The International Center for Journalists’ IJNet and Mashable recently recommended Brian Conley’s Tedx talk as one of “4 Ted Talks Worth Watching.” You can check out Brian’s talk below, and then see the others on Margaret Looney’s original article. Citizen Journalism is Reshaping the World
We are fast approaching the release date of our multimedia storytelling app. In recognition of this, Steve and I have been doing some field testing with local colleagues, to work out any last minute kinks and get an overall sense of the functionality and reliability of the framework we’ve prepared. One of our primary angles [...]
In the last few weeks I’ve been watching even more news then I normally do, and watching the same clips over and over again to better understand the skeleton that makes up a story. I began recording the packages and breaking them down afterwards. I’ve started with Al Jazeera first, and I have only done it [...]
As part of our forthcoming multimedia storytelling app, we are working on simplifying video composition. One of the app’s primary features is to provide training to the users. Each user will be able to improve her multimedia production skills as she learns to use the app. In order to ensure the app provides the greatest [...]
As Steve wrote last week, Small World News is developing a new mobile multimedia reporting app for Android. This app will also include an entire mobile multimedia reporting curriculum, including journalism and digital safety and security basics. We will be adapting our Guide to Safely Producing Media where appropriate and working with our colleagues John [...]
Small World News is excited to announce that we are designing a yet to be named android app. The app will support citizen journalists and professionals alike in the production of multimedia news packages. Specifically, this open source app enables existing and aspiring journalists all over the world to produce and publish professional-grade news with [...]
This one-day workshop harnessed two powerful resources for rebuilding Libya: students and photojournalism. Small World News partnered with 1Libya, a Tripoli-based NGO working on civil society, communications and media development, to host the workshop. The 12 university student participants brought loads of enthusiasm and creative energy. This generation of Libyan has grown up on the [...]
The Misrata trainees have so far done justice to their town’s reputation as a hard-working, can-do kind of place, and are well on their way to fulfilling the mission we set out: to produce four videos in four days. They seemed to be satisfied with our second day spent covering production basics, as many of [...]
Our second workshop is being held at the office of the Misrata Media Union. The MMU is an organization that hopes to work for the support of all Misrati journalists. They provided Small World News a warm welcome. They have a large conference room more befitting an executive boardroom than a training space. I’m learning [...]
Tonight we’ve arrived in Misrata, the site of our next workshop. The city lies along the Mediterranean coast 187 km (116 miles) east of Tripoli and is Libya’s third largest, a commercial hub hit hard by the war. It’s been a year since revolutionaries cleared the city of Qadaffi loyalists after months of deadlocked fighting, [...]
Small World News just completed the first in a series of video boot camps around Libya. Our first location was the capital, Tripoli. Several trainees work for television stations and production companies, while some are freelancers. We covered the basics of civic journalism, visual storytelling, and video production. First we asked the trainees to propose [...]
Small World News is in Libya for the third time since the revolution began. Although the revolutionary edge of the nation’s enthusiasm may have subsided, the enthusiasm itself has not. Libyans are excited to build their country, and actively looking for partners to provide assistance and mentorship. This desire led directly to the creation of [...]
Our partners and colleagues over at the Engine Room are dedicated to organizing the best practices and experiences in the world of tech development. Taking what they find and openly sharing it for all of our benefit. This is why it’s important for all of us to take their social tech census. By pooling our knowledge together [...]
The shaky footage and highly zoomed images of smoke, helicopters and gunfire have become hallmarks of visual reporting on events in Syria. With the increasing risks and mounting death toll of foreign journalists, citizen journalists have become an increasingly necessary source of information from Syria. The increasing carnage has also led to an increasing insistence [...]
A confluence of recent events are highlighting an overlooked issue in Information Communications Technology (ICT) security. The most well-publicized event was the killing of Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik in Homs, Syria last month. Until recently, it seems that online security has always been the province of “geeks.” Organizations whether news outlets, corporations, or activists and [...]
The recent hype and controversy around Invisible Children, and this post by Sam Gregory of Witness has encouraged me to expand on my initial thoughts seen here on Cartoon Movement. I hope this post can provide a bit of background on how Small World News came to its current incarnation, providing all manner of training and innovative [...]
This week we released our latest guide. The new guide is an attempt to assist those who are forced to rely on satellite phones for communication, particularly in conflict areas and repressive states. Satellite phones are all closed source technology, making them an incredibly risky tool to rely on in life threatening situations. Because satellite [...]
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 interviewwith 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 the [...]
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 guide [...]
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 [...]
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