Last Thursday Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj was sworn in as Mongolia's new President. Along with a military parade in Ulan Bator's Sukhbaatar Square opposite Parliament, there was a concert staged at the Cultural Palace.
But sports fans in Mongolia were not disappointed. A wrestling competition to mark the occasion was also held on Friday. Yep, Friday Night Wrestling in Ulan Bator.
Like many buildings in the capital, the circular exterior of the Wrestling Palace reflects the traditional Mongolian Ger. But, on the inside, its wrestling arena stands beneath a high dome and is surrounded by several tiers of seating.
It's a sweaty cauldron for warrior wrestlers and spectators alike.
My colleagues and I bought tickets for 6000 MNT (tugrug) a piece - around 3 euro each. There's no allocated seating and we found ourselves looking for seats among wrestlers and their trainers.
You kind of politely step out of the way for these lads. They're huge. A large arm swept me aside while I was filming on a landing.
I've since learnt that many players in Mongolia's Rugby team are drawn from the ranks of wrestlers. Looking closely at the ear of the wrestler in the opening shot of the video above, you can clearly see he sports the cauliflower ears of a forward. Whether that's from packing down in a scrum or from wrestling I can't tell you.
Wrestling is steeped in Mongolian culture and tradition. Along with archery and horse riding it's one of three so called "manly sports".
Next month these sports will feature at the Naadam Festival in Ulanbaatar - the biggest festival in Mongolia.
Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj set the time of his swearing-in ceremony to become the fourth President of Mongolia in a symbolic nod to the year Genghis Khan was proclaimed ruler of the Mongol Empire.
Dressed in a gold-coloured traditional deel, Elbegdorj took the oath of office today at Parliament in the capital Ulan Bator.
On a fuzzy television set it looked like a fine set of robes fit for a president. However later in the afternoon at the ceremonial military parade in Sukhbaatar Square, an onlooker was grinning as she told me that maybe the President's deel was not such a good cut. Apparently it looked a little too big for him.
Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj succeeds President Nambaryn Enkhbayar. Elbegdorj is a Harvard grad and has served twice as Prime Minister. He pitched his presidential campaign on fighting corruption and won the elections on May 24 by a slim majority.
Already President Elbegdorj has made headlines over whether Mongolia should join foreign mining companies and invest in a major gold and copper mine.
Two months have past since Germany was stunned by a killing spree in which 15 people died in Winnenden, just north of Stuttgart.
At about 0930 on March 11 a former pupil of the Albertville Secondary School walked into the school and began shooting pupils and teachers.
He killed nine pupils and three teachers. He fled the school and shot and killed three other people before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life. His last moments were captured on a mobile phone video camera.
It was a major event in Germany for the media and also on the micro-blogging network Twitter. However, it's interesting to look back at how German media used Twitter for newsgathering, reporting and communicating with Twitter users.
As the headline above suggests, if German media pinned their hopes on Winnenden being their first big Twitter event, a Twitter Ereignis - a test case where Twitter users quickly provide dramatic front page photos, a river of descriptive tweet-quotes from the scene and a way to contact eyewitnesses, then it didn't work out that way. In fact, Winnenden may have set back the German media's credibility in how they use social media for reporting.
The German word for gun rampage or killing spree is Amoklauf. A simple connection of the Indonesian word amok, that you'd no doubt recognise, and the noun Lauf - meaning run. Lets keep that in mind for later.
Along with #winnenden, #amoklauf or #amok were terms used on Twitter to discuss the shootings, and by German media, who turned to Twitter to gather any information, photos, or interviews with people at the scene.
It's widely acknowledged that @tontaube was the first to post a tweet about the shootings in Winnenden. Note, it was about an hour after the shooting began.
"Attention: In the Winnenden high school today there was a gun rampage, the perpertrator is supposedly still on the run - best not to come into the city!!!!"
@tontaube's first tweet was a warning to her friends and followers. She sent this tweet from her office located a few kilometres from the Albertville Secondary School. What she tweeted was accurate. There was a shooter at large in Winnenden, but @tontaube was relaying information passed to her from a colleague whose husband phoned to say he was stopped by police on the road leading to the school.
Her 129 character tweet began to gain traction. In an interview with a youth programme on Bavarian public television BR, @tontaube said she was first contacted by the media about an hour after her initial tweet. German tabloid Bild was the first to reach her, then other media including N-TV, Stuttgarter Nachrichten and CNN - all of course seeking updates and interviews.
BR's interview with @tontaube also shows she posted tweets making it clear to followers and journalists that she was not at the scene and was tuning into local radio reports for new information.
