Our two months self-drive safari in Botswana and Namibia is now over. We drove nearly 11’000 kms without any major incident and I shot about 6000 photos. After a first selection, 1700 remain and about 150 are now available online on a dedicated gallery.

Our trip went quite smoothly without any major incident. Indeed we got some visitors at night in our camps (Elephants, Hyena, Baboons and Lions) and we got some minor technical damages (the auto-focus of the Sigma lens 50-500mm gave up, a tyre exploded in Southern Namibia and our 350W power inverter did not go further than Maun).

As I’m leaving Thailand for Côte d’Ivoire, the traditional content of this blog will certainly change a bit and get an African perspective on new technologies. Nothing clearly defined yet, but for sure, moving from South-East Asia to Western Africa will have an impact.

In the meantime, enjoy the photos and feel free to drop questions and comments about our trip

Found two interesting posts about how Twitter becomes a real-time news media and how it contributes to spread news all over the World despite telecommunication networks breakdown and/or government censorship.

Smart Mobs author Mark A.M Kramer asks if Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) could make humanity morally accountable ? Today, even with a very limited presence of the International community (politics, journalists as well as Aid workers) we continue to receive near real-time information from Myanmar through various multi-plateforms communication media such Twitter, SMS, RSS etc.

Ten days later, in China, an powerful earthquake shook the Sichuan province, information that Technology blogger Robert Scoble claimed that Twitter had the breaking news even before the United States Geological Survey, which provides early warnings of seismic events.

Is Twitter's slogan "What are you doing" should be now replaced by "What's going on" ?

Sources: SmartMobs, BBC

I found very interesting post on Tom Barrett's "ICT in my Classroom" blog about how Twitter is used as an educational tool.

Tom's post also describes where Twitter is positioned among other communications tools. Twitter is not a synchronous or an asynchronous communication system. It is rather both at once depending how channel's followers use it.

He makes a nice metaphoric comparison between Twitter and a flowing torrent where people can just stand by it and observes the flow. Some prefers to jump into while others simply do not pay much attention to the  stream.

Personally I am amazed to see how many different ways Twitter is used today. There are, indeed, lots of individuals (you and me) but also some politicians (Clinton, Obama, UK Prime Minister), Public Services (LA fire department, AmCross), Airlines, News agencies, etc.. which are increasingly using it, but not necessarily to interact with others but to broadcast content or information.

Is any company using Twitter for internal use only ? 

Quite surprised to discover that British Prime Minister Office, the famous 10 Downing Street, is, since very few days, using social networks to communicate on the Web. 

Prime Minister Gordon Brown (at least his PR team) is active on Twitter and photos of the French President's visit to Downing Street have been published, by PM communication team, on Flickr.

Is PM Brown a geek also ? 

Who will be next ? This one perhaps ?

Q: Will it give enough "respectability" to introduce micro-blogging into corporate environment ? or is it still too early ? I will come on that subject again, after reading Simon's post

InfoWorld published the 10 most common security land mines that experts say you need to avoid.

Many companies spend a small fortune and deploy a small army to secure themselves from the many security threats lurking these days. But all those efforts can come to naught when making any of these common mistakes. The results can range from embarrassing to devastating, but security experts say that all are easily avoidable.

And almost all can be done without spending one more dime.

1. A slip of the finger reveals the company secret

2. People give away passwords and other secrets without thinking

3. A trusted partner ends up not being so trustworthy with your data

4. Web-based apps can be portals to leaks and thieves

5. Hoping the worse doesn’t happen only makes it worse

6. Avoiding or diluting response leadership makes breaches worse

7. Handling breach details sloppily tips off the perp

8. Trusting "silver bullet" technology hides real threats

9. Spending unthinkingly wastes resources you might need for important threats

10. Don't save the wrong data

In short, weakest point in ICT technologies is always the same one… guess who ?

The full article is available here on InfoWorld

Travelpod proposes to discover, through an online game, how well do you know your world.

Questions includes major cities of the World, Capital cities as well as travelers must see locations. Additional set of questions are also available (Continents, Flags, Unesco sites, Photos).

Want to play ?

My personal score:
Final Score : 576'899
Final Level : 12
Traveler IQ : 133

Emirates Airlines announced yesterday that passengers will no longer have to switch off their mobile phones and will be allowed to make calls and text people during their journey on-board.

The first flight with authorized mobile phone calls was made on 20th of March between Dubai and Casablanca on-board of an Emirates Airbus A340-300 fitted with AeroMobile system, which ensures mobile telephones operate at minimum power during flights and make sure mobile phone signal does not interfere with aircraft navigation equipments.

A second aircraft equipped with the same AeroMobile system will be in service shortly.

Rates were not published, but in 2007, cost per minute was estimated between 2.50 and 3.50 USD.

Source: Arabnews via Wi-Fi Networking 

How do your corporate applications look like ?

Sources : Stuff That Happends via Fred Cavazza

London police launched on 25th of February a new advertising campaign. Posters and TV ads are urging Londoners to turn in people who might be taking pictures of CCTV cameras.

"Thousands of people take photos every day.

What if one of them seems odd ?

Terrorists use surveillance to help plan attacks, taking photos and making notes about security measures like the location of CCTV cameras.If you see someone doing that, we need to know.

Let experienced officers decide what action to take." 

Other posters target households:

"you see hundreds of houses every day. What if one has unusual activities and seems suspicious"

as well as mobile phone users :

"Thousands of people have mobiles. What if someone with several seems suspicious?"

What's going on in London ? Is the Metropolitan police not busy enough ? did they become completely paranoiac ? or do they need some budget increase ?

Where is this so famous British phlegm ?

As a response, many people have already redesigned the posters to point out the absurdity of them. Some samples are available on BoingBoing.

The WNDW team has released its second edition of the book "Wireless Networking in the Developing World". The 425 page book includes lots of new material, including new chapters on solar power and economic planning, several new case studies.

The book is released for free under a Creative Commons license and is available in several languages (including Spanish, French, Italian, and soon Arabic and Portuguese). and it is free to download, print, update, or redistribute it.

The Wireless Networking in the Developing World book is just one part of the WNDW project. Community forums, training workshops, and additional material are also available on their website, http://wndw.net/.

via : Lunch over IP