Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

Happy 5th Birthday Global Voices!

Global Voices is a community of more than 200 bloggers around the world who work together to bring reports from blogs and citizen media around the world, with emphasis on voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media. The founders are Rebecca MacKinnon and Ethan Zuckerman.

It is five years old today!

I was not involved in the legendary gathering back in 2004 that lead to the creation of Global Voices Manifesto.   Rising Voices Director David Sasaki has written aretrospective to honor Global Voices' fifth birthday.  I joined the community several months after Global Voices got started after meeting Rebecca because of a strong interest in connecting with Cambodian bloggers.  And while I haven't been as active in recent years, the friendships and connections have endured.  

Rebecca MacKinnon has written a terrific reflection on the early years and what Global Voices has developed into five years later.  This piece is part of a series to support Global Voices Online Fundraising campaign - just sent a happy birthday gift.

Keep the World Talking - Support Global Voices

Global Voices is the leading participatory media room for voices from developing countries around the globe.   They've just launched their online fundraising campaign to keep the world talking.  I'm a donor and let me tell you why.

I've had the honor of being involved with the Global Voices community on and off for a couple of years.  I remember first coming across it back in 2005 when it was just a simple blog hosted at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.  I was thrilled to discover it because I had just started my "Cambodia For Kids" blog and thought it might help me connect with bloggers from Cambodia. It did.

In 2005, I also discovered the Berkman Center Thursday evening bloggers meetings and started attending.  (I did a session on nonprofits and blogging with Marnie Webb)  It was at one of these meetings that I met Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon.   I offered to do some volunteer outreach work for global voices to connect with Cambodia bloggers and served as a volunteer editor for the Cambodia section for a short time before Tharum (in the photo below) took over the job.

Since those early years, Global Voices has grown into a vibrant global community of more than 150 active volunteer authors and translators and more than 20 freelance part- time regional and language editors.

That's a photo of me and Tharum, who started blogging in 2004.   He was the first person to leave a comment on my Cambodia4Kids Blog.  In December 2005, I got to meet Tharum in London at the Global Voices Summit, its annual face-to-face gathering of the Global Voices Community.

I've been a long time advocate and supporter of the work that is being done over at Global Voices and have seen the impact first hand in Cambodia where there is a vibrant local community of bloggers.   That's why when Ethan Zuckerman invited to serve on the board of Friends of Global Voices, the us nonprofit that will serve as a fundraising entity for Global Voices, I said yes. I'm honored to be serving with David Weinberger, Isaac Mao, and Xeni Jardin.

So, that's why I'm hoping you'll join me and support Global Voices.

Mapping Web2.0 Censorship: Access Denied Map

Via Global Voices Advocacy blog

The Map does not aim to index all kinds of web filtering, but rather to provide an overview of online censorship efforts related to the social web and major web 2.0 websites. This project will also track and explore the relationships between anti-censorship groups in different parts of the world who are collaborating to defend the right to access web 2.0 tools and websites.

The Access Denied Map will try to contextualize and situate that battle by focusing on two areas:  

1. the crackdown on web 2.0 websites (e.g. video and photo-sharing sites like Youtube, Flickr, Dailymotion; blogging platforms such as Blogspot, Livejournal, Typepad and Wordpress; social networking websites such as Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, Wikipedia, VoIP services; etc.);    

2. the amplifying of local campaigns defending the right to access web 2.0 tools and websites (circumvention techniques, online petitions and campaign.)

The Access Denied Map will lead interested readers to content that enables them to support anti-censorship movements and keeps readers abreast of the filtering situation in various parts of the world. It will also facilitate collaboration between activists, allowing them to find each other, share tactics and strategies and experiences. The Map was created using data from the Open Net Initiative (ONI), Global Voices and the Global Voices Advocacy section. The Access Denied Map does not pretend to be exhaustive. Help expand and improve it by adding information about the filtering of web 2.0 applications either via the Advocacy Wiki site or by e-mail through the contact page.

More here

Rising Voices Seeks Micro-Grant Proposals for Blog Outreach

Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, is now accepting project proposals for the second round of micro-grant funding of up to $5,000 for citizen media outreach projects. Ideal applicants will present innovative and detailed proposals to teach citizen media techniques to communities that are poorly positioned to discover and take advantage of tools like blogging, video-blogging, and podcasting on their own.

 

Dirk Slater featured on the Luck of Seven Journey

Click To Play

 

Noel Hidalgo is currently traveling the globe doing interviews with folks about the intersection between technology and social justice work.  He interviewed Dirk Slater in Brighton. 

