Oxford twestival..

..is a great event, something I strongly believe in regardless of criticism. The second Oxford Twestival is happening tomorrow thanks to support of @amandafclark, @benwerd, @mapkyca, @ernmander and @girlterate; great Oxford artists and brilliant sponsors! It will be an awesome party, one of a kind - documented on-line but also in form of a book (ok, one page, since there is another 149 cities celebrating;)). So if you want to see us there tomorrow, support Oxfam in their efforts in Mali, get a present, network and have fun - get a ticket now!

As a reminder, here is why I personally get involved in it;)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vBsuDViOuk]

Thank you to all my friends and everyone else for support on this one!:) Hugs!

GV post - Poland: #KDT battle in Warsaw

Polish blogosphere had an interesting day today due to the conflict between shopkeepers of Kupiecki Dom Towarowy - a shopping complex in the center of Warsaw - and the police. Shopkeepers locked themselves in the complex, throwing stones and other items at police officers. In response, the police used gas and entered the building, arresting those who were inside. Today's events were a result of long-term negotiations between the city council planning to demolish the area where the shopping stands are located and the shopkeepers themselves.

Both Twitter and its Polish 'relative' Blip.pl are still buzzing with opinions hashtagged with #KDT now. However, during the day conversations where happening mainly on Blip.pl, feeding information constantly and updating readers on how the conflict was evolving. Blip.pl users shared news updates, videos and photos. While delivering information from the site of the 'battle' (this is how bloggers and the Polish media call it), users expressed their opinions on the event.

pksiazek:#kdt Do the police have some special training on how to cope with verbal abuse? I really admire them for just standing there peacefully.

mystiquee:#kdt [CD] who cannot be chased away since x years from the center of our capital. it's insane! they had hundreds of alternative solutions - but they just sat there and waited

Shulmeister: When nurses demonstrated in URM in 2007 the whole Poland supported them, including leaders. Today those spit on shop owners protecting their workplace.

Bloggers responded even during the events, sharing links to their posts on Blip.pl, like for instance wesolyterrorista, who wrote:

A skoro nie można wziąć ich głodem, to może sposobem? Odciąć prąd, wodę, otoczyć kordonem - i jedynie wypuszczać ludzi z KDT, nie wpuszczając nikogo do środka. Wreszcie się poddadzą...a za kilkudniową akcję policji i ochrony obarczyć kosztami kupców. Przecież takie sobiepaństwo i łamanie prawa "bo tak!" nie powinno być finansowane z naszych podatków...niestety, w sprawę zaangażowała się policja, a to oznacza, że każdy - od Szczecina po Rzeszów - płaci za tę szopkę.

And since we cannot take them with hunger, maybe we should trick them? Cut off electricity, water, surround them - and only let people out without letting anyone in. They will surrender in the end... and for the police involvement lasting few days let the shopkeepers pay. I mean, this anarchy and breaking the law 'just because!' should not be financed from out taxes... sadly, police has been involved, which means that each of us - from Szczecin to Rzeszów - is paying for this circus.

One of the main blog engines, blox.pl, aggregated posts on the events simply by proposing a contest for the best entry and sharing the results. One of the winners, spekulacje, posted updates on the developments of the day, positioning it as a farce. Another blogger, KOZMO1, using poetical, old-fashioned expressions wrote a short satirical entry on the typical Polish behaviour, finishing it with these words:

A tam puka? A to Polska właśnie.

And who's knocking! Poland herself!

Gladys_g was upset that the shopkeepers behaved irresponsibly by having a child with them:

Ci 'uczciwi kupcy' wykorzystują własne dzieci jako małe żywe tarcze, wystarczy najdrobniejsze skaleczenie malucha, a cała Polska usłyszy, że podły komornik (wykonujący zresztą swoja pracę) i policja (również w pracy) brutalnie pobili dziecko.

Ale co to dziecko w ogóle tam robi?

Szczerze mówiąc - rodzice tych dzieci powinni mieć postawione zarzuty narażania ich na niebezpieczeństwo.

Those 'honest' shopkeepers use their own children as living shields, only one little scratch inflicted on the kid and the whole Poland will hear that the repositioning people (who are doing their job) and the police (also working) brutally injured a child.But what is that child doing there at all?

Honestly - parents of those children should be taken to court for exposing them to danger.

