Global Voices Podcast

Global Voices Podcast Special: Habemus Podcast!

Georgia Popplewell — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:36:13 +0000

Hello, World – welcome to a special edition of the Global Voices Podcast.

On Tuesday, March 12, 2013 the college of cardinals assembled at the Vatican to elect the new head of the Roman Catholic church, following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on February 28. On Wednesday evening the Cardinal Protodeacon emerged onto the central balcony as St. Peter's Basilica and uttered the words “Habemus Papam!” (“We Have a Pope!”), and presented Pope Francis.

With two African cardinals considered at one point to be potential successors to Pope Benedict XVI, we spoke with Steve Sharra and Abdoulaye Bah from our Africa team about the possibility of an African pope, the continent's expectations of the next pope, and why cardinals at this week's papal conclave might have played games like volleyball.

Global Voices has a cardinal! Author Abdoulaye Bah with director Nanni Moretti on the set of the film “We Have a Pope”

Did you like the public domain Gregorian chants featured in the podcast? Get yours from Partners in Rhyme.

Thanks to Laura Morris for her support in producing this show!

Global Voices Podcast: More From #GV2012

Jamillah Knowles — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:19:44 +0000

Hello World,

Welcome to the Global Voices Podcast. In this edition you'll hear more from the the Global Voices Summit which took place in Nairobi, Kenya, back in July.

The Summit is a meeting of minds, friends, new acquaintances and public participation. Many of our authors, editors and content gatherers only get to meet in person once every two years, when the Summit takes place. You can find out more about the Summit by checking the Twitter hashtag #GV2012 and by taking a look at the dedicated Summit pages.

As well as being a gathering for the public, Global Voices authors and editors to all meet and discuss their ideas, selected academics from around the world were also invited to share their knowledge and learn from the community.

Ivan Sigal is the executive director of Global Voices and he describes why it was important for the academic group to join in at the event.

There were many sessions discussing processes and methods of highlighting under-represented voices and making the most of citizen media tools that are the everyday methods of the Global Voices community. We also asked a selection of academics about their thoughts and experiences of the Summit to find out what they learned and what knowledge they might return to their work with.

Origins and futures

Of course Global Voices sprang from academia and also present at the Summit was Rebecca MacKinnon, the co-founder of the organisation, who is also an author as well as a senior fellow at the New America Foundation think tank where she works on Internet policy issues. We caught up with her to talk about the future of the Internet and what it means for freedom of communication.

Global Voices would be nothing without its contributors. So to round up our coverage of the Summit for the podcast, enjoy some closing thoughts and experiences from the authors, translators and editors who create this extraordinary source of news and information.

The Global Voices 2012 Summit location.

Thank you to all of our podcast contributors, the Summit event organisers and to you for listening.

The Global Voices Podcast. The world is talking. I hope you've been listening.

Music credits

In the podcast you can hear lots of lovely Creative Commons music. Thanks to Mark Cotton for his fantastic creations and thanks also to all of the wonderful voice over performances and clips that help to glue the podcast together.

Global Voices Podcast: Jambo from Kenya! The Global Voices Summit

Jamillah Knowles — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:44:53 +0000

Hello World and jambo from Kenya!

Welcome to the Global Voices podcast. What is the future of online citizen media? In this edition (and the next) you will hear from editors, authors, co-founders and other participants at the 2012 Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Nairobi to discuss the future of how we all work together online.

The Global Voices Summit takes place every two years and there are many topics on the agenda, possibly too many to fit into one podcast but certainly a lot of food for thought right here.

First, let's go way back, a long time in internet years and consider the origins of that thing we call Global Voices. Co-founder Ethan Zuckerman explains how Global Voices came to be, what happens at the Summits, and what he thinks the future holds.

The #GV2012 Summit is a place to meet and find out more about our authors, editors and contributors who travelled from all corners of the world. Everyone was excited, but one of the most thrilled participants was Elaine Díaz from Havana, Cuba. Here she explains a little more about citizens online in Cuba.

It wouldn’t be a Global Voices gathering without smart and vocal people from around the world. Andrea Arzaba is a journalist in Mexico and she collected some observations of the event, starting with her own reflections.

Daudi Were is a Kenyan blogger who writes on Mentalacrobatics. He was also the very entertaining MC during the public Summit meeting attended by 300 people. He explained his connection with Global Voices and how Kenyan technology continues to innovate, particularly in the area of mobile.

A group photo from the Global Voices Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.

The impact of citizen media

Through Global Voices, many people who are sometimes overlooked are able to have their views and reports amplified.

Leila Nashawati Rego is a Spanish and Syrian human rights activist. She teaches communications at Carlos the Third University in Spain as well as write for a number of respected outlets. We discussed the growth of online citizen media and the results of that expansion.

