Article Archive for Year 2009
It has already become a tradition that in BarCamp-like events there is always someone from neweurasia, who represents the project. The forum “Digital Youth of Central Asia” is not an exception. Kyrgyz and Kazakh teams made a presentation about neweurasia and lobbied Tajik internet users to read and blog with neweurasia.
read previous posts from the event (1)
The forum “Digital Youth of Central Asia” is continuing. Participants are busy doing and attending different presentations. Participants from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan were very active in the beginning of the day and have already done their presentations on blogging, micro-blogging/video-blogging, PR and new media, and others.
Participants from Tajikistan are beginning their presentations. At the moment, we are in a big conference hall and an IT specialist from Dushanbe is presenting his software program that reads Tajik text, i.e. voices it. As he explains, his program is created not on “letter-reading” software, but on “syllable-reading” one.
At the moment, we have found and coded 3259 syllables that we found in 3800 pages of text… We have also discovered that 148 syllables make 75% of Tajik language, 418 syllables make 90% of the language, from 684 to 3259 syllables have only 5% share… This is also a very valuable data for linguists.
The program also reads texts in Russian, but with Tajik accent :)
The IT specialist also says that they have created a software program for tajik-russian and russian-tajik disctiories, and working on integration of voicing program with dictionaries.
Yet another BarCamp format event is taking place in Central Asia. Now, it is happening in a beautiful city Dushanbe, and is called “Digital Youth of Central Asia”.
The forum is organized by the Center for Information Communication Technologies, under support of the Tajik Branch of Open Society Institute/Assistance Foundation (OSI/AF-Tajikistan), the World Bank, and the last, but not the least, the Ministry of Education of Tajikistan.
The event is taking place at the Vefa business center in the heart of Dushanbe, and will last for two days – December 5-6. Participants are from different countries, but mainly from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and few people are from Uzbekistan. The main idea of the forum is to gather technically well-educated and active youth from different corners of Central Asia, and have them share ideas and experiences, create networks that will put the start for further mutual endeavors.
Majority of participants are from the host country. However, as the forum cannot host too many people, many Tajikistanis, especially those from remote regions, could not make it to the forum. Nevertheless, there is a live video-conference going on with three regional centers of Tajikistan – Hudjan, Kulyab and Kurgan Tyube.
It is 10:40 at the moment. The opening sessions of organizers is finished, and participants are out for a coffee-break. BarCamp format presentations will start at 11:00 and will take place in 4 different rooms. According to the time and presentations table, I feel the day is going to be interesting, as there are many terrific-sounding presentations and video conferences.
Stay with us! We will keep you updating about the process of the forum.
First photos:
Editor’s note: Translation of publicist‘s post (RUS). Read neweurasia’s earlier coverage on gender in Central Asia here.
It is common to hear that women’s rights are being violated. For example, both local statistics and those form international organizations show that women in Kazakhstan earn less than men working comparable jobs.
What if everything is reversed? Would it be fair if women had greater advantages than men in gaining employment?
Respond to this question by taking part in our survey. <– (Click here!) or leave a comment below.
In November 28-29, Kyrgyzstan team of neweurasia, Tolkun Umaraliev and Mirsulzhan Namazaliev, held two-day trainings on new media and citizen journalism in the remotest regional center of Kyrgyzstan – in Batken region, which is famous for hosting enclaves of and sharing border with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Neweurasia’s trainings were the first new media and citizen journalism trainings ever held in Batken region.
As Batken region is one of the technically underdeveloped regions of Kyrgyzstan, it would have been difficult to organize new media and citizen journalism trainings from Bishkek, where the Kyrgyzstan team of neweurasia is based. Therefore, it was decided to collaborate with Batken Media Resource Center (BMRC) that closely works with local government, local NGOs and journalists. As people in Batken do not have regular internet access, BMRC used its networks in disseminating information about the trainings among local NGOs, journalists and government officials. As a result, there were many applications. We have selected 15 best applications, and except one, all of them attended the trainings. Read the full story »
Translation of mursya’s post (RUS)
Alma-ata – “the father of apples” (Kaz.).
With the arrival of “big money,” apples have disappeared in the city whose name is “the father of apples.” Apple orchards, which used to protect the city from mudslides and avalanches, and strengthened the mountainous terrain, begun to disappear. In their place came two- to four-story mansions. Expensive houses, individually designed, decorated – almost like little castles. A few years later, these gems of modern architecture began to slip, along with the soil, down the slopes, forming a huge lump together with the neighboring houses and encroaching on the city. The result: no apples for ordinary people, and no mansions for the powerful.
Translation of Adam’s post (RUS)
Kazakhstan’s bloggers continue to monitor the state’s traditionally non-transparent politics and comment on the news. Among their concerns is the government’s announcement that due to the economic crisis, wage increases for state employees, pensioners and students on stipend, scheduled for the beginning of 2010, would have to be postponed for six months. However, these difficulties will not affect the country’s new capital, which President Nazarbaev considers his personal project.
Translation of Adam’s post (RUS)
Bloggers continue to share their opinions on current events, from questions of government and regional development in the republic, to musings on the interrelatedness between social behavior and consumer priorities.
Translation of publicist’s post (RUS).
For the second year in a row now, the economic crisis has been devaluating real wages. According to mojazarplata.kz, this is the conclusion of experts on international labor, who prepared the “2009 Global Wage Report.”
The International Labor Organization (ILO) report describes the causes of devaluation and predicts future developments in the sphere of labor. The ILO Administrative Council met from November 5-20 in Geneva to discuss it, as well as the Global Employment Pact.
The European Union must do some difficult soul-searching. Photograph from a 2008 performance of William Shakespeare's Hamlet starring David Tennat.
Editor’s note: “To engage or not to engage — that is the question,” or so might have Hamlet said if he were a Western diplomat in Ashgabad. neweurasia’s Annasoltan explores the Nabucco Project in this new post-series, this time with a view to the West’s oft-unspoken geo-strategic concerns.
Hamlet, perhaps the greatest creation of the English playwright William Shakespeare, famously asked himself, “To be or not to be?” Well, it seems the question this Autumn for the West is, “To engage or not to engage?”
neweurasia‘s Schwartz, Pravdin, and Musafirbek have all meditated on the “to engage or not to engage?” question as it relates to Uzbekistan. In my last post I explored how this question relates to Turkmenistan and the ongoing Nabucco Project. Today, I look under the EU’s strange logic at some cold hard geo-strategic calculations being made by the West.
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