[Imc-africa] Fwd: IMC Convergence Center in WSF NAIROBI. Re: an imc at the WSF in Nairobi, January 2007?

Sun Aug 27 18:30:08 PDT 2006

----- Forwarded message from sphinx at indymedia.org -----
    Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 06:39:28 +0200
    From: sphinx <sphinx at indymedia.org>
Reply-To: sphinx <sphinx at indymedia.org>
 Subject: IMC Convergence Center in WSF NAIROBI.  Re: [Imc-africa] an imc at the
WSF in Nairobi, January 2007?
      To: Judith Miguda-Attyang <migudaattyang at yahoo.com>

Hi Judith, John,, Oloo and Grace in Kenya. It is exciting to know that you who
are already in Kenya are looking forward to his event.
As you know from the last mail from Jay.

The hope is to set-up a convergence IMC at the World Social Forum in Janaury
2007 in Nairobi.

-Which means we'll take up a room or space and set-up an indymedia
Center in the
World Social Forum, with computers and a RADIO station which will function
during the forum and at the end of the forum the radio and the computers and
other equipment that will be at the indymedia convergence center will be left
with the locals to continue using radio and other media as a way to inform
their community and empower it by so doing.
We also hope other activists from around Africa who will be in Kenya will use
the opportunity to learn how to start similar LOW POWERED RADIO
STATIONS in their own communities.

Promethues Radio which has helped other communities around the world(including
Tanzania) build their own Community radio is in on the discussions for the
Convergence Center.

-To respond to the question of sustainabilty raised by Glenda:
At the discussion with the people from Promethues radio, they pointed
out; that
in addition to wanting to jointly build the station with locals,  they try to
buy much of the equipment and parts for the radio from the local
hardware store
in the community. Thus locals should be able to maintain the station
themselves.
Especially as everyone is invited to join in the building of the station and
thus learn how it is done and how it works.
Promethues radio will provide us with a list of things used in building the
radio station that could be found in hardware stores in Kenya. The list
will include metal pipes for making the antenna and others.
The list will be emailed to the folks in Kenya to go to check the
prices of the
items from a hardware store in Nairobi.
The information from Kenya will help in the overall drawing of a
budget, of how
much resources we will need for the station.

-On the question of energy, at the core is about people being
organized. Because there are dozens of groups involved in solar power,
bicycle power and
other simalar easily deployed technology projects for energy. But it takes an
organized local group, which discusses what they want for their community and
are committed to empower their community. Then it becomes easy for activists
out of their community to hoop up with them to support. The sustainability is
about the commitment of the local group to stay together and discuss the
problems they which to solve in their community and check with
activists groups
which can help their community based initiative.
And of course the more it becomes clear that the local group is well
organized;
They have regular meetings, discuss the problems of their community and
try with
what they got to start some projects to empower their community, then
outsiders
feel encouraged to be part of their project and know that they are part of
something that will stay and their time will not be waisted.

Thus in the case of the upcoming WSF forum, and our hope to connect
with Maseno
University-as their students themselves are already a ready-made-community.
People in Kenya will need to meet and take a moment both as individuals
and as a
group to get organized to be sure that by the time the forum starts,
Kenya has a
group of individuals commited to empowering their community through the use of
media and organizing  along the lines of consensus (since we know that
conensus
encourages participation and by implication community empowerment).

Information on Consensus is available on this website:
http://www.wandreilagh.org/consensus.pdf

INformation on how to start an indymedia group:
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/NewImcHowTo

Have fun.
Sphinx

Quoting Judith Miguda-Attyang <migudaattyang at yahoo.com>:

