The Monrovian Analog Blogger

An anonymous reader writes "Motherboard.TV reports, 'In Monrovia, Liberia, there’s a guy taking the matter of a lopsided, state-run media and reshaping it into a free-of-charge, independent news-aggregator—all accomplished with dry-erase board and couple markers. (Sorry, internet!) Each morning, at 10:45 AM, Alfred Sirleaf wakes up and heads down to his bulletin board to post the day’s news, culling together a slate of stories his countrymen might otherwise never see. Grateful readers line up in droves, on foot and in cars, to read these updates, in what has been described as the country's — and probably the world's — only analog blog.'"

Comments

Not for long...

[nhytefall]

He'll probably be properly "censored" soon. Can't have the state lose control of the media...

Seriously though... props to him for taking a stand!

Re:Not for long...

[Kr4u53]

How long til somebody brings an eraser?

Re:Not for long...

[palegray.net]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Censored as in "made famous on the back of a milk carton" ...

Re:Not for long...

[cjfs]

He'll probably be properly "censored" soon.

He was arrested before and went into exile for a while as well. He's been at this for several years.

Re:Not for long...

[stinkbomb]

He'll probably be properly "censored" soon. Can't have the state lose control of the media...

OK, pet peeve; why the hell is censored in quotes?

Re:Not for long...

[ccandreva]

Probably because it was being used to mean kidnapped or killed.

Analog Blog

[coaxial]

Yeah, because newspapers, diaries, and broadsheets have never existed before.

Re:Analog Blog

[Darinbob]

You mean printed blogs?

Re:Analog Blog

[Ironchew]

Yeah, but the new addition of dry erase markers must modulate voltage levels into something useful, somehow...
Analog electronics are at work somewhere in this high-tech device!

Re:Analog Blog

[commodore64_love]

>>>Yeah, because newspapers, diaries, and broadsheets have never existed before.

Not just newspapers, but the idea of posting news stories on a public bulletin board dates all the way back to New York City in the 1890s..... or even earlier. People would stand outside Wall Street or store windows, and read the headlines scrawled across chalkboards. It ain't something new.

Re:Analog Blog

[khakipuce]

I was struck by the question is this an "analogue of a blog" or a "blog created in an analogue manner"? The former I suppose I am ok with but if the latter, I would like to point out that analogue is NOT somehow the "opposite" of digital.

Re:Analog Blog

[Entrope]

Right, analogue is the opposite of digitalis!

More seriously, if you read the fine summary, you'd have the answer to your question. Your lame attempt at irrelevant pedantry betrays a more fundamental refusal to think or investigate what you're talking about. Do you complain that a "hot dog" is simply a canine with elevated temperature, and should not be used to name a kind of sausage? For this kind of discourse, "analog" is shorthand for computer-free and "digital" is shorthand for computer-based.

Re:Analog Blog

[IndustrialComplex]

Not just newspapers, but the idea of posting news stories on a public bulletin board dates all the way back to New York City in the 1890s..... or even earlier. People would stand outside Wall Street or store windows, and read the headlines scrawled across chalkboards. It ain't something new.

I'll go with even earlier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ninety-Five_Theses

I'm pretty sure that everywhere there was a post near a town square, there has been an analog blog. Hell, isn't that where we get the term 'Post' from?

Even without that, there was always the town crier.

Re:Analog Blog

[Anonymous Coward]

I was about to say the same thing. Before and while there were the boards there were also city criers. Guys that would stand in the middle of town and yell the news at you!

Re:Analog Blog

[razvan784]

Analog means that a voltage or current is analogous to another physical quantity, therefore the term analog computer (google it). For instance the voltage in a circuit is analogous to the pressure in your voice -- hence analog recording and processing. It can also be applied for non-electrical parameters -- the depth/width of the groove in a vinyl record for instance. You can also build pneumatic PID industrial process controllers -- they used to have those some decades ago -- those are analog machines, though not electronic. Of course you could also sigma-delta modulate the voice and record it as a stream of pulses -- it's still analog, the pulse density is the analog of the voice pressure. Once you throw in a clock and convert the pulse stream into multi-bit words and add and shift them in a FIR filter, then you're digital. Yes, you can say that analog is the oposite of digital, since there are no other means of processing and storing information that exist yet (or that I know of at least).

