WebCooperation

Conversations For a Better World

“Conversations for a Better World is a shared blog on population and development issues. It is a place where people exchange ideas and opinions,  a place for us to be ourselves. The idea is to get people talking about how we can co-create a better world. And we want you to join in and become part of a global network of ‘conversation starters’. Conversations is based on ‘the power of we’ – the idea that when it comes to addressing complex challenges, collective wisdom is called for”.

The project is a collaborative blog aimed at people interested in development issues. The Blog aims to foster lively debate and is created and coordinated by the Media and Communications Branch of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

A very powerful example of the need of new specific projects aiming to enhance a global, development-oriented and web-based conversation. Who better than the UN itself?

Ghana's based 'Young People We Care'

Young People We Care (YPWC) is a youth led and youth focused organization that is headquartered in Ghana, with additional satellite offices in Uk and Canada. The organization “aims to educate and inform youth on global issues; inspire them to take action; encourage youth participation in global issues; identify and build sustainable partnerships aimed at youth development; and provide young people with the tools and resources required for effective action”

These guys do a great use of partecipative web to organize and drive all their activities; for example the “online volunteering programme provides opportunities for volunteers to provide support and assistance “virtually”, in other words, they volunteer via the internet. The virtual volunteer programme is innovative and, of course, cost effective for all involved. Volunteers can work from anywhere and don’t have to travel all the way to Ghana just to help out; they can volunteer in their pyjamas in their rooms anywhere in the world”

[via Global Voices]

Following Iran Updates

The Audience following Iran in these hours is the biggest online movement ever seen.

You can keep up with the situation throught
Iran Twazzup, Global Voices Online, BBC, Mashable and some live blogging channels: The Daily Dish, Revolutionary Road and

Numerous hot links about the social media issues related to the protests on my Delicious account.

Iran Clashing Reports

With Iran facing a serious of clashes, manifestations and fights between Mousavi supporters and Police, the Social web offers a wide coverage of what is happening, despite the attempt of the governament to block any voice arresting hundreds of people, shutting down tv and radio channels and closing down facebook and youtube…

Here is a range of interesting material:

a list of some users twitting live on the situation from inside the country - here are the results with the main ashtag on the event, iranelection; Live blogging of the events on the Huffington Post; reports on the situation on Global Voices and frequent updates and comments by Juan Cole and Robert Fisk.

Update:
here is the BBC News “Role of the Web” page on Iran’s protests.
Iran.twazzup offers a live report with different ashtags, news, videos and links

Lebanon: Natra Bareed Web Initiative

Social Media Exchange reports about a Web Based Campaign to promote an event regarding Homosexuality in Lebanon through Viral Marketing and buzzes.

Natra Bareed?

Singapore Pink-Dot Smart Mob

“More than 2,500 people in Singapore gathered at Hong Lim Park to form a human Pink Dot - a symbol of love and inclusiveness. It was Singapore’s first public rally in support for the Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. ” [GV Article]

PinkDot is the first Singapore Web-Portal about freedom of Love, supporting Gay, Lesbians and transgender right of expression in a still very conservative and repressive culture. The PinkDot community organized a SMART MOB using a wide average of social tools. The event had a great online coverage and was reported also by BBC and various Online Newspapers.

Iran, Facebook down. Again?

Iran’s web based political campaign had a very short life.

Governament blocked the access to both Facebook and Flickr.

Too bad Ahmadinejad couldn’t manage to understand the importance of a free and open debate on the world wide web. Another chance lost. Again.

UPDATE 26/05 It seems Facebook is up again now.

The Pink Panty Campaign

“The Pink Chaddi Campaign is a nonviolent protest movement launched in India in February 2009 in response to notable incidences of violent conservative and right-wing activism against perceived violations of Indian culture, when a group of women were attacked in a pub in Mangalore. The campaign was conceived particularly in protest against a threat by Pramod Muthalik of the Sri Ram Sena (also spelled as Sri Ram Sena, Sri Ram Sene and Sriram Sena), an orthodox Hindu group based in Mangalore. Mr.Muthalik threatened to marry off and take other action on any young couples found together on Valentine’s Day.” [Wikipedia]

The movement rounded up, got organized and keep relating with the community throught the web, with a Facebook page and a Blog.

Here a great analysis about the movement by Gourav Mishra

Pakistan Long March Web Coverage

In 2007 Musharraf, president of Pakistan, declared the national state of emergency. With this declaration the president had the right to remove more than 60 judjes from power (some of wich had part in the Supreme Court who had just ruled he was ineligible to hold the post of President).

For the second consecutive year, “Pakistani lawyer community of Pakistan along with concerned citizens, political workers, human right activists and students have been struggling for the restoration of the deposed judges” [official March Blog] and decided to organize a long march across the country heading to Islamabad to force the governament into releasing the judjes.

The group behind the organization uses greatly the social media tools. This is a part of an interview by Digiactive with Dr. Awab Alvi, one of the organizers of the 2009 event:

The campaign mixed old and familiar tools such as Twitter andFacebook, with new and customized tools. Twitter was augmented by See ‘n’ Report. Like Twitter, See ‘n’ Report collated emails but also SMS and MMS updates whilst providing a campaigners front page, compromising a geographical view, multimedia feeds, SMS feeds, twitter feeds and beautifully compiled video footage using Flowplayer (a video player for the web).

All of which was collated through CoveritLive to provide live coverage of the event.CoveritLive is a viewer that can be embedded on a blog or website to link a combination of Twitter accounts and hashtags (upto 12 twitter accounts and 6 hashtags), reader comments, multimedia and live blogs (through iPhones, Blackberries etc).

Activity was monitored through Cligs which provides analytical tools on traffic going through a site.

The available data is huge: here you have articles by Global Voices, BBC News, Wikipedia and an interesting video by Al Jazeera English.

Kenya Web Based Activism

Throught the GV Rising Voices Group I got to know the Mars Group, a leadership, governance, accountability and media watchdog organization based in Kenya.

“Our goal is to create awareness and to generate an effective demand, by Kenyans, for accountability from Kenya’s leadership and to encourage Kenyans to hold to account those who have committed improprieties.”

Among the many different activities, the group actively work reporting news on Governament and corruption, live streaming videos on their own frequent reports and promoting citizens partecipation. At the moment they claim having more than 170000 change activists on the ground. They also have a blog on which they openly report on all their initiatives.

One of the latest succesfull initiative is about exposing fraud in a supplementary budget tabled in parliament, and after being lambasted by the Minister of Finance itself, a joint parliamentary committee confirmed the Mars Group work stating the existence of financial inconsistencies in governament planning.

One of the greatest project launched by Mars Group is Partnership For Change, a Web Based, ongoing citizen participation initiative that aims to

“advance the strategic use of non-violent action in calling upon the Kenyan Citizen to demand the end of Impunity, Restore Democratic accountability and to end Dictatorship in Kenya.”

The project is a true and concrete Call to action, spreading forms on non-violent protests, advocacy material and much more, aiming to collect people and push em to actively volunteer for the campaign. This is the Facebook group of the project.

Great job guys.