Airwaves & Liberty

This is from Bruce Girard boa(at)comunica.org via the GRC listserv. By the way, “ICT” is shorthand for Information and Communications Technology.

How is your local or community radio station making use of the internet and other ICTs?

The World Electronic Media Forum <http://www.wemfmedia.org/> will take place in Kuala Lumpur 10-11 December 2007 alongside the 3rd Global Knowledge Conference and I’ve been asked to speak on a panel about the “Role of ‘own-time media’/'any place media’ in the service of development”. The panel description notes that:

“A rapidly growing number of people in the OECD countries listen to radio content of their choice through podcasts on their iPod or other MP3 player. This allows them to have access to high quality content in the area of their specific interest and at a time and place that doesn’t conflict with their work and obligations. What about the developing world? Is there a scope to use MP3 players beyond urban music consumption, particularly to make specific high quality content available to the poor and people in remote areas? … The panellists will discuss some encouraging first lessons and trends in a global and local context that is shaped by media convergence.”

I’d like to use the opportunity to highlight some of the innovative ways that local and community radio stations, particularly those in developing countries, are using ICTs and mobile telephony to open up new channels of communication with listeners and to enable new forms of participation. If your independent local or community radio station, or a station you know of, is using the internet or mobile telephony in an innovative way, please send it to me. We will post the experiences on a blog at http://comunica.org/radio2.0

For more information, including examples of how radio stations are using the internet to exchange independent news, enable community participation, etc. visit http://comunica.org/radio2.0.

Bruce Girard