Table of contents of this page 5.6.2010 Easier Subtitling of Video Material    28.3.2010 Lux Aurumque / First YouTube Virtual Choir    26.3.2010 Another piece on citizen Journalism    1.1.2010 Rich Publication on Citizen Media    1.1.2010 interesting award    1.1.2010 VERY interesting conference announcement    25.12.2009 from the Institute of Economic Democracy    19.12.2009 Video Journalist Volunteer Training in India    22.11.2009 Peer2Peer University is taking off!    20.11.2009 Interesting conference announcement    5.10.2009 Tele - Academy for Black Forest farmers    10.9.2009 Fund for Open Education    28.7.2008 University of the People    28.7.2009 Start

5.6.2010 Easier Subtitling of Video Material

Interesting project: Universal Subtitles ( http://blog.universalsubtitles.org/)

"Our goal is to see an exponential number of videos become more accessible: to those with hearing and visual disabilities; across language barriers; and even around literacy barriers (via dubbed audio)."

28.3.2010 Lux Aurumque / First YouTube Virtual Choir

A nice Sunday morning to all - a beautiful image of hope here:

http://ericwhitacre.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/the-virtual-choir-how-we-did-it/

26.3.2010 Another piece on citizen Journalism

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/mar/17/citizen-journalists-research-project

High-definition cameras and web-enabled mobile handsets wielded by ordinary people have become crucial elements of news coverage in places such as Tehran and Rangoon, where what once was unreported is now recorded and rapidly shared with the world. But as shown by the mobile phone film that a passer-by took of Ian Tomlinson – who died of internal bleeding after being attacked by a police officer – at last year's G20 demonstrations in London, those digital technologies have a part to play in news coverage closer to home.

1.1.2010 Rich Publication on Citizen Media

"There is a special issue on citizen's media and communication in the journal "Development in Practice", vol.19, issue 4 & 5, with articles by juan salazar, alfonso dagron, dorothy kidd, jo tacchi, and many others." . Right now it's free to download.

1.1.2010 interesting award

Durham, NC and Irvine, CA – December 16, 2009. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur? Foundation, in collaboration with the University of California, Irvine, Duke University and the virtual network HASTAC, today launched the third annual open-call competition that will provide $2 million in awards to innovators shaping the field of digital media and learning. President Obama named the Digital Media and Learning Competition as part of his initiative to improve education in math and science in a speech on November 23rd. The competition is supported through a grant to the University of California, Irvine and administered by HASTAC.

The competition seeks designers, inventors, entrepreneurs, researchers, and others to build digital experiences—the learning labs of the 21st century—that help young people interact, share, build, tinker, and explore in new and innovative ways.

Detailed information about these awards can be found online at http://www.dmlcompetition.net:

• Learning Lab Designer awards, which will range from $30,000-$200,000, are for learning environments and digital media-based experiences that allow young people to grapple with social challenges through activities based on the social nature, contexts, and ideas of science, technology, engineering

1.1.2010 VERY interesting conference announcement

• 8th European Conference on Interactive TV and Video Euro ITV2010 -

"web.sharing.tv.content"

• June 9th-11th, Tampere, Finland,  http://www.euroitv2010.org/

25.12.2009 from the Institute of Economic Democracy

Interesting Article by old friend J.W.Smith

Communication Super Highways Educating the World for 5-to-15% the Cost of Brick and Mortar Schools

19.12.2009 Video Journalist Volunteer Training in India

We received a mail saying

"I’m writing to tell you about VIVIDH, a new program Video Volunteers (VV) is launching. I hope you can be part of it! 

Imagine a journalist, activist or government official receiving a press release and a video in her inbox and it reads, “The practice of Untouchability in schools in India is a problem many people assume no longer happens. Well, last month, 60 community journalists investigated the issue in every state in India, and found troubling visual evidence of the practice across the country. These activist-journalists are rallying their communities to address this issue. Will you join them in speaking out? See the proof, realize the scale of the problem and take action!”  