"Dear Press: I actually also don't know about this mad guy... #winnenden #amok"
And, there lay one of the main problems for the media trying to use Twitter in Winnenden. There just weren't active Twitterers in the immediate vicinity of where the shootings were taking place.
Lets back track a little bit and look at how one media outlet used Twitter to cover the story. After news of the shootings broke, journalists from the magazine Focus scrambled to get down to Winnenden to report.
One of the first steps of the Focus team was to open a new Twitter account dedicated to this event. But the username they choose to report events and communicate with the Twitter community instantly drew fire for being inappropriate - @Amoklauf.
"@jochenjochen was the twitter account you chose @amoklauf actually too embarrassing for you? Shame on you!!! #winnenden #amoklauf"
(Tweet to @jochenjochen - Jochen Wegner, Chief Editor of Focus Online)
Perhaps to put it in an English context, it would be interesting to consider how English speaking users of Twitter in similar circumstances would react to a journalist gathering information via a new Twitter account called @gunrampage or @killingspree.
Of course, you could also argue: what's in a Twitter name? Does that even matter? Afterall the term or phrase was used in headlines and TV news graphics. But I think it runs deeper than that. Will you have credibility in the eyes of Twitter users if you're starting from scratch with a new account - even if you are a big media brand? Have you thought about your Twitter 'tone' or 'voice'? Do you know and understand your audience on Twitter?
In the case of Winnenden, German media seemed to be going through a lot of learning by doing on a big story.
Focus soon backed down in the face of protest. @Amoklauf was deleted and @FocusLive was used instead.
But, even then, @FocusLive was not winning fans. In a blog post about Twitter and Winnenden, journalist and blogger Stefan Niggemeier points out that the journalists using @FocusLive were at first tweeting more about how they were getting to Winnenden or needing toothbrushes if they stayed in town overnight, rather than offering any new information. I think Herr Niggemeier raises some good points for journalists to consider their purpose and method of using Twitter on a story such as a mass shooting.
In response to criticism about their use of Twitter, Jochen Wegner, Chief Editor of Focus Online, said:
"We will find a way to use Twitter and other social networks, that fits both the networks and the journalistic standards. Ironically we've been also heavily criticised, for not communicating via Twitter and only posting links of our reports."
If Twitter during Winnenden did not prove to be effective for news gathering it certainly helped to point out the media's errors in reporting the event. Here's a useful example from Twitpic
http://twitpic.com/photos/brunser
The caption reads: "@N24: What matters is a photo gallery with flashing lights and pistols drawn, or what? That was Erfurt, you losers #winnenden"
Twitter user @brunser noticed that the German TV news channel N24 was using a photo from the 2002 Erfurt shootings in their online reports of Winnenden. @brunser has circled the police car number plates that give the game away, and even sent a couple of cheeky tweets to the channel's @n24_de and @N24 twitter accounts to point out their error. However, there's no public reply to @brunser from N24 acknowledging their actions.
If I'm painting a gloomy picture of German media using Twitter then that's not what I set out to do. There are several media outlets using Twitter to good effect. I do like the way for instance regional newspaper Der Westen is using Twitter to engage with readers. I check out their stories online because of the way they tweet. At the heart of it, Der Westen is keeping it simple. They appear to know their audience, they're being social and I think winning respect.
Looking wider, debate in Germany still continues over how the media used photos and videos of victims and the teenage shooter from social media sites. That's another story. However, I'll end this post with some Twitter thoughts from Marcus Boesch - aka @blogschau. Marcus produces a weekly blogging and social media programme on German international radio. I asked him how German media views Twitter and social media for news gathering.
Fellow Frontline Club blogger Onnik Krikorian has produced a great round up of online and social media coverage of the first day of demonstrations in Tbilisi, Georgia.
April 9 is a date firmly etched in the memory of many Georgians. Any demonstration on the anniversary of the 1989 Soviet crack down would always bring out people, whether supporters of the opposition or people just curious to see what was going on.
For perhaps more of a grassroots perspective I'll be keeping my eye on the blog that Georgian journalism students at GIPAare producing that Onnik pointed out.
The Georgian Young Lawyers Association is another independent group that's useful to get a picture of what's happening between demonstrators and police/security services. I bumped into the chairperson Tamar Khidasheli late last night outside the Georgian parliament.
Her group has monitors observing the demonstrations. Here's what she had to say.
So, you've brought your smart phone with you to a country like Nigeria, brimming with all your favourite apps for social media and live video streaming. Will everything work? Well sort of, inshallah.
