Monthly Archive for May, 2008

World Electronic Media Forum – own time / any place media

PanelistsI got a CD in the mail yesterday with the final report from the World Electronic Media Forum (WEMF III) that was held in Kuala Lumpur last December. I was invited to speak in a session on Role of ‘own-time media’/’any place media’ in the service of development. The session was chaired by Abdul Waheed Khan, ’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information and the panelists were: Lucy Hooberman, Innovation Executive, Research and Innovation, BBC Future Media and technology; Seema B. Nair, Project Leader UNESCO India; Bruce Girard, Expert in community radio and local media, Comunica; and Kristine Pearson, Chief Executive, Freeplay Foundation.

The session report and a few photos that were included on the CD are below, along with a link to the full WEMF III report.

Continue reading ‘World Electronic Media Forum – own time / any place media’

Frontline SMS

I wrote about about FrontlineSMS a few months ago. It’s a piece of that turns a laptop and a phone into a powerful system for sending and receiving messages and that I think should be part of the essential digital toolkit for local and community radio. FrontlineSMS creator has just come out with a new version of the program, as well as a new website.

I haven’t tried the software (although I have requested it and we want to test it at a community radio station somewhere in Latin America) but Sanjana Hattotuwa gave it a pretty good grade in a blog post on mobileactive.org, although she questions whether it might be too complicated for some grassroots organisations and complained about compatibility problems with her Nokia 3110 (one that FrontlineSMS does NOT claim to support fully).

Continue reading ‘Frontline SMS’

Canada doesn’t know what to do either…

CRTCCanada’s regulatory agency for broadcasting and telecommunications, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), has launched a consultation on broadcasting in the new media environment for a public hearing to be held in early 2009. In 1999 the CRTC looked at new media services delivering content over the internet and decided to exempt them from content regulation. But a lot has changed since the days when fewer than 10% of those who used the internet had broadband connections.

Continue reading ‘Canada doesn’t know what to do either…’

Empowering radio: community radio in 5 countries

Across many countries and in different regions, community radio stations have been fostering community participation and creating an appetite for transparent and accountable governance, even in challenging regulatory environments. Empowering Radio: Good practices in development & operation of community radio is a report prepared for the World Bank Institute based on five national studies of community radio practices in five very different countries: Colombia, Mali, Nepal, Peru and South .

Continue reading ‘Empowering radio: community radio in 5 countries’

SMS and radio in the aftermath of a disaster

From the report Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in Mobile Use by NGOs

More than 5,000 people died and 1.6 million were displaced as a result of the May 2006 earthquake in Yogyakarta and Central Java in Indonesia. During the days and weeks following the disaster, ordinary citizens received valuable news via text message. The text messaging service was put in place by Internews, a U.S.- based NGO that works to improve people’s access to information around the world.

The service was run through an emergency AM radio station, Radio Punokawan, established by the Indonesian Press and Broadcast Society, with support from Internews. In addition to radio broadcasts, important information was sent and received from the newsroom via text messaging. Outgoing messages warned of aftershocks and identified communities that had not yet received government assistance. More than 180 Indonesian journalists distributed and received information through the service.

Continue reading ‘SMS and radio in the aftermath of a disaster’