From February 2013, Joan Serra Montagut is coordinating a book edition project that is building – through a collective work of 500 young people from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and El Salvador – a collection of 12 books about 12 important aspects of the human life (heritage, art, identity, women, etc.). Each one is made in one different city from San Salvador to San Cristóbal de Las Casas. The aim of the project is to strengthen nets through books and new medias in the youth from this geographic area made of 5 countries promoting reading, the knowledge of the own identity and freedom.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Mérida (Yucatán, México)
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
Some universities in Mérida are collaborating with Proyecto Ja’ab, converting this city in a young and collective editorial. Some students have made the design of the books; some other have corrected the texts, etc. From October 2014 until December 2014, two groups in two different universities will contribute with the digital platform of the Proyecto Ja’ab, that includes a blog and some social medias with information about young people in Mayan Area and a webpage of the Proyecto Ja’ab and the organization that is hosting this adventure: SOM Editorial Col•lectiva (managed by Joan Serra Montagut). These students have a high familiarity with Internet and a big knowledge of communication skills (Communication students from Autonomous University of Yucatán) and Web design (Modelo University).
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
The Proyecto Ja’ab was selected by CERLALC-UNESCO (Regional Centre of Book Promotion in Latin America and Caribbean) in the first Iberbibliotecas competition. Joan Serra Montagut is looking for new institutions to be integrated in the project and contribute in the printing of the books (public institutions, foundations, etc.). The funding to print the books and the design of them will be finished, probably, in late June 2014. The books will be printed this summer and we need to promote the books among schools, universities and public libraries from October 2014 through Rising Voices fund. The social media and the digital platforms are basic to promote this collective and genuine adventure and to create a young and revolutionary digital platform in the Mayan area.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The students from Modelo University will create the webpage of the Proyecto Ja’ab, including photos and descriptions of the 12 cities and including the pdf archives of the books to promote e-reading. The other group, created by Communication students, will create a blog of news about the Mayan area, that will promote the communication among young people from this region through Internet. It will include information about projects of art and peace culture and will develop an strategy of social nets as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. The blog will be considered as the first citizen young media of the Mayan area. I can be a magnificent opportunity to show optimistic news to avoid the bad impact of the migration, the poverty, the lack of studies and opportunities, etc.
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.
The Proyecto Ja’ab has made a lot of links with civil organizations, artists, etc. of all the 12 cities. Now, is linking the project with government institutions, private foundations and other organizations. Joan Serra Montagut has worked from September 2013 with Autonomous University of Yucatán and with Modelo University and will continue this connection the next semester. Our digital strategy will finish next December 2014 and some young people of these two universities will continue feeding the blog and the social nets. The Proyecto Ja’ab has worked with 4 universities in Mérida apart from these two mentioned and with a lot of other academic, artistic, civic, social and politic institutions from the 5 countries such as Museo de la Palabra y de la Imagen, FILEY, etc.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
Proyecto Ja'ab will invite the students and will work, probably, with 40 students. 20 students will make the webpage and 20 students will prepare the social media and the digital strategy. Other universities and other young people and collectives can be invited in this process. These students will contact with other young communicators from the Mayan area and will investigate all the projects of social communication, art and communities, etc. to link them in one digital platform that can be used from a wide spectrum of young people from these 5 countries. The inclusion of Proyecto Ja’ab in the curricula of these two universities will bring success and a solid structure to develope the activities.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
We will use a webpage of the Proyecto Ja’ab, a blog and a digital platform (Facebook, Twitter and Flickr) to promote the 12 books and the connection among the 12 cities and the 5 countries. Joan Serra Montagut is a journalist, editor and writer from Barcelona. As the project organizer, he worked in Guatemala (2008) coordinating a course of Literature and Social Media and he was the Communication for Development specialist in UNESCO Office in Mexico. He leaded some communication projects in indigenous communities from Chiapas (Mexico) through UNESCO programs and he worked for UNDP as independent consultant in a United Nations project in Chiapas (Mexico).He lives in Mayan area since 2011 and has a deep knowledge of this region and of young gropus that area creating communication projects.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
We don’t know yet the space and the technical features that we will have during the implementation of the second period of the Proyecto Ja’ab but the organizations that will work with us are universities and they have digital areas, Internet connection, computers, ADSL and all the technologies that are needed to lead an excellent digital project.
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?
Joan Serra Montagut has a deep relationship with Mayan area and with projects of communication and culture in this region from 2008. He lives in Yucatán since 2011. He has worked in several organisations in this geographical area and has a lot of experience with young people from this area, in universities, social projects, etc. As a journalist, he has a deep knowledge of the social and cultural aspects of this complex area and he proposes a revolutionary project of reading, writing and Citizen journalism that wants to promote reflection and the connection with the collective cultural roots (in an area where racism is very present) among the new generations in the urban contexts, where the building of the identity is a more difficult process due to a wide spectrum of obstacles.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
Proyecto Ja'ab will be a successful experience because it has built a huge platform of young people interested in literature, communication, dialogue and peace. The students of the 2 universities that will lead the construction of the webpage, the blog and the strategy of social medias to promote the reading, the collection of 12 books and the digital communication among new creators and peace leaders will count with this platform and will strengthen contacts with all of them. Some obstacles that can appear are the lack of motivation, the ending of the activities when the course will be finished and the big dimensions of the project and the goals, but we will make the most of all the rich social net that we have made during six years.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
The success will become when young people from the 12 cities will send articles for the blog and the webpage will be visited in universities, schools, etc. We will try to include the social procedure of construction of the digital strategy in social and printed medias to show to the people of this area the effort of this group of young journalist. The impact will be big because it will be parallel with the distribution of the books. The project is historical in this region and never before any huge platform of young creators made a collective collection of 12 books or developed an effective social media that covered the real problems / dreams of the young people of the Mayan Area, where the indigenous reality is mixed with social and cultural complex situations in an urban context.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
MAY 2014 – The Modelo University finishes the design of the collection.
JUNE 2014 – The Modelo University finishes the design of the collection.
JULY 2014 – The Modelo University finishes the design of the collection.
AUGUST 2014 – PRINTING THE COLLECTION.
SEPTEMBER 2014 – PRINTING THE COLLECTION. / Starting the course of social media in Autonomous University of Yucatán and Modelo University.
OCTOBER 2014 – Course.
NOVEMBER 2014 – Course.
DECEMBER 2014 – The course finishes and the results are socialized. The blog includes several news from young people in Mayan area and the Modelo University finishes the designt of the Proyecto Ja'ab webpage.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
The costs of Internet access will be covered by the univesities. The 2,500 US dollars will be destinied to cover the workshop costs, the transportation of the coordinator to the universities and the coordination expenses (rental, food, telephone, Internet at home, health assurance, migration procedures, etc.) of 4 months of the course (600 US dollars per month).
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
It may be fantastic if Rising Voices experts could provide technical, coaching and programmatic assistance to the Proyecto Ja'ab during the building of the digital strategy. It can be a big opportunity if Proyecto Ja'ab can promote the aim of the project, the 12 books and the young news from Mayan area in the webpage of Rising Voices and in other related platforms.
Contact name
JOAN SERRA MONTAGUT
Organization
SOM Editorial Colectiva (creating the association in México))