Archive for
June 5th, 2008
Stories
GV Summit 2008 - announcing reduced registration fees!
We've been working with our event partners in Hungary to have the registration fees for the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2008 reduced to a rate that would be more accessible to greater numbers of people.
We're delighted to announce that we've succeeded — registration fees for the Summit have been slashed from €210 (approx US$323) to US$152 for both Summit days (June 27 and 28), including lunch and refreshments, for those registering before June 25. Complete pricing details are available at our registration page, where our online registration system should be up and running shortly.
The Global Voices (virtual) office has been abuzz with growing excitement as the Summit date draws near. As many of you know, our community is scattered across the globe and in spite of working very closely and successfully together on a daily basis, the Summit is the only point in the year where we meet face-to-face as a group.
Nearly 80 members of the Global Voices community will be coming to Budapest from various parts of the world for the Summit, including a number of grantees of our Rising Voices outreach program, plus several guests arriving specially for the Global Voices Advocacy portion of the program. Countries represented at the Summit so far include Burma, Kazakhstan, Sudan, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Trinidad and Tobago, USA, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Venezuela, China, India, Tajikstan, Bolivia, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Iran, Kenya, Singapore, Bahrain, Peru, Malawi, Tanzania, UK, Philippines, Colombia, Canada, Japan, Serbia, France, Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Taiwan and Armenia.
If you haven't yet visited the Summit web site and checked out our exciting program, we encourage you to do so. The moderators have been posting entries on the Summit blog previewing the panel topics and presenting the panelists, and we look forward to receiving your comments and input. For those of you who won't be joining us in Budapest, stay tuned for information about how you can participate remotely.
The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2008 is taking place thanks to the support of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Open Society Institute, the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the European Journalism Centre and dotSUB.
Mobile Phone Technology for Environmental Activism
Mobile phones are becoming an important tool for environmental activists around the world. Activists are developing new technological strategies in order to do things like educate consumers about the impact of purchasing decisions, monitor wildlife and polution levels, and advocate for the protection of forests.
A report from the United Nations Foundation and The Vodafone Group Foundation Technology Partnership published in April describes the many different ways mobile phones are used for social change around the world. It's called “Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in Mobile Use by NGOs” [PDF].
Below, I have listed the environmental initiatives highlighted by its writers, Sheila Kinkade (ShareIdea.org) and Katrin Verclas (MobileActive.org). I have also listed some new projects that have appeared since then.
Argentina
Using mobile phones, Greenpeace in Argentina were able to rally supporters and effectively pass Argentina's first federal forest protection law. The MobileActive blog wrote of their tree saving efforts earlier this month:
Mobile phones are nothing new for Greenpeace Argentina. The organization has used mobile phones multiple times to mobilize its now 350,000 person-strong mobile list to successfully lobby for important environmental legislation. One of Greenpeace's significant accomplishments was the passage of the Ley de Bosques, or Forest Law.
According to the Wireless Technology for Social Change report, GreenPeace accomplished this by building a large database containing both email addresses and mobile phone numbers of the people who signed a petition supporting the Forest Law. In addition, they sent out text message alerts during critical hearings, and before city council votes. They also coordinated demonstrations and meetings using text messages.
Ghana
In Ghana, one project has shown that mobile phones can be transformed from typical pervasive tool for communication, to a 'super sensing' tool for environmental data collection. This is achieved by attaching a special sensor to a mobile phone. The sensor collects scientific information on air quality or even urban traffic patterns, which can be studied later and even layered over a google map.
Corinne Ramey wrote about this initiative on the MobileActive blog in April:
In the Accra study, seven taxi drivers were provided with a dash-mounted global positioning system (GPS) device and a tube to hang from their passenger window. The tube contained a carbon monoxide sensor. Similarly, three students were each given a mobile clip sensor pack containing a GPS device, and a carbon monoxide sensor. The taxi drivers and students were asked to carry their sensors as much as possible during their normal everyday activities. Throughout the day, the sensing system automatically logged sensor data. At the end of each day, the pilot participants dropped off their sensor packs at a central location where the data was then extracted and the sensors recharged. resulted from the participatory data collection A heat-map visualization of carbon monoxide readings across Accra, Ghana rendered atop Google Earth. Colors represent individual intensity reading of carbon monoxide during a single 24-hour period across the city. Red circles are locations where actual readings were taken.