Dirk notes on the Riders List:

Noel was really interested in getting out my history with Circuit Riding and how its impacted my current work with Tactical Tech.  Hope you will find the video interesting.  Also, be sure to contribute to Noel's trip!

 

Social Networking Site in India: TheLoop.In

From a press release

Every major country in the world has experienced some success with new social networking websites. Facebook is a huge hit in the United States, Studivz is a major success throughout Europe, and now TheLoop.in, which is taking India by storm.

TheLoop.in is more than a just a means to meet other Indian men and women with the same interests as yourself, it is a symbol of Indian pride. You cannot find another website online that allows you to connect with as many young social individuals as TheLoop.in.

TheLoop.in hopes to become the number one social networking website in India by the end of 2007. The founder of TheLoop.in, John R. Cushma, was quoted saying “Why join other social networking websites that have no relation to a country as great as India? Join TheLoop.in today and show your pride.”

Local Stories, Global Audience

 

About a month ago, Globels announced the first five citizen media outreach projects to receive Rising s microgrants.  So, I'm keeping an eye on the progress reports for inspiration.  This video blogging workshop in Columbia caught my eye:

Álvaro Ramirez, Jorge Montoya, and Juliana Rincón originally submitted two separate project proposals both focused on working class neighborhoods in Medellín and both with the same objectives. They are now all working together and have formed an organization called HiperBarrio with the tagline Historias Locales, audiencia global, or “Local Stories, global audience.” They have already registered a domain and the website is under currently construction.

Just one week after receiving confirmation of their Rising s outreach grant, Álvaro Ramirez and Mauricio Múnera organized a video blogging workshop at the public library of the poor and often violent neighborhood of La Loma San Javier. Álvaro documented the first three workshops with a series of photographs taken by the young participants themselves.

The text reads:

Colombia, land of images.
There is a lot of talk about war in Colombia
Life and scenery
Dance, joy, and entertainment
… culture, faith, and hope
… We are also

 

Cambodia Bloggers Summit: Help Young Cambodian Bloggers Join the Global Conversation

 

Cambodian young people are joining the global conversation in the blogosphere and sharing their perspectives through different forms of grassroots citizen's media thanks to the efforts of a dedicated team of Cambodian bloggers. This team has been working on a voluntary basis to conduct 14 workshops called “Personal Information Technology Workshop” at 14 different universities in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap with more than 1700 students participating.

They are organizing the first "Cambodian Blogger Summit (aka Cloggers Summit)" to take place 30-31 August 2007 in Cambodia. The idea is to bring together students, professional Bloggers, writers, NGO workers, media, and tech gurus from within and outside Cambodia to share and learn more from each other on about how the ICT (including Open Source Software and Web2.0 tools) can make their study, work, and life easier.

I've been given an opportunity to help by leading a training and sharing my experience with nonprofits and social media. Here's what I'm going to do:

• A train the trainers workshop with the Cambodian blogging team to share resource information, answer questions, and exchange ideas for teaching young people how to use social media in a developing country like Cambodia
• Keynote welcome
• A conference workshop on blogging techniques and video blogging techniques
• Bring over 3 video blogging kits (inexpensive camera, a book, batteries, and SD cards) that will be used as "prizes" to encourage new bloggers
• Learn about and document how the blogging team is doing outreach and encouraging new bloggers and share on my blog
• Identify and interview 3-5 amazing Cambodian BlogHers and post on BlogHer site
• Bring a suitcase of donated technology and nonprofit t-shirts for participants (they have no budget for scwhag)
• Document the learnings from this personal fundraising campaign

I need your help. I'm raising $4,000 and the amazing folks at ChipIn are matching 50% of my donations. So, I'm turning to the power of personal fundraising and hoping that you, my readers, friends of my readers, and friends will support in my desire to make a difference in Cambodia. Even a donation of $20 will help.

Timing is running out. I need to reach my goal by August 10th so I can book my plane travel and I will continue to fundraise up until the date of my departure, tentatively scheduled August 25th. With your help, I know this can happen.

So, here's what I need you to do:

• Make a donation. If 100 of my readers each donate $20, that will make the campaign successful!
• Blog about this campaign and repost the fundraising badge on your blog
• Forward the url to your colleagues and friends and ask them to contribute or repost.
• Have at least three or more new t-shirts from a tech or nonprofit tech organization? I'd love to pack them in my suitcase!

