Moebius StreetView...

After almost a year of privacy discussions and technical adjustments, Google just introduced it's famous "StreetView" service in Germany - currently, there are images available of the 20 biggest cities. We can even witness StreetView "in the making".

Many people have reasonable concerns about privacy and the public visibility (potentially also private) content. As a result, Google -besides the usual blurring of faces and license plates- now also blurs houses on an opt-out-basis.

I personally don't feel like adding anything new to the discussion (if you want to learn about my opinion on Google services in general, please check this article) - but want to share a nice shot with you, allowing us to look into the making of StreetView-images. Many of you might have seen them circling the streets starting about 2 years ago: the StreetView-Cars. Well, here's one on StreetView, you can even see the driver greeting his colleague. Overestimating the relevance of the service in general, one could say "It's history in the making".

Or just the interdimensional 'reflection' of the car (as in some kind of Moebius-strip)?

Enjoy:

Größere Kartenansicht

Absence

Since the end of June, a lot of effort went into the realisation of a new DW-AKADEMIE Blog about the current projects in Laos. This also explains my absence here during past weeks.

Of course I will try to comment on the development of and the ideas behind the blog and everything connected as soon as possible. Until then, I'd like to refer you to "Supporting Media Development in Laos", where I just recently published Team Asia's DW-GMF09 Symposium Presentation Draft:

Country Profiles on Delicious

These days I am compiling data for Country-Profiles (Bhurma, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Viet Nam) for Deutsche Welle-Akademie, Team Asia.

To keep track of the online-sources I use, I registered with 'delicious' (one of the most popular social-bookmarking services) and created a public profile.
If you are interested in worldwide (plus regional - S-E-Asia - in particular) statistics on People, Geography, Economy, Culture, Politics, Development Cooperation and especially Media-Development, feel free to visit

My delicious Bookmarks

You do share bookmarks yourself? You think, I might be interested? Go ahead and write an email or comment. Thank you in advance.

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Series: Web 2.0 - part 1: Browsing

First of all, to surf the internet and to make use of the different services, you need a browser. But nowadays, browsers are more than just html-translators, they come together with build-in or additional features such as mail-clients, feed-readers, pop-up-blockers and so on.

Basically, there are three major browsers in use today: Microsoft Internet-Explorer (IE), Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari. There are others like Opera, Google Chrome and lots more - each with advantages and disadvantages. Rather than introducing all the different solutions, I'd like to tell you about what I use and why.

Nowadays I am using Firefox with several plugins (commented on below), but have also been using Opera for a long time. I do not make much use of IE, although Microsoft finally managed to introduce "tabbed browsing" and more. I do not use Safari as I do not use a Mac (nowadays, Safari is also available for PC).

Just one more thing about not using IE. As it still is the most popular browser in the world, it is also the most popular target of malware and hacker-attacks. That's why I recommend to use a less popular browser with at least the same features. This would lead you to Opera or Firefox, whereas Firefox's growing popularity makes it potentially less secure.

First of all, I was very happy with using Opera, as it really is a fast browser with very nice onboard-features. For example, it uses mouse-gestures, smoothly supports very intuitive drag-and-drop-features and comes together with a build-in mail-client capable of pop3, smtp, imap and more. In fact, this mail-feature is what made me switch to firefox, as I only use webmail-services and do not want to generally download emails (and potential malware). I will give information on mailing later on.

Now Firefox 3.0.3: When using Firefox for the first time, you might want to regret your decision as it doesn't look as nice and polished as other browsers. But don't turn away - there are lots of interesting plug-ins to check. Of course, each plug-in slows down the browser and your system, so only install the plugins you really want to use.

12 recommended Firefox plug-ins
(Let me stress that these are just my personal preferences. I linked the plug-in's HPs, but can not guarantee functionality. Please backup your files before using them anyhow. Some plug-ins might cause incompatibilities. All the following work together just fine on my system though.)

A. Security
1. "NoScript" - a very powerful and reliable script-blocker with easy to understand behaviour. Makes it possible to generally block all scripts; allow specific/all scripts for certain domains (using a "whitelist"). Configureable via button or context-menue. Why? Often there's no need to run all (possibly harmful) scripts to make use of a service.
2. "Cookie Whitelist with buttons" - adds two buttons to easily access cookie-permissions and firefox's own whitelist. It is also possible to temporarily allow cookies for certain domains. Why? Apart from identification and session-control (i.e. webmail, ebay, amazon), there is no reason to allow cookies.
3. "Ref-Control" - allows you to decide whether or not to send your actual "referrer", or even set up a fake referrer for all/certain sites. Why? Apart from authentication, there is no reason to give away information about your browsing-habits.

