Two new posts about video advocacy

Two of my fine colleagues have been interviewed on other blogs recently about WITNESS’ model of video advocacy.

The first is an interview withProgram Director, Sam Gregory, conducted by Henry Jenkins the Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program on his personal blog after meeting Sam at the recent DIY Video Summit hosted at the University of Southern California. The interview is a great background to how WITNESS got started and how we’ve evolved (i.e. from literally giving video cameras away to human rights activists to providing more strategic guidance to activists in how to incorporate video into their campaigns to the creation of the hub). For anyone who’d like to know more about us, and even for those who know us well, check out this informative interview.

The second is posted by CityLimits – an organization that focuses on fostering discussions about policy, programs and the people involved in New York City. In “Its Not a Movement Without a Movie” editor Karen Loew examines the explosion of hyper-local media creation by NYC activists and advocacy groups. Suvasini Patel, our Communications Manager is cited referencing the potential of video to galvanize and inspire grassroots communities.

Both articles speak to the power and the ease with which more and more people are employing video for specific causes. Kind of like what users can do on the Hub.  Consider this an invitation to get uploading! (or sharing, or commenting/ rating, joining a campaign).

On the Seesmic rooftop with Loic Le Meur…

A brief dispatch from San Francisco, where yesterday I spent some quality time with Loic Le Meur, Cathy Brookes and VinVin at Seesmic. As well as a quickfire exchange with users on Seesmic – some of whom are already on the Hub – Loic and I had a quick chat on Seesmic’s rooftop:

More soon on SF and LA (where I will be at the Media Re:Public conference at USC Annenberg tomorrow)…

We’re in the Netxplorateur 100!

Congratulations to our friends at Psiphon, who have won the Grand Prize at the Forum Netxplorateur in Paris – deserved recognition for a very exciting tool…

What we didn’t know until Psiphon told us is that the Hub was selected too as one of the Netxplorateur 100 – “100 Net trailblazers creating new digital practices with high potential for economic and social impact.”

All 100 Netxplorateurs developed a tangible, innovative and meaningful project in 2007. Together they embody the future of the Web and the digital era as a whole.

The Hub has only been running for three months now, so it’s even more humbling to be in such exalted company, alongside dopplr, MySociety’s e-petitions site, Kiva.org, and Ning – and they didn’t even make the Top 10, which includes Twitter, and One Laptop Per Child.  Our thanks to the selection committee, and to the Forum Netxplorateur for their recognition of the Hub’s potential as a transformative tool for human rights.

Over the coming months we’ll be looking to work with other members of the Netxplorateur 100 (among others) to develop and provide more content, tools and expertise for the hundreds of organizations and activists already using the Hub and those yet to, to help facilitate their work to advance human rights worldwide using video. If you’re interested in working with us, we’re always happy to hear from you…

DIY video and human rights

I’ve just arrived back in New York after three thought-provoking days at the 24/7, DIY Video Summit, a great event put together by Mimi Ito and a team of organizers and curators at the Institute for Multimedia Literacy at USC. The panels and discussions streamed live in Second Life and were webcast, and they should be going up on http://www.video24-7.org soon.

I was on a panel called ‘State of the Art’ talking about the Hub, and the human rights implication of online video, alongside Alex Juhasz sharing a YouTube video (appropriately) about her experience teaching in the environment of YouTube and the frustrations of it as a venue for higher learning. Alongside us Thenmozhi Soundarajan presented the work of Third World Majority (where her sister, Theeba who used to be our colleague here at WITNESS, also works ) and highlighted for me a particularly clear point about how we’ve been pushing in media justice work for access, but now that is not sufficient – when there are 90 versions of Thriller out there, and no meaningful dialogue about healthcare policy then we’ve gained access but without an accompanying ideology of what we do with it. Juan Devis from KCET highlighted local video and mapping initiatives in L.A. and showed his excellent Departures project which provides an immersive experience of an L.A. neighborhood, Boyle Heights.

A brief chat with The Elders for International Human Rights Day…

If you haven’t come across The Elders already, you will soon – not least because we are partnering with them on their Every Human Has Rights campaign.

On Sunday morning I sat in on a conference call with three of The Elders – Graça Machel, Mary Robinson and Archbishop Desmond Tutu – and 5 bloggers from Global Voices (including Solana Larsen, who blogged here and here). The odd technical hiccup aside, it was fascinating to hear these titans of international human rights speak so passionately of the power of individual stories of human rights to create change – and, in the words of Graça Machel, of the role that sites like the Hub can play in “helping the world to know.”

Desmond Tutu kicked off the call, marking International Human Rights Day as “the beginning of a year-long commemoration, a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.” [UPDATE, 10 Dec: audio versions of the UDHR here] The Elders hope, he said, in what would comfortably be the largest sign-up/pledge/petition ever, to “encourage [and] persuade a billion people to sign the declaration to take possession of what is an incredible legacy.”

That’s an astonishing target – and Tutu was clear that “if the people are not engaged, then you can forget it. [...] When we were struggling against apartheid, we talked about people power – galvanising what are usually called ‘ordinary people’ – there are no ordinary people, everyone is extraordinary.”

Mary Robinson referred to the “extraordinary power of communication”, and she had kind words for not only the Hub, but also openDemocracy, Global Voices, and Business & Human Rights. “We want to amplify marginalised voices, that tend not to be heard,” said Desmond Tutu, stressing the importance of “people being able to tell their own story – of human rights abuses, of human rights being recognised and enjoyed” and “people’s own journey in claiming their rights, and exercising their responsibilities and duties.”
Continuing the theme, Mary Robinson quoted Eleanor Roosevelt, and stressed her call for “concerted citizen action”:

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”

But it was left to Graça Machel to speak particularly of human rights organisations at the grassroots. She made clear the Elders’ own feeling of “responsibility to bring forward the stories of the world,” but she recognised the power of new media to do the same with real immediacy, and she appealed to bloggers to bring out “stories of resistance and success.” And then she hit on what we see as one of the Hub’s most important roles: “For [the Every Human Has Rights] campaign to be global,” it needs to connect with “small organisations that don’t have the space or the resources to get recognition or power.” We’re looking forward to playing a role in helping those organisations tell their stories to wide audiences – and, in the process, in “helping the world to know.”

And you have a part to play too: Tell Your Story…

[Note: WITNESS' co-founder, Peter Gabriel, was also instrumental in forming the Elders project.]