Mary Joyce: Global Social Change Blogher - Her Latest: Free Monem Campaign

Mary Joyce in front of her campaign posts during a recent trip to Lagos to set up computer equipment for the OpenNet Initiative in April, 2007  (Photo from her Flickr stream)

My colleague Mary Joyce who writes a blog called "ZapBoom: The Sound That Change Makes" that focuses on the question, "Under what conditions does citizen activism occur and how can it be supported and encouraged?" 

She has is supporting a campaign to Free Monem, a blogger arrested by Egyptians security forces on April 15th.  He was charged with several crimes, including "belonging to an illegal organization" and "organizing secret meetings with the aim of disturbing public order."    According to Mary, his real crime was challenging the dictatorial regime of Hosni Mubarak by telling the truth about the torture he underwent and condemning the country's unjust military tribunals.

In an email, Mary suggests taking these actions:

As the world celebrates World Press Freedom Day an Egyptian blogger,  Abdel Monem  Mahmoud, sits in jail, his only crime his desire for a more open Egyptian  society.  We cannot let the regime succeed in silencing him.  We have to show  the Egyptian regime that when you imprison a blogger, you don't silence his  , you AMPLIFY it!  How?  By taking action!  Here's what you can do: 

1.  Watch the protest video.  Share it with your friends.

Global s Advocacy  Director Sami Ben Gharbia has created a video which powerfully explains the  reasons for the detention of Monem and demands his freedom.  View it. Share it.  Post it on your blog: http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v  =-017xCZEXFU&eurl=

2. Add the Free Monem quote randomizer badge to your  blog's sidebar.

Yeah, we think it's  pretty cool.  Activist tech guru Astrubal has created a sidebar badge which  cycles through a stream of Monem's blog quotes (à la Amnesty's Irrepressible campaign).   Fortunately for us, Monem is an eloquent writer.  Here's a taste: 

"We [Egyptians] claimed freedom for others and forget our own  freedom"

"If I taught a woman to wear a veil, I should teach her to claim  her right to enter the university wearing the veil."

"Freedom is now an  obligation and should be implemented before Sharia'a"

 

Yeah, we think he's pretty inspiring too.  The symbol of a brighter future  for the Middle East, in fact.  So let's make sure he  gets his freedom, not just by posting his words on World Press Freedom Day, but  by broadcasting his words every day.  You can get the badge here on our  "banner and badges" page or you can just insert the following embed code into  your blog:

<iframe name="monem" src="  http://freemonem.cybversion.org/monemphrases/monem_phrase.php"  frameborder="0"  marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" height="200"  width="150"></iframe>

Eventually, quotes from other imprisoned bloggers will  also be added to the quote feed.  Just sit back and let the free speech  flow. 

3.  Re-publish Monem's posts on your own blog. 

For the last few days a crack team of volunteers  from around the world has been translating Monem's posts so millions of new  readers can read his censored speech.  Let's show Mubarak that his attempt to  silence this blogger has been completely counterproductive.  Instead of reducing  the number of people who read Monem's words, let's make sure that the number of  readers increases... exponentially!

It's easy to take part!  Just pick a post by Monem from the list below and copy and paste the whole thing  (or an excerpt) into your own blog.  It would also be great if you could tag  your post (using Technorati or deli.cio.us) with the words  "FreeMonem" to help us keep track of how many people take part in this action.   

----MONEM'S POSTS... for you to republish on your  blog----

Free the Brothers...Free Abdel Kareem... Free Egypt 3/7/07  (one of our favorites - Monem calls for jailed blogger Kareem's release and  points out how secularists and Islamists face the same oppression by the  Mubarak's regime)

The Fourth Anniversary of the Torture of Detainee #25 4/14/07  (essential reading - moving account of torture by Egyptian security forces  during his imprisonment in 2003 )

Alexandria University Detour 11/1/06 (frustration with the  Muslim Brotherhood at his university and a call for Egyptians to demand their  freedom... excerpt)

Birds' s 2/12/07 (how blogging is changing the Muslim  Brotherhood... excerpt)

A Conversation with Lucy Hooberman About Mentoring Worldwide

Lucy Hooberman

I'm so amazed at the people I've met through blogging who are passionately interested in many of the topics I am!   I met Lucy Hooberman and learned about her Mentoring Worldwide project at the Global s London Summit in December.  I immediately signed up as a mentor!  A few months later, Lucy and I attended the Netsquared conference and split a room - so we got a chance to know each other and learn more about our work.

How did you dream up the idea of  Mentoring Worldwide?

