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Guido van Diepen

Guido van Diepen is a freelance journalist and cultural anthropologist specialized in new media. He did empirical research in Uganda on internet usage. He is interested in the effects of new media practices on culture, focusing on the idea that different cultures react differently to - and make different uses of - new media.

http://ohguido.wordpress.com
There is a snake in my computer!

There is a snake in my computer!

On friday april 17 I met with John, who had set up a few cybercafé’s and telecentres both in Uganda and Tanzania. He has a university degree in mechanical engineering, but as soon as he graduated he started focusing...
First impressions on ICT in Kampala

First impressions on ICT in Kampala

On the plane from Cairo to Kampala I met a young Ugandan guy of 19 years old who just flew back from a tennis match in Egypt. He was a real cosmopolitan; he had traveled already all over the...

Superdudes/Sugababes: Guilty or not guilty?

Superdudes.nl and Sugababes.nl, two related websites, together form one of the biggest social networking sites in the Netherlands. Almost 60% of all the youngsters between 13 and 18 have created a profile at least once. Superdudes, not very surprisingly,...

Twitter as Discourse

On a first encounter with twitter, one may understandably think: ‘what are these twittering twats tweeting about!’ The twats bother each other constantly with utterances too short to be meaningful. A common reply is: Just try it for yourself!...

Picnic 2008 report: Surprising Africa

Citizen journalism in Africa ‘Bring the world to Africa and bring Africa to the world.’ (Gisel Hiscock, talking at Surprising Africa) Hiscock, one of speakers at the Surprising Africa conference, held a lecture about Google’s interest in giving information-access...

Web-Kare Review

Last week a new sort of web 2.0 application was launched in Japan. Web-Kare (Web-Boyfriend) is a social networking site for Japanese girls, which allows the girls to date a virtual boyfriend. There are four cartoon boys to choose...

Review ‘Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good’

Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0 (Sarah Lacy) Sarah Lacey, columnist for BusinessWeek, thoroughly describes the stories of young entrepreneurs who created groundbreaking new websites like Facebook and...