Digital Diplomacy, Zing and the US Embassy
Posted: October 30, 2012 Filed under: Blogs and Bloggers, Britain, change, media, News, Reflections, Social Media | Tags: australian embassy, british embassy, digital diplomacy, facebook, Hanoi, piracy, social media, twitter, us embassy, vietnam, zing 8 Comments »
I thought this was a cracking spot of a story, though I found myself in the unfamiliar position of feeling sorry for the US Embassy in Vietnam.
In short Zing has recently been caught in something of a “digital piracy” storm as a result of dodgy unlicensed file sharing. Then it emerged that the US Embassy was still using the platform as a result of what they claim to be a lack of online options for “public discourse”.
Why do I feel sorry for them? Well firstly I can see how this happened and I’m not entirely buying the line that there were few other options, though I’m sure that would have contributed. I have seen the stats and for much of the last few years Zing has been ahead.
Frankly back when I worked with the British Council there were two reasons why we didn’t set up a Zing account. The first was it was seen as something a little bit younger than our target market – younger than Facebook which, theoretically, you aren’t supposed to join till you are 16. Secondly the foreigners, due to the language issue didn’t get it and as a result there wasn’t a united push from locals and internationals to use the platform.
No one ever raised the issue of copyright, though I did know it was a music sharing site. I suspect local staff wouldn’t see it as abuse and foreigners, not being users, wouldn’t grasp the wider culture.
A quick look at the US Embassy website and there are links to a dozen different sites including Flickr, YouTube, Facebook and Zing, though no Twitter. I understand that Twitter usage is generally low in Vietnam though it remains a great way for sharing content. It’s networking, it’s not marketing. The British Embassy in Vietnam likewise still doesn’t use Twitter despite a very obvious foreign office love for the platform. (I’ve actually set up an unofficial one in their continued absence - channeling the various outputs over Twitter).
As I write it remains to be seen whether the US Embassy will continue with Zing but perhaps even more interesting will be how continued Facebook issues alter social media plans. In particular future problems may be less about local blocks and more about policy changes from Facebook themselves back in the States. Actually reaching your following without further investment is becoming harder than ever. Perhaps that’s why the Australian Embassy has gone the paid-for route as they look for friends (see below). Presumably once they have friends they’ll then have to invest further in ensuring all of them receive updates – such are the changes.
Interestingly I had cause to email the Australian Embassy recently and despite hunting across their website I couldn’t find an email address. I presume that while the culture is to open channels in social media other routes to assistance are being nailed shut in the interests of keeping inboxes empty. It seems a slightly odd approach.
In terms of making the best use of social media I’ve always maintained it’s more about content not platforms. With Zing’s reputation in tatters, Facebook blocks and operational changes I’m more sure of that than ever.
In which case it’s also worth noticing that neither the American Ambassador nor the Australian Ambassador blogs. Meanwhile the British Ambassador (as I type) hasn’t updated his since the end of June.
Of Kindles, VPNs, torrents and clouds
Posted: April 29, 2011 Filed under: change, expats, IT, Reflections | Tags: 4od, amazon, facebook, iplayer, kindle, music cloud, overplay, pirate bay, utorrent, vietnam, vpn 14 Comments »
Much of the revolution in how we consume our TV, music and film has been played out while I’ve been overseas.
So I tend to regard it as just how I have learnt to get access to all the good stuff I left behind – rather than remembering that others have changed too.
But there are other issues that have influenced me. I used to happily pay to download albums from iTunes, only for them to make it ridiculously difficult because of my location. Searching for an album one day I gave in and downloaded it illegally. What can I say, it’s become a hard habit to break.
I’m also accessing BBC illegally via the iPlayer and VPN. Daft really, I pay $10 a month to Overplay to make this possible and from this the BBC gets nothing. I’d much rather pay direct – if they’d let me.
But in Vietnam the VPN does have another benefit – namely it allows me to access Facebook (blocked, not banned, in Vietnam) without further fuss nor pop up ads.
Like everyone what I’ll pay for, and how much, is changing. Paying western prices while living in the east doesn’t sit well when my wage isn’t what it was. Grand Designs Series 11 seems vaguely over priced in pounds ( 26.46 GBP – via iTunes) but put that into Dong and it’s nudging a million (903,600 VND). Too much. Even if I eat up-market here that’s a lobster buffet at the Sheraton.
The fact that I even checked iTunes is as a result of it, for whatever reason, not being available on uTorrent/Pirate bay. Together they have, illegally, provided us with a steady stream of movies. Coupled with the VLC player, we’re also able to download English subtitles which makes it easier for my wife to deal with the assorted English and American accents.
Of course with pirate DVDs available locally at less than a dollar each it’s quicker just to nip out and buy them – but dodgy quality, crazy subtitling and risk of investing in something that turns out to be unwatchable turns me off.
I always intend to go to the cinema more and partly it’s just laziness but also it means dealing with kids with bleeping mobile phones and people loudly munching pop corn. I am turning into such an old git.
Meanwhile iPlayer, 4OD etc, rather wonderfully come with the subtitles included.
So what am I paying for?
