This week we’ve been looking at the different tools and tech being used by the local affiliate of the Occupy Together or Occupy Wall Street movement, also known as “We are the 99%.” Steve and Josh wrote about their experience at the protest, Josh investigating the opportunity posed by livestreaming, while Steve took some time [...]
With the growing momentum behind the Occupy Wall Street movement, I knew there would be a lot of press at the Occupy Portland march. Josh and I went over and watched as they kicked off their march to speak to the media who associated themselves with the movement, see what tools they were using, and [...]
Last week some of us from Small World News visited the Occupy Portland protest, a local spin-off of the Occupy Wall Street protests that have captured the national attention. We wanted to observe how citizen media was being utilized to cover the protests, and also to experiment with the tools of the trade. I’ve always [...]
Since launching in March, our journalists operating in Ajdabiya, Benghazi, and Misrata have produced 175 videos covering the revolution, the civil war, and the daily life of Libyan citizens. With the fall of the Gaddafi regime in Tripoli, Alive in Libya has now expanded to the capital, along with a new bureau in Zintan. Training [...]
Yesterday my colleague Steve Wyshywaniuk addressed how Citizen Media might assist Egyptians and the international community to bear witness to the upcoming election in Egypt. If the current ban preventing international observers continues, Egyptian citizens will be the only ones with the potential to ensure the validity of the election. After thirty years under Hosni [...]
At SWN HQ we’ve been discussing creative ways Egypt might be able to ensure their upcoming elections are free and fair. At this point the love affair between the Egyptian people and the Web last spring is painstakingly documented. But the recent announcement that the military council will maintain the emergency law into next year, shows that they need [...]
Yesterday in this space we discussed the upcoming elections in Egypt, and the need for international observers to work alongside local organizations to ensure the fairness and accuracy of the polls. International and local observers working together would allow reports of fraud, intimidation, and other improprieties to be more easily verified, increasing the legitimacy [...]
Reuters reports: Egypt will start parliamentary elections on November 21, Al Arabiya Television and the Al-Ahram newspaper reported on Saturday, the country’s first vote since a popular uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February after 30 years of autocratic rule. Al-Ahram quoted Egypt’s election commission head, Abdel Moez Ibrahim, as saying voting for the lower [...]
Somali refugees in Kenya lack basic access to communication and information about the aid and services available to them. From Internews: The assessment surveyed over 600 refugees and shows that large numbers of displaced Somalis don’t have the information they need to access basic aid: More than 70 percent of newly-arrived refugees say they lack [...]
While most Americans spent this last weekend celebrating the Labor Day holiday, the world of media didn’t take a vacation. Here’s a couple of cool stories from around the internet that you won’t want to miss: Building Media City-by-City The US Embassy in Kabul reported on its Facebook page that the first of many USAID-funded [...]
Media development organization Internews has released a new report on the state of Libyan Media. Authored by Jamal Dajani and Jacobo Quintanilla, the report explores the recent history of media in Libya, speculates on the future, and provides a comprehensive “Media Map” of all the news outlets, independent or otherwise, operating in Libya today. From [...]
From the Ushahidi blog: The Ushahidi community consists of a diverse group of people who have helped extend, translate and deploy the platform around the world. The Beta version in 2009 was translated into Spanish, even before Swahili. That early adoption and use lay the groundwork for even more adoption in Latin America, and with [...]
This morning, the Online Journalism Blog ran an interview with the creators of a UK-based hyperlocal news site, South Norwich News. While the model of hyperlocal journalism is controversial (is it needed? is it sustainable?), creator Claire Wood is confident that hyperlocal content is a worthy companion to larger media outlets: We’re very much in [...]
Earlier this month I went to work at IREX Georgia in Tblisi, on behalf of Small World News, to give workshops for their Gmedia initiative. The workshops were focused on digital advocacy, with participants from many different types of media, NGO’s and even some independent individuals. They all came with a desire to learn more [...]
We’d like to announce that we’ve started producing our first training guide, Small World News’ Guide to Safely and Securely Producing Media. We’ve wanted to produce this guide for a long time now, and we thrilled to finally have the time and the resources to make it happen. We’re planning to release this free downloadable [...]
Previously we’ve written here about how citizen media – the stories of those on the ground – can be used to provide much-needed context for journalists, analysts, and policy makers. Knowing the specifics of what’s happening, and learning it from the locals themselves, ensures better intelligence and therefore better decision making. But what does citizen [...]
