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AHA MEDIA and Fearless City Mobile of W2 congratulates Mobile Voices/Voces Móvile in Los Angeles, California for winning the U.N. mobile technology award!
AHA MEDIA and Fearless City Mobile Project of W2 Community Media Arts in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) warmly congratulates Mobile technology project Mobile Voices/Voces Móvile in Los Angeles, California for winning the U.N. mobile technology award!
Below is a photo of April, Amanda Garces, Mark Burdett and Honey Mae in Vancouver
Mobile Voices/Voces Móviles microreporting site wins U.N. mobile technology award
Mobile Voices/Voces Móviles, the microblogging project designed in collaboration with USC Annenberg and the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California, or IDEPSCA, has won a United Nations-sponsored World Summit Award for innovative mobile applications. The collaborative project is one of five winners in the “m-Inclusion & Empowerment” category, targeted to those apps that “support integration within the global information society.”
Mobile Voices is an open-source platform that lets mobile phone users post text, photo and video content to a publicly available website. Day laborers and household workers across Los Angeles, as well as members of the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN), have used the interface to report news, distribute information and share stories about their work, lives, and their points of view.
IDEPSCA’s Popular Communication team, which is made up of the day laborers and household workers who developed the Mobile Voices system, prepared the following statement:
“This is an effort of more than 2 years, where IDEPSCA’s day laborers and household workers, in collaboration with USC, worked collectively in a participatory method. Today, we fulfill our goal of consolidating Mobile Voices as a window to the universe where the voices of those who for centuries have been excluded from the word can be heard. Silence has been broken and our voice was heard in a far away place in the Middle East. There is no work done in vain.”
“This effort has been transformative and inspiring,” said Amanda Garces, Mobile Voices project manager at IDEPSCA. “Winning this award truly reflects the essence of the Mobile Voices project. IDEPSCA’s popular education methodology has created the path for the workers to become subjects of their own reality. The workers truly live IDEPSCA’s motto of reading reality to write their own history. Their commitment is invaluable.”
“One of the unique strengths of VozMob is that it was designed from the start in close collaboration with the immigrant workers it serves,” said communication professor François Bar, one of the USC Annenberg scholars on the project team. “This United Nations award brings global recognition to the value of our participatory design approach.”
“The award is a great honor for everyone who has worked hard to make VozMob a success — IDEPSCA and LACAN workers, community organizers, Annenberg students and open-source programmers,” Bar said.
The awards are given by the United Nations in recognition of online and mobile content that promotes global digital access and inclusion in the communication revolution, especially in developing countries and underserved communities. More than 420 products from nearly 100 countries were considered for awards.
Other winners in Mobile Voices’ award category included a German application providing resources for handicapped people and an SMS-integrated program linking remote communities in Guatemala.
The winning project teams will receive their awards in December at the World Summit Award Mobile Winners’ Gala, Conference and Expo in Abu Dhabi. In addition to an awards ceremony, the three-day conference brings together global leaders in mobile application development for networking and knowledge exchange.
About IDEPSCA
The roots of the Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA) trace back to 1984, when a group of students and parents met in Central Park in the City of Pasadena to confront racism, educational inequalities and the lack of affordable housing. Stories of joy, struggle and hope became mirrors for educational and organizing processes. This experience, and systematic practice that evolved from it, has given IDEPSCA the tools and methods to successfully work with low-income workers and others groups committed to solving problems in their own communities.
About the USC Annenberg School for Communication
Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism is a national leader in education and scholarship in the fields of communication, journalism, public diplomacy and public relations. With an enrollment of more than 2,200 students, USC Annenberg offers doctoral, graduate and undergraduate degree programs, as well as continuing development programs for working professionals, across a broad scope of academic inquiry. The school’s comprehensive curriculum emphasizes the core skills of leadership, innovation, service and entrepreneurship and draws upon the resources of a networked university located in the media capital of the world.
About the World Summit Award-Mobile
Organized by the International Center for New Media in Salzburg, the World Summit Award-Mobile is a global initiative within the framework of, and in cooperation with, the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society, in collaboration with UNESCO, UNIDO and the United National Global Alliance for ICT and Development. The WSA-mobile is the only ICT event worldwide that reaches the mobile community in over 160 countries and is able to promote the best mobile content and innovative applications out of this huge selection.
AHA MEDIA at DNC – Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council AGM in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
Ivan Drury, for the
Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council board of directors:
Today’s AGM was an important mark of how far we have come in a year of working together.
We discussed (and shared a slideshow about) the last year of working together. We talked about our successes, our challenges, and where we still have to work harder. One important example was the observation that we have done all we have without any paid staff. Doing all our work with volunteers means that we have not always been able to get all our detail work (like meeting minutes) done on time, but it also means that we have had to work on improving our capacities all together and through practice.
We also discussed our vision for the coming year, which was presented through a report from the Action Committee. The two main campaigns for the coming year are:
1) The FIGHT FOR 10 SITES Campaign will demand the city buy and secure 10 sites in the DTES for social housing before the next election in November 2011. This campaign has started with a focus on winning social housing above the new library on Hastings and Heatley.
2) The RESTAURANT JUSTICE campaign, which will demand and end to economic apartheid in the fancy restaurants that have set up shop in the DTES and which regularly discriminate against low-income residents through the prices of the food on their menus, the cultural climate in their spaces, by refusing low income residents access to their bathrooms, and by chasing low income residents off their blocks with the help of police and security forces.