So long, but not goodbye

Some bitter-sweet news came out of the Global Voices Summit too. Sami Ben Gharbia from Tunisia told us that he is stepping down from the position of Director of Global Voices Advocacy. So, naturally it was time to take a look at the work that he has done and find out what he will be up to next.

As ever, thanks to all of our contributors, producers and music makers who help to make this happen. You can find out more about the summit by checking the Twitter hashtag #GV2012 and by taking a look at the dedicated Summit pages.

The Global Voices Podcast. The world is talking, I hope you’ve been listening.

Music credits
In the podcast you can hear lots of lovely Creative Commons music. Thanks to Mark Cotton for his fantastic creations and thanks also to all of the wonderful voice over performances and clips that help to glue the podcast together.

Global Voices Podcast: Storytime in Poetry and Literature

Jamillah Knowles — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:11:31 +0000

Hello World!

Welcome to another edition of the Global Voices podcast.

In this edition, we’re talking about literature and publishing. You’ll hear some good old fashioned interviews with well-read members of the Global Voices team as well as readings of original work by our authors and the wider community.

Storytime

There’s some lovely stories to be told, so if you are sitting comfortably, Let's begin…

Our first reading comes from Greece. Veroniki Krikoni is a Greek translator for Global Voices online. Her story summons up visions of the sea and the heavens. Tune in to hear her reading in Greek and English about ‘The Agreement of the Stars'.

Our second reading comes from Nwachukwu Egbunike in Nigeria. He told us that he likes to write poetry because it is a format where a lot can be said in a few words.

The inspiration for the poem is a friend of his who sends manuscripts for him to read. Early on in their friendship, the author was afraid that he might take his work and publish it. The writer pointed out that their friendship is based on trust.

Nwachuykwu says, “I don’t know if he has seen the poem. I posted it on my blog. We are good friends now.” So, for the podcast he is reciting his poem, ‘Can I trust you?’

Get excited for Global Voices e-books!

The publishing industry has seen seismic change as digital methods disrupt the traditional market. But digital publishing also creates opportunities and new ways of presenting the written word.

Bernardo Parrella is a translator, writer and is also the Editor of Global Voices in Italian. He is now working on ways to publish Global Voices online material in new ways to make the most of the content.

Global Voices Books is a collaborative project which will provide a selection of rounded summaries for our material.

Translating stories in threatened languages

Language and translation are key elements of Global Voices and supporting under represented languages is particularly important.

Eddie Avila is the Rising Voices Director for Global Voices online, he supports many efforts to highlight languages that we might not otherwise hear online. For the podcast he worked with and read translations of two people who write in threatened languages.

First is Elias Quispe Chura, a language activist and Global Voices Aymara translator in Bolivia. His poem reflects his desire to hear younger Aymara speakers embrace their language. He is encouraging them to speak in Spanish and learn to write in Aymara.

The second work shared by Eddie was made with Irma Alvarez Ccossco coordinator of the Rising Voices project in Peru. She now lives in Lima and says that the poem was inspired by the Baguazo, in Bagua, Peru. This was a time of persecution of the indigenous Mapuche people, and feelings of helplessness are the context for the poem.

Irma says, “These words were my way of helping to find calm, as if all those people could speak in Quechua, or simply to calm myself.”

Russian academic literature podcast

Not only do we have great writers with global voices, we also have great editors. One of our newest editors is Kevin Rothrock who is the editor of Runet Echo. This is a special research project of Global Voices investigating the Russian language Internet.

Kevin is the co-host of a podcast called New Books in Russian Studies that discusses academic literature about Russia with their authors.

More tales and poetry

Danica Radovanovic lives in Europe and comes from a literary and muscial family. So it’s no wonder she also writes beautifully. She's a social media researcher, internet scholar, editor in chief for Australian Science magazine and is about to defend her dissertation in Communication and Internet studies.

Danica says the story she reads for us is an expression of herself at a particular time when she was inspired by events happening inside and outside of herself.

In seeking feedback on the work, Danica says she showed it to a number of women who found a piece of themselves in this story. Let us know in the comments if you recognise yourself in her reading of “You should date a woman who writes”.

In our final readings for this edition we have Njeri Wangari, a Kenyan performance poet, writer and arts blogger. She runs a blog called Kenyan Poet and has been writing poetry for years as well as performing her poems. She kindly reads two poems from her collection entitled, “Minds and minefields, my spoken words”.

Well, that’s all we have time for in this edition of the podcast. Thank you to everyone who took part with their readings, writing, translation and interviews.

The Global Voices podcast, the world is talking, I hope you’ve been listening.