I love the concept of "dreaming up" an idea!  It's hard to pinpoint a moment in time but I can say that a combination of influences lead to this idea taking shape towards the end of  2005.

I read a lot of hype about the next phase of the web but at the same time we  received stark messages about global fragility.  I'm talking about  the South East Asian Tsunami, Katrina, the earthquake in Pakistan as well as the poweful and continuing campaign to end poverty in Africa and the developing world.  We saw an outpouring of generosity from the public both in terms of donations of money, but also a desire to help in whatever way people could.  To the extent that it was not possible for agencies on the ground to spend all the money, nor possible for people to see where there money was going, nor was it possible for them to manage all the volunteers who wanted to go and help. I kept asking myself , what can I do?  Could I go?  If I went, what could I do?

Mentoring Worldwide was a personal and ethical response to living in an interdependent world and I think that is why so many people signed up to become mentors. And while I would never say that mentoring is a substitute for disaster planning and relief, it is clear that there is a demand and a role for mentors with skills to mentor people and projects in the developing world who might need those skills. Disaster or no disaster after a crisis there are many funded projects that could use a mentor, and many organisations who would welcome the expertise a mentor might provide to help an individual or project leader move forward.   And there is a need too expressed by people to offer their expertise, knowledge, time and skills if there is someone who needs them, rather than their money alone.

It sounds a bit grandiose, but it felt like a small idea which if it worked could lead to a bigger change An idea which could lead to people doing just what they could from home, and helping out one person at a time, one project at a time.  A kind of peer-to-peer process in which both parties will have much to learn.

How did you develop the idea?

I was very very lucky to be sent to a TED conference in early 2005 .  TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.  I had heard about the conference for years.  The year I first went I was one of a hundred people to go on a breakfast brainstorm cruise around Monterey bay - something which is less appealing than it sounds if you have jet lag! 

We had been asked to bring an idea to change the world (seriously) and the job was to convince ten people on your table that your idea was best, the convince the other 90.  Well I was too British for all that early morning competitiveness  and my global conversation and mentoring idea came to naught.  But I plugged away and tried to get them interested in Pledgebank then a new tool developed by MySociety   

To cut a long story short - about nine months later Chris Anderson (curator of TED) discovered Pledgebank for himself and wanted to promote it in the US.  He challenged  his amazing conference attendees to come up with an idea change the world.  (Chris means business in this department.  If you go to one of  the  conferences you will get the measure of his and the conference attendees ambitions.)

I wrote up my idea in terms of a pledge and posted it on his site  and after it was chosen as a prize winner I had literally ten minutes to compose a pledge for pledgebank.      I pledged to mentor two people in the developing world if 250 people joined me.  350 people signed up by the deadline and I further pledged to create a database to try and make this idea fly.  He chose my idea and gave me £1,000 to start the project off.   

Around the same time I went to a Global s Conference hosted by Reuters at Canary Wharf.  I went as part of my work on citizens media for the BBC as I was working on a big project behind the scenes about how we could better engage with the blogosphere.  When we were all introducing ourselves I mentioned the pledge and quite a few of the Global s people, including you, signed up too!. 
Peter Gabriel is involved in a project to work with elder statesmen around the world as they have so much wisdom to offer and was kind enough to blog the plege on his website too - so it got quite a bit of attention.

We hit the 250 pledgers target a week before the pledge closed.  In the last week a further 100 signed up - which proves what we say we know.  That the web acts as an amplifer to our s - once things take off they take off. I was pleased to close the first pledge  in mid January as I was concerened how many peoples expectations I had raised. 

To make this dream a reality Chris Anderson  supported the idea further by hosting a lunch for me, well for the idea at TED in February 2006.  I was told there would be 30 people - not such a big deal I thought.  But 90 showed up.  Many of them have been in touch since with ideas for moving things forward, offers of help.  Even the critical friends have been useful.

What do you find most exciting about the idea?

I am excited, but I am cautious!  If that is a possible combination!  I am excited at the chance to start small and see it grow.  I am excited by the fact that so many people want to give it a go themselves.  I really hope we can find a way of making it work as part of peoples busy lives and that we have a chance to proove the concept.  I am much more excited than I am sounding here...

What are your next steps?

I have spoken to as many people as I can in the context of doing this in my so-called "spare time"  I have done quite a bit of research and many many of the pledgers have sent me ideas, called me, told me their views.  We have started a blog which is telling the story of the project, publishing research and ideas and letting people know how to get involved.  Next step is to open up the group to those who want to discuss various aspects of the proposition. I have had many offers of help , people wanting to volunteer . 