To implement these plans, everyone is encouraged to come to the weekly DNC Action Committee meetings, 4:30 on Wednesdays at the Carnegie 3rd Floor (for now).In a brief presentation on our constitution and by-laws, two amendments were moved: to extend rights and respects to all members of our community regardless of their legal “citizenship” status; and to amend our “natural community” status application process to make non-resident members more accountable to the resident membership of the DNC. The constitution amendments were sent back to committee for revision and to be presented at a coming general meeting.
We also held an election for the new DNC Board of Directors. Seventy-five voting members attended, of which seventy-one people cast ballots. Dave Diewertt, organizer with the social justice group Streams of Justice, and Stacey Bishop, Strathcona resident and friend of the DNC, were elected as ballot counters.
As decided and explained in the DNC by-laws, our election was structured to be representative of our community through being organized by housing type:
The election was very close in all categories, so congratulations are in order for all those who stood for election. If you were not elected, at large positions are still to be decided, and there is a lot to be done outside of the Board!
For the SRO / HOTEL category, 8 people ran for election for a possible 5 seats. The five elected:
– Richard Cunningham
– Ron Kuhlke
– Paul Martin
– Dave Hamm
– Fraser StuartFor the SOCIAL HOUSING category, 10 people ran for a possible 5 seats. The fifth position was exactly tied by two candidates, so six will sit for the social housing category, taking one of the “at-large” positions. The six elected:
– Nathan Allen
– Ping Chan
– Earl Crow
– Harold Lavender
– Ann Livingston
– Wendy PedersenFor the MARKET HOUSING category, 3 people ran for a possible 3 seats. A motion was passed to accept the following three candidates as elected representatives:
– Vanessa Lowe
– Tami Starlight
– Ivan DruryFor the HOMELESSNESS category, 3 people ran for a possible 4 seats. A motion was passed to accept the following three candidates as elected representatives:
– Dave Murray
– Nicole Fidler
– Eileen PidgeonThe first meeting of the new board will be this Monday, 6pm, on the 3rd floor of the Carnegie. First on the agenda of the new board will be to discuss who to suggest to fill in the free HOMELESS seat, and who to suggest for the remaining 3 at-large seats that exist to help make the board more representative.
Congratulations to all DNC members who were present for such a productive and celebratory first Annual General Meeting, to those who won seats on the new board… a year of hard work awaits!
AHA MEDIA is about exploring mobile media production through New Media and Nokia mobile smartphone cameras, with great support from W2 Community Media Arts and Nokia
AHA MEDIA is very proud to celebrate its Second Birthday and Second Year Anniversary online on Thursdayday November 11, 2010
Dear friends, family and fans of AHA MEDIA
We are very happy to share with you that AHA MEDIA online has turned 2 years! This joyous occasion is to be celebrated with some cake and champagne, so please enjoy with us!
We’ve had a full and very enriching year learning, growing, working, collaborating and being part of something greater in Vancouver and Downtown Eastside!
When AHA MEDIA works as Fearless City Mobile project participants from W2 Community Media Arts Centre, we peer train others in our Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhood on media literacy and help bridge the digital divide in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside, most recently through our DTES CAMP
AHA MEDIA is very proud and honored to be in the documentary film With Glowing Hearts
We are proud to continue to grow everyday and help document/report from social justice issues , community festivals and social media events!
AHA MEDIA enjoys providing an independent and alternative perspective to general main stream media views. Through our new media devices and cameraphones, we hope to be a news resource for everyone who is interested in us.
We appreciate everyone and all the times we were able to help in providing our services!
We look forward to another great year with you!
Thanks very much! 🙂
Some of AHA MEDIA’s memorable photo moments of the year
David Eby of BCCLA plays music at PIVOT AGM at W2 Storyeum in Vancouver
David Eby of BCCLA plays music with the band World of Science at the PIVOT AGM at W2 Storyeum in Vancouver
DTES Camp at W2 Storyeum for 7th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival in Vancouver on Sunday Nov 7 2010
UnConference
DTES Camp
Sunday November 7, 11am-3pm
W2 Storyeum, 151 W. Cordova
A mini-unconference and social media workshop that provides multi-sector learning and collaborative solutions for our DTES neighbourhood. An unconference is a facilitated, participant-driven conference centred on open themes that emerge from the participants. Today’s event will feature film screenings, speakers and open space for DTES residents, activists, business owners, artists, and urban planners. Get inspired and work face-to-face on local cultural, housing, environment, economic and justice solutions. Follows this weekend’s Media Democracy Day program at VPL and W2. Presented by W2 and Heart of the City Festival, includes lunch (by donation). Info: www.creativetechnology.org/events/dtes-camp. Free
AHA MEDIA is very proud to help provide social media coverage of the 7th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival in Vancouver from Pre festival events starting Wed Oct 20, 2010 through to the Main Festival during Wed Oct 27 – Sun Nov 7, 2010
http://www.heartofthecityfestival.com
AHA MEDIA is about exploring mobile media production through New Media cameras. For a better quality version of video or for additional footage, please DM April Smith @AprilFilms on Twitter or Facebook.com/AprilFilms
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