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

Few weeks ago we went to Sangklaburi, a small city near the border with Myanmar on western Thailand, about 240 kilometers from Kanchanaburi. A perfect place for photography with friendly inhabitants, great landscape and a superb wooden bride.

More photos on my Flickr dedicated set.

svgallery=sanglaburi

Myanmar is now nearly cute off from the Internet (at least for public access), as it seems clear that authorities want to crack down the outgoing flow of information regarding ongoing events.

How ever, Myanmar's Telecom officials blame a damaged submarine cable for the Internet breakdown.  

Any idea which culprit they will point out regarding numerous smashed  cellphone and cameras ?

Source: AFP 

When I saw this list on Bruno Giussani's "Blog over IP" post about Internet prices in Europe I could not resist to add some prices for Internet broadband access in Asia.

I did not add prices paid in most countries of Pacific rim but what they pay in Sweden for a monthly  broadband connection is equivalent to what they pay per minute in Kiribati or Cook islands for a noisy dial-up 14.4 kbps.   

Price comparison for consumer broadband in Europe (average monthly price per 1Mbps, from The Telegraph/MoneySupermarket):

1. Sweden GBP 0.32 (EUR 0.48)
2. France GBP 0.83 (EUR 1.23)
3. Finland GBP 1.41
4. Italy GBP 1.71
5. Norway GBP 2.05
6. Holland GBP 2.19
7. Denmark GBP 2.50 (EUR 3.7)
8. Iceland GBP 2.54
9. Germany GBP 2.64 (EUR 3.9)
10. Austria GBP 3.04
11. Belgium GBP 3.40
12. UK GBP 5.60 (EUR 8.3)
13. Portugal GBP 5.84
14. Spain GBP 6.33
15. Poland GBP 6.60
16. Ireland GBP 7.02
17. Luxembourg GBP 9.39
18. Switzerland GBP 11.03 (EUR 16.8)
19. Czech Republic GBP 12.25
20. Greece GBP 16.86
21. Hungary GBP 24.48
22. Slovakia GBP 25.48 (EUR 37.8)
23. Turkey GBP 58.82 (EUR 87.3)

Spectacular differences. Some of the them can be explained by technical reasons (fiber optic vs copper wires etc), some by the overall living costs in a given country. Most of the high prices however are tied to lack of  competition and of innovation in a specific market.

On this part of the World, the gap is definitively lots wider:

1. South Korea KRW 300 (EUR 0.25)
2. Japan JPY 400 (EUR 0.51)
3. China CNY 175 (EUR 17)
4. Singapore SGD 43 (EUR 21)
5. Thailand (BKK) THB 952 (EUR 22.27)
6. Sri Lanka LKR 4500 (EUR 30)
7. Philippines PHP 1995 (EUR 32)
8. Australia AUD 53 (EUR 33.25)
9. Pakistan PKR  4800 (EUR  59)
10. Malaysia MYR 300 (EUR 65)
11. India INR 3600 (EUR 65)
12. Myanmar USD 260 (EUR 192)
13. Fiji FJD 560 (EUR 260)
14. Indonesia USD 2440 (EUR 1800)

nota: On prices above there is no details about the carrier (ADSL, Wireless Local Loop, Fiber, Wimax, etc..) nor specifications about monthly download limits which are usually ridiculous low for a xDSL subscriber (e.g 2 GB) and still applicable in most countries (particularly on the second part of the list).

Internet for everyone at an affordable price is still far from reality.