Global Wire Interview: Women Tech Entrepreneurs

November 10, 2009 in Americas, Blogs | Tags: | Leave a comment

newnmwelogoThe first New Media Women Entrepreneurs Summit occurred yesterday with dozens of enterprising women – and a few men – thinking about the business side of the new cyber frontier. Following the summit, Global Wire talked to future tech entrepreneur Juliana Bozan of Brazil about creating Internet start-ups with a focus on social justice. Bozan came to the Summit to find inspiration.

Global Wire: Why is it important for more women to get involved in technology and entrepreneurship?

Juliana Bozan: I think it is really important for women to get online today because they are so many business opportunities. Women, especially in the developing world, are blogging and tweeting about issues that affect us. Just look at the Iranian protests last summer and the continuing human rights problems against women in the Middle East; many of the bloggers are women. Journalism outlets like CNN and BBC are using information on our blogs for free, and we see no profit. But now is the time to step our game, and figure out a way to create business opportunities for our words, video and audio.

GW: Tell me about your blogging experience?

JB: I used to write for a now defunct group blog for women in Brazil a couple of years back about “Brave Women,” where we would talk about problems women in the favelas like domestic violence, prostitution and single motherhood. It was great because everyone liked it and we have a lot of unique hits on the site, including from European journalism outlets. However, some of these journalism outlets reposted some of our blog posts, which was fine at first, but eventually we got tired of them taking our stuff without giving credit to our blog, the bloggers or even asking our permission to repost or paying us for reposting. We felt like we were being used, you know, like a new kind of colonialism. Since Western outlets are cutting back on having journalists in the developing world, they now seek out bloggers in countries they want to get information about. Unfortunately, it is very commonplace these days for Western journalism outlets take information from bloggers in the developing world and not give credit where credit is due.

GW: What are you hoping to take away from this Summit?

JB: I have met a couple of interesting people here who I would like to follow up within the next few days about getting help on writing a business plan. I want to look into starting an online newsletter or blog about Brazilian women social justice activists, but this time I want to look at having a better strategy for monetizing my site, so my writers will get payment and credit for their work. I would even consider having more formalized partnerships with journalism outlets.

GW: What advice do you have for other women tech entrepreneurs?

JB: Be strong, be confident and be smart about what you are doing. Don’t let others take advantage of you or tell you that you can’t do your own website. When you do that, you have failed before you’ve even gotten started.

Tweeting for Equality

October 12, 2009 in Americas, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube | Tags: , | Leave a comment

On Sunday, thousands of gays and lesbians gathered in Washington, D.C. for the National Equality March, which was billed as the largest event of its kind since 2000. While many in the gay community were divided over the reasoning for having such a march, this was also one of the first massive gay rights protests to use social media – tools that are being used by the new generation of LGBT activists. Sunday’s protest was the latest example of the generational shift in how to communicate for social change.

Most of the organizing was done through Facebook, YouTube and other tools leading up to the march. Before and during the march, protesters could follow the march’s official Twitter feed for any logistics matters, such as getting information about purchasing subway round-trip tickets before the march to avoid long lines stations kiosks.

Throughout the day, Twitter was the main choice of communicating, as thousands of protesters either in Washington or following the events on television reflected on march highlights. Most used the hashtag #nem to follow the conversation.

loquaciousmoi “Rights for Gays
and Lesbians aren’t special rights in any way. It isn’t special to be free from
discrimination.” – Julian Bond #nem

700mtv Judy Shepard, “I”m here today
because I lost my son to hate . . . We’re all equal Americans. Gay, straight,
whatever.” #NEM

peterzimmerman Wow the speeches at #NEM are really inspiring. Gosh.
So exciting to see the outpouring of emotion at the march!

Jamal Jackson and Winston Brown moved to the United States from the Caribbean island of Jamaica to escape harassment from others about their relationship three years ago. The march was the first gay rights event they have attended as an openly gay couple. The both also used Twitter to follow what other folks were saying, as well as tweeting their own thoughts.

