Friday, November 11, 2011

Write3: Interview

Some time ago I introduced you a citizen journalism tool & platform called Write3, winner of Pursue Truth! -catergory. After spending only one day in WSY Awards I’ve already learned quite a bit more about this awesome project! I met the creator of Write3 S M Ashraf Abir (CEO of Multimedia Content & Communication Ltd) in person and had a talk with him about his work in Write3.

"I always want to change my country into a developed,
secured, youth connected society. " - S M Ashraf Abir


Behind every success there's a story


Earlier the day Mr. Abir had a pitching presentation at WSYA about Write3. He told us why he started this potential world wide known citizen journalism tool.

In 2009 Mr. Abir went to his village in Bangladesh. During the visit he met his old friend who showed him a shocking video. Mr. Abir’s friend had been witnessing a 4-year-old girl’s shocking kidnap. Three men had just come and kidnapped a little girl. Mr. Abir’s old friend had been able to find a hideaway and filmed the event. 
After the shocking happening he went to the police station and showed his video footage to the authorities. Thanks to the video the police tracked down the kidnappers and saved the little girl’s life.

This event was very striking to Mr. Abir and he wanted to create a new kind of media platform for the citizens. Now we know this platform as Write3 where anyone can publish stories of their own lives or events they witness.

Video footage posted by Write3 users
At the moment Write3 is rising to be more known in Bangladesh and it’s advertised in mainstream media. Daily the Write3 mobile application is being downloaded 470 (avg.) times. The application is available to download from Nokia Ovi store and in December 2011 the mobile application is available for Android Market as well.

Developed future ahead

Mr. Abir is looking brightly to the future and he sees that the platform will have 5000 regular citizen journalists. He also assumes that Write3 will have 1 million readers by the next 6 months.
Write3 has a lot of potential because its simple idea and easy platform. Mr. Abir was even hoping that people from Finland would start to participate to the project after I promised to advertise Write3 to people. I do see a risk in this because the cultures and issues between Bangladesh and Finland are very, very different - each other’s opposites even - especially when it comes to topics like human rights and corruption.
Of course there will be lots of benefits as well if you combine different cultures together in Write3. People get to know new cultures and get new perspective in to their own lives by seeing how the every day things are somewhere else. Through this point of view people might start to be more active and stand for their rights in their own lives which is the golden idea of Write3.


So if you're inspired to blog and report about the issues of your country, area or city - join Write3 and tell about it to the world!

Links about Write3:
Website
Facebook

2 comments:

  1. My favourite winning project! You did a great job interviewing him. It takes a lot of courage and motivation to start a project involved with politic and civil/citizen rights:)

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  2. This was one of my favorite winners as well. The service itself seemed light and was made easy for users to upload content in there and it encourages people to create citizen journalism. There is a definite need for this kind of services!

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