[alt-media-res] last chance to input to ngpa practitioner fellowship thing - due in yesterday, have begged extension. on wiki at http://alt-media-res.clearerchannel.org/private/index.php?title=Second_application

[zoe]

a) Background information:

Name of applicant: Zoe Young

User organisation: Eyes on IFIs

Contact: eyes at ifiwatchnet.org, 020 7723 2875, 100 Bayswater Road, London W2
3HJ

Research project you will be working with:

Alternative Media and Public Action - Organising the Global Alternative
Networks

Type of fellowship: Policy/Practical Application

Start-date and duration: 1st January 2007, for three months

b) Your objectives during the fellowship,

We aim to work with online video producer and user groups to better
understand the dynamics of independent media networks that they are (or
could be) part of, thus facilitating effective use of tools such as media
RSS to increase the reach, ease and utility of our work with online video.

The processes we are engaged with aim to create and network issue-specific
media RSS feeds of value to a targetted group of researchers, campaigners,
screeners, educators and others working the areas of development,
conservation, grassroots politics, debt, protest, economic alternatives and
the international financial institutions. The long term goal is to help
shape 'web 2.0' in the interests of non-governmental public understanding
and action, specifically to create effective online portals to themed
channels of independent and grassroots community video.

"How is non-governmental public action organised in the alternative media
sector? How does it differ in the North and the South?" Our objectives for
this fellowship involve a practical application of the answers we are
finding to these questions with relevance to online video projects, with a
focus on facilitating the accessibility of internet video critical of
International Financial Institutions (IFIs) as a pilot. Specifically,
researchers (not least those involved in the NGPA project) will consequently
be enabled more easily to locate online video material required for
teaching, presentations, accompanying online journal articles etc.

Background:

Internet tv represents an evolutionary frontline with as many false starts
and dead ends as effective ways forward for media democracy. At the same
time, movements for peace, ecological and social justice have been using the
internet strategically to transform popular understanding of politics,
environment and development issues. Our research has taken us deep into the
world of online video networks targeted to these fields and the open source
tools that they are developing to freely exchange electronic media in ways
that until recently were (more or less) inconceivable. Yet we find that
functional links between the best non-corporate online video tools such as
the 'democracy player', and online education and campaigns, have not yet
been made. As a result most online video never finds its intended audience,
and few educators etc know where to find the films they require for
teaching, campaigning etc.

In 2004, London-based Zoe Young founded 'Eyes on IFIs'
(http://www.ifiwatch.tv), a video database integrated as a component of
IFIWatchnet [http://www.ifiwatchnet.org] the independent online civil
society network for the cross-publication of materials produced by Northern
and Southern organisations critically focused on IFIs. The proposed fellow
is also a researcher, writer and filmmaker on IFIs, and in 2005 she won an
inaugural Beyond TV 'Misty' award for video activism. She is now working in
collaboration with IFIWatchnet's regional animators, Clearer Channel
(www.clearerchannel.org) and the new Transmission network of online social
justice video projects (www.transmission.cc). It is in this context that she
is in a position to reach out to selected online video publishers and users
to draw them into a standardised Resource Description Framework for
subject-specific media RSS feeds allowing automatic aggregation and exchange
of independent media on the IFIs.

The added value to project and programme goals include:

Facilitating teachers, librarians, researchers and others to access our
critical window into independent online video networks; expanding and
organising the range of materials accessible through IFIWatch.tv and related
projects; tackling the North-South access differentials shaping that range
and its usage; enabling researchers, campaigners and others to disseminate
media through these networks; connecting with IFIWatchnet and Transmission
participants - a primary audience for findings from the project; and
synergising outputs from this research project with those of other
NGPA-assisted projects, for example "Friends of the Earth International:
Negotiating a North-South Identity" (FOEI is an active participant in
IFIWatch.tv) and "South-North Non-Governmental Networks, Policy Processes
and Policy Outcomes".

The added value to user group include:

Zoe Young works closely with colleagues in IFIWatchnet to enable their use
of online video tools while at the same time focusing attention in the
Transmission network of online video publishers on the practical needs of
researchers, educators and issue-focused campaign organisations and
individuals. In this nexus she will raise, discuss and apply the insights
gained from the research project: eg. interview findings, meeting outcomes,
case study assessments. Raising awareness in academic, media and campaign
circles of the potential of online video networks will assist specific
non-governmental networks to engage new users, thus contributing to
IFIWatchnet's work to open up International Financial Institutions'
activities to greater public understanding, and Transmission's work to
facilitate independent media distribution. Both of these processes will
enhance the effectiveness of non-governmental public action for just and
sustainable development internationally.

c) Estimated budget: £8,000 over three months, to cover

£1,000 to run workshops for invited and self-selecting members of university
libraries and media departments, ifiwatchnet participants, environment and
development NGOs and interested journalists, introducing draft standards and
guidelines and working through any political or practical problems arising.

£1,000 to create and disseminate practical guides for users and contributors
of online material to standardise metadata and thus exchange information
about online video automatically. The number and nature of these guides will
reflect interests and practical needs as expressed in the workshops

£2,000 contribution to technical development of a meta markup tool, easily
allowing participating video publishers to mark up their metadata in the
standard way.

£4,000 for the fellow's subsistence and travel.

d) Planned activities and outputs

We intend a range of outputs oriented to facilitating processes of
information exchange, learning and skills-sharing between alternative media
producers and users, while publicizing the activities and outputs of user
group(s). Outputs will include:

1. Three workshops to take forward development of common metadata standards
between a limited sub-group of online video publishers and users, and gather
feedback on what further outputs would be of greatest value to users.

2. Development of a simple toolkit to accompany the meta markup tool code
and facilitate online video networks to participate in the emergent
standards for metadata.

3. Publicity for training materials in new methodologies of practice for
researchers and users engaging substantively with independent media networks
like IFIwatch.tv. Includes guides to use of metatagging frameworks, RSS
feeds etc. Training will receive particular focus with the tone aimed at
demystifying online video tools for new users.







Is it now easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of
capitalism?

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Films about International Financial Institutions: http://www.ifiwatch.tv
Writing on the Global Environment Facility: http://www.newgreenorder.info
http://shootingpeople.org/cards/zoe      skype name: zoeyou
tel: +44 (0) 20 7723 2875   mobile: +44 (0) 7931 316 970
zoe at esemplastic.net, eyes at ifiwatchnet.org, zoeontheroad at hotmail.com
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