Dear John, Lars, and All,
Hello and great to see you both posting! Lars, I have participated in GLD for several years now, and have helped to anchor the Africa slot for the past 2 voyages. I say that because, also being involved in the Peace Tiles project, I think it would be fantastic if there could be some focus on this global event too, next October (for GLD 10)! In Africa, we had many participants in the project Lars created; in India, 200+ schoolchildren, as well as many schools and NGOs, also participated. For GLD last year, we did have a large number of speakers lined up in the Africa section--including the then HIV/AIDS coordinator for TIG, as well as an AMARC Africa rep, members of community radio networks, someone affiliated with the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network. What we did not have was the technological capacity (nor sufficient time) to give access to all those who tried to get into the chatrooms, so many tried to dial in to participate but could not get through. And many people in Africa and elsewhere also need free phone time, and access to better (faster, higher-end) computers, for whatever they might do via the Internet. So, technological improvements will be helpful, and perhaps we can start very early on to identify who will communicate and how (by what means), and to rehearse and orchestrate that. Funds would probably be helpful for this too...but we can certainly build the case for them by building exciting programs, and that will be the easy part, as it has been in the past. In terms of an audience, and especially if you want to focus on radio, I think we should reach out to WorldSpace, First Voice International, Developing Countries Farm Radio Network, AMARC, and also WSIS, TIG, and others. Again, to create an audience--as we did for the Peace Tiles--and then go for some funding. I'm going to be writing to all of those who participated and who we hoped might participate in the Africa section of GLD 8, to tell them abt GLD 10 in 2006, so hope to develop a program fairly rapidly for the Africa slot. That should make it easier to reach out not only to organizations who might jump on board to help with networking and technological capacity, but who also might give some funding. And we can ask participants to "advertise" and bring in local audiences. There are so many networks of community radio associations worldwide that it should not be too hard to work locally and go globally. It would be fantastic if DDN members and the networks as a whole could help to support--in a myriad of ways depending on skills and interests--the various "special days" John mentions, and getting the word out through networking is key to that. "Connecting the dots", or the "days" in this case, can be helpful too, ie enlisting many of the individuals and groups brought in for one day to help with others. I can think of a number of GLD participants who have as interests education, youth, ICTs, health, the environment, et al (ie all of those mentioned) and am sure that's true of DDN members too. Thanks much and look forward to GLD 10 and to developing communities of support for awareness, education, and activism for these "special days", and all days! Janet (Feldman, [EMAIL PROTECTED]) _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