“I started using Twitter a year ago and I found using it to be very useful,” Jackson told Global Wire following the march. “I was able to tweet other protesters, find out where to meet my friends and navigate the city during the protest. I was able to find other people here from the West Indies, like Trinidad, Dominica and Haiti.”

For Winston Brown, tweeting had a more sentimental meaning.

“I am using Twitter because I still have closeted gay friends back home in Kingston, and they are reading my updates,” Brown said to Global Wire. “They will not feel alone anymore and might feel inspired.”

Interview with Ru Freeman

September 27, 2009 in Online Journalism, Video | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Author/activist Ru Freeman speaks about her new book, politics and the writing process.

Twitter and Citizen Driven Info-Sharing

September 21, 2009 in Asia, Twitter | Tags: , | 1 comment

As you all know already, Twitter is all the rage these days, especially among us digital activists. Recent world events such as the presidential election in Iran and the 2008 Mumbai bombings have made many wonder aloud again if Twitter’s powerful citizen-driven info-sharing is actually activism.

Agus Sari, blogger behind The Goose, recently had musings about how the popular social media tool was used during Jakarta bombings.

From Goose Blog:

That morning, 7:51 am on July 17, 2009, my Blackberry buzzed with a new incoming Twitter (via UberTwitter) from my friend Daniel Tumiwa. It says “Bomb Marriot and Ritz-Carlton Kuningan Jakarta.” After a while, another one: “2 boms go off inside Ritz Carlton and Marriott coffee shops! Not kidding. Am here.”. Then another one: “Left location.Shocked. Lots of blood. Breakfast meetings at coffee shops while bombs went off…

…The droves of incoming twitters have something in common eventually, a “hashtag” of #indonesiaunite (”hashtag” is a tag to identify a twitter entry with similar ones so that they all can be identified together as a group). At some point, I forgot when, #indonesiaunite became the number one “trending topic.” in twitter (this means that twitter entries with #indonesiaunite hashtag had the highest number of twitter entries in the world). Even higher than Paula Abdul! What a great achievement considering the relatively small number of Twitter users in Indonesia.”

Based on the tweets, this is digital activism. Like the Mumbai incident, many of tweets were alerting followers about where bombings were happening, and thus telling where not to go. As mentioned, using an easily identifiable hashtag #idonesiaunite create a simple one-stop to finding information quickly.

What was unique about this incident were the offline connections made afterward. A local Jakarta radio station hosted a party for all the “Twitterati” who participated in the online activism to put faces to the Twitter handles and hastags, and start “a movement beyond the social network.” There is also a website now dedicated to buidling upon these relationships.

“There are many other ’causes’ that will make use of the new medium,” said Sari. “And with the internet universe being flat, the social network media will also become the democratizing means for Indonesia, and for the world. The tenet “one person one vote” will be closer to your heart, and your Blackberry.”

Online green mapping fights eco-injustice

September 5, 2009 in Global, mapping | Tags: | Leave a comment

Being “green” has finally become a catchphrase in our daily lives. From hybrid cars to organic eating, more people are realizing that environmentalism is the right way to go to make the planet a more sustainable place to live in. However, despite all the green progress, environmental injustices still occur in both industrialized and developing countries. Recently, there has been a spur of online activism through the means of green mapping to bridge the sustainability gap.

Green maps were created in 1995 by the nonprofit Green Maps System to empower online activists around the world to locate areas in their communities that are both good and bad for the environment, such as recycling, traffic hazards, community gardens and toxic sites. The system is used in over 400 communities in 51 countries.

The system is very simple: users can create a map of their region on the website, and place icons indicating environmental impacts. Using the map created for the Banjul area of The Gambia, one can see where such things as solar energy sites, wetlands and horticulture gardens and clean drinking water sites are located. Hazards can also be seen, such as air and water pollution and waste dumps.

Green mapping helps different fractions work together to make the quality of life better for everyone. Many governments and local activists have used their finished maps to proactively address environmental problems in their communities. See the video above produced by Dorst MediaWorks for the Earth Institute at Columbia University about environmental justice activists in New York City.