THE ISSUE AT HAND
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. The emergence of cellphone-services (e.g. "twitter") as fast and mobile tools of communication in a world of urban-based political and social upheaval seems to have triggered a new interest of international (Northern) media-agencies to support training in the efficient use of this technology. There is 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.		If a wider scope of local and international community is to be involved, 4 major factors need to be addressed: > You have to bridge cultural differences > You have to break language barriers > You have to make the content accessible to an audience without connectivity > You have to make such a regular event sustainable
"... We support and encourage the emergence and development of the Internet in Africa as a media free of government interference and control in the context of a pluralistic and independent press. ..."		How it all began In July 1997, the London-based Panos Institute and the Panafrican News Agency organized a seminar entitled "The Internet: An Opportunity for the African Media?", held in Dakar (Senegal). Radio Bridge Overseas (RBO), represented by its Editor, helped to draft the decisive "Dakar-Declaration": read the full text online

What happened next International NGO’s and charity organisations dictated the agenda, however generous their intent may have been, regarding broadcasters in Africa. The latter rarely took advantage of the opportunity as offered by the Internet – to tell the world their own stories from their own perspectives. Instead, the following list of topics is addressed, obviously recommended and sponsored by foreign donors: – AIDS/HIV – human rights – elections – advocacy work – good governance – civil society – environment – sustainable development – gender/children – news & events

Such content, determined exclusively by foreign well-wishers, was not what we had in our mind when we drafted the "Dakar-Declaration". As it turned out, perhaps only two media-houses tried to grasp the opportunity, to provide African storytellers with a chance to identify and to tell the world their own stories: "Channel Africa" in post-apartheid South Africa, and "Radio Bridge Overseas" in Zimbabwe. Due to political back-lashes in both countries, such efforts have ceased to exist.

Regional training A – Media personnel will be taught how to identify a local story and turn it into an audio-format which will find the attention of radio-listeners within and beyond the local setting. They will learn how to make use of digital hard- and software, and of the Internet for this purpose.

Regional training B – Young people get a chance to master digital communication technology so as to develop into providers of high quality content from within their own culture for the Information Highway, rather than becoming consumers of global (mainly Northern) content only.

Establishing a network of schools and colleges using the Internet – This will allow pupils to learn how to use modern communication tools whilst, at the same time, allowing ideas and opinions to flow freely from one country to another.

Appropriate media tools will provide students with experience they need to be well informed, intelligent decision makers, producers and problem solving members within their own societies as well as mediators between different cultures. Just imagine how empowering this will be to an African or Asian child! The use of multimedia will facilitate this because teachers and students are able to tackle various issues by creating interactive lessons – they are able to link up with their counterparts in other schools not only in the region but internationally, thus sharing experiences and new ideas in a stimulating way.

Prospective participants will be identified from groups at schools which are already working with computers, preferably within an existing scheme of "Global Learning". Priority will be given to schools in rural areas. It may become necessary to assist in upgrading soft- & hardware so that pupils at such schools can be introduced to a wider range of digital multimedia operation. Multimedia shall be understood as a combination of any two or more different media types (text, graphics, images, audio, video). Whilst researching for one story, the multimedia approach seeks to gather material for print, audio, picture and video at the same time. Electronic devices will allow digital capturing of audio, still pictures and video with the same piece of hardware. The multimedia allows to produce newspaper-, radio- and TV-stories and can be combined on a CD-ROM or on the Internet.

It is important to stress RBO’s approach of this project, 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.

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.

Production & Distribution Facility – Once the training described above starts to result in programs of interest and broadcast quality, they could form part of a new network, providing a constant feed of stories from around selected regions in the South, with RADIO BRIDGE OVERSEAS (KJS) – through its website – acting as a permanent communication-center to facilitate further training, multi-lingual production & distribution, and as a link between participating storytellers and interested local radio-stations for up- & download of programming content.