers, a writer and a blogger, asked [RUS] Shoigu not for help, but for instructions on which fire hoses to buy:

Назовите, пожалуйста, адреса, где вы прячете эти сокровища. Мы приедем и даже купим их у вас же, чтоб вам же привезти, чтобы вы потушили пожар. <…> Понимаете? Наши женщины не боятся покупать пожарные рукава для ваших героических войск. Они только боятся “купить ненужное”.

Please, give me the addresses where you're hiding these treasures. We will come and buy it from you and then give it to you so that you could fight wildfires. …Do you understand? Our women aren't afraid of buying fire hoses for your heroic troops. They're just afraid of “buy the wrong ones.”

Shoigu didn't reply to Cherskiy, but another blogger - LJ user fort_i_ko, a former firefighter - explained in detail what fire hoses to buy. Cherskiy concluded [RUS]:

Ура! Теперь любая кухарка сможет управлять МЧС. Ибо очень доходчиво всё изложено.

Hurray! Now any cook will be able to run the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Because now everything has been explained very clearly.

Vladimir Lenin's famous saying that “every cook has to learn how to govern the state” did not, of course, apply in this situation. It was self-organization of bloggers that provoked the emergence of several leaders of the rescue operation, and, consequently, separation of duties between them. LJ user _alisa wrote [RUS] after one of her trips to an area affected by the wildfires:

вчера мы ездили в Кулебаки чтобы отвезти им все это – необходимые пожарным инструменты, продукты, средства защиты были приобретены на деньги блоггеров, организовал наш десант по заброске всего этого в «горячую точку» i_cherski , который как известно на общественных началах замещает временно недееспособное руководство МЧС.

Yesterday we went to Kulebaki to bring them everything they needed - firefighting equipment, food, protective devices that were purchased with the bloggers' money. Our mission to the “hot spot” was organized by i_cherski, who, as you know, is filling in voluntarily for our temporarily incompetent leadership of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

If i_cherski played the part of the Minister of Emergency Situations, the role of the Minister of Health and Social Aid was played by Elizaveta Glinka, aka doctor-liza. Her apartment was turned into the headquarters of aid coordination and a storehouse at the same time.

With the help of pozar_ru LJ community, Cherskiy and Glinka became the two leaders of the volunteer cooperation. Despite their successes, collective action of this type often lacked coordination. Overwhelming numbers of help offers, together with information overload, threatened the whole idea of efficient coordination. Moreover, some organizations that took an active part in rescue missions had no Internet representation whatsoever. For instance, an important role was played by a charity branch of the Russian Orthodox Church [RUS].

A management platform that made cooperation-based mutual aid more effective was “Help Map” [RUS] – the first Russian Ushahidi-based platform [ENG] that aggregated information from all possible sources and organized it according to categories, geolocation and time. The crowdsourcing element of “Help Map” made it possible to expand the range of people who could share information beyond bloggers and Internet users. “Help Map” created a useful database and launched a coordination center that connected those who needed help with those who offered help, relying on the information submitted to the map section. Blogger ottenki-serogo, who visited the Ushahidi-based coordination center in Moscow, described [RUS] the role of “Help Map”:

Карта Помощи - без сомнения проект года. Возможно, его даже наградят, посмертно, когда пожаров в стране, наконец, не станет. Скорее всего это будет какая-нибудь интернет-премия, но никак не признание заслуг государством. Впервые (вы можете вспомнить что-нибудь подобное?) интернет добровольцы не только объединились в желании помочь, но и создали сайт, колл-центр, систему мониторинга и обмена информацией.  […] Они не связаны ни с какими организациями и политическими партиями, они сами по себе, они тихо растворятся среди нас, когда беда отступит, и соберутся снова чтобы помогать, если, не дай бог, случится. Система создана, обкатана и готова к повторению.

“Help Map” is, no doubt, the project of the year. Maybe it will even receive a posthumous award, when the wildfires are, at last, gone. Probably it will be some Internet nomination, but definitely not recognition of achievement by the government. For the first time (can anyone recall anything like this?), Internet volunteers not only united in their will to help, but launched a website, opened a call center, deployed a system of monitoring and information exchange. […] They are not connected to any organizations or political parties, they are by themselves, and they will slowly dissolve when the trouble retreats, and they will gather again to help if, God forbid, something happens. The system has been created, tested and is now ready to be used again.

Coordination center of "Help Map". Photo by Ottenki-Serogo

“Help Map” not only sent a strong message to the government that it wasn't capable of taking care of its own citizens, but also presented a new accountability mechanism that is emerging among citizens. Ushahidi has become a civil society institution. These were the first steps to a reality in which the public would form alternative mechanisms and institutions, in order to fill the vacuum of government structures.