Music credits

Global Voices Podcast: Food for Thought, Food to Eat

Jamillah Knowles — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:46:51 +0000

Hello World!

Welcome to another edition of the Global Voices Podcast.

In this edition we explore the latest work and events in the Global Voices community. We also speak with some friends about the cross cultural elements of our lives, with a special focus on food: both food for thought, and to eat!

Silvia Vinas

First up, Silvia Viñas our Latin America regional editor, has been finding out more about translation on the Web. Intercontinental Cry is is a grassroots journal for the global indigenous movement, providing news, videos, petitions, commentary and action alerts. The site recently launched in Spanish, so Silvia had a chat with Editor and Publisher Alex Cacherino-Gorman, about spreading the news in a different language.

A previous version of the podcast said Silvia Viñas spoke to John Ahniwanika Schertow. Silvia actually spoke to Intercontinental Cry in Spanish editor Alex Cachinero-Gorman.

New Rising Voices grantees

Last month we announced, six new Rising Voices grantees from Guatemala, United States, Paraguay, Palestine, Peru and Myanmar. These new project have joined our global community will each receive microgrants to help get their ideas off the ground. Congratulations to all of the grantees!

Rising Voices

Beatrice Catanzaro is a visual artist and one of the newest additions to the Rising Voices community with her project, Food Tales from Nablus. Alongside her friend Fatima she is working with women from the heart of the Old City in the city of Nablus, Palestine, to celebrate their culinary skills. One of the major components of their project will be the creation a cooking school for foreign visitors that will employ local women as chefs and instructors. We speak with these two amazing ladies to find out more about their work.

Food across borders

If there’s one thing we like to share together at Global Voices – as well as news and stories – it has to be food. This July 2-3, we will be at the Global Voices Summit 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya, and it will be a pleasure to meet, discuss and eat with colleagues from around the world.

Gustavo Arellano, editor of the OC Weekly in Orange County, California and the writer behind ‘Ask a Mexican‘, has been on a culinary journey to find out how Mexican food has become so popular in the United States in his new book, Taco USA. Journalist, producer and blogger, Cyrus Farivar chats with Gustavo about the flavours that cross borders.

Mexican Food on 1806 Haight St in San Francisco, California. Photo by Rupert Ganzer on flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the podcast. As ever a huge thank you goes to all of our contributors and interviewees, and especially to Yazan for being great company and a brilliant co-presenter. Whether it is food for thought or something to eat, the Global Voices community always has it covered.

The Global Voices Podcast, the world is talking, we hope you’re listening!

Music credits

Global Voices Podcast Wins Top Ranking in European Podcast Award

Solana Larsen — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:00:50 +0000

The Global Voices Podcast produced by Jamillah Knowles in London was named the United Kingdom winner in the non-profit category of the 2011 European Podcast Awards. Hundreds of podcasts from 11 countries in four categories were nominated.

Global Voices Podcast: The Good and Bad of Online Campaigns

Jamillah Knowles — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 18:43:01 +0000

Hello World!

Welcome to another edition of the Global Voices podcast.
In this edition we have company in the voice of co-host Yazan Badran, a Global Voices author from Syria based in Japan. The topic this month is global social media campaigns: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Views on Kony 2012 from Africa

In the last month we have seen one of the most controversial social media campaigns light up Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. The “Kony 2012″ campaign by the organisation Invisible Children went viral with a video about war Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony that was seen by millions of people. But was it the right way to highlight an issue? We've tracked several responses here.

There were many points of criticism when it came to the project, not least from people in Uganda.

Rosebell Kagumire is a journalist, blogger and Global Voices author from Uganda, living in Kampala. She works as an editor for Channel 16, a news site by bloggers about conflict and humanitarian news. When she first saw the Kony 2012 video, Rosebell uploaded a very critical YouTube response that has been viewed more than 500,000 times. She shares her thoughts with us about her initial reactions.

Citizens in many African nations took issue with the Kony campaign.

‘Femi Adesina is a British-born Nigerian web and creative technologist who describes herself as an African in the diaspora. She agrees there are problems with Kony 2012, but thinks it's hard to be too critical when people have the best intentions.

Are social media campaigns always a good thing?

Online campaigning is not new. It can be a good way to crowdsource opinions, attract volunteers and even raise money. Yazan argues that the anti-SOPA blackouts were quite effective. They were informative and educated many people about the dangers of institutional censorship of the web.

We threw the question out to the Global Voices community asking for their thoughts on online campaigns. Thanks to Asteris Masouras from Greece, Lova Rakotomalala from Madagascar, Mohamed Ragab from Egypt, Rana Khattab from Palestine based in Saudi Arabia, and Mohammed Adel from Yemen for their views.

