Stories from March, 2012
Tunisia: A National Network Of Alternative And Citizen Media
The award winning Tunisian blog Nawaat, in partnership with Tunisian Ministère de la Jeunesse et des Sports & Canal France Internationale (CFI), has launched a new project in Tunisia to create citizen journalism clubs in youth centres. The goal is to have a national network of alternative and citizen media, using simple blogging platforms, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
IsumaTV: Preserving Indigenous Media And Connecting Native Communities
Isuma.tv from Canada is an independent interactive social networking website of Inuit and Aboriginal films launched in January 2008. The site hosts films for free and intends to help Native communities around the world become connected. There are currently over 2600 videos in 46 different Indigenous languages archived in the platform. The site is available in either high or low bandwidth for those in more rural communities.
Announcing the 2012 Rising Voices Grantees
Rising Voices is pleased to announce the six newest members to join its global community of citizen media grantees. Each of the selected projects will receive microgrants to implement their proposed project to teach others how to use various citizen media tools. Please join RV in congratulating and welcoming the five projects from Palestine, Peru, Paraguay, Burma, the United States, and Guatemala.
Featured Guide: Creating Facebook Pages with Impact (Arabic)
The much talked about Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the Mid-East heavily relied on the Internet and social media like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Social Media Exchange (SMEX) has released a new Arabic-language guide "Creating Facebook Pages with Impact: A Guide for Arab Civil Society Organizations". The guide will be helpful to emerging Arab activists as well as more experienced organizers trying to leverage social media effectively.
Apps4Africa: Using Crowdsourced Mobile Apps to Tackle Climate Change
Apps4Africa is an effort by a Ugandan software company started in 2009 with the idea of trying to help people in Africa use technology to their benefit. The Apps4Africa challenge is now spreading to southern African countries and during February - March 2012 it is being hosted in several countries of this region. On last March 16th a campaign event was organized in the Madagascar capital Antananarivo.
Iraq: First Conference For Iraqi Bloggers
The first conference for the Iraqi bloggers took place during 8-9 February in the city of Sulaymaniyah. It was organized by the Iraqi Network for Social Media and more than 70 Iraqi bloggers from across the country attended. For a country with low internet penetration and security concerns for bloggers this conference brought a lot of hope.
Video Contest: Everyday Digital Native – Cast Your Vote Now
The juries of the “Everyday Digital Native” video contest organized by The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS), India, and HIVOS shortlisted 12 videos for the next round. You can check out the final videos and vote for your favorite one within March 31, 2012. Five videos with the maximum votes will be declared winners on April 1, 2012.
Singing The National Anthem In Their Own Language (Part 2)
In our second feature on the examples of citizen media videos of national anthems sung in indigenous or less spoken languages, we see that in many countries it is prohibited by law to sing national anthems except the national language(s). However that does not stop the ordinary people to use citizen media to sing their national anthem in their own language.
Ségou Villages: Finding a Way to Connect in Rural Mali
Rural residents in the Ségou villages have a difficult time accessing the internet, but the project Ségou Villages Connection has been helping these villages find a way. Based on personal experiences of growing up in these villages, project coordinator Boukary Konaté is serving as a mentor to these young people.
IndigiTUBE: Media Made By And For The Indigenous People In Remote Australia
Aboriginal people in remote parts of Australia remain the most marginalized group in the country who face poverty and discrimination everyday. IndigiTUBE is an online community for sharing and accessing media made by and for Indigenous people in remote Australia. IndigiTUBE includes both a radio portal and a video streaming service.
Project Unbreakable: Using Words Of Abuse For Awareness And Healing
Grace Brown, a student at New York’s School of Visual Arts, was so moved by the horrific descriptions of sexual abuse from a victim that she started photography project called Project Unbreakable. Grace's scope is using photography to help heal sexual abuse survivors by asking them to write a quote from their attacker on a poster and photographing them holding the poster.
