Emerging Community of Cuba Bloggers?

Blogging has finally hit Cuba, despite the challenge of gaining access to the Internet and the limited number of home computers on the island, and the emergence of a Cuban community of bloggers may soon be more than just wishful thinking.

“I think blogging from Cuba is an important way of making our reality and opinions known and of communicating with the rest of the world,” Roger Trabas, a self-taught computer programmer and author of a site called “Kilómetro Cero”, told IPS. 

 “The biggest challenge is getting an Internet connection,” admitted Trabas, who has to access the Internet from work and also deal with problems such as low speed. 

Due to the nearly half-decade U.S. embargo, Cuba can only connect to the Internet via satellite, which limits bandwidth dramatically and makes data transfer more expensive. This could change with the laying of an underwater fibre optic cable from Venezuela, which is scheduled to be completed in 2010. More