Unite for Syria marked the escalation of protests and violence in that country by encouraging people around the world to uploading images to show their support for Syrians. Tarek Amr, an engineer and an author for Global Voices from Cairo, Egypt, told us more about the campaign that also involved global celebrities.

PR for charities and NGOs

As well as grassroots efforts, there are PR companies who work closely with online campaigns for non-profits and activist groups. Boyd Neil is SVP and National Practice Leader for Social Media and Digital Communications at Hill+Knowlton Strategies in Canada. He says getting the social web right is difficult.

It seems from our guests in this edition are divided on what they made of the Kony campaign, but mostly united in the idea that the social web can help to amplify a message in a good way.

Of course, it all depends on how you measure success. Amplifying a message, doesn’t necessarily translate into the desired effect beyond the virtual realm.

Thank you for listening!

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the podcast. A huge thank you to Yazan for being great company and a brilliant co-presenter, as well as to all of our informed and amazing guests.

The Global Voices Podcast, the world is talking, we hope you’ve been listening!

Music Credits
In the podcast you can hear lots of lovely Creative Commons music. Thanks to Mark Cotton for his fantastic creations and thanks also to all of the wonderful voice over performances and clips that help to glue the podcast together. The Global Voices Podcast, the world is talking, we hope you’re listening!

Global Voices Podcast: Remembering Our School Days

Jamillah Knowles — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 23:55:48 +0000

Hello World!

Welcome to the Global Voices podcast. In this edition we’re going to school. From extreme teaching on the Niger River, to hearing truths from our younger friends, and thinking back to some of the fondest or most memorable educational moments of Global Voices contributors.

So, what were school days like for Global Voices people?

An explosive memory

Paula Goes from Brazil is our multilingual editor. Here is one of her funnier memories from journalism school, where a “glow in the dark” potato-mayonnaise salad served at a superhero costume party caused a frenetic rush of students to the hospital, to the great amusement of doctors and passersby.

Everyone survived to laugh at the story years later.

Teaching the internet from a boat

In this episode we also have an amazing tale of teaching, boats and the river.

Eddie Avila, director of Rising Voices talks with Boukary Konaté in Mali about the Segou Villages Project that brought Internet to villages along the Niger River by boat. Read more about the journey that brought internet to 800 villagers and see Boukary's photos shared on Flickr.

An unforgettable teacher

Memories of school days may be closely linked to friends or enemies but they may also be related to places and of course teachers. Some say that it is both the best and the worst teachers that stay in your mind years after you have left school. Veroniki Krikoni in Greece shares a beautiful tribute to a time, place and a teacher.

Playground politics

These times of learning in our childhood can help to make us who we are today. Cyrus Farivar is a journalist, producer and author. He describes an impulsive moment in the playground that landed him in the most trouble he's ever experienced in school… after biting his friend.

Also recalling a formative moment on the playground, Juliana Rincón Parra from Colombia describes how she was forced to negotiate a minefield of gender politics in order to play a simple game of “house” with her friends.

How Ethan learned to type so fast

School can be a time where you realise where you may want to go later in life. But getting there is not always easy.

A boy named Ethan Zuckerman, who grew up to be the co-founder of Global Voices, tells how his struggles with handwriting in the 4th grade almost caused him to lose hope… until he learned to type. Fast!

Standing up to bullies

Having a hard time at school with teachers can lead to smart solutions as Ethan’s story proves. Unfortunately, some of us grew up surrounded with few friends and more enemies. Bullying at school is an international problem and finding the right answer is not easy.

One person who has suffered at the hand of bullies is Vuk. He’s a 12-year old blogger and son of Danica Radisic in Serbia. Together they explained what happened and what school is like under this type of pressure. If you’re facing a bully, don’t go through it alone and find someone you can talk to, he says.

Studying abroad

Francois-Xavier Ada-Affana is a writer and translator and describes himself on his blog as “a nice Cameroonian finding his way in the world.”

He tells us how studying international relations in Cyprus, Greece has helped shape his views on history and education, opening his mind to new cultures and people.

The long walk to school

For our final story we have a journey. A trip into the past, and the 3 kilometre path that Victor Kaonga walked to school each day in Malawi as an 8-year old boy, often in rain with banana leaves as umbrellas. Today, Victor is a broadcast journalist. Driving past the place where he used to go to school, he says, “The distance remains the same, it's only that now it appears much shorter.”

Thanks for listening

That’s all we have for this edition. School and educational stories are a reminder of the things that make us so similar no matter where we are in the world. The thing that brings us together are those years when we were all inexperienced. Now we can look back and wonder at what we have become.