Same thing, different name

[Anonymous Coward]

Just another case of "blog" being used to describe something that people have been doing for ages. And now it's suddenly all great and shiny.

Re:Same thing, different name

[physicsphairy]

I don't think people have been using the internet to aggregate information for display on public chalkboards "for ages."

And the point is not that this is some ingenious invention to rock civilization. The point is that you have this phase boundary of (technology and free information) against (poverty and state oppression) and this guy is using his postboard to create a bridge which lets information flow across the boundary.

It is actually a fair bit more significant than, for example, having some cool new feature designed for your next gen phone.

Re:Same thing, different name

[atheistmonk]

I'm not fond of the term "analogue blog" for these reasons. I prefer to call it legacy blogging.

Re:Same thing, different name

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Don't be a party pooper and join the web two-oh revolution. Nowadays, you hear people say snail-mail to make sure people understand it's the pen-and-paper version, biological virus to differentiate between a case of the flu and a piece of malware, or sneakernets to refer to swapping floppies (well, usb keys I guess these days).

Technologies change all the time, and those who bathe in it every day end up having skewed ways of looking at the non-tech world. Case in point, my colleague, who's a lathe/mill operator and a fitter, has a wife who recently had a baby. He asked me (in his own words) if I knew whether women who have had a baby got "freeplay" (apparently because sex has gottten a lot looser for him after the birth of his son). Honestly, he just didn't think of another term to use. That's what came to his mind naturally.

Re:Same thing, different name

[mwvdlee]

Well, if you watch the video and actually try and read some of what is on the blackboard, you'll see it's just somebodies opinionated, baseless and highly speculative interpretation of the news filled with misinformation and twisting of facts. So yeah, it IS just like a blog. Then again, calling it "Fox" would have been more accurate.

Re:Same thing, different name

[pseudonomous]

If it's not a "web log", isn't it just a "log"?

Re:Same thing, different name

[Anonymous Coward]

calling it "Slashdot" would have been more accurate

Re:Same thing, different name

[Anonymous Coward]

calling it "Slashdot" would have been more accurate

Calling it "journalism" would have been most accurate.

Re:Same thing, different name

[xSauronx]

its a fun term, but not as fun as "bob loblaw's law blog"

Bob Loblaw's Law Blog

Re:Same thing, different name

[commodore64_love]

>>>I don't think people have been using the internet to aggregate information for display on public chalkboards "for ages."

No instead they used the wire services and chalkboards. If you time-traveled to New York City in the 1890s, especially around the central business district, you'd see public chalkboards everywhere, constantly updated with the latest news. Same thing.

Re:Same thing, different name

[BrokenHalo]

I'm not fond of the term "analogue blog"

Indeed. Since the guy uses his fingers to write it, the blog is truly "digital".

Re:Same thing, different name

[BrokenHalo]

if I knew whether women who have had a baby got "freeplay"...

That, sir, is truly funny. A perfectly good mechanical engineering term applied in a gynaecological context. :-D

J.D. Hogg

Re:Same thing, different name

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not fond of the term "analogue blog" for these reasons. I prefer to call it legacy blogging.

Not only that, but doesn't the "b" in blog come from "web", as in "weblog"? So a blog, by definition, is on the web. Therefore an analogue blog could only exist on an analogue web. I don't see no web in this story.

Re:Same thing, different name

[SleazyRidr]

Well, it is a blog analogue.

Re:Same thing, different name

[The-Bus]

Just use the term analblog.

Wait...

Re:Same thing, different name

[noidentity]

If it's not a "web log", isn't it just a "log"?

Yeah, but when you call it a log (or bulletin board) it's not hip anymore. Sort of like the recent article about vishing, which I gather is a scam carried out over a phone that happens to use VoIP for its connection. Now, I need to tweet my instant message to the usenet message board shared web log discussion thingy.

Re:Same thing, different name

[Anonymous Coward]

Web of lies and errors?

Re:Same thing, different name

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh man your so retro mannnnn... it's blogging mannnnnnnnn
your so totally squaaaareee mannnn

is commenting allowed?