The combination of a dedicated online community as a main platform for discourse, several leaders and a coordination center based on an Ushahidi map, created a new model of effective online cooperation that can provide efficient and timely response. Blogger grey-wolk summarized [RUS] the role of the model that has emerged:

Люди без указаний, без поощрений и жажды славы просто начали сами исполнять функции государства. […] Выяснилось, что сочетание активных людей, новейших технологий распределенной работы,  отсутствие формальных ограничений и неограниченного источника знаний в виде сетевых ресурсов Интернета приводит к тому, что данный “виртуальный” коллектив весьма небольшой численности может проводить операции, реально влияющие на огромное пространство - несколько областей России.

Without any orders, without encouragement and not craving fame, people just started to fulfill the functions of the state. […] It turned out that a combination of active people, the newest technologies of distributed work, the lack of formal restrictions and unlimited source of knowledge on the Internet, leads to a situation when this relatively small “virtual” working group is able to carry out operations that make a real impact on a huge territory - a few regions of Russia.

Described above is an example of the “governance without government” phenomenon (a term coined in 1992 by James Rosenau and Ernst-Otto Czempiel [EN]). ”Governance without government” became relatively efficient and sustainable because of the role of the information technologies. Moreover, information technologies helped create platforms that inspired growth of new offline institutions (e.g., the coordination center that was set up as an extension of “Help Map“).

Some Russain bloggers already see that the online response to wildfires might be the beginning of a new political model for Russia, when citizens armed with technology take governance in their own hands. Blogger grey-wolk developed this idea in a post titled “Wildfires as a catalyst for self-governance in Russia” [RUS]:

При всех ошибках и несколько хаотической  форме создания “виртуальной организации” можно выделить несколько главных положений:

- в России существуют люди, способные самоорганизовываться и осуществлять существенные макроскопические воздействия
- “виртуальный коллектив” такого уровня может быть создан практически в любое время и способен осуществлять серьезную деятельность через 2 -3 недели после старта проекта.

Таким образом, после июля - августа 2010 года в России наконец то появился зачаток позитивного движения, и не считаться с его наличием формальные власти уже не в состоянии. Данное движение пока затрагивает в основном сферу деятельности МЧС. Что на очереди?

With all the mistakes and a relatively chaotic way of creation of a “virtual organization” we can make several conclusions:

- there are people in Russia who are able to self-organize and achieve significant macro-impacts
- “a virtual working group” of this type can be created at any time and is able to maintain serious activity after 2-3 weeks after starting the project.

As a consequence, after July-August 2010 we can finally see the first signs of a positive movement in Russia, and the government can not ignore it anymore. So far, this movement mainly affects the activity of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. What's next?

“Governance without government”: challenges and obstacles

Successful cooperation can’t work without a high degree of mutual trust between people. John Clippinger, in his book “A Crowd of One: a Future of Digital Identity” [EN], argues that the degree of online cooperation depends on the ability to evaluate reputation and credibility of online community members.

On the one hand, the wildfires showed that online community members are more trusted than the government is. Anna Baskakova wrote [RUS]

[…] я поверила в человеческую доброту. Потому что мне отовсюду под честное слово шлют вещи, деньги и продукты, чтобы я потратила все это на тушение пожаров. Даже совсем незнакомые люди из-за океана говорят, что мне доверяют, и переводят суммы на мою карточку. Вам не шлют, Сергей Кожугетович? Странно. Отчего они не хотят вам помогать??

[…] I've gained trust in human kindness. Because people [trust me enough] to be sending goods, money and food, for me to spend it all on the firefighting effort. Even complete strangers from across the ocean say that they trust me, and transfer money to my bank card. And what about you, Sergey Kozhugetovich [Shoigu]? Have you received anything? No? strange. Why aren't they willing to help you?

On the other hand, online activity was still accompanied by mutual suspicion and incidents, especially since the Russian Internet is known as a space with a high degree of engagement of pro-government bloggers.

One may suggest that in an emergency situation there is a rise in the degree of trust, and, as a consequence, online cooperation grows more sustainable. This sustainability, however, is very fragile. Once the emergency decreases, the degree of suspicion and tension rises.

More sustainability requires more options to evaluate who your partners are and what their reputation is. It should not be a surprise that leaders of the online movement were well-known. Clippinger argues that the development of online trust through the development of online identity can create a new social reality with more advanced levels of cooperation and self-organization. The Russian wildfires case is another proof that “governance without government” requires a high degree of mutual trust. It also provides hope, since members of the online community have an opportunity to examine the track record of their fellows. It means that online cooperation not only requires a developed online identity, but is also a part of online identity development. As a consequence, next time when cooperation is required it can be based on trust that was developed previously.

Certain obstacles of online cooperation should be mentioned, though. One of them is the “Iron Law of Oligarchy” [ENG]. Suggested in 1911 by sociologist Robert Michels [EN], the “law” says that any form of organization develops competition for leadership and creates its own “oligarchs”. In an online environment, information hubs become oligarchs of sorts. If that happens, information hubs turn from cooperation to rivalry, thus threatening the efficiency of networked actions.

Another problem is the audience. LiveJournal blogs and communities primarily address active Internet users. Ushahidi-based “Help Map” tried to expand its audience by including SMS-messaging, but still information about the website is primarily distributed on the Internet. At the same time, the Russian “conventional” mass media (primarily TV) are controlled by the government and are instructed [RUS] to “avoid exaggeration and dramatization” of the wildfires. As a consequence, the audience available for online cooperation is limited.

