September, 2009

Stories from September, 2009

Malagasy Blogger Reflects Upon Climate Change Conference and G20 Summit

  30 September 2009

Sept, 27th marked the end of a busy week-long journey for Malagasy blogger and Foko coordinator Stephane, a.k.a pakysse. Stephane took off from Antananarivo, Madagascar on the 21st and landed in JFK, NYC on the 22nd for the Climate Change Conference in New York City at the United Nations Headquarters and the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh.

Nomad Green: Environmental Activism

  27 September 2009

A number of workshops were held by the Rising Voices grantee Nomad Green in September 2009. Thanks to the passionate translators like Azaa, Ariungerel, Tungaa, and Odnoo, many articles have already been translated from Mongolian into English and was featured in the Nomad Green site.

[Video] Does New Media Outreach Lead to Westernization?

  24 September 2009

It is always easier to criticize than to get involved and one of the criticisms we hear most often at Rising Voices is that helping under-represented communities join the online global conversation will inevitably lead to their westernization. Álvaro Ramírez and Diego Gomez, co-founders of the HiperBarrio project, addressed this question while they were in Austria to pick up their Golden Nica award.

[Video] Interview with Pablo Flores

  22 September 2009

The day after Pablo Flores gave his presentation at the Ars Electronica Symposium about cloud technologies and education we were able to sit down with him for a few minutes to find out more about his projects and his current year-long sabbatical in which he will be visiting OLPC projects around the world and creating a multimedia website which compares his observations from one to one computing programs in different countries.

Repacted: Training Community Members

  14 September 2009

Dennis Kimambo, the co-founder of the Rising Voices grantee Repacted was featured recently in the BBC pods and blogs podcast. In this interview Dennis talked about training local communities to blog and how this helps the communities to tackle the spread of HIV/AIDS.

[Video] Pablo Flores at Ars Electronica

  11 September 2009

Pablo Flores from Plan Ceibal, Uruguay's One Laptop Per Chile project, and Blogging Since Infancy presented at this year's Ars Electronica Symposium on Cloud Intelligence. Pablo asked the audience to consider how those who have the most to gain can benefit from the information amassing online. The value of intelligence, after all, is in solving problems facing society. Flores points to housing, nutrition, and education as three major social issues which can be improved with more access to better information. In order to bring intelligence and information from the cloud to everyday citizens in Uruguay, for example, they need a network of connectivity and devices.

[Video] Álvaro Ramírez at Ars Electronica 2009

  10 September 2009

HiperBarrio was represented at Ars Electronica by Álvaro Ramirez, Gabriel Jaime Vanegas, and Diego Gomez. Álvaro's presentation introduced the history and evolution of HiperBarrio and how the group of young bloggers and citizen journalists in San Javier La Loma have managed to maintain a sense of community while still introducing new members to remain open and inclusive.

HiperBarrio Receives The Golden Nica 2009 In Linz, Austria

  10 September 2009

In June we reported that HiperBarrio had won the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica awards in the Digital Communities category and with it a 10,000 euro prize. Last Week HiperBarrio members Gabriel Jaime Vanegas Montoya and professor Alvaro Ramirez Ospina were in Linz, Austria to receive the prize.

Drop-In Center: New Awareness Program Launched

  9 September 2009

Pavel Kutsev, leader of the Ukrainian harm reduction movement and director of Drop-In Center, blogs about a new HIV/AIDS awareness program launched by his organization. These awareness displays will be placed in pharmacies frequented by drug users.