[Anonymous Coward]

wait til gnaa hears about this.

Re:is commenting allowed?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Quite frankly, I'd love to see trolls try to get first post on the guy's whiteboard...

Re:is commenting allowed?

[Suhas]

Quite frankly, I'd love to see trolls try to get first post on the guy's whiteboard...

He is using chalk to write on a blackboard you racist prick. Just because the guy is black you assume he should be writing on a whiteboard?
;-)

Re:is commenting allowed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah but stand back at least 50 yards in case someone does a tubgirl redirect on his whiteboard.

Re:is commenting allowed?

[martas]

wait, so he's covering the blackness of the board, turning it white instead? sorry, but i think he's the one who's racist...

Re:is commenting allowed?

[Hurricane78]

Bah. GNAA is SO out! These guys on the other hand, are all the craze right now.

You could even say...

[Anonymous Coward]

it's a blog analogue! ...
Thanks, I'll be here all night.

Re:You could even say...

[Concerned Onlooker]

Anablog, perhaps?

Re:You could even say...

[Anonymous Coward]

blogalog?

Re:You could even say...

[M8e]

Analog, or maybe Analoglog or Anallog

There is no weB in this log.

Yes, there is some poop puns here... anal log.

Re:You could even say...

[Anonymous Coward]

At least you didn't say Analblog.

Completely Utterly Stupid Premise "analog blog"

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean stuff existed before the internet? I don't believe it!
Did anyone involved with getting this article to the front page ever hear about a signboard or noticeboard?! You find them in clubs, townhalls, courts, schools, universities...
Fucking morons... get off my lawn, or perhaps it now called "organic carpet".

Re:Completely Utterly Stupid Premise "analog blog"

[game kid]

"organic carpet"? Keep up, man!

It's a Rich Self-replicating Content Distribution Network (rsCDN(tm)). It complements outdoor architectures, beautifies connected ecosystems, and synergizes with the real world. Periodic maintenance ensures minimal use of vertical resources!

Re:Completely Utterly Stupid Premise "analog blog"

[PhilHibbs]

My mum was a schoolteacher, and some trendy young adviser came round to give a presentation on this new "multimedia" thing, and my mum's answer was "Oh, you mean just like Audio-Visual Tools? I've been doing that for thirty years."

Its okay

[angry.compiler]

I love this idea. It's straight-up. I used to use a white-board to schedule development for the team for the day. This is even better. I love it!!

what a great idea!

[SuperBanana]

He could take a picture of the board and then duplicate it onto paper. News, on pieces of paper! That way they can take the news with them to read it at home, on the train...they can share it with their family and friends. Avoid the crowds of people standing around all trying to read the same board.

Some people might like to receive the news on pieces of paper at their home for convenience's sake. He could offer a pricing model whereby they commit to a certain number of months- and it could be called a subscription.

Of course, eventually, someone will point out that he could communicate the news faster and cheaper to his subscribers if he did it electronically. He'll probably have to wait until the technology matures, though.

Re:what a great idea!

[angry.compiler]

People steal copper wire in Africa, my friend. It's not that simple... Having said that, why not invent a timekeeper that you can put in your pocket? Oh... It's called a watch.

Re:what a great idea!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well what he does is read the morning newspaper and summarize the top stories and so on and puts it up for those who can't afford newspapers or other forms of media.

He's more along the lines of a filter for the news or a free distributor.

You could probably call him a thief if you're really up in arms about copyright. He's not going out and finding the news himself, he's taking it from actual newspapers, infringing on their copyrights. Bit of a dick move, but you could.

Also, was he short or was it just the suit, which may add a sense of professionalism but also stands out quite a bit. But yeah, the video makes him seem pretty short.

Re:what a great idea!

[cjfs]

Some people might like to receive the news on pieces of paper at their home for convenience's sake. He could offer a pricing model whereby they commit to a certain number of months- and it could be called a subscription.

He explains in the video that most of his readers couldn't afford that.

Re:what a great idea!

[Paradyme]

While the joke was appreciated, he did mention that many of the people there that use his service are the ones too poor to pay for newspapers. That was the original reason why he decided to go with this. There are places where people actually cannot afford the paper that the news would be printed on.

