It's Friday, time to relax and enjoy our selection of interesting articles you might have missed this week.

  • Story Alex
  • Illustration Romano
  • Soundtrack of the report
  • A Night In Tunisia
  • Charlie Parker With Miles Davis

Another week, another Web-O-Rama. It's already the third edition. I hope you still enjoy it.

In honor to the Tunisian revolution I selected the song "A Night In Tunisia" by Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. It seemed appropriate to celebrate such event with a dedicated soundtrack.

This week's selection features articles about what happened in Tunisia, but also more relaxed pictures of WWOOFers in Tuscany, thoughts on blog monetization, gentrification of Berlin and a love message to Ryanair (...not!)

Good read!

Was What Happened in Tunisia a Twitter Revolution?

by Mathew Ingram, GigaOm

Last Friday, when I was writing the second edition of this column, our friends in Tunisia were fighting for their freedom until the President/Dictator Ben Ali was eventually ousted from power at the end of the day. Let me tell you that the streets were crazy around our office in Paris. And we were really happy ourselves to see the end of this situation we have known for most of our lives. I have many Tunisians friends in Paris and been there a couple of times, I can tell you that they are some of nicest people I've met abroad and they really deserve to live free from the oppression of the Ben Ali clan that has ruined the country for 23 years.

The article I selected on this topic was published on GigaOm and focuses on the impact of social networks like Twitter in this revolution. It's a very interesting piece offering diverse opinions of analysts and participants of the movement in Tunisia. And while it might be exaggerated to state that this revolt was made possible by Twitter, it has certainly played an important role. If you are interested by the topic I also suggest this article on Techcrunch which is more specific about the coverage on Twitter and this one on Wired.

Portraits of WWOOFers in Tuscany, Italy

by Bethany, Beers & Beans

Simply gorgeous pictures! I don't need more to like an article. But I have to admit I was also wondering for a while what WWOOFing was like as I never tried it and heard a lot of different things. From what I read here, it seems a lot more relaxed and friendly than I thought. For some reasons, I was kinda expecting some farming boot camp where you could eat dinner only after having done your choirs. Silly of me...

East Berlin fights back against the yuppy invaders

by Peter Beaumont, Guardian

Gentrification/Hipsterification is a fascinating subject that I have observed in the several big cities where I've lived or traveled frequently. I'm no socio-cultural expert but that's a phenomenon so remarkably standardized, that it's easy to identify the signs. I'm talking of my 11th district in Paris in the 90s and more recently Belleville and the 19th. And exactly the same process in London with Shoreditch, then Dalson and now what? Peckham, Brixton and South London in general. Or New-York with the cliché Williamsburg and the rise of Brooklyn. This article focuses on Berlin and the consequences of the yuppy invasion. I'm looking forward to go back in April to see how it has changed since my last visit a year ago.

This is not one of those blogs

by Roy, CruisesurfingZ

Any article featuring solid MS Paint graphics gets my attention. But this time I was also intrigued by the first sentence: "Don't worry, this blog is not a business." I read a lot of travel blogs and it has become less and less frequent to see bloggers not trying to monetize their work. Don't get me wrong, I don't see that has a bad thing and I'm more than happy for anyone being able to travel and live of writing. I find this trend very interesting and I'm curious to see how this will evolve. And this article definitely offers an interesting point of view on the subject.

Judge tells Ryanair that forcing passengers to print boarding passes is illegal

by Giles Tremlett, Guardian

I selected this article just to tell you how much I hate Ryanair. I used to fly with them a lot when it was just launched and I was a poor student. It was amazing and allowed us to visit many Europeans capitals for cheap. I'm still relatively poor but I've decided to never fly Ryanair again. All the rules and tricks they have set up are just too much. Who wants to fly a company that makes everything to trick you into spending more than expected. Everything is done to intentionally make you make mistakes while booking, boarding, packing, etc. so that you will have to pay more and more fees. And seriously, why their website has to be so disgusting ? To quote @jm_deluxe: "ryanair's website looks like someone projectile vomited blue and yellow on my browser". Easyjet or Air Berlin are cheap and yet you are not treated like shit when flying them. Why not with Ryanair?

 

---

That's it for this week! See you next Friday for more news from the interwebs.

Alex