B. Comfort
4. "All-In-One-Gestures" - gives you acces to almost all functions via "mouse gestures". Why? Allows me to keep eyes focussed on content rather than looking for the right button. I only use "open new tab", "close this tab", "close all other tabs", "delete this site's cookies" and "switch to fullscreen-mode" - balancing speed and overview.
5. "Easy Drag-To-Go" - enables Opera-like "Drag-and-Drop"-support. Why? I can now grab any content (like links, images, etc.) and drop it wherever I like, i.e. a new tab or the desktop. For example, this feature makes it easy to open several search-results in seperate tabs in the backgound without leaving the actual result-page-tab.
6. "SearchBox Companion" - this adds a search-and-highlight-button right next to firefox's build-in search-bar (i very much recommend to use the searchbar and to add more engines to it!). Why? This one is really fantastic. Searching something with -let's say- Google and then switching to the page linked in your results, you might find it difficult to identify your querie there; or you might simply want to search a page for a certain term. Just enter the searchterm and hit the SearchBox Companion-button. It will highlight all results!
7. "Plain Text To Link (PTTL)" - allows you to paste any highlighted text within any website to the address-field via context-menue. Why? This makes it much easier to follow information through the web (as sometimes there are adresses without hyperlinks). You don't have to first copy, then open a new tab, paste and hit the go-button anymore. PTTL does all that for you.

C. Customization
8. "All-In-One-Sidebar" - adds a sidebar to your browser within which you can access your bookmarks, downloads, add-ons, etc. quite quickly. Why? I got used to a sidebar when using Opera and didn't want to miss it afterwards. You don't really need it...
9. "TabMix Plus" - Gives you more control over hidden customization-features of Firefox. Why? I just like to give the browser the appropriate look-and-feel.
10. Themes - there is a broad variety of themes making it possible to completely change the design of the browser. Depending on the theme, you get different colours, backgrounds and buttons. But be careful: some themes might be incompatible with certain plug-ins. I am using "Chromifox Basic" as it gives you a smooth design with accurately sized buttons and is compatible to all mentioned plug-ins.

D. Communication and Liaison
11. "E-Mail this!" - adds a button and a context-menue-entry which sends any marked text in any website to an eMail-Program or even to certain webmail-accounts (Y-Mail, G-Mail, MSN) Why? Whenever there is information I'd like to share, this one just makes it very easy.
12. "Google Gears" - gives you the possibility to synchronize some Google-Services and to use them within the browser even when not connected to the internet. Why? As I use several G-Services on a daily basis, I like to access them offline i.e. when travelling with my laptop. (I will comment on some of these features in the future. Until then you might want to check my opinion on Google)

So far for now. Hope you like my recommendations. Check out the upcoming posts and feel free to comment anytime. Up next: Part 2 - Mailing


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InWent Länderprofile mit neuem Auftritt

InWent (Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung) hat den Webauftritt der Länderprofile gänzlich neu gestaltet und nun verfügbar gemacht. Als verlässliche Quelle für Länderinformationen sehr empfehlenswert. Die Autoren entwickeln den Service laufend weiter und freuen sich über Feedback.

InWent LIPortal

"Beim LIPortal handelt es sich um eine öffentlich zugängliche Wissensressource mit dem Fokus auf länderspezifische Informationen mit entwicklungspolitischer Relevanz. Die Länderbeiträge bieten einen optimalen Einstieg in ein breites Themenspektrum.

Dieses Portal hat den Anspruch allen interessierten Usern eine vertrauenswürdige und verlässliche Wissensressource auf dem Gebiet der Länderinformation zu bieten. Das LIPortal mit seinen einführenden Texten steht dem Besucher als helfende Hand zur Seite. In jeweils fünf Kapiteln bietet es jedem Nutzer verständliche Texte, um sich nach seinen individuellen Bedürfnissen ein fundiertes, länderspezifisches Wissen anzueignen. Jeder Beitrag enthält eine Vielzahl von multimedialen Elementen und weiterführenden Verweisen. Die im Fließtext integrierten Links ermöglichen es dem Nutzer sich vertiefend mit bestimmten Themenbereichen auseinanderzusetzen.

Eine weitere wertvolle Komponente sind die Landesblogs. Dort können registrierte Nutzer Beiträge schreiben, um Ihr subjektives Erleben des jeweiligen Landes mit anderen zu teilen. Im Blog können Fragen gestellt, beantwortet und Beiträge kommentiert werden. Damit wird ein Austausch der User untereinander gefördert."

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Development agencies and NGO around Bonn

I am putting together some links to agencies and NGO in and around Bonn, hometown of my alma mater and one of Germany's hotspots for development cooperation issues.

(Note: some data may only be available in German language)

Adheri-Hilfe Bonn e.V.

BENGO (Beratungsstelle für entwicklungspolitische NGO)

BMZ (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung)

CARE Deutschland

DED (Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst)

DIE (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik)

Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission

Deutsche Welle Akademie

EED (Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst)

Germanwatch e.V.

GTZ Bonn Office (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit)

inwent (Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung)

Don Bosco Jugend Dritte Welt e.V.

Justitia et Pax e.V.

LAZ e.V. (Lateinamerika Zentrum)

SID (Society for International Development)

SEF (Stiftung Entwicklung und Frieden)

SES (Senior Experten Service)

Tansfair e.V.

UN-Campus (via bonn.de)

Welthungerhilfe

VENRO (Verband entwicklungspolitischer NRO)

ZEF / ZEFConsult (Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung)

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