Huge thanks to all of our contributors who took us back in their lives as well as those who shared a picture of education today. I think we all learned something!

Music Credits

Global Voices Podcast: Occupy This!

Jamillah Knowles — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:30:05 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage #Occupy Worldwide.

Hello World!

Welcome to another edition of the Global Voices podcast. In this episode we talk through some of the ideas and issues surrounding the global Occupy movement and protests, as we listen to recordings from our team in different parts of the world.

My Greek Co-Host

In this edition, I “occupy” the podcast with Asteris Masouras, Global Voices author and Global Voices in Greek editor.

Asteris has been monitoring the global #Occupy movement online since it all began. Who better to accompany us through this edition of the podcast?

We got together on Skype and discussed Greece, Europe, and the Occupy world, especially in regards to how the movement communicates with itself and others.

Occupy Denmark

Global Voices in Danish co-editor, Maria Grabowski Kjær in Denmark, visits the Occupation there to find out what their methods and messages are. Though many seem to think the protesters are hippies, Thomas, who helped organise the movement in Denmark, aims to prove that this stereotype is not true at all.

Thomas of Occupy Denmark talked to Maria Grabowski Kjier about the movement

London papers

Here in London, the Occupy movement at St Paul’s Cathedral is presented with a newspaper called The Occupied Times of London. I met with Steve Maclean, the editor of the paper, to find out how it works.

Occupy London, Steve Maclean, editor of The Occupied Times

A Camp in Maine

Frances Harlow is an independent radio producer, and friend of Global Voices. In Portland, Maine in the United States, she recorded at a local Occupy camp during her studies at the Salt Institute, after graduating from Brown University.

Frances’ report shows that it’s not always easy to consolidate a message among such passionate people. You can listen to more of Frances’ brilliant audio work here.

What do you make of the global Occupy movement? Is there a camp near you or do you participate?

It’s not easy to fit the entire movement into a short podcast but it has been interesting to highlight the similarities and differences across borders. There’s a whole lot more you can read up on at the special coverage page about the global Occupy movement on Global Voices.

The Global Voices Podcast, the world is talking, we hope you’re listening!

This post is part of our special coverage #Occupy Worldwide.

Global Voices Podcast: Brave New Year 2012

Jamillah Knowles — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:35:04 +0000

Hello World and welcome to 2012!

In this edition of the podcast we take a look back over the year 2011, consider the similarities and differences between mainstream and new media journalism, learn about an inspiring Rising Voices meeting in Bolivia to support the development of an ethnically and socially diverse blogosphere.

We also set off on a two-wheeled journey around the internet!

Considering 2011

For citizen journalists, bloggers and commentators everywhere, 2011 has been an extraordinary year. It’s hard to imagine a time before now when our friends and contributors faced threats, arrests or violence on such a scale. Nor has there been a year so far when we have seen such influence and change in the sphere of online citizen media. For many of our own writers and friends here on Global Voices, times are still difficult, but let's have hope for perseverance and better times ahead.

Looking back over a year of Global Voices Online is no mean feat! Our deputy editor, Emma Brewin, talks about jumping into a wild torrent of global news, and which stories stood out for her during an extraordinarily busy year.

From mainstream to new media

The Global Voices regional teams are made up of writers, bloggers and media makers of mant different types. Some, like Thiana Bondo, a Global Voices author and translator from Bahia, Brazil come from a journalistic background. Our managing editor, Solana Larsen chatted with Thiana, who is currently based in London, about the differences between being a daily newspaper journalist in Brazil, and writing for Global Voices.

Supporting the indigenous web in Bolivia

In December, Rising Voices hosted a three-day event in Cochabamba, Bolivia for bloggers in Bolivia. The goal was to support the development of a stronger, and more diverse blogosphere. There were workshops and presentations on both technical tools and organising strategies. The meeting was in Spanish, and was called Conectándonos (getting connected).

Maria Mercado is a student and a volunteer who works with indigenous communities. She went to the meeting and told us what she learned. If you'd like to hear more, there is a wonderful podcast of the whole event on Rising Voices by our managing director Georgia Poppellwell, and Rising Voices director Eduardo Avila.

Get on your bike with us!

You may think that we are separated by distance and only connected by the internet, but it seems that we also have some healthy habits in common. Ever prepared with her recording device, Solana Larsen discussed the wonders of getting around by bicycle with Global Voices executive director Ivan Sigal. As Ivan explains, the online cycling community is a vibrant one.

Naturally this meant that I had to ask our stunt-cyclist-audio-contributors to share with us their thoughts on two wheels.

