In the past we’ve written about how many creative individuals have used the crowd-funding service Kickstarter to raise money for projects or start-ups. It has proven especially useful in Japan after the March 11 earthquake, particularly in helping with measurement of radiation (see Safecast and Smart Radiation Detector). Those projects were very much driven by a need to find out more information about the radiation threat in Tokyo. In the absence of reliable, easy-to-understand data people get scared. And the latest Kickstarter project from Japan is an attempt to visualize ...
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Sep 8 2011
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Beer Brand Offers Coolest Job in India: Went Viral On Facebook
Update: Mayank Agarwal, co-founder of Geek Creative Agency told me that they are the one who planned and ran the campaign. Sutra Lite was hired by them just to provide HR consultancy. The coolest job in India? You got it — “SABMiller is launching the Miller High Life beer in India and is looking for qualified individuals, who embody and endorse the spirit of the brand - Work Hard, Party Hard.” The job offer is being primarily spread across Facebook, where it was posted in July. I was told that ...
Sep 5 2011
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Mainichi App Preserves Newspaper Special Editions on the iPad
It’s always encouraging when we see modern technology being used to preserve important things from the past. A few months back we wrote about Japan’s Samurai Art application, which was used to present a 20 meter long scroll on the iPad. A new collaboration between Mainichi Shimbun and Excite Japan is doing something similar, presenting special editions of the newspaper from all the way back in the Meiji and Taisho eras. These ‘extras’ or Gogai include accounts of important historical events like the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War and the Great ...
Sep 2 2011
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What’s popular on Google+? Find out on Journal+
Journal+, a website that gathers popular posts from Google+, was released by User Local last week. It's a web magazine that brings together popular pictures, videos, and news articles on Google+ by various categories, or by country. Taking a quick look at Journal+, users can get a snapshot of what's most popular on Google+. The number of times a post has been reshared, and the amount of +1s it has received, are some of the factors that decide what is displayed on the site. There are more than 6.2 million posts ...
Aug 30 2011
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Microsoft Launches Piracy-Fighting Viral Marketing Campaign in Hong Kong
Microsoft is launching a viral web campaign today in Hong Kong that’s aimed at reducing software piracy. The spot centres around a short comedy/drama series called Dream Break, where input from viewers via social media will affect the course of the plot before it hits its pre-set finalé at the end of next month. The video series has a Microsoft homepage - take a look here - and its own official YouTube channel, and will engage with HKers via Facebook, Twitter, Sina Weibo, MSN Messenger, and email. It's run in Cantonese ...
Aug 29 2011
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Om nom nom! Squawk! Angry Birds Mooncakes Hit China
Last month we saw Rovio Mobile give a sneak peak of its next Angry Birds Seasons update, which will be themed around the upcoming Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, along with new China-oriented merchandise in the form of mooncakes. And now, for the first time, we get a closer look at these traditional Chinese culinary concoctions as they go on sale in China. You can grab a pair of bird-shaped mooncakes (pictured above) - with a pretty conventional savoury egg yolk and lotus paste centre - for just 98 RMB. That’s US$15 at ...
Aug 29 2011
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Eid Greetings Made Easy on Twitter With Ucap.in
On Christmas or on any other holiday, people love to send greetings to friends and family. It’s the same for Eid, a Muslim celebration, which is just two days away. But traditional greeting cards might be troublesome as most offices in Muslim countries are already closed a few days before Eid, and that includes post offices. Surely there must be some way that technology can solve this problem, right? That’s where Ucap comes in. The newly launched service is a Twitter app that allows people to easily send e-cards over popular ...
Aug 24 2011
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mTransport DIY, So You Won’t Get Lost in Yogya
As one of the most famous provinces in Indonesia, Yogyakarta's street is full of tourists and students. To help them get around, Yogya's Department of Transportation is providing a transport information app to mobile users for free. Partnering with app developer Gamatechno, it has created and is now presenting mTransport DIY for Android users. Before you jump to the conclusion that the DIY in this case means 'Do it yourself', we have to make it clear that it doesn’t. It actually means 'Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta' (Special Region Yogyakarta), which is the ...
Aug 19 2011
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Wowsai.com, Packed Full of Handicrafts, is China’s Etsy
China has a clone of the iconic American arts and crafts sales site Etsy - it’s Wowsai.com. With a similarly eclectic mix of handmade crafts, Wowsai is a small fish up against the blue whale that is Taobao. But of course, Wowsai has a whole different ethos to most e-commerce platforms. It’s about handicrafts, original design, and environmental mindedness. This start-up’s founder is Zhao Jing-wen (pictured below), who admits to having studied Etsy’s progress since the seminal ‘maker’ site first set up shop in 2005. In a profile and interview on Techweb, ...
Aug 19 2011
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BlankOn 7.0: Open Source OS Supports Indonesian Traditional Scripts
We have had several posts related to Indonesia Independence Day this week. There was the virtual flag raising movement using SMS and the #17an Twitter hashtag, the launching of a blog aggregator for Indonesians abroad, and the skinny on how the iPad played a role in the ceremony at Istana Merdeka. One thing we almost missed was the release of BlankOn Linux 7.0 Pattimura. This is the latest version of the open-source operating system, which first began development back in 2004. According to Rahman Yusri Aftian, release manager of BlankOn 7.0 Pattimura, the new version ...
Aug 19 2011
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Indonesian Muslim Boarding School Students Get Mobile Repair Training
Technology training is not limited to students at science or technology colleges. In Indonesia, Islamic boarding school students in Jakarta, Java, and Madura can also get the opportunity to learn mobile devices repair skills. The training is provided by Indonesian telco Telkomsel, after making an agreement with one of the county’s largest Muslim organizations Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). The organization will now provide entrepreneurship training to 50 representatives of NU-owned boarding schools in Indonesia. In this program, students are trained to repair mobile phones with proper equipment, a computer, and training manuals. ...
Aug 18 2011
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VIVAnews Offers iPad 2, More Prizes, In Blogging Competition
Want to win a free iPad 2 as a result of your blogging? One Indonesian site is making that offer. News portal VIVAnews.com has partnered with telco giant XL Axiata to run a blogging competition called GoVlog. After a simple registration, anyone can join the competition; your blog posts must be shared on Vlog, VIVAnews’ blog portal, to be eligible. The competition is divided into two categories: Ramadan, and general. Blog posts for either category need to be unique and funny for a chance to win. There’s a social media aspect ...
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