Radio 2.0 for development » video

Community media in a digital age

bg — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:23:38 +0000

The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and UNESCO, recently published a book about community radio use of digital technologies.? Fighting Poverty: Utilizing Community Media in a Digital Age is based on a series of reflections raised during a roundtable on community radio and new technologies at the World Congress on Communication for Development (Rome, October 2006) and later further developed by workshop participants and others.

The ostensible subject of this publication is community media. The real focus of the text is on democratic and sustainable development. It reflects the main interest of those who support or are active in community radio, an interest that does not centre on technology, equipment, infrastructure or spectrum. Their interest focuses on participation.

The publication and additional audio and video material can be downloaded from AMARC’s website or you can order a print copy from here.

Table of Contents

- Communication for Development in the 21st Century: ICT-enhanced Empowerment of Poor and Marginalised People. A Foreword by Walter Fust, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
- Preface by Marcelo Solervicens, World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC)
- Introduction by James Deane, Communication for Social Change Consortium
- The Rescuing of Democracy: The Contribution of Community Radio in Nepal by Kunda Dixit, Nepali Times
- The Role of Community Radio in the Nepali Crisis: An Interview with Raghu Mainali by James Deane, Communication for Social Change Consortium
- Perspectives on Community Radio in Latin America by Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron, Communication for Social Change Consortium
- Community Radio at a Crossroads: A Perspective from Francophone Africa by Fatoumata Sow
- Perspectives and Experiences from Eastern and Southern Africa by Grace Githaiga, Econews
- Community Radio, New Technologies and Policy: Enough Watching, It’s Time for Doing by Bruce Girard
- What is Community Radio in the 21st Century? A Perspective from UNESCO by Wijayananda Jayaweera
- WCCD Statement on community Media
- Notes on Contributors

Next Generation Radio Reporters

bg — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:25:24 +0000

Mark Glaser recently wrote about two National Public Radio (USA) training initiatives for aspiring “next generation radio” journalists in his MediaShift blog. The two training programmes are Next Generation Radio (NextGen) and Intern Edition. NextGen is based on intensive one week courses while Intern Edition involves a 10-week course. Both courses aim to bring radio journalists into the online world, encouraging them to use the internet, adding photos, video and blogs to radio’s traditional audio.

eTUKTUK – taking Kothmale a little further

bg — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:05:57 +0000

Ben Grubb sent me an article he wrote about the eTUKTUK for an upcoming issue of the Telecentre Magazine, published by telecentre.org. I won’t steal anyone’s thunder by posting it here, but he also included some interesting links to online videos. A tuk-tuk is a motorised rickshaw or three-wheeled motorcycle, a popular form of transport in much of South and South East Asia. An eTUKTUK is (you guessed it) a tuktuk equipped with a computer and an internet connection, and Kothmale Community Radio‘s eTUKTUK which is not only a mobile telecentre but also a mobile radio station (with it’s own low-power transmitter) and a remote broadcasting unit that send a signal via its CDMA connection back to Kotmale’s main transmitter for rebroadcast throughout the region.

The eTUKTUK not only provides a travelling internet and voice service for the community, but also helps the radio station keep in close touch with community members and activities. According to Ben, community members often request the eTUKTUK to visit and “provide coverage of religious and cultural gatherings and facilitate forums and workshops.”

The itinerant vehicle encourages staff from Kothmale to actively engage with their target audience while the narrowcasting and editing facilities enable programs and training to be conducted in a familiar environment that encourages broader participation. The community can play an active role in media creation and through the loudspeakers and multimedia projector, content can be narrowcast and verified by the community before being broadcast.

Ben also writes that the eTUKTUK is influencing Kothmale’s programming:

[It] has generated a new program format at Kothmale where the etuktuk community programs are compiled into an daily program broadcast between 7-8pm which also provides live link-ups with the etuktuk in the field.

There are some videos of the eTUKTUK site, but you’d better have a good connection to see them – especially the one at the top of the page, Creating Harmony in the Community, which weighs in at 123 megs.

GISS: Global Independent Streaming Support

bg — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:50:26 +0000

In response to a request for information about projects with radio and ICTs, Yves Degoyan sent the information below about the Global Independent Streaming Support (GISS) project. GISS provides infrastructure and software for independent multimedia (including 10 or 15 radio stations, although at least some of these are internet-only radio).

hola,
there is an experience of free media/alternative media going on with open source tools (format ogg/theora ( video ), ogg/vorbis ( audio )) that exists since 2004 and now hosts 50
community radios like :

radio numero critico : http://www.radionumerocritico.cl/news.php
radio aktiva : http://radioaktivafm.blogspot.com/
and much more …

and has also hosted alternative tv initiatives Horitzo TV : http://www.horitzo.tv and some video streams for special events ( Social Forums, Free Software Events, … )

you should be able to receive it on a mobile device if you have the video lan client installed
( http://www.videolan.org ), it exists for some PDA running an embedded Linux like Zaurus.. also many telephones have now an ogg player and can receive audio streams, thus radios.

this project is called G.I.S.S. : Global Independent Streaming Support, http://www.giss.tv
and lets you see a map of current activity of the network with a geographical map :
http://gollum.artefacte.org/mapuse/map.html

there is also a text about the motivations behind GISS : http://giss.tv/wiki/index.php/About_Giss_by_Yves_Degoyon_2007 ( sorry if i quote myself )

if you want to refer to these experiences, you can always contact us on-line on IRC channel :
server : irc.goto10.org
channel : #giss

regards,
sevy

Reuters/Nokia Collaboration Has Potential for Citizen Journalists

bg — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:56:21 +0000

MobileActive.org has written about a Reuters/Nokia collaboration to design and test a mobile phone equipped with a camera, video, a tripod, GPS, an external keyboard, an external microphone, a solar charger and software that turns it into a portable studio that a journalist can use to record, edit and transmit stories with audio, photos, video and text. This may be overkill for radio, but I don’t know of another phone that lets you record with a good quality external mic. According to a Reuters article on the toolkit, it required a special adapter plug made by Nokia.

A good mobile phone with multimedia capabilities is part of our ICT and community radio essential toolkit.

Read the story from MobileActive.org: Reuters/Nokia Collaboration Has Potential for Citizen Journalists