Cyrus Farivar an American journalist currently living in Germany, and the author of “The Internet of Elsewhere” chatted with us about cycling – directly from the seat of a bicycle. In Denmark, Maria Grabowski Kjaer shared the sounds of the city where cycling is celebrated. Cycling for Maria is not just a mode of transport but a way of life.

Well, that wraps it up for our first podcast of the new year. We’ll be chasing audio and chatting about the world’s news and habits online throughout 2012, so do stay tuned and always let us know what you’d like to hear. For now, inspired by our two wheeled wonders, I’m off to try and learn how to ride my bike without being a danger to myself and others!

Global Voices Podcast: Technology that Empowers!

Jamillah Knowles — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:24:59 +0000

Hello world!

In this edition of the Global Voices podcast you can hear how women in Egypt are using technology to fight harassment, and what our Global Voices authors and editors got up to at the Mozilla Festival in London.

We also mark World Aids Day by speaking to HIV/AIDS activists in Kenya and Egypt about the special work they do.

Technology to empower women

First we take a look at harassment of women in the streets of Egypt. Engy Ghozlan in Cairo is a young woman who took matters in her own hands to fight social acceptance of sexual harassment by using mapping technology and the voices of women who speak up about what happens to them on the street. The result is Harassmap. Global Voices author, Maria Grabowski Kjær spoke to Engy about her work in support of women's safety and comfort in public.

World Aids Day

December 1st is World Aids Day. A time to think about the many people who living with HIV or AIDS and consider what can be done to support them and their carers. I had a chat with a two people working hard to improve conditions and raise awareness.

Ahmed Awadalla is in Egypt. He has worked with Cairo Family Planning and Development Association and is now with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. He talks about stigma and how the current uprising in Egypt is actually hindering support for communities at risk.

Leah Okeyoh is a community activist, blogger, author, and World Pulse correspondent. She is co-founder of two women's organizations, Jacolo Rural Women Response to HIV/AIDS, and Positive Action for Change (PACHO). She is also a participant in the “Blogging Positively” project of Rising Voices. We talked to her about the Kenyan health care system and her hopes for the future.

You too can be involved with Blogging Positively if you're interested in citizen media related to HIV/AIDS. If you're on Twitter for World Aids Day, use the hashtag #BlogPos so we can find you.

Global Voices out and about

Mozilla Festival Science Fair by Mozilla in Europe on Flickr (CC-BY-2.0)

London was host to the Mozilla Festival on “media, freedom, and the web” in November. Global Voices was represented by an awesome team at the Science Fair. With so much GV-goodness in one place, I had to ask them what they were up to.

Emma Brewin is our Deputy Editor of citizen media organisation. Marta Cooper is an author who is also on the Board of Global Voices. Paula Goes is our Multilingual editor who was showing a colleague around the event via a live video connection. Amira is possibly the youngest interviewer so far on the Global Voices podcast at 10 years old. She interviewed our Iraq author Salam Adil.

Emma Brewin, Marta Cooper, Salam Adil, and Paula Goes

Well, that’s all we can squeeze into this edition of the Global Voices Podcast. Thank you all for listening and thanks to all of our contributors and interviewees. We’ll be back next month but you can always drop by on any of our social media spaces like Twitter or Facebook and say hi!

Music credits

In the podcast you can hear lots of lovely Creative Commons music. If you want to find out more about these artists here are the links. Thanks to Orb Gettarr for the atmospheric Return of the Atlanteans Lemurian Candidate, to Mark Cotton for his Spiritualized Homage, to Superbus feat. NS for Fujjad! Most of the music was found via OpSound.Org, The Free Music Archive or direct from the artists. Thanks also to all of the wonderful voice over performances and clips that help to glue the podcast together.

Global Voices Podcast: Bridging the Language Gaps

Jamillah Knowles — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:25:06 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.

Hello World!

In this edition of the Global Voices Podcast we discuss languages that are hard to find on the internet. Do you speak a language that is hard to find online? Are you from a place where your mother tongue is not widely spoken? Then you may be a part of large number of people around the world who speak and write “under-represented languages”. We also look forward to the 11 Eleven Project on 11/11/11.

New dialogue on preserving languages on the internet

The good news is that here on Global Voices, we are seeking news ways for people to use citizen media to strengthen and enjoy under-represented and indigenous languages. Eddie Avila is the director of Global Voices project, Rising Voices. He told me how he came to explore this subject and how he is working with New Tactics for Human Rights and others to get the discussion going.

In our interview Eddie mentions the amazing work of Kevin Scannell. Kevin is a professor of mathematics and computer science at St. Louis University in Missouri, USA. He told us how he got into the field of mapping Indigenous tweets and micro-blogs around the world.