Re:what a great idea!

[Anonymous Coward]

People steal copper wire in Africa? No! And I thought this was a problem only here in England.

Re:what a great idea!

[danzvash]

I presume that, behind the smug hilarity of your post, you understand (even to some very limited extent) what conditions are like in countries like Liberia, and thus why things like newspapers and trains are not viable options for the majority.

Or perhaps you hadn't actually heard of Liberia, and didn't in fact give a shit anyway. Perhaps you just wanted to make a comment that would fill you with a sense of self-satisfaction. Aren't you all big and clever now?

Seriously, it makes me sad that such a smug "joke" could be marked as insightful. WTF, Slashdot? Please, SuperTwatBanana, just sit in your own self-satisfied corner of the world and keep your cretinous fucking thoughts to yourself. Or maybe try travelling the world a bit and see what life is like in other places before unleashing that rapier-like wit of yours again.

Re:what a great idea!

[selven]

The point is to reach the people who aren't already reading the internet because they can't pony up the money for a connection.

Re:what a great idea!

[Sulphur]

If you put the ground wire on top, then passing clouds induce voltage on it. Also it is harder to steal.

Re:what a great idea!

[BrokenHalo]

You could probably call him a thief if you're really up in arms about copyright. He's not going out and finding the news himself, he's taking it from actual newspapers, infringing on their copyrights. Bit of a dick move, but you could.

It isn't an infringement of copyright (and certainly not theft) to write a precis of published content. Otherwise every literature reviewer on the planet could be pinged for the same offence.

linux viewer

[Anonymous Coward]

@3:21!

whooooooooosh

[SuperBanana]

Hear that? That's the sound of a joke, going right over your head.

Re:whooooooooosh

[Anonymous Coward]

Jokes are supposed to be funny. Go back to digg.

Re:whooooooooosh

[cjfs]

Hear that? That's the sound of a joke, going right over your head.

The only joke here is that your post was modded insightful.

Re:whooooooooosh

[Anonymous Coward]

Last time I checked "making fun of people who cannot afford even basic things that are outdated for us" was not particularly funny.

Loose definition of morning

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Each morning, at 10:45 AM, Alfred Sirleaf wakes up

That's the kind of job I want.

Re:Loose definition of morning

[Krneki]

Each morning, at 10:45 AM, Alfred Sirleaf wakes up

That's the kind of job I want.

Go to Africa.

Re:Loose definition of morning

[cerberusss]

Each morning, at 10:45 AM, Alfred Sirleaf wakes up

That's the kind of job I want.

I think that is too early to be healthy. This guy is a hard worker. I usually wake up at the crack of noon.

BB(S)

[cybereal]

So apparently Slashdot is sooo out of touch they have forgotten why the word "Bulletin" precedes the word "Board" for a bazillion years before now? They never heard of a marquee?

Besides, wouldn't every single printed op-ed page in every newsPAPER be an "analog blog?"

I mean really posting news isn't even blogging, because blog is short for weblog, not webnewscaster.

Re:BB(S)

[glwtta]

I mean really posting news isn't even blogging, because blog is short for weblog, not webnewscaster.

I agreed. The obvious name for what he is doing is Analog Twitter.

(ok, that made me hate myself)

Re:BB(S)

[wisdom_brewing]

No, That would be Tourette Syndrome...

Awesome and Scary

[DavidD_CA]

This is both awesome and scary at the same time.

Awesome because he's bringing news to the masses, in a way that they can afford it and understand it.

Scary because he is selecting the news they get to read, and translating it first. That means he's able to put his spin on what his readers read.

For all we know, he could be an employee of Fox News.

Re:Awesome and Scary

[mpoulton]

For all we know, he could be an employee of Fox News.

Did you watch the video? I think he is. He sure likes to emphasize that the UN is the devil!

Re:Awesome and Scary

[wizardforce]

All news has a certain degree of "spin" to it. It's always the readers' job to challenge what they read and thus think for themselves.

Re:Awesome and Scary

[firefarter]

Erm. Could it be that pretty much every media outlet does that? It's not like all the news sites pipe out AP feeds verbatim.