Kenya
The Wirelesss Technology for Social Change report describes the tension in Laikipia district, Kenya, between landowners and wildlife. Farmers have been killed by wildlife, and their crops being destroyed. Elephants and other animals are being killed. A conflict prevention program that utilizes mobile phone technology, enables communication between the local community, wildlife service personnel, and land owners.
The pilot utilized ‘Push to Talk on Cellular (Phones)’ (PoC) technology, which combines the functionality of a walkie-talkie or two-way radio with a mobile phone. PoC enables communication between two individuals, or a group of people, and is particularly useful in connecting a user
group intermittently over a period of time (e.g., a working day).
South Africa
FishMS is an SMS-based service from The Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative that provides the status of global fish stocks to consumers. Users text the name of a fish they are considering buying to +27 79 499 8795, and are immediately advised as to whether the fish was sustainably harvested, or whether they should think twice before buying it. The following video shows the tool in action (the short film was shot on a mobile phone - Nokia N93).
United Kingdom, United States
AirText is a system that sends an SMS message, voicemail or email containing information about pollution levels in a specific borough of London. The service is aimed at people who suffer from heart and breathing problems. Similar services exist for specific locations in the United States, including Ergo (various zip codes) and ADEQ (in Arizona).
People who would like to know how much their personal greenhouse gas emissions amount to, can download an application mobGas to their phone, that allows them to report on their daily activities, like cooking, watching television or driving.
From the Wirelesss Technology for Social Change report report:
By helping users make connections between their daily activities and greenhouse gas emissions, mobGAS hopes to encourage individuals to make lifestyle changes. The application also offers tips on how to modify activities to decrease emissions.
A similar project, highlighted by Josh Catone on Read Write Web blog is called FuelFrog. It's an application that uses Twitter to help track fuel consumption by users:
FuelFrog is exceedingly simple, and immensely useful. After each fill up, users enter their miles traveled since the last fill, the price paid, and the amount of gasoline in gallons. Over time, FuelFrog will track and graph your fuel consumption data so you can do things like identify trends in gas prices in your area, see how fuel efficient your car is (is it time to put air in the tires, perhaps?), how much you're driving, and how much you're spending.
Global Voices Environment thank MobileActive and Shareideas for the report, and would be interested in reader's input on other examples of mobile phones being used for environmental activism.
Also see our recent post on Global Voices highlighting the use of web2.0 technologies for environmental activism
Kyrgyzstan: Someone is Relaxing, Someone is Fighting
Undoubtedly, the meeting of the Kyrgyz bloggers became the most under discussion event of the Kyrgyz blogosphere in the second half of May. 27 bloggers met and even the bad weather didn’t prevent their nice communication.
Mr_carlson wrote [ru]:
“To be honest, I was afraid that the participants of the meeting wouldn’t take an interest into each other. People are different ages, tastes and interests. The only mutual thing we have are blogs. But I has been wrong, because the atmosphere of the meeting was just marvelous”.
Links for Thu, 2008-06
Unzipped: Gay Armenia comments on the reaction of a local theatre director to to much “liberalism” in Armenian society. In addition to warning that the situation will result in more pornography, the director also warned that Yerevan will eventually hold it's own gay parade. The blog disagrees with the conservative views.
Unzipped comments on the prosecution of three people arrested for looting in the post-election 1 March clash between opposition supporters and the authorities. Ironically, the blog notes, the men claim to be supporters of the new president and not the main opposition challenger, and says that there are always people who choose to exploit such situations for personal gain.
Window on Eurasia says that one in five Georgians lives in the Russian Federation and considers how a sizable Georgian Diaspora might affect future relations between the two usually antagonistic countries.
Social Science in the Caucasus comments on a recent report it produced for the United Nations on economic relations between Armenia and Georgia. The blog says that despite an ethnically Armenian populated region in Georgia bordering Armenia providing a natural basis for the development of trade between the two, there is actually very little.
Balkan Baby writes about Serbian tennis players.
BBC's Mark Mardell writes about the fate of the Lisbon Treaty - and “Plan ‘B'” that's currently “kept under wraps in Prague.”
Robert Amsterdam posts a Resource Nationalism Checklist.
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