The first Wednesday of every month, contributor Amy Phillips will recap what made waves in blogging for the previous month.
Wikileaks If there was one theme this month, across the world, it was wikileaks. Both the site and its founder Julian Assange’s legal issues were the topics. Blogs continue to debate whether or not Assange is a political prisoner, a rapist, or a little of both. But perhaps the most interesting part of the whole issue is the collateral damage inflicted by the fallout and zealous shut-down of the wikileaks site. Wired is under intense fire for the way it is handling private chat logs with actual leaker- Pvt Manning. Do the private chats reveal that Adrian Lamo helped Manning? No one can say for sure. Other countries are dealing with the actual content of the cables and the unflattering picture they paint of their own government. In Pakistan, the United Stated appears to a silent puppet master pulling the string behind the scenes. In Sweden, there is a lot of talk over the leaked cables and what they mean for Sweden’s ties with the US government. The cables seem to indicate that Sweden took their marching orders from the United States when it came to the recent Pirate Bay Crackdown. Expect more posts about that in the future.
In Africa, all eyes have turned to Ivory Coast. A disputed election, a president who refuses to step down, and heightened military tensions have led to bloggers throughout the region taking to their blogs to protest a ‘stolen’ election.
In India, the premier issue of Elle magazine appeared, and superstar Aishwarya Rai graced its cover. But did the magazine alter the photo to lighten her skin? It’s not the first time magazines have altered ethnic beauty for their covers, but one wonders when they will realize such tactics never get past bloggers?
In tech, the news that Putin has ordered Russian government agencies to switch to open source operating systems has created a buzz. In the States, the news leaked that Yahoo would close down delicious, which they retraced to say they were going to sell the popular bookmarking site. Now news that the selling process is going very poorly has made Yahoo! Customers very nervous about its other products. Other sites are looking to capitalize on this uneasiness.
Best Viral Videos of December
But for most of us, Christmas was what we focused on in December. A spontaneous moment giving moment led to an outpouring of charity on this popular blog. The must have tech gift of the season appeared to be the Kinect, with the many hacks making news. In fact, there’s a whole site dedicated to its hacking. This great video of a so-called digital nativity was one of the better viral videos this month.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHNNPM7pJA&fs=1&hl=en_US]
The funniest video to go viral this month had nothing to do with Christmas though. BBC does a great send-up of the various fruit names of our gadgets.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI&fs=1&hl=en_US]
And what would December be without some end of year wrap-up posts. Here are some of my favorite; top infographics of 2010, most retweeted tweets (although number 5 was my favorite).
Check out top social media campaigns of the year, top shared web pages of 2010, and, my favorite, a mashup of the top 25 songs of year (according to Billboard).
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLA7JMPE_xU&fs=1&hl=en_US]