Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Cuban Blogger Believes Technology Can Spur Reforms

Cuban Blogger Believes Technology Can Spur Reforms

MADRID – Award-winning Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez said Tuesday that
technology can help "expose the stubbornness" that has taken root in
Cuba's seat of power and push the Communist-ruled island "in the
direction of reforms."

Sanchez took part Tuesday, by means of a conference call from Cuba, in
the Madrid presentation of her book "WordPress: Un Blog para Hablar al
Mundo" (WordPress: A Blog for Speaking to the World), published by Anaya.

The president of the Madrid Press Association, Fernando
Gonzalez-Urbaneja, Spanish journalist Melchor Miralles and the deputy
director of Diario de Cuba, Antonio Ponte, took part in the Madrid event
to discuss the new forms of journalism and the influence of blogs.

The creator of the blog Generación Y – www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/
spoke of the difficulties of writing this "technical manual" since she
is a "reporter, an observer of daily life" in her country.

Sanchez said her book is an attempt to extend her "bits of knowledge to
people around the world."

Her book is not intended to be just a guide on how to create and operate
a blog, but also on how to do it under singular, adverse and at times
even dangerous circumstances.

"WordPress has set me free in a strange, intimate and personal way," she
said, and went on to recommend that people "open their own spaces, their
own windows and enjoy."

Generacion Y has become one of the most visited blogs in the world, with
more than 14 million hits per month.

Sanchez won Spain's 2008 Ortega y Gasset Prize for Digital Journalism
and a special citation from the Columbia University Graduate School of
Journalism as part of the 2009 Maria Moors Cabot Prizes for outstanding
reporting on Latin America and the Caribbean.

She could not receive either honor in person because the Cuban
government refused to grant her permission to travel abroad.

EFE

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14510&ArticleId=400654

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