I’m paying for books – for the Kindle. The best Christmas present I ever had. Living overseas – the access to books is a revelations.
For a book without pages, cover etc then costwise anything under a fiver sounds about right. Until I had the Kindle then I always struggled to find time to read outside of beach holidays but suddenly I am consuming books again. I’ve read a dozen since Christmas – my brain feels better for it. Amazon is my friend.
I am at a loss as to why all magazines aren’t delivering content this way. I don’t pay for much but there are half a dozen UK magazines I would gladly if they could be sent to the Kindle. Incredibly I have a further 10 books already waiting to read – I am actually giving Amazon money before I can even have time to use the product.
Some years ago now I gave away my entire music collection and it lives on only on an iPod and hard drive – but I want my music cloud. Music may not seem as valuable as it once was – but I need this saved somewhere where it will always be there, even when I am somewhere else.
Which brings me to the issue of having fewer physically tangible possessions – not in some mystical, trippy hippy way but being able to live in a house that isn’t cluttered by CD cases and book cases. They increasingly seem like such a waste of space and resources. All that paper and plastic is a crime. And perhaps I have moved on so much that the process of clearing and packing is always in my mind.
I don’t shop like I used to. Again, part of this is because of where I am – I couldn’t buy a shirt that fit even if I wanted to – but it seems that all my entertainment is stored in my laptop, Kindle, iPod, phone etc. I spend my money on buying these devices rather than the entertainment that they store and provide for me.
There are times when I am lying propped up on pillows on my bed – laptop is perched against bent legs and both Kindle and mobile phone are balanced on my belly and chest.
In the old days I would take a lunch hour walk around Newcastle and almost always come back with a shopping bag - now, eating and drinking out aside I rarely buy anything.
As for all the above technology – I don’t see myself as an early adopter, there have been people doing most of this stuff for years now.
The difference, perhaps, is that I have had to learn it or miss out on music, movies, books etc.
Facebook, business and Facebook business in Vietnam
Posted: August 18, 2010 Filed under: Blogs and Bloggers, Hanoi, IT, Pics, work | Tags: facebook, OMIH Media, social media, work 1 Comment »
This picture started life on my new business website but I thought it deserved a wider audience.
A large ad referencing Facebook. That’s Facebook that is blocked in Vietnam. On the outside of a Hanoi police station.
Odd, though somehow, very Hanoi. More thoughts on this here.
So yes, there is now a business website with its own blog. And the new business is now named OMIH Media. This is as a direct result of Elliott from the New Hanoian repeatedly asking me if I’d had any more thoughts about what I wanted to call my business. He’d make a vague face when I shrugged and said “Our Man in Hanoi”.
“I suppose you could always use just the initials,” he replied in a way that suggested he thought I’d be a fool not to.
He had a point. Something more “grown up” was needed and OMIH Media was born. I had no problem previously with the Hanoi bit but the “man” grated. It almost felt like I was saying: “Out of the way, let The Man do this for you”.
Anyway, because I wanted to keep this blog for my more rambling Hanoi musings I’ve created the aforementioned website for my business.
Personally I think RSS is the key to the social media universe. But if you like to consume your blogs with a dash of Farmville and you’ve got your head around the DNS issues then I’m finally doing the Facebook thing. Go here for the FB OMIH Media page and here for the FB Our Man in Hanoi blog page.
Please feel free to join either.
Or just keep it here. And there.
Facebook bikini pics
Posted: June 23, 2010 Filed under: Reflections | Tags: facebook, hot girls, pictures, social media 3 Comments »A female Vietnamese friend recently returned from the beach.
I know this because she has posted several pictures of herself on Facebook. In the vast majority she is posing, for the want of a better word “provocatively”, in a bikini. These are not pics where she’s been snapped taking a swim, they’re reclining pouty shots.
A respectable lady in her mid twenties. She’s well educated and has a good job. I am guessing that many of the people she is friends with on Facebook are, like me, work associates.
More interested in the why of it, than the subject matter, I sent the link to a mutual female friend who has worked here a while.
I thought she’d give me a forthright view.
She didn’t disappoint:
Where I work every employee has a photo of themselves as their background.
Have you ever been on holiday with a big group of Vietnamese? All they do is take photos of themselves. Even really shy, normal balanced ones start bending over like Readers’ Wives Do Cao Bang every time they see a new rock, tree or piece of ground.
But why?
A little discussion later and we agreed that this wasn’t to impress people of the opposite sex. It wasn’t a proud-of-your-body/girl power thing either.
This, we decided, was just what young Vietnamese women do when they see a camera. They don’t take pictures because they are at the beach. They go to the beach because they want to take pictures.
Taking photos is an obsession further fuelled by the growth of social media and mobile phone cameras. Also by Vietnam’s so-called internet “hot girls” and the media’s endless obsession with beauty pageants.
It’s also a culture where, by sheer weight of numbers, the young have more power to shape societal norms than virtually anywhere else in the world.
It’s yet another factor to chuck into the mix when absolutely failing to come up with any precitions as to just what Vietnam will turn into.
This country moves just too fast to pin down.
