· April, 2012

Stories about Feature from April, 2012

Featured Guide: Data Journalism Handbook – A New Approach To Storytelling

Data-driven journalism is a journalistic process of telling stories after mining and filtering large data sets freely available online. To create a comprehensive step-by-step guide to data journalism, last November at a 48 hour workshop at Mozilla Festival in London, a number of journalists and developers started a booksprint. The Handbook (freely downloadable online) has been formally launched on 28th of April, 2012 at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia.

Bangladesh: Citizen's Voice, A Citizen Watchdog for Public Services

  27 April 2012

Citizen’s Voice (Nagorikkontho.org) is an online project based on localized Ushahidi platform to empower Bangladeshi citizens by having their voices heard regarding feedback on public services. The platform supports both Bangla and English language and allows submission of texts, images and videos via mobile phone and web.

Quechua: Words of Encouragement from the Haquira Mayor

26 April 2012

When Irma Alvarez Ccoscco, coordinator of the new Rising Voices grantee project Llaqtaypa Riymaynin (Voices of my Community) returned to her hometown of Haquira, Peru, she received an overwhelming display of support from the town's residents and local authorities after informing them that her project is moving forward.

Ségou Villages: Boukary Konaté Is A Finalist At BOBs

  25 April 2012

Rising Voices grantee and a translator for Global Voices in French Boukary Konaté puts another feather on the cap this year. Boukary has been listed among the finalists in the Best of Blogs the BOBs, an annual event held by the Deutsche Welle Media Group to award outstanding blog and bloggers.

Paraguay: Citizen Media Workshops with Aché Communities

  24 April 2012

The first workshops for the 2012 class of Rising Voices grantee projects are soon to be underway. In Paraguay, the project Ache djawu/palabra Aché (The Aché Word) has announced on their project blog that its first activities are scheduled for April 28 with the selection of seven young leaders from six Aché communities to take part in a set of intensive citizen media workshops in Asunción.

CGNet Swara: Enabling Tribals of Chhattisgarh To Tell Their Stories

  22 April 2012

CGNet Swara is a mobile-based news service which enables the tribals of Chhattisgarh to tell their version of stories, in their language. In this voice-based portal, citizen journalists can call a phone number and record a news onto the system. Similarly listeners can call the same number and hear the last three highlighted news. The reports are also shared by SMS, mailing list, blog, Twitter, Facebook and other social media networks.

Languages: The Digital Sounds of Bésiro (Chiquitano)

  22 April 2012

A group of linguists in Santa Cruz, Bolivia recently started a project called Monkox Bésiro as a way to revitalize the Bésiro (Chiquitano) language through the use of digital citizen media tools. In addition to creating Twitter and Facebook accounts to encourage participation among their community, they have been utilizing audio podcasts to share the sounds of this native language.

Guinea-Bissau: A Better Place to Go Online

  16 April 2012

High quality internet connections are hard to come by in Guinea-Bissau. Through a partnership with various local NGOs, the CENATIC internet center is providing access to organizations and individuals interested in connecting with the global conversation.

Living Tongues: Endangered Language Technology Kits To The Rescue

  10 April 2012

Living Tongues Institute for endangered languages acknowledges that with the death of every endangered language the collective history of an entire people dies with it. To address this issue the institute scientifically documents endangered languages, and assists communities with maintaining and revitalizing knowledge of their native languages through ICT and community driven tools. It is raising funds to secure recording equipment and computers for 8 indigenous language activists in India, Papua New Guinea, Chile and Peru.

The Engine Room: Cataloging Social Advocacy Technology

  7 April 2012

The engine room is working with Oxfam Novib to catalog every organization, meetup, event and community that supports advocacy movements with technology questions. If you know about such tools, organization, community etc. please take a recently launched survey to help the project succeed.

The Kuyu Project: Teaching Digital Literacy To Congolese Refugees in Uganda

  4 April 2012

On the 1st - 4th of March 2012, the Kuyu Project in partnership with the Xavier Project organized a digital literacy camp in Nsambya, Kampala, Uganda. It trained approximately 70 Congolese Refugees on how to use social media and other digital tools to tell their stories and achieve their objectives. Eduardo Avila of Rising Voices speaks with Simeon Oriko, Founder and Executive Director of the Kuyu project about the event.

Guinea-Bissau: A Photograph of the Photographer

A photograph of Ampote Mango, a participant of RV's grantee project in Guinea-Bissau, was recently selected to be included in an exhibit at the newly-inaugurated Casa dos Direitos in the capital city of Bissau. The photograph taken during an outing as part of a workshop, captures the power of citizen media for women to tell their own stories.