David Sasaki

Rising Voices Seeks Micro-grant Proposals for Blog Outreach

Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, is now accepting project proposals for the first round of microgrant funding of up to $5,000 for new media outreach projects. Ideal applicants will present innovative and detailed proposals to teach citizen media techniques to communities that are poorly positioned to discover and take advantage of tools like blogging, video-blogging, and podcasting on their own.

Touring Libyan Blogs: Tony Blair, Watermelons, Shock and Awe and a Really Hot Summer

Libya - both online and off - is abuzz with opinion about British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s meeting with head of state, Muammar Qaddafi. Also, a new aggregator of local weblogs and getting ready for a scorching summer.

Nagorno Karabakh conflict: “Liberated Territories” in Focus

Parliamentary elections have passed in Armenia and now the focus is shifting back to the contested border region with Azerbaijan. Prolific Armenian blogger, Onnik Krikoryan, reminds us that “with presidential elections set to take place in both Armenia and Azerbaijan next year, there really is very little time and only a small window of opportunity for a long anticipated breakthrough framework agreement.”

Interview with Caroline Nellemann, Danish Researcher of Iranian Blogs

Danish researcher Caroline Nellemann recently returned from Iran where she was gathering information for her Master’s thesis on the impact of Iranian weblogs on the public sphere. Hamid Tehrani interviews Nellemann to learn more about her research and her impressions of contemporary Iranian society.

Arabeyes: Short Skirts Looked Down at in Tunisia

How do we form our morals, our values, and our tastes in fashion? From our friends? Our family? Partners? From the books we read? Arabic Language Editor Amira Al Hussaini translates a fascinating post by Tunisian blogger Maheva about the intersections of education, freedom, and taste.

Egyptian Blogger Monem to Be Freed

The recent arrests of several Egyptian opposition bloggers has resulted in the one thing Egyptian authorities have probably feared the most: a unifying of support for the jailed bloggers across the political spectrum. We now learn that Egyptian blogger Abdul Monem Mahmood, who has been detained for 46 days, is scheduled to be released on Saturday. Here is a rundown of initial reactions by fellow bloggers.

Bolivia: A Country Unites Behind FIFA Ban on Stadiums at High Altitudes

Lastly, we move to Bolivia and a different sort of campaign: one led by firebrand president and football fanatic, Evo Morales, who sent a delegation to Zurich this week to protest FIFA’s decision to ban international matches at altitudes above 2,500 meters, thus excluding La Paz’s Hernando Siles Stadium. Eduardo Ávila reveals that some Bolivian bloggers are also peeved with the altitude discrimination.

Roundups

Lightless in Bahrain for the summer, Mobile Toolkit Workgroup Meeting in Kenya, why race matters … in the Bahamas, and much more can be found in today’s Global Roundups.

Application Deadline: June 15, 2007

Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, is now accepting project proposals for the first round of microgrant funding of up to $5,000 for new media outreach projects. Ideal applicants will present innovative and detailed proposals to teach citizen media techniques to communities that are poorly positioned to discover and take advantage of tools like blogging, video-blogging, and podcasting on their own.

As the internet becomes more accessible to more people, as computers become cheaper, and as software applications move from the desktop to the web, the so-called digital divide seems to be narrowing. In its place, however, we see a participation gap in which the vast majority of blogs, podcasts, and online video are being produced in middle-class neighborhoods in major cities around the world.

Rising Voices aims to help bring new voices from new communities and speaking new languages to the conversational web, by providing resources and funding to local groups reaching out to underrepresented communities. Examples of potential projects include:

• Purchasing an affordable digital video camera and teaching a group of rural students how to produce an ongoing video-blog documentary about the lives of their grandparents.
• Organizing a regular workshop on blogging and photography at a local orphanage. Portions of the budget could be used on cheap digital cameras and internet cafe costs so that participants could describe their local neighborhoods to a global audience with text and photos.
• Working with a local NGO or social entrepreneur so that their challenges, successes, and stories are told to a global audience.
• Translating our new media curriculum to an indigenous language, like Quechua or Wolof, that is currently not represented in the blogosphere or “podosphere.” Then use the learning modules to encourage bloggers to write in those languages.

The sky is the limit, but unfortunately funding is not. Rising Voices outreach grants will range from $1,000 to $5,000. Please be as thoughtful, specific, and realistic as possible when drafting your budgets.

Successful projects will be prominently featured on Global Voices.

Completed applications will be accepted no later than Friday, June 15. Please email them to outreach@globalvoicesonline.org

Download grant application in .DOC format Download grant application in .RTF format

Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below or by sending an email to outreach@globalvoicesonline.org

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Swahili Blogosphere: Higher Education Blame Game, Miss Universe, and Personal Privacy vs. Public Life

Swahili-speaking students - whether based in Tanzania or Ukraine - are having trouble staying in school due to rising tuition. J. Nambiza Tungaraza points the way to photos of protesting students. Also, Tanzania’s shaved-head representative at Miss Universe 2007 and thoughts about the private lives of public officials.

Japan: “Thought Check” Screening for Citizen Judges

The participation of ‘ordinary citizens’ has benefited the fields of journalism, photography, and software development thanks to what is generally referred to as “the wisdom of the crowds.” But what about the legal system? Do citizen judges make just as much sense as citizen journalists? According to Japanese opposition politician Nobuto Hosaka, absolutely. Find out more about Hosaka’s proposal and how the Japanese blogosphere has reacted in Chris Salzberg’s excellent wrap-up.

One Caribbean; Many Identities…

The Caribbean is much more than sunburned tourists, cruise ships, and cheap rum. As one Jamaican blogger puts it, being Caribbean “means being a part of one of the most interesting, though unintended, social experiments in the world.” The small region of even smaller islands brings together a diverse population whose ancestries are truly worldwide. To paint a more nuanced portrait of the complexities of Caribbean identity, Karel McIntosh interviews three bloggers: a Jamaican writer living in Miami, a Guyanese media critic, and a Jamaican management consultant.

Brazilian Express Loves (and jealousy) around the world

The idea sounds fantastic: take 16 writers to 16 cities and ask them to each write a love story somehow related to the places they visited. But what looks like a great idea on paper turned into a literary scandal on the net when bloggers caught wind of the costly government funding and a less-than-transparent selection process. New Global Voices contributor Roberto Taddei let’s us know how it all unfolded and translates excerpts from the writers’ blogs as they report from Cairo, Berlin, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Buenos Aires.

Arabeyes: 1001 Tales from Libyan Taxi Rides

“Can taking a taxi be an eye-opening experience to the society you live in? Libyan blogger Libyano** takes us on a ride of a lifetime in the following translation, which gives him the chance to contemplate on his society, the behaviour of young men and the antics of some taxi drivers. It all started when his car decided to take a break from its normal activities …”

Roundups

Blogging the G8 Summit, tribute to Jamaica’s Miss Lou, Ukraine’s political crisis is back, and much more can be found in today’s Global Roundups.