This initiative is a response to the need of documenting the local history of the 12th municipality people. The project is about putting the stories and events of the people who have their life experiences in these places into a tangible format (photographs, documents, interviews, anecdotes and elements that were part of the history).
The implemented methodology is based on a reflective, systematic and methodical search for information through tools such as ICTs, with the aim to collecting information, and promoting digital literacy among the elderly participating in the process.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Medellín
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
Our target population is the elderly who have knowledge of the history of the 12th municipality.
They provide information and input to the development of the program: information that contributes to the building of Floresta Library`s Local Information Service.
The community is represented mainly by two web resources, http://digitalizandoelpasado.blogspot.com http://www.flickr.com/digitalizandoelpasado blog and online photo gallery; these URLs have all the collected materials.
The program was created with the idea that the elderly should remain active library users and at the same time that they should benefit from digital literacy programs.
The ICTs knowledge level of our population is intermediate; they have participated in the workshop “digital literacy” that is given by the Library.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
* Vanessa De Los Ríos:
Digital Culture Technician, project manager and motivator of digital literacy programs.
https://www.facebook.com/vane.delosrios?fref=ts
@VanesDeLosRios
* Olga Ocampo:
Reading and writing promoter: her contribution to the process is given from the review of the written stories made by participants.
https://www.facebook.com/olgalucia.ocampov?fref=ts
@ocampo_va
* Sandra Piedrahíta:
Library Technician: gives support on the development of data collection instruments.
https://www.facebook.com/sandra.piedrahita1?fref=ts
@sandrispiedrahi
* Daniela Agudelo:
Library Technician: gives support to the editorial review and correction of the participant’s written stories.
https://www.facebook.com/daniela.agudeloberrio?ref=tn_tnmn
@Danburton29
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The program creates and collects contents focused on the reconstruction of the local memory of the 12th municipality such as:
Real life stories (experiences): are told and shaped by the program participants.
Interviews: They are made by the participants and by the library staff, who working together make use of previously developed data collection forms (questionnaires).
Photographs: participants assemble a collection of old photographs, which will become part of a virtual gallery.
Content collected during the program (documents, written and audiovisual), is aiming to become a source of public use for everyone who wants to know more about the historical memory of the 12th municipality of Medellín, and this is why it's posted on a blog and a photo gallery ready for it.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
Among our immediate goals we have to contact the Community Action Board, local administrative boards, community media (Floresta TV Network, El Sol Newspaper, El Atrio Newspaper, and others) also educational and cultural institutions in the 12th municipality, so that we jointly perform activities in order to search for facts or experienced events told by their protagonists.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
49 people have participated in the program, an elderly population ranging between 60 and 95 years old, who unfortunately due to their age are no longer with us. However, from basic computer workshops we are attracting new audiences to be part of the project.
Each year there is an increasing value added to the project, which makes participants able to constantly bring in their experiences and/or research. For this year: we have planned a timeline for periods of 10 years, in which we will be relating all the events, characters and other important processes in the evolution of the neighborhood; based on this timeline we will tell new stories and we will gather information (documents, photos, and interviews) to be subsequently revised and published according to their relevance.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
In the training process technological tools are used allowing the collected information to be shared efficiently, facilitating their search through virtual means like the Internet. In addition the use of physical components is necessary: a scanner, some computer equipment, a camera and a video and sound recorder. In the same way, in the development of the project it is essential the intervention of an interdisciplinary group bringing expertise as follows:
* Digital Culture Technician: project and ICT training of participants, as well as maintenance of virtual platforms.
* Reading and writing promoter: responsible for checking spelling and grammar on the stories.
* Communicator: gives support to the development of questionnaires, and the processes of conducting interviews and editing.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
The library has a computer room, with 22 desktop computers all in one, 1 of them serving the guidance of a staff member, and 21 for free use and digital literacy promotion.
With the following characteristics:
• Intel Core i3 Processor, 320 GHz
• RAM: 4.00 GB
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional.
• Memory: 500 Gb
The Internet service uses a fiber optics connection as the transmission medium at a speed of 6 Mbps.
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
We have an indirect relationship with the community under the project, an indirect way to reach them through the products in the program (stories, photos, audio, etc.). With the participants involved; there is an ongoing long-term process, we have a direct relationship with an ongoing accompaniment on how to collect information, how to enter the records, to assess the impact in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, to investigate and expose the products. Besides these features, it is important to note that there is a process which has built bonds of trust, mutual respect and understanding.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
There are 4 factors that represent a challenge to the planning and implementation of the project, these are: time, money, transportation and software, which are directly related, because reviewing, classifying and debugging the compiled material requires a large investment in time, also conducting interviews which in most cases requires the displacement of library staff to the place of residence of the respondent, so it is necessary to allocate monetary resources, not only for the tours, but to purchase the software license that allows editing the interviews.
As a strategy to overcome these difficulties, the library staff has accompanied the process from every member`s field of action, adding to everyone`s primary functions the review of stories and conducting and editing the interviews.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
The strategy proposed to measure is given in three moments:
1. Develop a relationship of trust between the participants and the facilitator of the project, which can detect the complaints, the problems and needs that could arise during the process and suggestions for improvement of the program.
2. The ICTs training process is one of the processes when evaluating, for this reason the performance of each of the participants is continuously monitored and compared with their initial level (State of the art) in handling the ICTs tools.
3. Regarding the impact on the community, this is measured by the number of visits the blog and photo gallery have, where there is a record approximate fifteen thousand visits there. Here the impact is being generated in a global-digital community.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
The timeline would be developed as follows:
*Amount of weeks AW:36
Starting dates SD:31/03/14
Ending dates ED:24/11/14
Activities description AD:Collection of information about the history of the 12th municipality.
*AW:4, SD:01/04/14, ED:31/04/14, AD:Systematic placement of formats.
*AW:9, SD:01/04/14, ED:05/12/14, AD:Continuous review of the information.
*AW:12, SD:01/06/14, ED:30/09/14, AD:Design of the structure of a document (physical) containing the information.
*AW:3, SD:01/10/14, ED:17/10/14, AD:Selection of the most relevant materials to include in the book.
*AW:11, SD:01/04/14, ED:30/11/14 AD:Upload documents collected in the blogs (photos, records, old documents, etc.)
*AW:4, SD:15/11/14, ED:15/12/14, AD:Review information from professionals in the subject.
*AW:3, SD:10/11/14, ED:30/11/14, AD:Changes suggested by the professionals (if anything has to be changed) in the information.
*AW:2, SD:05/12/14, ED:19/12/14, AD:Review of the materials by the Project Leader.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
* Workshops and elements to develop: Digital Camera. $1.300 USD and Photograpic Printer Epson L355. $260 USD.
* Trainings: Memoirs in digital media. $200 USD
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Rising Voices is an initiative to promote the benefits of self-expression through citizen media it was also established as a project of Global Voices, an international community of bloggers who report, translate and defend the blogs and citizen media for everyone. In this sense the information collected in the past agenda of Scanning The Past can be translated into different languages and disseminated through a global channel, which would extend the coverage of audiences that are meant to be reached. Similarly the blogging community can provide advice on publishing contents and maintaining virtual platforms.
Contact name
Vanessa De Los Ríos
Organization
Biblioteca Público Barrial La Floresta
