Rising Voices note: Our biweekly newsletter provides a summary of our recent blog posts about all aspects of digital inclusion including access and adoption of digital tools, as well as different ways and opporunities for communities to fully participate online. Read here for previous editions of this newsletter.
Once a day on a site called Tools for Reporters, freelance journalist and instructor Samantha Sunne shares a tip about a tech-related tool to help reporters and citizen journalists “keep up with this crazy world of the Internet and technology.” These posts are also shared on social media, such as the @tools4reporters Twitter feed.
Previous tools shared include alternatives to the Audacity audio editing program, how to download YouTube videos, and ways to manage large numbers of Google Docs.
MORE FROM THE RISING VOICES BLOG
For this issue, we’d like you to meet four recent hosts of our rotating Twitter project on African language digital activism (@DigiAfricanLang)! We would like to thank Tochi Precious for sharing with us her work on the Igbo language, Ibrahima Malal Sarr for his work on the Fulah language, Mpumie Njobe for her work on the IsiZulu language, and Mahuton Bienvenu Possoupe for his work on the Fon language. Please read the Q&A posts to learn more about them and their work!
Also in this issue, we’d like to introduce you to a recent guest-host of @ActLenguas — indigenous language digital activist Yazmín Novelo (Maya from Peto, Yucatán, Mexico). In her profile post, you’ll get to know more about her and her work in revitalizing/promoting of her native language.
And if you are curious about how Native American and First Nations language revitalization efforts are being aided by the internet and technology, you should check out what our recent hosts of @NativeLangsTech have to say about their work in digital activism for these languages. We present you the Q&A blog posts with recent hosts G̓vu̓í (Rory Housty) (for the Haíɫzaqvḷa language of the Heiltsuk Nation in the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada), Holly Helton-Anishinaabeqwa (for the Anishinaabe language spoken in the Lake Superior area of the United States), and Bill Cook (for the ’th’ dialect of the Cree language spoken in north eastern Saskatchewan, Canada).
UPCOMING EVENTS & CONFERENCES
MozFest will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in London this year (October 21-27) and is calling for proposals! Got a great project, idea, or topic toward a better, healthier internet to share but are worried about your expertise level? Don’t be! Diversity is the key here. Please see here and here for details. Submission due: August 1, 2019
The 6th Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) is coming up this fall! This event is hosted by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) and aims to engage various stakeholders in a conversation upon current regional challenges as well as opportunities in the internet arena. For details, please see this announcement. Date: September 23-September 26, 2019 / Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
ADDITIONAL READINGS, LISTENINGS, and VIEWINGS
- 500 Days of Duolingo: What You Can (and Can’t) Learn From a Language App via The New York Times
- Decolonizing Science Writing in South Africa via The Open Notebook
- Haida elders receive honorary doctorates for helping keep language alive via CBC
- The village that built its own wi-fi network as presented by BBC News Africa via YouTube
- CPGC Recognizes Oaxacan Language Activist Janet Chávez Santiago as Fellow via Haverford College
- Radio life without FM: Exiled Burundian radio journalists broadcast on WhatsApp via jamlab (the Journalism and Media Lab)
- Saving an endangered Indigenous language, one tweet at a time via TVO
- Using technology to help revitalize indigenous languages via OUPblog
- UBC PhD candidate explores how social media can revive Indigenous languages via The Georgia Straight
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