Conclusion

In summer 2010, the Russian blogosphere became an example of “governance without government” that emerged in the conditions of the government's failure to handle the disaster. The mix of blogs, online communities and an Ushahidi-based platform, together with the emergence of new offline institutions to support this structure, provided a framework for relatively efficient and coordinated response.

Russia isn't the only example of this phenomenon. In his recent, still unpublished, report - “Mobile Telephony & Governance in Weak/Non-State Areas” - Steven Livingston [EN] from the George Washington University showed that information and communication technologies might be a catalyst for new forms of governance in weak and stateless areas. The report demonstrates how mobile phones can “create new sorts of institutions that allow people to manage issues (such as banking, security, and information for trade) more effectively” without the government's involvement. It means that cooperation mediated through technology gradually becomes a more significant alternative for governance by the government and a new framework for accountability, in various parts of the world. In this case, the Russian online response to the wildfires might be just one of many examples.

The problems of trust and relationship, as well as the limited ability of the Internet to reach more people, are still here.  One may add that once the government recognizes network as a potential rival for governance, it might take steps to restrict online cooperation.

By Juliana Rincón Parra

Celebrate Blog Day today with a day long online summit. The III Virtual Blogger Encounter will have speakers from Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia and Spain engaging through webcams with an international online audience about blogs, branding and other social networks.

By Mong Palatino

Catherine Wentworth discusses the procedure and her experience of learning the Thai language through Skype.

By Karlo Mikhail Mongaya

Last Monday's hostage-taking of Hong Kong nationals in Manila, which has roused worldwide indignation over the bloodshed, has led Filipinos to write apologies via a Facebook page.

The “Hong Kong, our apology for what happened” Facebook page now has over 30,000 likes. Its wall is filled with general apologies from Filipino Facebook users:

Roland Jacob Delos Santos: People of Hong Kong, our apologies and condolences. We're one with you in mourning for your loss. Please forgive our president - he does not know what he is doing.
Ely Realeza: We don't need to defend our name, just be humble and ask for forgiveness…
Rowena Agulto: To the people of Hongkong we sincerely apologize for what happen in our country! I still cry everytime I watch the video of the incident. I felt so sorry for those innocent life that was lost. May God be with Us!

Some comments specifically apologized for the Philippine police and government's incompetence and mishandling of the incident which is perceived as a big factor in the bloodshed:

Omar Leyson: We sincerely apologize for the incompetence and callousness of the authorities/media involved in that tragic incident…please continue your TRUST to our fellow OCWs who works hard and honestly in your beautiful country…They just want to bring food to their families back in the Philippines…Again, we're sorry and may our Divine Creator continue to bless all of us…Thank you!
Justin Felix: our deepest condolences to the chinese nationals who were murdered on aug 23 hostage crisis.We all know that their innocent and dont deserve to be treated that way.Were sorry for our authorities for not responding quickly and for not having capable skills to act in that kind of situation. We know that our apology is not enough to put away sorrows in their families and in every chinese nationals in honkong. From our heart were sincerely sorry for what happened.Were really sorry we really do..=,((

Hong Kong citizens are also exchanging comments with Filipinos in the page:

Wong Johnson:Dear all the phillipinos, I understand the very main source of the incidence is the serious corruption in ur country and most of u are victims too. So, we would just blame on the incidence itself but not the whole nation of you.
Christmas Cheung: Although most of Filipinos are nice. To be a HKP , I still decide not to go Philippines for my entire life :S
Laurel Lee: Actually, I just hope people who did wrong to say sorry… You guys can do nothing but watching the event when it happened and you all show that you care. I can see the goodness in you, but this apology I cannot accept. It is because those horrible things are not done by you. The police, the government, and phototakings guys should apologize, but they don't. That's why we are still upset.
I typed emotional words here yesterday too. Sorry about that…but my point is release the anger of HKers is no good for both of us. You all don't need to receive such a negative emotion in this way.

There are occasional angry statements but there seems to be a positive and conscious effort among the page's commenter to avoid being offensive:

Jackson Chi Wai Tsang: I am from Hong Kong. I think most Filipinos who have been to this Fan page can understand our feelings. Please kindly keep this attitude and spread to you nearbys who don't understand.
Anthony Morabe: Fellow Filipinos, If they have said something bad to us don't retaliate. Don't debate with them, it isn't going to help. Just deepen your understanding. It's completely understandable if they have violent reactions and don't give an excuse of it could happen anywhere cause I think they heard that like a million times already. Let's just hope that someday they can and they will forgive us. PEACE.
Xavier Leung: some reminders for all people who leave message in this page:
1. please try to use language that is understood by both Hongkongers and Filipinos.
using languages that is not understood by other people may cause misunderstandings and cannot show your respect.
2. please do not use the Google Translate, as the result is not so good.
3. please do not post messages you saw on this page again, the page is over-flooding