This morning I had the privilege to facilitate the Reconstructed session at the Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs) space. Video blogging or "Vlogging" was the area we focused on and it was amazing to see how the team managed to video blog with ease. A short background about what video blogging was and how others have been using it (like the "From the Couch" site) was explained. The team had to go out and shoot a short 30 second video which they had to upload to YouTube and post to their blog. Within a few minutes we had the video shoot, some even posted to YouTube and embedded into their blog. You can view some of the videos on the Reconstructed blog. Many of the team will be using video as a medium to explore the rich and colorful stories of their communities sharing that message of hope.
With the increased number of organisations especially non-profits looking at how they can engage with young people the video below, by Graham Brown of Mobile Youth, gives an insightful overview of what these organisations can do to reach their youth target market. The Reconstructed Project also featured in this video as we continue spreading the message of hope amongst our young people in South Africa.
The founder of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee shared his thoughts (See video below) on what the web should be like for all communities around the world. Questions about are developing nations like those in Africa, India being fed a Western Culture via the web has been raised, but the key thing is making sure that every person have the right to access to the web irrespective the device which is the point of access.
He stated that of course mobile phones are popular in developing nations and that this replaces the computer but yet most of the web is still focused around the PC. According to Berners-Lee 20% of the planet (approx. 1.2 billion) have access to the web even though over 4 billion have access to mobile phones. What this mean is the web should also consider those who don't have access to HD, latest technologies but attempt to reach the rest of the world using simple low-bandwidth browsers.
The more people who have connectivity the greater the opportunity for creativity to come forth in those developing nations. This of course leads to innovations that could come back to impact developed nations as well.
Transcript of Sir Tim Berners-Lee's Talk
'In developing countries of course people have phones where they don't have computers. And to a certain extent there are certain level of people who have phones with their browsers but don't have computers.
...where the web at the moment is only used by 20 per cent of the planet, it's possible that we'll get very much more of the planet actually with access as they get phones, and those phones have simple web browsers.
So one of the things we have to make sure is that it works for them, that we don't just target everything in HD, in three dimensions, whatever the next new thing is - at, you know the early adopter, we also have to make sure that we target things in low resolution, low bandwidth, to people out there.
But also we have to realise that one of the things which, when you talk to anybody, for example, about going to Africa, about how people use technology, is they all say it is incredible how whatever the technology is they are really really creative with it. Well guess what? They're human beings and human beings are creative. So one of the things we've got to realise as well is as people, more people get connected, it is their creativity...
...the important thing is we must enable them to create a web that they need and that they want, and they will. If they're enabled, if they're given an open Internet platform, a neutral Internet platform, they will do that. So we must not think that we will be feeding them our culture, we must realise that their culture is going to be coming back very strongly and that is going to be very exciting for the world.'
Youtube is definitely one of those sharing sites where users can get news out in a flash. An example is when Usain Bolt won the 200m by shattering the record in 19.19 seconds. The video flooded the YouTube sharing site with millions of people across the world sharing in the news of the fastest man over 200m.
What does this mean for community empowerment? With the proper tools citizens in Communities in Tension could use this medium as a way of sharing breaking news with the world.
With Social Media playing such a big role in Michael Jackson's memorial and coverage to the ends of the earth using technology like never before you can follow it through live the stream above.
Well as I was listening to many young people talking about their dreams it reminded me of how many people are able to share and live their dreams using Social Media. The above video is a classic example of how a woman with a dream got more than what she bargained for when she entered a singing competition. The use of social media indicates the use of spreading a message and engaging with the masses. The above video achieved the following stats in a space of 6 weeks(source: Viral Video Cart):
81 duplicate videos 147,874,746 views 13,345 blog posts (+1 this post) 494,982 comments
Surely this is a good example of the power of sharing a message and joining the conversation using social media.
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