· July, 2012

Stories about Summit Panels from July, 2012

Rising Voices: Wiring Offgrid Villages & Preserving Language Online

July 3, 2012

Around the world, an emerging group of language activists are recognizing that participatory digital media can play a part in engaging and encouraging the next generation of speakers of endangered and indigenous languages. Eddie Avila (Bolivia), Oliver Stegen (Germany/Kenya), Abdoulaye Bah (Guinea) and Boukary Konaté (Mali) discuss the challenges.

Are They Watching Me? Internet Surveillance

July 3, 2012

Jillian York (Global Voices and Electronic Frontier Foundation) starts off this session by asking participants if they think their government is monitoring their electronic communications. She goes onto explore new trends in technical surveillance and censorship with Rob Faris (Berkman Center for Internet & Society), Ellery Biddle (Center for Democracy & Technology), Afef Abrougui (Global Voices, Tunisia) and Mohamed El Gohary (Global Voices, Egypt).

Visualizing Data at Global Voices

July 3, 2012

Gilad Lotan of SocialFlow introduces us to the recently popular world of data visualization and asks if it is actually advancing the stories we are telling? Panelists Tarek Amr (Global Voices, Egypt), Kepha Ngito (Map Kibera), Nathan Matias (MIT Media Lab) and Marek Tuszynski (Tactical Technology Collective) explore some answers.

The Internet, SMS, and Participatory Health

July 3, 2012

Participatory health media has been enabling citizens to tell their personal stories about the impact that health issues have had on their lives, but it can also play an important role in collecting and distributing vital information needed in developing countries.

Giants of the Internet: What Roles and Responsibilities?

July 2, 2012

A famous proverb says, “When elephants fight, the grass suffer. When elephants agree, the grass gets eaten.” With that introduction, our moderator Ivan Sigal, notes that corporations run a large portion of our digital publics.

Inside/Outside: Diaspora Influence Online

July 2, 2012

The Diaspora influence online session exposed various experiences between countries and the need to consider important gaps in communication, worldview, political and economic conditions between various communities of common heritage who strive to work together.

Keeping Endangered Languages Alive Online

  July 2, 2012

Will we all converge on English and Chinese online? Or will technology help sustain our many mother tongues? Eddie Avila, Director of Rising Voices, notes the difference between endangered languages and underrepresented languages. Three of the panelists are working with the latter in African languages.

The State of Kenyan Citizen Media

July 2, 2012

Kennedy Kachwanya is chairman of the Blogger's association of Kenya. Collins Mbalo won the Best African Blogger award, a global voices author, who blogs from a Kenyan perspective. Judith Owigar is the cofounder and president of Akirachix.

How do “Small” African Nations Grab the World's Attention?

July 2, 2012

Why do these countries have less of a voice? They are sometimes separated by language. Sometimes news agencies don't have it in their interest to report from these countries. Other times, historical ties of colonisation create blind spots for international media.