The Monrovian Analog Blogger

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Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 28, 2009 @06:20PM from the old-school dept.

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.'"

15 of 117 comments (clear)

Not for long... by nhytefall · 2009-10-28 18:23 · Score: 5, Insightful

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!

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1. Re:Not for long... by cjfs · 2009-10-28 18:50 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  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.
2. Re:Not for long... by ccandreva · 2009-10-28 23:46 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Probably because it was being used to mean kidnapped or killed.
Same thing, different name by Anonymous Coward · 2009-10-28 18:27 · Score: 3, Insightful

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.
1. Re:Same thing, different name by physicsphairy · 2009-10-28 19:01 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  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.
  
  --
  When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
2. Re:Same thing, different name by pseudonomous · 2009-10-28 19:32 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  If it's not a "web log", isn't it just a "log"?
is commenting allowed? by Anonymous Coward · 2009-10-28 18:27 · Score: 5, Funny

wait til gnaa hears about this.
1. Re:is commenting allowed? by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · 2009-10-28 19:18 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Quite frankly, I'd love to see trolls try to get first post on the guy's whiteboard...
  
  --
  "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
2. Re:is commenting allowed? by Suhas · 2009-10-28 20:08 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  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?
  ;-)
Loose definition of morning by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · 2009-10-28 18:54 · Score: 5, Funny

Each morning, at 10:45 AM, Alfred Sirleaf wakes up
That's the kind of job I want.

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"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
BB(S) by cybereal · 2009-10-28 18:58 · Score: 4, Insightful

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.

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I read the script, and I think it would help my character's motivation if he was on fire. -Bender
Re:Analog Blog by Darinbob · 2009-10-28 19:18 · Score: 3, Funny

You mean printed blogs?
Re:Awesome and Scary by wizardforce · 2009-10-28 19:43 · Score: 3, Insightful

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.

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Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
Stop making this trite! by firefarter · 2009-10-28 20:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

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:Taking freedom of speech for granted.. by Tarsir · 2009-10-29 02:11 · Score: 3, Insightful

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.