Re:Awesome and Scary

[Comboman]

While he certainly must summarize news stories to fit on his board, he doesn't need to translate. The official language of Liberia (founded by liberated American slaves) is English.

Re:Awesome and Scary

[Attila Dimedici]

Erm. Could it be that pretty much every media outlet does that? It's not like all the news sites pipe out AP feeds verbatim.

Have you read the AP feeds? The AP does it as well.

Re:Awesome and Scary

[Anonymous Coward]

So, he's American then?

Viral ad campaign

[Anonymous Coward]

This is blatantly not true - part of a viral ad campaign..

Tux invasion

[JReykdal]

Did you catch Tux @ 3:21 :)

Re:Tux invasion

[electrons_are_brave]

A high proportion of clothing in developing countries is second hand clothing from the west. So it's likely that the guys got no idea what it is that he's wearing. Apparently the second hand clothing trade creates employment but does undermine local textile industies. People like the cloths because they are cheap and they appeal to some more than the traditional garb. Oxfam did a report (although it doesn't mention Liberia): http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/trade/downloads/research_shc.pdf

Notingh new here, move along...

[ctrl-alt-canc]

Here we had this before, but I suppose that similar examples can be found also in the ancient Greece.

/. effect

[Atreide]

what will it be when a news gets the liberia slashdot effect ?

Taking freedom of speech for granted..

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank goodness he can't have comments, look at the inspiring material /. has to offer in response to one man's struggle against a state-controlled media. They used the term analog blog because he's not printing a paper or taking the news to anyone, he's putting it all up on a blackboard and people are coming from miles around to see it. And we the people of the internet have nothing better to do with our lives than pick apart the semantics of the news report and mock it because it's been done for a long time. No, it's not some incredible new technology, but it is something incredible that deserves admiration, not your smug, sarcastic leering.

Re:Taking freedom of speech for granted..

[Tarsir]

To be fair, pointing out that it's stupid to call it an analog blog is not a criticism of the Monrovian guy, it's a criticism of the bloggers who saw a noticeboard, and called it an analog blog. And it's a perfectly valid point. It's much like seeing Firefox, and exclaiming that Mozilla has copied IE's innovation of tabbed browsing. The causality is backwards, and displays cringe-worthy ignorance of the history of the subject matter.

3:21 ftw

[dvh.tosomja]

Did anyone else noticed that Linux nerd at 3:21? Behold Microsoft, they are everywhere, and they are spreading.

Re:3:21 ftw

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure if you are joking, but I don't think he bought the shirt at "The Linux Emporium", nor that he got it at a Debian install party. He probably got the shirt through a clothing recycling program. This might in fact indicate that the population of linux nerds is shrinking, not spreading; the original owner might have fallen from their GNU faith. ;)

Re:3:21 ftw

[c6gunner]

I don't think that Microsoft is worried about the "too-poor-to-buy-a-newspaper" market segment.

Stop making this trite!

[firefarter]

I know the tone on slashdot is more on the humorous side, but seriously, stop belittling this.

After the war, Liberia had no functioning utilities for over 14 years - no sewage system, no water, no electricity, no telephone. Nowhere - not even in the capital!
Without painting a stereotype, Liberians aren't exactly known for their entrepreneurship. This man should really be applauded for what he is pulling up despite difficulties.

Re:Stop making this trite!

[Anonymous Coward]

We're not belittling it specifically, we just think whomever came up with "analog blog" needs to go out into the real world once in a while.

Re:Stop making this trite!

[Lord Ender]

In India, many (most?) people in the cities don't have sanitation, either. And they don't have a war to blame--just a pathetic government.

Re:Stop making this trite!

[Fantastic Lad]

In India, many (most?) people in the cities don't have sanitation, either. And they don't have a war to blame--just a pathetic government.

Well, I don't know much about their government, (except that on a recent trip a friend's mother had to pay off cops just to visit public areas), but I suspect the state of infrastructure has more to do with plain old momentum. It's harder to change the cultural directives of a nation once it's already established. North America had the advantage of offering a fresh start, and Europe had the impetus of being cold and miserable, which makes industrializing an easier choice. Who needs a giant coal industry and steam-driven fabric mills if clothing is more an issue of modesty rather than environmental necessity?