City council published all the documents related to the case online, so the citizens could make their own judgment. And they do express their opinions on blogs, the microblogging platforms mentioned above, forums and Wykop - a link-aggregating site - and by posting photos. The discussion continues, slowly shifting to how the media presented the event, as well as on how the authorities, the presidentand the police responded.

This post has been originally written for and posted at Global Voices Online, here.

Social media ethics and web 2.0 for the cause during Barcamp UAE

I owe this write up mainly to the organsiers of the first Barcamp UAE and those who had to put up with Mrs Grumpiness on Saturday - just so they understand why I was so naughty;) Fist of all let me just say I am very impressed with the preparations for the event, I was following the process on-line and I think using tools like ScaleIdea worked perfectly. Great work@floatr, @pkgulati, @disruptiveplay!

Secondly I need to thank them for invite and making it possible for me to attend virtually (Ustream +Skype worked just fine!). I cannot stop but be amazed where we have come with technology. OK, I was a bit sleepy and felt awkward at the beginning but I actually got into the mood of talking to a great team in Dubai (from my living room!) and loved their spirit and great insights!

We talked about social media ethics and this moved into session on social media for the cause (both agendas available on SlideShare event) and I think I personally came out of the sessions with one clear conclusion - by looking at different aspects of transparency and its challenges (on-line, offline, personal, branded, global, Middle East based etc) I strongly believe - and agree with other speakers that effectivness of any social media initiative lies in the basic understanding of the media and mechanisms behind those. This can be applied to more compicated issues of freedom of expression too, and should be used by anone aiming to build up a social media strategy for a cause.

I enjoyed the two talks enourmously and I really regret I had to go to the Oxford Artweeks exhibition later.

You can see more impressions of the event here, and some Twitter buzz here.

I really hope to see second one soon;)

Global Voices Book Challenge - #gvbook09

I am shamelessly late with this one, because the challenge was planned for last week. However I do not want to keep it for myself due to my laziness last week. So, Global Voices team decided to prove to the world that the written word matters and read a piece of literature of a country each of us is not familiar with. It's easy to choose a book from a known cannon, but difficult to pick something we do not know. I needed to start somewhere, so as usual with me the title was a result of serious of coincidences. First I started reading about Middle East and social media in that area. I met few extremely interesting bloggers from the area and talked to them. Second step was the vimeo video on blogosphere in Iran, which I found fascinating. And thus I decided to read something from Iran. I just needed a tip - and Shelfari proved to be a good place to go. By choosing the country in the search I have arrived to the book I have so missed out on so far!

'Persepolis' by Marjane Satrapi is a story of a girl who travels between her native Iran and Europe in search for a good place to be. It's a struggle which is described in a black and white comic strip form which makes the messages all the stronger. I will not talk about the content, because everyone should read it themselves. I just want to point out how comfortable I feel living in the UK where all my basic human rights are so deeply rooted in society that I very often forget about the liberty of having them! Reading the book was difficult at the beginning  - I went to bed rethinking every single chapter and felt like I am slowly, very slowly stepping into the character's world. Later I managed to speed up and finish it off in one day, still with heavy heart. Only thanks to the film 'Persepolis' did I manage to let all the emotions go and finally cry! (for those who do not know me - good sign;))

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXHeKuBzPY]

Now I am reading more about Iran, and more and more about Middle East, but time to time still check the trailer and the book itself.

It definetly opened a new chapter of my life!

More posts on the challenge and other interesting reads here.

G20 - ask your question or how social media gives you a voice

London Summit is a huge event, which hopefully turns out to be crucial and highly beneficial to the global economic situation of our difficult times, but it also seems like an event for leaders, not us - ordinary people.OK, we can follow the detials of the Summit on its website, youtube or twitter. We can ever comment. But it's all quite a passive interaction.

I am extremely happy to see SpinVox and Moblog stepping in with social media solution to this challenge. Thanks to their common initiative called G20 Voice eveyone can direct their questions to the Summit attendees and see the leaders responses.

This initiative seems to be more social media savvy, so you can join them not only on YouTube and  Twitter, but also on Flickr and Facebook. If you want to get involved - check this link or simply post about it and tag it 'g20voice'.

I am so happy to see more and more insights on the event and all this due to the more common awareness of power of social media! If you want to get a clear picture of the event make sure you check as many opinions as possible and have your say!

Btw: More on the social media presence of the protesters  here.