Clicking on the link provided with the mail leads you to a video gallery with 60 short videos, each from a different region/state, demonstrating the widespread nature of this issue and other problems. The main video provides a journalistic roundup of the overall problem.  Other links lead viewers to take concrete action to combat the issue.

As activists we know how people’s issues are usually left out of the mainstream media. We at Video Volunteers believe that the only way to change this situation is for the underprivileged communities to create their own media. We are passionate about empowering community voices and have a well-worked strategy to create campaigns targeted to decision makers and the media for highlighting real issues facing India.

To this effect, we are launching VIVIDH - Community Journalism program where we will give fellowships to 60 local activists from across the country and train them in video journalism. The long term outcome of the CJ program is to create a video news agency from the poorest parts of the world, a sort of Reuters for the slums and villages that enables news agencies to access fascinating personal stories of social change and human rights from the most rural and remote parts of the country.

The mainstream media we are negotiating with are interested in vivid stories of local corruption and the non-implementation of otherwise pro-poor government policies. By unifying dozens of local stories from around the nation into an accessible media package for the mainstream media, we will bridge the gap between demand for content and the media exposure our issues need.

We need your help to identify these 60 people who VV will train as Community Journalists. We want one or two fellows from every state and Union Territory in India. VV will recruit the best possible candidate in your area who fulfills the following criteria: 

• Associated with social movements, human rights campaigns and/or NGO’s • Belong to a disadvantaged background • Strong interest in communicating local stories to the world • Basic knowledge of computers desirable • Willingness to work full-time on this project for at least one year • Can communicate in Hindi or English

We request you to nominate candidates from your areas. Please forward this mail to them or alternatively fill out the form here on their behalf. We will be happy to email you the application form if you prefer to print it out. 

Read more about VIVIDH

Read about the fellowship criteria and process

Apply/Nominate candidate 

We also need your help in passing this information to social movements/human rights campaigns or NGOs in other parts of the country from where we can find interesting candidates. 

VIVIDH will be the eyes and ears and of the communities, voicing the many struggles and stories that the rest of the country ought to hear and see. I hope you will take some time and make this possible.    Thank you for your solidarity and support. 

In harmony,

Stalin K  On behalf of the entire Video Volunteers team

• Newsletter produced by Video Volunteers
• C/O Temin and Co., 750 Lex Ave., 26th Fl. New York, NY 10022
• info@videovolunteers.org |
• http://www.videovolunteers.org

22.11.2009 Peer2Peer University is taking off!

Welcome to the Peer 2 Peer University

• Currently P2PU is in a pilot phase. At the beginning P2PU will offer scheduled "courses" that run for 6 weeks and cover university-level topics. Each course package, organized by a course volunteer, contains the syllabus, study materials, and a schedule. Learning will take place in small groups of 8-14 students. It could be considered a collection of online book clubs for open educational resources, navigating the wealth of open education materials that are out there, creating small groups of motivated learners, and supporting the design and facilitation of courses.
• P2PU is designed to blur the boundaries between students and teachers. Volunteers step forward to create course outlines and facilitate the course work. In some cases they may be experts in the field, and in others, they may rely on input and advice from others who have expert knowledge.
• During the current test phase the project aims to experiment with different styles of course structure, communication, and organization. As the project grows the goal is to become more of a platform so anyone can use P2PU to organize, design, and offer courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work, and we are building pathways to formal credit as well.
• Like open source software communities, the participants in a learning group provide feedback to each other, reviewing and improving each others' work. Peers in the course will assess each others work, and P2PU online certificates will be offered to signal that you've completed a course.

20.11.2009 Interesting conference announcement

http://www.iamcr2010portugal.com/

The Communication Policy and Technology (CP&T) Section of the IAMCR invites the submission of abstracts bearing on the Conference theme as well as on the Section sub-theme: ‘Citizen Participation through Technology, Access and Policy’.