Phones to help solve India's language challenge

Using a mobile phone to access the web in an under-represented language is still less than simple. But the internet is filled with people who are willing to take on challenges like this to make our digital world a more inclusive place. One of our Global Voices authors Aparna Ray pointed me in the direction of Shubhranshu Choudhary who works with CG Net Swara, a community radio on mobile phones in India. He explained how this service helps people who do not communicate in more widely spoken languages.

A Quechua language podcast

There are many really interesting initiatives online that can help us all explore under-represented languages online. Christine Mladic is the program administrator at the centre for Latin American and Caribbean studies at New York University and is involved with a podcast series called Rimasun that highlights and makes use of the Quechua languages.

A day to remember

As this is the November edition of the Global Voices Podcast, it means we are just ahead of the date, 11/11/11. This is also special day for anyone participating in the 11 Eleven Project. Danielle Lauren is the creative director and she explained what is about to happen and how we can all get involved.

Some of the people of Earth that Danielle mentions are also Global Voices authors, and ambassadors for the Eleven Eleven project, so I asked Salman Latif in Pakistan and Lalatiana Rahariniaina from Madagascar to share their hopes for the day.

We're also on…

That’s all we could fit into the podcast for this time. But there is good news! The Global Voices podcast is now available in brand new ways! If you are interested in public radio sharing, then you might want to listen via PRX. If you would also like to hear longer cuts and clips of our guests in interview, then you can follow us now on SoundCloud. Share your world with us so that we can share it back with you!

Music credits

In the podcast you can hear lots of lovely Creative Commons music. If you want to find out more about these artists here are the links for you. Thanks to Orb Gettarr for the atmospheric Return of the Atlanteans Lemurian Candidate, to Mark Cotton for his Spiritualized Homage, to Superbus feat. NS for Fujjad! Most of the music was found via OpSound.Org, The Free Music Archive or direct from the artists. Thanks also to all of the wonderful voice over performances and clips that help to glue the podcast together.

Global Voices Podcast: 3rd Arab Bloggers Meeting – Part 2

Jamillah Knowles — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:44:38 +0000

Hello world!

In an addition to our usual monthly podcast, we have some special audio for you from the newly concluded 3rd Arab Bloggers Meeting in Tunisia.

Nearly 100 bloggers from Arab countries gathered in Tunis from October 3-6, 2011 in a meeting hosted by Global Voices, Nawaat and the Heinrich Böll Foundation to discuss citizen media, safety online, post-revolutionary ideas, and of course to meet each other face to face – some for the first time. In the 12 interviews in these two podcasts (check out Part 1) you will hear about online anonymity using Tor, revolution in a historical context, forthcoming elections in Arab countries, filmmaking, blogging and hope. And much, much more.

Arab Bloggers Meeting, 2011: Part 2

Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and many other countries have citizens living through a time of change and upheaval. Our online information these days is fast and furious when it comes to the minute by minute events, but how should we find context in a time of revolution?

Zeynep Tufekci is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. She presented a wonderful talk at the conference about the importance of putting revolutions into a historical context.

Part of telling the story of revolutionary times in a digital age requires video. Clips on YouTube offer powerful snapshots, but it is also important to follow a narrative to gain a greater understanding. Alexandra Sandels is a Swedish journalist and co-director and producer of a documentary called Zero Silence about young people using the Internet for change. It was screened on the first day of the Arab Bloggers Meeting.

Bloggers from nearly all Arab countries attended the meeting to learn from one another about citizen media and activism. Hayder Hamzoz is a blogger from Baghdad, Iraq. We chatted about his activities online and how the website Iraqi Streets shows an alternative Iraq to the one shown in mainstream news headlines.

The dangers of being identified and apprehended for protest and online activity are numerous and in some cases horrifying. There are methods for staying safer that people can enact, and there is also software that can help. Roger Dingledine works on an anonymity or privacy or circumvention tool called Tor. We talked about how it works.

That's all we have for the special edition of the Global Voices podcast at the 3rd Arab Bloggers Meeting!

Group photo, Arab Bloggers Meeting, Tunis 2011 by Ibtihel Zaatouri (CC-BY)

Thanks to everyone who took time to talk to me, to the organisers for creating such a fantastic forum, and to Mark Cotton who adapted our Global Voices theme tunes for this particular episode.

Global Voices Podcast: 3rd Arab Bloggers Meeting – Part 1

Jamillah Knowles — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:43:03 +0000

Hello world!

In an addition to our usual monthly podcast, we have some special audio for you from the newly concluded 3rd Arab Bloggers Meeting in Tunisia.