But we have needed to define a framework into which those offers can be made concrete.  The most crucial thing we need to do is to run a trial.  I'd like to test out some of our own claims, see what we can offer over the internet and phone across continents and cultures and see if it is of value.  The parameters of the trial are being discussed now and then I hope the volunteers are still there to help run the trial and to mentor.  It's been six months since the pledge, so some people will no doubt have lost interest - but I sincerely hope most will still want to mentor and some will want to help run the trial.

Can people still sign up to mentor?

The original pledge is closed  but you can still get in touch if you would like to mentor.  Or indeed if you want to help set up the next stage of the project or help with the trial.  I am actually going to fundraise for a paid project manager to work with me and the other volunteers.  We have to be realistic about peoples time.  Most of the Tedsters and Global s pledgers and , indeed, others are already very busy and very motivated people - and they signed up to mentor not to set up a trial or new organisation

What other type of help do you need?

That is a great question.  And the one I am most asked.  I will need a web designer who is sensitive to cultural context and able to make the complex simple! I will eventually need help with fundraising once we have done our trial.  I need someone to design us a leaflet - a real, printed leaflet that we can send people and leave on their desks!  I am sure there will be many many more things and   I will use our blog and mailing lists to keep people across what we need as we develop over time.  I need a laywer who knows both the US and UK charity scene and can advise us on governance, and how best to set up, and who wants to help for free.  If you can find us one of those then we will be eternally grateful!

Flickr Photo from the Mentoring Worldwide Blog

Welcome Fayrouz Shaqrawi

My colleague Lisa Goldman who covers the Israeli Blogosphere for Global s emailed about a new blog called The Land of Sad Oranges written by a friend named Fayrouz Shaqrawi.  Here's what Lisa shared about her friend:

Fayrouz is a Palestinian and an Israeli who grew up in the Galilee and speaks Arabic, Hebrew and English fluently. She is a remarkable young woman who manages simultaneously to study full-time at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem whilst teaching English at an academic college in East Jerusalem and working for a Palestinian news agency in Bethlehem.

Hers is the first blog by a Palestinian-Israel, and  I'm sure she's going to offer some unique insights into life in Israel and the West Bank/Palestine.  I'd really appreciate your going over to her blog to offer some encouraging words of welcome.

Women Bloggers in Africa Celebrate International Women's Day

Nancy White posted about the Blog Mentoring in Africa project, run by Ore Somolu and Sokari Ekine that she found from reading Joitske's blog.   I came across Ore's writing via Sokari Ekine's fantastic bridge blogging of the African blogosphere on Global s.  

Sokari has a summary on Global s on International Women's Day and how African bloggers have choosen to honour African women.  She writes, "We honour our mothers, sisters, grandmothers and daughters.  Women whose names you will not see written in the newspapers or hear on the radio but nonetheless women with courage whose spirits will always remain with us and guide us through our daily lives."

One of the posts/blogs that caught my eye was Sokwanele - This is Zimbabwe and their celebration of the women of Zimbabwa through WOZA (Women of Zimbabwe Arise). 

"WOZA stand out as a group of women who, through non-violent peaceful
action, give a public face and press-friendly words to the experience
that weighs on all women in our country……..We honour them not only
because they are undeniably brave, but because we recognise that their
actions give a to the experiences of Zimbabwean woman struggling
to survive on a daily basis. And through honouring them we recognise
the courage of all Zimbabwe women battling in these difficult times -
not just for today, but for every day of the year."

(Sokwanele - Zvakwana is a grassroots movement, embracing supporters of
all pro-democratic political parties, civic organizations and
institutions in Zimbabwe. Sokwanele and Zvakwana both mean 'enough is
enough' in the vernacular. So, here's another case study of using Web2.0 for social change. 

Don't Block the Blog: Pakistani Bloggers Freedom of Speech Threatened

Omer Alvie  and Awab Alvi are associated with the Help-Pakistan.com web site which was launched as part of the ongoing relief effort for the October, 2005 massive earthquake in Pakistan. Omer Alive, who covers the local blogosphere in Pakistan for Global s, recently launched an online campaign called "Don't Block the Blog" condemning censorship of bloggers in their country.  They write:

Over the past few days, The Freedom of Expression of Pakistani Bloggers has been under attack by some, if not all, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who has chosen to block all blogs hosted on the blogspot.com domain. Political pressure groups have protested to the government to block those web sites displaying the controversial cartoon images of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) that were hosted on the net. But instead of blocking specific sites, ISPs have simply blacklisted the entire domain, causing thousands of blogs to be inaccessible for viewing or authoring in Pakistan.

