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<DIV>This is a contribution by Klaus Jürgen Schmidt / RBO</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"The tragedy is that of expanded communication and diminishing dialogue."
The noted Kenyan scholar, Ali Mazrui first said this while hosting the BBC
series, "The Africans". Professor Mazrui touched on one of the most underrated
gauges of the disparity between the North and the South; the measure of
self-expression. It is this lack of understanding that Boutros Boutros Ghali, a
former UN Secretary-General, said would pose the greatest threat to world
security. It does seem unfortunate that advances in technological hardware have
not necessarily meant improved communication or understanding among the peoples
of the world ... There is a need then, for another kind of technological
revolution. One that does not seek to improve the technology but to distribute
it.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Access to a growing range of sophisticated communication software, free of
charge or at low cost, allows people around the world to use the Internet
individually as a medium to interact with each other. They are able to share and
to exchange information, they can talk to and see each other. However, the
majority of the world’s population is disconnected from this mode of
communication, especially in rural areas. At best, they may perceive their view
of the world through their local radio station. A battery run radio is their
window to the world. Connectivity is the privilege of people participating in
Northern dominated economies, whether in the North itself or in urban centres of
the South where celluphones (handies) have already replaced the traditional
media.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The emergence of celluphone-services (e.g. "twitter") as fast and mobile
tools of communication in a world of urban-based political and social upheaval
seem to have triggered a new interest of international (Northern) media-agencies
to support training in the efficient use of this technology. There are, for
example, on the FOME-list already a good number of calls for respective
international workshops and conferences. This trend may, unfortunately,
perpetuate "the tragedy of expanded communication and diminishing dialogue"
because storytelling is something else than microblogging with not more than 140
characters.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>THE ALTERNATIVE AS PROPOSED BY RADIO BRIDGE OVERSEAS (RBO): </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If a wider scope of local and international community is to be involved in
real communication, 4 major factors need to be addressed:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>> You have to bridge cultural differences</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>> You have to break language barriers</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>> You have to make the content accessible to an audience without
connectivity</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>> You have to make such a regular event sustainable </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>THE RBO-PROPOSAL</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>... is an attempt to involve partners in Africa and Asia, targeting the
local use of multimedia technology at the outset rather than the Internet
itself. RBO believes that mastering digital technology will create a new
interest in young people with regard to their own local culture; in mostly
orally oriented societies, they will become empowered to create links between
generations by recording and processing pictures, poems, tales, songs, and music
in simple digital formats which they can than turn into attractive new local
media-formats. They may – for example – create a regular multimedia-show which
can be viewed from the hard disk or from a self-produced CD-ROM through
data-projection on a large screen at a school or in a community-centre.<BR>Such
experiences may see the emergence of a new type of local entrepreneurs:
School-leavers who turn into local information providers, making the use of new
technologies at schools and within their communities sustainable by charging an
entry-fee for such shows. They may further incorporate results of Internet
research translated into the local language, and thus making Internet-content
accessible to their community. With the acquisition of skills and know-how it
may then become feasible for young people to present aspects of their own
cultures to a worldwide Internet-audience in a way which has shed any feelings
of inferiority as values may have been evaluated and revised in a local
discourse. Local art and culture could be proudly promoted, developing them even
further in a virtual context. ... more: <A
href="http://www.radiobridge.net/rboissue.html">www.radiobridge.net/rboissue.html</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>THE RBO-MANUAL</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>... is an online-tool for emerging storytellers and voices of the South —
in Africa, Asia and Latin America, devised and actively supported by Klaus
Jürgen Schmidt based on his thirty years of intercultural media practice in the
southern world. It provides practical hints and online-links with regard
to:<BR>– EQUIPMENT & CO-OPERATION<BR>– USE OF LANGUAGE & EFFECTS<BR>–
CREATIVE APPROACH<BR>– PROGRAMME PLANNING<BR>– PROGRAMME REALISATION<BR>–
PROGRAMME DISTRIBUTION<BR>– PROGRAMME ARCHIVE <BR>– RBO's EDITOR's
ASSISTANCE<BR>The latter is for storytellers who may be in need of consultation
with regard to planned or finished programmes; they can contact K.J.Schmidt via
email to receive feedback if their approach is convincing in a professional
sense. The RBO-Editor is also prepared to offer for selected programmes of his
choice an award of 7 US-$ per minute; such programmes being presented — under
RBO-copyright — for free download from an already installed website. ... more:
<A
href="http://www.radiobridge.net/rbomanual">www.radiobridge.net/rbomanual</A></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>