Mark Rendeiro is in Georgia this week training locals to use new media tools for public campaigns, specifically related to advocacy. He’s blogging about his trip on his website Citizen Reporter. While some nations in the EU curse their governments for not representing them in what is financially a very troubled union, here we find [...]
From the Wall Street Journal: Syria shut down most of its Internet and mobile data connections early Friday, adopting a strategy used by other governments in the Middle East during critical points of the uprisings. But the attempt to gain an advantage over the opposition groups by unplugging or partially blocking the Internet, which has [...]
From Donia Jarrar’s blog: On April 8th, 2011 I had the opportunity to give a TEDx Talk as part of TEDxUofM at the historic Michigan Theater in front of a 1700 member audience. I was very lucky to be able to speak as a part of such an inspiring group of people, and that I [...]
From President Obama’s speech on the Middle East and North Africa, delivered this morning at the State Department: We will continue to make good on the commitments that I made in Cairo ” to build networks of entrepreneurs, and expand exchanges in education; to foster cooperation in science and technology, and combat disease. Across the [...]
Last weekend, the Small World News team attended Digital Journalism Camp 2011 in downtown Portland. Digital Journalism Camp is about spending the day with the people who are actively changing journalism. You’re going to learn from ” and share with ” the people who have found solutions to the challenges you face, whether you’re a [...]
David Kenner wrote this week about President Obama’s news sources for Foreign Policy‘s Passportblog: With one sentence, the New York Times raised dozens of Middle East pundits’ hopes that their words were reaching the most powerful man in the world. “At night in the family residence…Mr. Obama often surfs the blogs of experts on Arab [...]
In March 2011, Brian Conley and Louis Abelman journeyed to Benghazi to lay the foundation for Alive in Libya. Entering Libya through the Egyptian border in the east, and arriving just three weeks after the revolution began, they set about making contact with local citizens at a media center set up by the opposition movement. [...]
(Very secret and personnel) TO: Intelligence Agency for Home Security Headquarters of General Security Central Headquarters for Security Workers Security Group Officer Security Department Mr. General- General Managers of the agencies Mr. General Inspector of Home Security Greetings: Recently reported that some troubling elements published a page on the Facebook, the network for [...]
Since March 11, Small World News has been in Benghazi, Libya, with a generous grant from Access getting Alive.in/Libya off the ground. We’ve been hard at work training a team of citizen video journalists recruited among local youth. In a short week, we exposed participants to the basics of video production and overcame the technological [...]
Alive In Egypt was created after Google and Twitter introduced the @speak2tweet dial-to-tweet service. Both companies wanted to see these phone conversations translated into English (most were in Arabic) and asked three outside organizations for assistance. These organizations, Small World News, Yamli and Meedan, assembled a core team who’s mission was to bring the voices of Egyptians directly to those who could not understand Arabic.
For the last twelve days I’ve been just like everyone else on the internet, glued to the news unfolding in Egypt. The entire Small World News team has been asking each other just what we might be able to do to help the people of Egypt. A few phone calls and constant Skype chatter lead [...]
Small World News is working to create a volunteer team to translate arabic voicemails and share them publicly. Please @ or DM @baghdadbrian @smallworldnews or @joshmull to assist. We are coordinating via skype and will share the content via our blog and on twitter from the @SmallWorldNews account. You can access the public spreadsheet of [...]
[this was originally posted at Brian's personal blog, From Baghdad to Baga] I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about content recently. In my latest project I’m working with Video Volunteers to establish a network of community producers (or community journalists) all over India. These Community Producers will be generating at least 1-2 videos [...]
[Reposted from http://brianconley.info I saw an interesting discussion on Twitter this morning(late night their time, remember I'm in India at GMT+5.5). A variety of #mediaagitators were discussing the term "voiceless." Here is a selection: @digidem "Tweets and Blogs: Social Media as a Voice for the Voiceless" @emjacobi invited to give talk at American University on [...]
Yesterday it came to my attention that the Utne Reader named me one of 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World. I have to first say that I am shocked, and secondly that I am honored. The whole thing is a bit strange and surprising. In fact, I found out when a friend mentioned it [...]
According to a recent San Francisco Chronicle article posted on SFGate.com: The international aid agency Oxfam says USAID awards more than half of its Afghan aid to just five U.S. private contractors with close political ties in Washington: KBR, the Louis Berger Group, Bearing Point, DynCorp International and Chemonics International. USAID allows contractors to budget [...]
Sourcing accurate information is one of the most difficult elements of any work in Afghanistan, from counter-insurgency to investment and reconstruction. We are currently detailing a plan to establish a local media network in Afghanistan. Although such projects exist, we feel there is a very important niche still missing. Media networks established abroad with the [...]