They've launched an online campaign to support free speech of Pakistani bloggers and internet free speech in general.  You can support their cause by copying the banner code  to your web site or blog.  You can find the code here.

Lisa Stone Interviews Global s Founders on Yi-Tan 1/9

Blogher Lisa Stone interviews Ethan Zukerman and Rebecca MacKinnon, Global s Founders.  The call is tommorrow, but you can always listen to the audio file.

The topics:

    * What does it mean to be a "conversation community"? Are you an alternative world news agency? A stage for global activism? An international collection of diaries? Will your site always be English only? Take us down the road three to five years.    
* How does this "conversation community" take its next steps, when so many bloggers live in countries that lack a free press? How about when many of these countries are at war?    
* What do you want and/or need from the first world and why? Money? Attention? Feedback?

Blogging To Improve Cambodia's Environment

Meet Zarah Jane Almeida who works as  a producer for Mlup Baitong's Environmental Advocacy Radio Program.   She has been blogging about her work and life at Sreisaat Adventures in Cambodia  since January, 2004.  Born in Roxas City, known as the seafood capital of the Philippines,  she graduated from the University of the Philippines with a degree in mass communications.   She moved to Cambodia in April, 2000.

1.  How and why did you find yourself in Cambodia?

Five years ago, after more than three years of working as a TV producer,  I  lost my enthusiasm for my work and resigned.   My sister was working for an NGO as a volunteer agriculturist in Cambodia and encouraged me to take a job there.

2.        Tell us about your work in Cambodia with the NGO, Mlup Baitong.

Mlup Baitong’s mission  is to address the problem of deforestation in Cambodia, with a focus on educating the public on conservation of natural resources.   I manage the over-all production of the radio program, attending production meetings and conducting in-house training for the local radio program staff so that they can take over my place after a period of time.   It was difficult to learn to the language at first!   Now, I enjoy working with my colleagues, traveling, searching for stories, interviewing people and listening to their stories and just interacting with them.   Although I come from a different culture, it doesn't hamper my work.  It is a benefit. 

3.   How does your NGO use technology to support your advocacy and education work?

Our organization gets feedback from listeners of our radio program via email and sms text messages.  (I got an exchange deal with a local mobile phone company and they gave us a free dial number so that listeners can call in during the broadcast for free for one year.)

After broadcast,  we re-edit the material and distribute for pagoda broadcasts in the provinces during holy days. The monks broadcast it through the pagoda public address system, a rudimentary system composed of a cassette player connected to an amplifier.  The monks help us with our environmental education and advocacy work.  I've written about this program on my blog and posted photographs on flickr.

The Community Forestry committee was also provided with a digital camera to aid them in documenting illegal activities that they've encountered during their regular patrols inside the forest.  The pictures are very vital evidence when the committee members write reports to local authorities or our organization to seek assistance.  The committee members of Community Forestry and Ecotourism projects were trained in basic computer skills and English language skills.

4.   Tell us about your blog?

I started my blog with the main goal of keeping in touch with family,  relatives and friends from far and wide.  I want them all to know about my work in Cambodia, and life here in general.  My Indonesian friend introduced me to blogging.  Using chats, she taught me how to start a blog and upload pictures. When I started to get lots of visitors, I realized why not blog more about my work with Mlup Baitong?   Although my blog is primarily for family and friends, I am inspired to read comments left by visitors saying that they learn more and something different about Cambodia’s environment.

Cross-posted on Global s

Technorati Tags: net2, nptech, cambodia

Dec. 26: Remembrance Week Begins

Via Dina Mehta come an announcement about Remembrance Week

The WorldWideHelp Group would like you to join us in Remembrance Week. It's designed to remember the one-year anniversary of the Tsunami as well as the other major disasters that stroke our world during the year.   They want to use the energy and power of the online community that came to together to help people impacted by these disasters and remind us that people are still suffering.

Here's what they suggest you do:

Use your blogs, your home pages, your wikis, your newsletters. Link to your favourite charities and NGOs, write a paragraph about them and the work they are doing, and ask your readers to make a donation. (If you'd like to find some more charities and NGOs, please take a look at this page on our TsunamiHelp wiki, this one on our KatrinaHelp wiki, or this one on our QuakeHelp wiki.)