But it certainly seems that industry is picking up a lot of momentum in India. Lots of enthusiasm, energy and positive thinking over there right now. Everybody is talking about China, but India has what it takes to become a big player as well.

They'll probably make a big mess of it, but so far, who hasn't?

-FL

Re:Stop making this trite!

[number17]

It looks like they are doing fairly good now with cars and cell phones.

Archival?

[IBBoard]

If it is a blog, how do I read his old posts? Yeah, he's got a few boards there with older stuff on it, but what about what he said last year? Does he have a huge stash of them and (carefully) store the old ones in a shed somewhere?

Re:Archival?

[Provocateur]

He uses this thing that he wipes across the board to store it in compressed
format; out here we normally call it an "eraser". I don't know if he has a
drawer to keep them, and I think (like most so-called 'sysadmins') he keeps
using the same one over and over.

Re:Archival?

[monkeySauce]

Why is this so funny? I use the digital equivalent all the time. No need to store massive amounts of data when you can backup the md5 hash instead. It's never more than thirty-some bytes so I haven't even needed to overwrite older backups.

Genius!

[andrea.sartori]

This man deserves a Nobel.

Re:Genius!

[Anonymous Coward]

That's racist!

Re:Genius!

[cfa22]

This man deserves a Nobel.

"Today's news: I have been awarded a Nobel prize."

Re:Genius!

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. Then he would share the prize with his fellow citizens (or most likely not.)

It won't be the state that shuts him down

[dugeen]

I expect the copyright goons are already on their way.

UNBELIEVABLE

[Anonymous Coward]

i respect that! more power to this genius!

But is it really a blog?

[verbatim_verbose]

"Blog" was the short, cool way of saying "weblog".

Where's the web?

Re:But is it really a blog?

[Anonymous Coward]

and where's the log? What did he write X days ago?

3:30 something

[hungrigerhaifisch]

What's up with the guy in the tux-t-shirt!?!

Re:3:30 something

[Anonymous Coward]

What's up with the guy in the tux-t-shirt!?!

These people are very, very, very poor. Most of their clothing is hand-me-down clothing from overseas. It's unlikely he bought that shirt, or even knows what it's supposed to represent.

preciousss

[jandoedel]

every morning you wake up at the Crack of Doom?

Re:preciousss

[Hillgiant]

Pretty scary work environment, but I hear the pay is good.

Linux T-shirt @ 3:20 !!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Check it out. There's a dude in the crowd ... in LIBERIA ... reading a CHALK BOARD BLOG ... and wearing a t-shirt clearly sporting TUX, the Linux penguin.
Our thing is mainstream now, I guess?

Alfred Johnson Sirleaf -- who's his mom?

[ansak]

Now, I know people change their names out of admiration for or loyalty to someone in Liberia -- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's grandfather did that to her father -- so there's no guarantee that he's any relation of the president of Liberia but I wonder.

I looked around for the names of her four sons -- but couldn't find them. Even wikianswers had a post asking for their names, an as yet unanswered question. There's a certain amount of press-coverage density that's required before real transparency thrives. Liberia isn't there yet. Here's hoping it gets there before another tyrant starts wreaking havoc there.

"the word, "Mercy", is gonna have a new meaning when we are judged by the children of our slaves" ...ank

Now that he's been slashdotted....

[Anonymous Coward]

Wonder what he's done to celebrate being slashdotted? Writing the news in capital letters with a marker that has little ink left?

I have specifically blocked "Idle"

[Nimey]

Why am I still seeing this type of story?

Linux t-shirt at 3:20

[dinomite]

At 3:20 in the video, there's a guy wearing a t-shirt with Tux on it.

I can suspect what his responsibilities are...

[ickeicke]

I think that that Linux loving Monrovian is responsible for the driver compatibility of the chalk board (CUPS?) . That, or he does the LaTeX ...

Spelling

[Anonymous Coward]

His spelling, punctuation and grammar is better than that of my students’

Cool. Innovative

[mr_java66]

At betterworldbooks.com we have sent over 2 million books to Africa. Africa is a continent with more kids than books. Really! Its awesome to see someone finding an innovative way to communicate. TOTAL PROPS TO HIM!