First links of 2009: tracking the Gaza conflict, e-Learning in Nepal, spreading social media literacy

A daily reading of the blogosphere this week has provided a feast of new year predictions, wish lists and tips for 2009 that reveal some really interesting online and tech innovations that could have a great impact on the non-profit and development arenas in the year ahead.

The big story of course has been the ongoing conflict in Gaza; but this too has seen quick-thinking people adapt new technologies for communication and data-building to track the conflict and help build information for use by humanitarian relief agencies.

Mainstream news channel Al Jazeera English are utilising a platform first developed during the post-election violence in Kenya in early 2008 to track events in Gaza. Ushahidi – meaning “testimony” in Swahili – uses “crowd-sourced” information to map crisis situations. It allows anyone to submit information via sms, email, or through the web (Al Jazeera is utilising a Twitter feed). OpenStreetMap (OSM) –aimed at creating a free, editable map of the world – diverted their energies to a special Gaza project early in the week. They are looking for people familiar with street names and landmarks to enhance the limited existing map. Reuters Alertnet has a list of other mapping initiatives.

 

The view from Athens

By Lisa Robinson

Rioting in Athens in early December prompted non-stop coverage from multiple television channels in the country. Greek audiences were obviously hungry to know where and why the rioting was happening, how extensive the damage was, and how long it might continue. In Athens at the time, I watched BBC and CNN for the english headlines, but eagerly flicked between at least three Greek TV stations with ongoing footage of the previous nights’ events.

During the week of the riots, Athens was hosting the Global Forum for Media Development where, my colleagues Imogen Wall of the BBC World Service Trust and Mark Frohardt of Internews were, coincidently, raising discussion about the crucial role of information for people affected by disasters (pdf).

 

Information that saves lives

The face or voice of a foreign correspondent reporting on a natural disaster from a far-flung destination whilst scenes of destruction and human suffering play in the background is an all-too familiar image for many of us on tuning in to the latest news. The 2004 tsunami, 2005 Pakistan earthquake, and this year’s Sichuan earthquake in China and cyclone Nargis that devastated Burma are only the latest humanitarian emergencies that have prompted powerful news reports, and emergency response appeals  

But this depressingly familiar image also captures what Mark Harvey of Internews describes as “a double information jeopardy”. At the very moment at which international media are reporting an unfolding crisis to their audiences at home, the people who have most critical need of reliable information – the affected population – are caught in an “information vacuum”.

 

Social media: building bottom-up communications

At the BBC World Service Trust London office today we welcomed an excellent external speaker, on a subject of particular interest for me (and indeed this new blog). Nathalie McDermott from social enterprise start-up On Road Media spoke to staff in London about flexible, cost-effective solutions for facilitating communication between and across marginalised groups and hard-to-reach communities.

Nathalie gave numerous examples of how free software and “web 2.0” technology has enabled marginalised groups to engage and report on their own communities and culture. Free networking sites such as Ning and Facebook and content-sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr run alongside blog platforms (this blog is hosted on wordpress) that empower the kind of “citizen journalism” and individual reporting and commentary that traditional news gatekeepers have struggled to handle. She spoke of the unique opportunity of these tools to give people their own voice, generate powerful broadcast output, and reinforce and support community cohesion.

 

Information overload vs information deprivation

A deliberately provocative headline in Wired magazine this week “Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, make blogs look so 2004” heralded an article arguing that the “golden age” of blogging – where ‘amateur wordsmiths’ could ‘pour their hearts out’ in cyberspace and be rewarded with high Google rankings is over. A new generation of micro-blogging tools like twitter, and alternative formats such as YouTube and Flickr have replaced the more traditional long-form text weblog, itself overtaken by blog magazines such as the Huffington Post said Paul Boutin. This being the internet, the article was quickly picked up on – and blogged – by amateur and professional hacks alike, which resulted in a surreal exchange on the BBC’s Today programme on Radio 4 this morning as presenter John Humphreys struggled with social media linguistics and asked his guests how many real friends they had.

This seems a neat reflection of the evolving nature of information exchange and flow that new technologies and online applications have made possible in the last few years. For many of us around the world daily exchanges on social media networks such as Facebook, plus access to news through TV, radio, online, print newspapers and on mobile phones is an unconscious act. We are used to consuming information in a variety of formats – often complaining that there is too much of it.

However tomorrow (24th October) on World Development Information Day (also UN day), it is worth remembering that in a media-rich world, many of the planet’s poorest still lack access to potentially life-saving information.

In a new policy briefing from the BBC World Service Trust “Left in the dark: the unmet need for information in humanitarian response” (PDF, 750MB), Imogen Wall and Lisa Robinson argue that millions of people, already suffering or at risk through manmade crisis or natural disaster, are having their problems compounded because they are denied access to basic information that could help them save or rebuild their lives.

 

The strength of a free media

Head of Policy Development at the BBC World Service Trust James Deane has an interesting post over on the Communications Initiative blog asking if a free and plural media should be considered more important than a transparent election process in securing democratic development.

His post springs from a recent attendance at the Salzburg Global Seminar on strengthening independent media, and in particular an argument put forth by Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion that the media is an essential part of the system of checks and balances on executive government power:

“Collier provided … the most succinct case I have yet heard on why media is essential to economic development. He argues that information is an essential public good and that the media’s role in providing information and acting as a check on executive power qualifies it for public financial support …

“Media and the development efforts that support them are not more important than elections in securing democratic development. But, based on some of the best economic thinking of our time, media development is vastly more important than their current status within the development system currently suggests.”

Visit the Communications Initiative to read the rest of this post, and click here for more on the Salzburg Global Seminar series.