Please link back to this page to help pass the word. You can use the image above.

Please use this Technorati Tag: Disaster Remembrance Week.
Here's the code:
<a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/disaster%20remembrance%20week" rel="tag">Disaster Remembrance Week</a>

In this post, we have a few more banners and buttons, with intructions on the code you must post to use them.

Technorati Tag: Disaster Remembrance Week.

Bloggers Needed for Young Caucasus Women Project

I met Katy Pearce via the Global s and I'm going to participate in her blog mentoring project and you can too!

Here's the description:

Interested in developing the worldwide blogosphere? Like working with young people?

We are looking for bloggers from around the world to be a blogging mentor for 1 week sometime in February, March, April or May 2006.

The project, Young Caucasus Women, is a group blog for young women from the Caucasus region (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia). The young women will be given a topic to blog on each week, although they are welcome to blog on any topic throughout the week.

We need bloggers to blog on a specific topic on Sunday, hence inspiring the young women's blog entries. The topic and week need to be determined at least month in advance.

Then throughout the week, the adult mentor blogger would need to comment on the young women's blog postings.

THAT'S IT - simple, yet a project with a lot of impact.

You don't need any background in the region. Just be culturally sensitive, have a topic that would be of interest to international young women and have a blog. We'd love to have English language bloggers from around the world.

Interested or know someone who is? Contact katy (at) katypearce (dot) org for more information.

Background:

There are almost NO blogs written by national individuals living IN-COUNTRY in the Caucasus. Generally blogs are written by ex-pats or diasporas. The students participating in this project are high school aged foreign exchange students currently in the US. The hope is that they will continue blogging once they return home in the summer of 2006.

The immediate aims of the project are:

To highlight the similarities and learn about the differences between young women in these neighboring countries.

To promote citizen journalism in developing countries as an alternative to mainstream media.

To promote weblogs as a method of democratic expression.

To expose young women to journalism and technology.

Technorati Tags: net2, nptech

Global Mentoring: 74 More to Go!

I met Lucy Hooberman, of BBC R&D at the Global s London Summit where I learned about her pledge on pledgebank.  (There was a lunchtime presentation of pledgebank).   

I, Lucy Hooberman, will mentor a minimum of two people in the developing world in the area of my skills base and expertise (media, communications, broadcasting , democratic media building, participatory media, community video). I will do this for free for a minimum of six months (in my free time). The mentoring will be in person or via email/skype and the mentoring connections will be established by a website and database that I am willing to take responsibility for creating but only if 250 other  people will mentor a minimum of two people in their skills.'

I signed up, but in a email this morning Lucy needs 47 more pledges to go!   So, if this mentoring project strikes your interest - sign up!

Technorati Tags: nptech, net2

Reflections from Global s London Summit

I'm just back from the Global s Summit in London.  One of the most exciting things for me was to finally meet Tharum (a Cambodian blogger) and pictured above face-to-face.  Tharum and I have been in communication via our blogs, IM, and email for over a year now.   In addition our participation at the conference, we got to discuss blogging while sharing a day of sightseeing in London. 

This was Tharum's first trip to the West and it was interesting to observe his initial culture shock.  I think it was more intense than a Westerner's culture shock visiting Cambodia for the first time.  I vlogged it here:
Download cultureshock.wmv

I'm still pretty fried, but wanted to capture some of my reflections about the GV London Summit experience.

First, there was a lot of energy in the room, similar to the blogher, because a lot of people had been reading each other's blogs or posts on GV, but had never met face-to-face.   Also, the people in the room were coming from all corners of the world, many of them bloggers, and all passionate about their topics.  It all translated into electricfying conversation -- both formally during the Summit and informally during social interaction.  (I vlogged some of the friday night informal dinner - global dining partners - Download globaldinningpartners.wmv

The Summit was a full-day session with all 80 or so people in the same room.  One might think that it would be difficult to sustain a truly interactive experience, but the way Ethan and Rebecca facilitated - it was an intense day-long conversation.  Each session began with a brief framing and then the mike was carrying to some designated speakers who spoke to the topic from their seat - briefly making remarks.  Then it was opened up for additonal comments and questions.    It was very similar to the way the blogher opening plenary was facilitated.  Meanwhile,  people in the room where listening, blogging, or on the IRC as well as remote participants. 

Yes, one day was way too short and definitely small group interaction would also have been good, but there is next year! (Next year in Nigeria?)

Jane Perrone, representing The Guardian, does a great job summarizing some of the conversation. 