Recently while training radio journalists in Kano in Nigeria's north, I used a variety of applications to get an indication of how practical they might be for mobile reporting, micro-blogging/blogging in a country where 3G networks are gradually expanding.
My mobile weapon of choice at the moment is the Nokia N82. Here's what's in my toolbox of applications.
Twibble - for Twitter and Twitpic on Nokia symbian smart phones Bambuser - mobile phone video streaming Qik - mobile phone video streaming Kyte Producer - upload mobile phone video and photos Tumbla - tumblr blog upload app Wefi - wifi detector
I really wanted to know before travelling to Nigeria what network would suit my needs. I asked the local tech bloggers on Mobility Nigeria for some advice on networks. They suggested going for MTN, one of the bigger Nigerian mobile networks, and gave me the going price for a buying a pre-paid SIM card.
This is the sort of information that saves a lot of mucking around when you arrive. I'd love to find a blog or a wiki that keeps track of all those things.
Upon arrival I bought a new pre-paid SIM card from a street hawker for 600 Naira (c.3 euro). Recharge cards are available literally on every corner for 1500 Naira (c.8 euro).
MTN's website also explained that an ordinary pre-paid SIM card is ready for data services. There's no need to visit an agent to manually register the SIM card for accessing the internet or fiddle with settings.
I was a little skeptical but sure enough the internet and my (MobileMe/Mac) email launched immediately. If only it was that easy in every country.
So, getting started was a breeze, but the biggest challenge was getting a reliable 3G connection. (And under the umbrella of "3G" I'm not sure what MTN's network and kbit speeds supports across UMTS/GPRS/GSM.)
Personally, I found MTN's 3G signal was a little erratic in Kano to connect for faster data services.
I did however find that early mornings were the best time to connect. Maybe there's less usage across the network as people are on their way to work?
When I managed to log on to MTN's 3G, Twibble worked very well keeping me updated on everyone I follow on Twitter and uploading photos to Twitpic.
Of course, updating my Twitter stream by SMS was the most reliable method. And, sending a direct message (eg D @blogschau) on Twitter by SMS was also a good way to stay in touch with colleagues. Twitter still emails direct messages to the recipient - a useful little service they've maintained.
Erratic 3G connections ultimately dashed my hopes of regularly streaming live video via Qik. Delays caused by the slow connection speed always built up even when shooting video in low quality. Chatting live to viewers did not even get a look in.
On the upside, my Qik and 12seconds accounts are connected. So as a compromise I decided to only shoot short video clips to suit 12seconds. I think these worked quite well and they weren't expensive to shoot. Both Qik and 12seconds can update your Twitter stream with a link to the video. If you use the html code that accompanies the video (look at any links to "share" "embed" or click on the QIK logo in the bottom left hand corner of any video), it's potentially an easy method to embed video into a blog post and save a lot of hassle trying to upload and convert video from scratch to a share site such as YouTube.
The drawback will always be whether there is enough bandwidth to upload a good quality video. You can also adjust video quality and delay in settings for QIK and Bambuser.
Trying another video tactic, I shot a couple of short videos of around 30 seconds and then used the Kyte TV Producer app on my phone to upload. That way I would always have a good mp4 copy on my phone memory card.
On the blog front, I thought better of accessing Typepad from my phone but tried to use Tumbla to send material to my Tumblr blog. Unfortunately, Tumbla was a casualty and would not work.
Outside of using data services I also sent an audio message to Utterli. This is a great social media phone service. Just call up from your mobile phone and leave a message. Utterli then sends an update with a hyperlink to your audio message to other services such as Twitter or to your blog. You can also add photos and video. My only grumble with Utterli is their decision to withdraw a local call number for Germany - you have to dial a US number. However, it's also possible to use Utterli cheaply by making calls using a local calling card.
So, how practical are some of these social media and video streaming thingies to use in a country such as Nigeria?
At the moment, that's all going to depend on your needs, patience and budget.
Any application that lets you update or receive messages on your phone by SMS or email is always going to be the most practical and the cheapest.
A new service I've been testing to receive @ replies and to track tweets from Twitter is Twe2 - so far I find it's quite useful, and it's free.
If anything, 3G services across Africa are only going to get better. On a recent trip to Dar es Salaam I was able to stream live video far better than in Kano. The main drawback was a lot of fiddling with phone settings to log onto the local Vodacom network. I almost gave up.
With a little thought towards planning, you can use your phone to great effect. Just look at how the AudioBoo app for the iPhone has taken off for mobile reporting during the recent G20 demonstrations in London. Though for now problems in connectivity in some African countries may prove to be frustrating hiccups in your social media and mobile video streaming happiness.
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