Zambia: Mobile Phones to the Rescue

Satellite Communication equipment including phones have arrived in Zambia to help several thousand flood-affected people access aid in time.

Twenty-five Thuraya hand-held sets satellite phones and mobile Immarsat Global Area terminals or devices which offer voice, fax and data services will be given to identified officials or community leaders to help coordinate rescue and relief efforts.

Beijing Olympics could be the making of citizen journalism

An interesting piece from Journalism.co.uk on how the organizing committee has released a hefty guide to foreign journalists covering the Beijing Oylmpics, yet it has so far made no provision for the thousands of visitors - equipped with cameras and cameraphones - who will want to report events - sporting and non-sporting - on their blogs, or send images to citizen-journalism agencies.

"The sheer number of citizen journalists that could descend on Beijing - and with MMS and SMS platforms providing an alternative avenue of publishing - has led some to believe that controlling them could be beyond the notoriously long arms of China's media authorities.

"It's uncontrollable," said Kyle McRae, founder of Scoopt.com. "Partly because the technology is there, and partly because people want to do this. Fundamentally, with an internet connection people can send content; you can't control this information. They [Chinese authorities] will try but they won't succeed."

Despite a great wealth of participants, the Chinese blogging community is one of the most locked down in the world, forbidden from generating their own news or commentary, and supposed only to reproduce censor-approved material that has passed through China's state-controlled media.

Put your Camera Phone to good use by recording Criminal Activity and reporting it to the Police

Europeans are being encouraged to use their camera phones to capture photographs and videos of criminal activity, after which they can send it directly to a national police database.

In fact, Dutch technology consultancy Waleli has developed MMS-witness, a system which enables citizens to send photos or movies to a central police database as part of an emergency call.

Next-generation of phones shoot Web-ready video

Cell phones could once again revolutionize how journalists work, according to Kansan.com.

"Students in the School of Journalism at the University of Kansas are working with both design and business students to evaluate two new Nokia cell phones (N93, N73) that are capable of shooting, editing and uploading high-quality video on the fly.

The project will help define and advance the role of citizen journalism, the concept that any citizen can report news events... and identify ways to communicate the emerging trend of citizen journalism among college students.