It was also a success in terms of an  "intermediated conference" between the people who were in real-time, physical space and the virtual participants who were on the IRC or video conference connection.  I hope that SJ Klein, Angelo, and others who made this happen generate some reflections on what they did and why it worked it so well -- but here's a few techniques that I thought helped make it work well.

• IRC had two channels, one for transcription and one for the "backchannel" chat
• The transcriber (SJ Klein of Wikimania fame)  was typing a real-time transcription in the room, while Angelo, a blogger in Turkey was live blogging remotely. 
• Angelo grabbed flickr photos that were uploaded in real-time to add to the blog
• The backchannel had a designated "IRC Advocate" who towards the end of a session summarized the comments and posed some of the questions that came up during the backchannel. 

 
In terms of the topic, here's all the post-conference posts:

The Del.icio.us tag: http://del.icio.us/tag/globals
Technorati tag: http://technorati.com/tag/globals
Technorati search: http://technorati.com/search/%22Global+s%22
Flickr tag: http://flickr.com/photos/tags/globals/

Rebecca MacKinnon has just posted a synthesis of the GV Global s Summit: Emergence of a Conversation Community.  Ethan Zukerman shares his thoughts of the highpoints and why he is retroactively pleased.

There are various channels for post-conference follow up discussion, including the listserv, IRC channel, and wiki.   And this call to action from Rebecca "Above all, the important point here is that Global s will become what you make of it. GV’s future is not really up to me, or Ethan, or our Regional Editors, or Reuters, or any of our other sponsors or funders. We are really just trying to facilitate, support, enable, and draw attention to the conversations people want to have. The more initiative you take in shaping and contributing to GV, the more it will become what you want it to be."

I'm really interested in the discussion and thread on training and outreach for new bloggers and gonna jump right into the wiki now ..

 

Technorati Tags: globals

Live Blogging Global s Summit

I'm live blogging the conference on Cambodia4kids Blog.

Global s Summit

The Global s Summit takes place on December 10th and is an opportunity for contributors and community members to take stock of what we’ve done, promote our successes, and brainstorm about what a global citizens’ media community might accomplish going forward.

As a bridge blogger for the project, covering Cambodia, I'm delighted to have the opportunity to participate.   And, even more exciting to be able to meet some virtual colleagues face-to-face, like Tharum.  The official program.  As you can see, the list of participants is small to keep the format interactive and discussion-oriented.

However, if you can't make it to London, you can still participate remotely. Here's a list of people planning to do so.   The pre-conference wiki is here.

I've got to get organized ... so here's my pile of links that I'll need to get myself to London.

Airport:

Arrive in Terminal 3 from Boston on Virgin Atlantic red eye at 6:33 a.m.  Get a latte as soon as possible.

Tharum Arriving in Terminal 2 from PP via Bangkok and Paris on Airfrance Flight 2670 at 7:50 a.m.
meet at #16 on this map.  If delay or problem, can page each other at BAA info booth near customs exit.

Take Heathrow Express (can buy ticket at airport, train leaves from Terminal 2 - costs 13 pounds one-way can use credit card).  Take to Paddington Station. 
Use this map to walk to hotel, it's right there next to station.

Conference Hotel (Paddington Hilton) (Fri/Sat night.  Roommate:  Cecile Landsman - Streaming)

Friday night dinner at Lebanese Restaurant - map is here.

Conference starts at 10:00 a.m. at Canary Wharf, Reuters Buidling.  Meet in lobby at Hilton.  Taking the tube from Paddington to Canary Wharf.  Map of area/Reuters Building. Address: South Colonnade.

Saturday night dinner

Sunday Brunch

Shakespeare Hotel (Sunday night.  Visit Tate Modern and other places with Tharum and others)

London Journey Planner (to generate maps to and from places)

Meet The Dream Geek Team for Free Speech Online

Source:  Global s Online, Rebecca MacKinnon

From a post on Global s, Rebecca MacKinnon writes "These guys are basically the dream geek team for free speech on line. They gave instructions in detail about how non-governmental organizations, human rights groups, and individuals trying to speak the truth under dangerous circumstances can secure their communications and data, and minimize the likelihood that people will get caught or arrested as a result of their work."

This is very important work they area doing, particularly for bloggers in countries like Cambodia.  I'm also wondering who are the women doing this work? 

Technorati Tags: blogher, nptech, net2, wsis, globals webjustice2.0

Deep Breath ... I'm going!

Global s Summit 2005