Nearly 100 bloggers from Arab countries gathered in Tunis from October 3-6, 2011 in a meeting hosted by Global Voices, Nawaat and the Heinrich Böll Foundation to discuss citizen media, safety online, post-revolutionary ideas, and of course to meet each other face to face – some for the first time. In the 12 interviews in these two podcasts (check out Part 2) you will hear about online anonymity using Tor, revolution in a historical context, forthcoming elections in Arab countries, filmmaking, blogging and hope. And much, much more.

Global Voices Podcast: 3rd Arab Bloggers Summit (Part 1) by globalvoices

Arab Bloggers Meeting, 2011: Part 1

Naturally the topic of Arab uprisings was a big part of the conversation. The role of the citizen journalist has been very important in describing events to a wider audience. I chatted with Egyptian blogger and Global Voices author Lilian Wagdy, about why the benefits outweigh the challenges of this difficult work.

Online activists and bloggers travelled from near and far to come to the meeting. Yazan Badran is a Syrian blogger and Global Voices author currently based in Japan. He told us what motivated him to travel the distance to be at the meeting.

Though the past uprisings are a constant topic of conversation, the Arab Bloggers meeting this year was a forum for pushing things onward. Nasser Weddady, a blogger from Mauritania, is also the Civil Rights Outreach Director for the American Islamic Congress based in Boston, USA. We talked about the main issues of the day.

A number of talks and presentations during the meeting shed light on current events as well as providing training and new ideas. Marek Tuszynski, co-founder and co-director of Tactical Technology Collective gave a presentation about clear visualisation for online activists.

Many participants attended previous Arab Bloggers Meetings. With Jillian C. York, Director of International Freedom of Expression Electronic Frontier Foundation in the United States (as well as Global Voices author and board member), we talked about her experience and why the EFF takes an interest in international freedom of expression.

In the conversation with Jillian, we talked about how Palestinian bloggers were denied visas by the Tunisian government to attend the meeting. Aternative methods were used to contact these bloggers and include them in the meeting. One blogger of Palestinian origin was there. I spoke to Saed Karzoun about the visa debacle, and what he hoped to bring to the event.

The location of the Arab Bloggers meeting in Tunis was highly relevant to the main topics discussed. Tunisia has seen a revolution and inspired many other movements in the region. Malek Khadraoui is the co-administrator of Tunisian website Naawat, an independent group blog. We chatted about how the network of bloggers across Arab nations offers both hope and valuable practical advice.

There were so many experienced, entertaining, knowledgeable and wonderful people at the Arab Bloggers Meeting, I could not fit them all into one edition of the Global Voices podcast. You can hear more of these great interviews in Part 2.

Thanks to everyone who took time to talk to me, to the organisers for creating such a fantastic forum, and to Mark Cotton who adapted our Global Voices theme tunes for this particular episode.

Global Voices Podcast 4: Together We Rise

Jamillah Knowles — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:34:01 +0000

Hello world!

In this edition you’ll hear from blind Greek bloggers of our Rising Voices community, how Guatemalan citizen journalists are honing their skills for elections, and a preview of what's planned for the Arab Bloggers Summit co-hosted by Global Voices on October 3-6, 2011 in Tunisia.

Global Voices Podcast 4: Together We Rise by globalvoices

Citizen Journalists in Guatemala

Vozz is a citizen journalism training project in which young people in Guatemala aged 16 to 24 learn how to be journalists. Kara Andrade of Vozz spoke to our Latin America regional editor Silvia Viñas about covering the Guatemalan elections and turning a training scheme into a wider network for citizen engagement.

Blind Blogging in Greece

Following the closure of a school for the blind in Thessaloniki, Greece, the surrounding community decided to create a group blog and web radio show called Blind Dates. The project is a grantee of our Rising Voices initiative co-founded by Alexia Kalaitzi. We chatted to Alexia about tools for blind blogging and how the economic crisis in Europe is affecting life for the blind and partially sighted. Thanks to the rapper – Kostas also for performing for us in this edition!

Arab Bloggers Summit in Tunisia

Global Voices will be co-hosting the 3rd Arab Bloggers Summit together with Nawaat and the Heinrich Boell Foundation on October 3-6, 2011 in Tunisia. Bloggers from nearly all Arab countries will meet to discuss digital activism and future perspectives. Since the last gathering in Beirut in 2010, many bloggers have played a prominent communication role in uprisings across the Middle East. Our managing editor Solana Larsen spoke to Sami Ben Gharbia, director of Global Voices Advocacy about what is planned for the gathering in Tunisia.

The hashtag for the meeting is #AB11 (recommended!) and the website is Arabloggers.com.

Thanks for listening!

That brings us to the end of another edition of the Global Voices podcast. We love hearing from you, so let us know what you liked or if there is anything special you would like to know about the community!

Music credits