>
> I am very excited about the whole idea of having
> Maseno University involved in this way. As I indicated
> to Chris at Antioch am juist waiting for formalities
> to begin then I can beggin to involve the whole
> administration
>
> Judith
> --- M Coul <mcoule at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Salut
>>
>> Excuse moi d'intervenir en français.
>> Je pense que c'est une très bonne idée qui nous
>> permettra de partager les
>> experiences mais aussi de de faire promotion et de
>> renforcer IMC Africa.
>> Nous (Malitchikan www.malitchikan.org ) adherons
>> pleinement à cette belle
>> initiative.
>> MCoul (Membre du futur IMC Mali)
>>
>> 2006/8/14, Jay <idiot at jaysand.com>:
>> >
>> > SUMMARY:
>> > There is an idea to put together a
>> "convergence-based" IMC during the
>> > upcoming World Social Forum in Nairobi (January
>> 2007), that would also
>> > help
>> > provide training and infrastructure for other
>> Kenyan and African IMCs in
>> > the longer-term.  What do you think?
>> >
>> > ***
>> > Hi imc-africa,
>> >
>> > Greetings from the U.S.  I know there has been
>> some chatter on this list
>> > and elsewhere about the World Social Forum taking
>> place in Kenya at the
>> > end
>> > of January 2007.   Even though I likely won't be
>> able to get there, I'm
>> > really excited that the WSF is coming to Naorobi!
>> >
>> > I want to let you know about a talk that happened
>> here in the U.S. a bit
>> > more than a week ago.  It was a conference call
>> arranged by the Prometheus
>> > Radio Project (http://www.prometheusradio.org),
>> which supports and builds
>> > low power radio stations in the U.S. and
>> worldwide.  Prometheus recently
>> > helped build a radio station in Tanzania and has
>> been communicating with
>> > people about building one with students at Maseno
>> University
>> > (http://www.maseno.ac.ke/) which is in Western
>> Kenya, about 400 km from
>> > Nairobi.
>> >
>> > Prometheus is based in Philadelphia (where I
>> live), and I've been talking
>> > with the orgainzers for a while about connecting
>> their Africa organizing
>> > with imc-africa.  On August 3 Prometheus arranged
>> a conference call with
>> > some of their organizers, as well as me, Sphinx
>> and Chris from Antioch
>> > College in the U.S. who has connections with the
>> Communications department
>> > at Maseno.
>> >
>> > We came up with the following idea:
>> > We would work together, with activists from
>> imc-africa as well as
>> > indymedia
>> > activists around the world, to put together a
>> functioning
>> > "convergence-based" IMC that would operate during
>> the WSF in Kenya.  This
>> > IMC would include computers with video and audio
>> capability hooked up to
>> > the internet, enabling people from around the
>> world to see
>> > up-to-the-minute
>> > coverage of the WSF, as well as a low-power radio
>> station that would be
>> > able to broadcast over the air.  The IMC would
>> provide a living model of
>> > how an IMC could work in Africa, and it would hold
>> trainings and
>> > information sessions there about how to build
>> indepenedent media
>> > institutions, especially around Africa.
>> >
>> > The IMC would also be a training-ground for
>> students at Maseno who want to
>> > be involved in their long-term radio project.
>> After the WSF ends, the
>> > equipment bought for it will go both to the Maseno
>> group and to IMC-Kenya.
>> >
>> > Prometheus wouldn't be able to put any funds
>> toward the project, but would
>> > be able to give techincal advice and possibly send
>> an organizer to Kenya
>> > to
>> > help set up the radio station and conduct
>> trainings.  We would raise the
>> > necessary money (about $5000 to cover the whole
>> techincal infrastructure,
>> > including the radio transmitter) through the IMC
>> network.
>> >
>> > So, what do you think?  So far Sphinx has e-mailed
>> with Oloo from Kenya
>> > about the idea (he's one of the local organizers
>> of the WSF), and is going
>> > to be in touch with John, Grace and others from
>> IMC-Kenya to find out what
>> > they think.
>> >
>> > Are any of you from imc-africa planning to come to
>> the WSF?  Do you want
>> > to
>> > be involved in making this possible?
>> > It could be an interesting experiment, a temporary
>> IMC built together by
>> > African IMC organizers and visiting
>> internationals, that could provide a
>> > small boost to IMC Kenya and IMC organizing around
>> the continent.
>> >
>> > With some hope for things to come,
>> > Jay
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Imc-africa mailing list
>> > Imc-africa at lists.indymedia.org
>> >
>>
> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-africa
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> Imc-africa mailing list
>> Imc-africa at lists.indymedia.org
>>
> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-africa
>>
>
>
> Judith Miguda-Attyang
> Dept. of Communication and Media Tech.
> P.o Box 333
> MAseno, Kenya
>
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