Many of you likely first heard of Small World News through our work on Alive in Baghdad, a web series produced by local Iraqi journalists in the midst of the ongoing Iraq conflict. Given all of our recent activity outside Iraq, in Afghanistan, Iran, Honduras, etc. you may be wondering what’s up with the Iraq [...]
If you read this blog regularly you’re already aware of our work during the Afghan elections over at http://aliveinafghanistan.org . You may have also read my previous post regarding the potential for getting reliable information from Afghanistan right now. Now we have decided to initiate fundraising for a small pilot project in Afghanistan. With $3000 [...]
Some of you are undoubtably wondering what happened to Alive in Baghdad, why we suddenly stopped producing videos after a slowing down of production/distribution starting at the beginning of 2009. We can now tell you that among several factors, our Bureau Chief Omar Abdullah, who was coordinating the project from his residence in Syria has [...]
The latest project from Small World News, Alive in Afghanistan, is receiving a lot of attention in the media and around the blogosphere. Here’s a selection of the coverage we’ve found. The LA Times has this: Alive in Afghanistan is a multimedia reporting project that solicits reports by way of SMS, e-mail and Twitter from [...]
[Editor's Note: Our colleague Alex Strick will be collaborating with the new Small World News, providing support for our Afghanistan coverage leading up to the election and onward. This is his latest blog post.] For outsiders, Kandahar was never really somewhere you could fall in love with. You know the kind of thing I mean: [...]
[Editor's Note: Small World News is currently undergoing an exciting transition. Soon correspondents from around the globe will be producing new stories on a regular basis. We are actively seeking new international correspondents, so please get in touch if you have suggestions or wish to join our team. What follows is the first column from our Nigerian [...]
[Editor's Note: As many of you have heard, the President of Honduras was overthrown by the military on 28th of June, 2009. Since then there have been a variety of reports coming out of Honduras, however by and large the information is very much under control. Due to this climate of repression, we are endeavoring [...]
Here is the transcript of our second update from Tehran, this is transcribed by a volunteer and you are welcome to help us if you think the transcript may have mistakes! Transcript: Hello I am reporting from Tehran, Iran and I’d like to share some news about the events happening here going on with the [...]
This will be our second audio update from an Iranian based in Tehran. We know the audio is rough, but so is the situation in Tehran now. Although the streets seem to be calming, there are still many difficulties with our communication. We will continue to work on this and hope you will continue to [...]
[Editor's Note: This is a full transcript, minus names, of the first audio dispatch for what will hopefully become "Alive in Tehran." Special thanks to @peech____!] HI [name], I’m [name] and I’m calling from Tehran, Iran. I’m just trying to give my personal experience in daily life in Tehran and Iran – to clarify some [...]
[Editor's Note: We have cut the speaker's name from the beginning of the audio for his safety. We hope to have more dispatches to come later today and in the coming days.] Here is a short 3 minute audio clip from a brave soul in Iran who has volunteered to join us in attempting to [...]
The 2009 election in South Africa can rightly be called South Africa’s first “ICT Election.” According to a report by the Danish Technological Institute, each of South Africa’s four main parties made use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) durig campaigning. This is a really interesting report, and raises a lot of great issues. For [...]
Alisa Miller, the head of Public Radio International, gave this talk at the November 2008 TED Conference, she succinctly describes the current state of foreign news, which is particularly driven by United States and British media companies. In four brief but enlightening minutes she paints a horrifying picture of the state of foreign news today. [...]
Someone else has probably written this post before, but today, as I am amazed by the incredible work votereport.in is doing to cover election day violence across India, I recognized that I too should acknowledge this key bit of technology. Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili is, according to their website: building a platform that [...]
18 months ago, just a few weeks before Reuters announced its “Mobile Journalism Toolkit” ABC News made a shocking announcement to the belt-tightening world of foreign news. ABC News was apparently “bucking the trend by creating one-person operations that will dramatically boost its coverage in Africa, India and elsewhere.” Eighteen months later, its difficult to [...]
The television media was covering the abduction of one Captain Richard Phillips almost non-stop over the week leading up to Easter. When it was announced that 3 of the 4 pirates holding the captain were killed and he was rescued, the commentators on all the major networks exploded in an orgy of nationalist hoo-rah fervor. [...]
It’s rare to hear about Afghanistan these days, despite the so-called re-deployment of forces and a new direction for the “war on terror” under a new president. But when we do hear about Afghanistan it often looks something like this: KABUL (AP) — The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan says its troops have killed four suspected [...]
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