The media and technology landscape as well as relevant communication policies are changing fundamentally, with a shift from mass media and personal media to media for mass self-communication. The technological facilities for mediated communication are proliferating and becoming increasingly fragmented as a result of convergence and the emergence and rapid spread of new media and internet technologies like interactive digital broadcasting, mobile technologies, social computing, internet-of-things and - more recently - cloud computing. Within this transitional digital media ecosystem researchers increasingly aim to understand how participation by people and communities can (still) take a central position and to what end. How can citizens and/or consumers be empowered in participation through ICT design, usages and policy? Or what are the threats and constraints for people to become disempowered in a convergence culture? Three main areas of user (dis)empowerment are being identified as themes of special interest for CP&T section:

• (1) market and state ‘feudalisation’,
• (2) privacy and surveillance, and
• (3) inclusion and media literacies.

(....)

A third area of focus deals with inclusion and multiple media literacies. This perspective links in with notions of digital participation that go beyond access. In the changing media environment, new affordances of communication tools require a reconfiguration of digital exclusion-inclusion. We need to look at different levels of capabilities, but also how inclusion is (not) built into specific media and technologies from a human-centred design perspective. At the same time this also means increasing the reach, breadth and depth of digital media and technologies across all domains of society through multiliteracies. The question remains however to what extent inclusion is always empowering, or can inclusion also lead to disempowerment.

abstract submission at

http://www.lasics.uminho.pt/ocs/index.php/iamcr/2010portugal/schedConf/cfp

5.10.2009 Tele - Academy for Black Forest farmers

In our research we came accross this fantastic project from Germany. Although they do not work with video yet, their mindset is in line with videobridge goals and with the spirit of our workshop - The quote is in German, saying that they link farmers on their remote farms and organize also personal meetings:

"Die Teleakademie richtet sich an alle Schwarzwaldbäuerinnen und -bauern, die weiterhin auf ihren Höfen leben und arbeiten wollen, insbesondere auch an die wachsende Zahl junger Schwarzwaldbäuerinnen und -bauern mit anderen Berufen. Mit den modernen Medien Internet, Mail und Fax verbinden wir die oft abgelegenen Schwarzwaldhöfe. Wir bauen ein internationales Bildungswerk von Bergbauern für Bergbauern. Dabie bietet die Teleakademie für Schwarzwaldbauern dabei mehr als anonyme Informationen und E-Learning. In Gruppentreffen und Weidegsprächen organisieren wir den Kontakt und den Meinungsaustausch der Besucher mit den Dozenten und Experten aus der internationalen Berglandwirtschaft."

10.9.2009 Fund for Open Education

http://blogs.talis.com/education/incubator/

Aimed at individuals or small groups, the Talis Incubator for Open Education provides angel funding and other forms of assistance for ideas and projects that have the potential to further the cause of Open Education through the use of technology. All we ask in return is that you donate or 'open source' the intellectual property generated back to the communities that could benefit most from your work.

(Entry by FranzNahrada)

28.7.2008 University of the People

Today I learned about this: University of the People (Uo People) is the world’s first tuition-free, online academic institution dedicated to the global advancement and democratization of higher education. The high-quality, low-cost and global pedagogical model embraces the worldwide presence of the Internet and dropping technology costs to bring collegiate level studies to even the most remote places on earth. With the support of respected academics, humanitarians and other visionaries, the Uo People student body represents a new wave in global education

sounds quite close to us! http://www.uopeople.org/

more on that: http://mashable.com/2009/07/24/education-social-media/ In the Future, the Cost of Education Will Be Zero

(Entry by FranzNahrada)

28.7.2009 Start

So this is the Blog to connect daily reflections to our upcoming workshop theme. This is embedded in Dorfwiki, a german language wiki for villages (see VillageWiki for more details)