IMPs arrived in Graz!

Photo: Alexandra Ostasheva

Arrived late Wednesday evening at Hauptbahnhof Graz.

Read about day one on our ArtMedia Blog: http://tamk-artmedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/youth-award-festival-in-graz-arrival.html
|||

Foggy morning for the IMP travelers

The fog surrounded us almost all the way from Tampere to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport

It was a foggy start for the IMP Graz trip, but it seems that everyone has finally made it safely to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. It's about an hour till our departure to Vienna and the weather seems to clear out nicely. Let's hope the sun still shines when we get to Austria! And also, let's hope that the food is not as expensive there as at this airport... Next time, IMPs should pack their breakfast with them at home!

iko, the pupil's best friend

iko is a project being carried out by five students from Gobelins, l'école de l'image (Paris). The project is the result of a two year graduate course. The aim of the project is to further digital education in France, by creating a tool that meets real demands in a user-oriented fashion. The target group are junior high school students, and this is because this demographic is tech savvy, and they will most likely grab onto this new tool quickly and with enthusiasm.

iko is an intelligent diary concept, which is composed of two elements. The first is a digital pen, and the second is the application that works with it. The point is then that you use the digital pen to write notes, and the pen stores everything you do. Then you can just browse all the stuff you have written in digital form. However, iko goes further to combine other media elements as we can see here:

the iko concept

So, after a student synchronizes their pen's content to their computer, they can combine other media resources into the notes. For example combining some internet content, or tying their digital notes to a schedule so you know when what was written in a more visual fashion. iko also builds on social media, by allowing the sharing of digital notes.

All in all, iko is a bridge between written notes and the digital world of information. Considering that writing real notes still retains a special interest, it's nice to bridge it across to digital resources.

For more, visit: http://en.projet-iko.com/

Zabatak - Caught you!

Zabatak is an Egyptian, non-profit, independent initiave that aims to promote safety in the streets. It is founded and produced by Mr. Abbas Ibrahim, with co-producers Nagla Metwally, Ali Hefnawy, Mostafa Raafat and Amr Sobhy.
The aim of Zabatak is to reduce corruption and protect people from street violence and gangs. Via crowdsourcing Zabatak collects useful information on incidents of fraud, car theft and bribery in major Egyptian cities. The portal was founded as a reaction to the poor security situation and the rise in lootings and assaults during the January uprisings in Egypt.





Zabatak warns citizens of dangerous areas with a high crime rate and encourages them to contribute to a safe and corruption-free Egypt. By reporting any sort of illegal activity they witness, citizens should feel safer and more empowered.
Anyone can report irregulations, thefts, frauds, violence, violation of buildings or corruption in a certain area. Reporting can be done via: 1.email,
2. messaging through twitter following # zabatak, or
3. a form in the site.
An interactive map shows the areas which have had some negative activities.Users can select to check just certain areas and all the irregularities that have happened there, or they can select a crime type and search just that category.

Corrupt officials stand no chance when their misconduct is not only observed, but also
reported. Since the site‟s launch in February 2011 more than 60.000 users have visited
the site. 600 incidents of theft and bribery have so far been reported and marked on the
interactive map.

CREATE YOUR OWN CULTURE: MASHALLAH NEWS

Mashallah News is a Beirut (Libanon) based coalition of journalists, designers and bloggers which operates mainly in Middle-East and North-Africa area. Mashallah is a phrase in arabic language meaning a suprisement of a good deed done by someone. In this case, Mashallah News is bringing alternative and underground news and culture for the public, a platform for disoriented news as they say.

Mashallah News was born in 2010 in Beirut. Their aim is to spread a new outlook for Middle-East countries from Turkey to Morocco. Mashallah News publishes news and articles about underground cultures, activities and cultural taboos from Arabic world. One focus is for example visual arts and photograp exhibitions, performing arts and so on. Articles and stories are usually written from social, enviromental, human rights and/or religious point of view. Mashallah News also organize events, workshops and seminars about alternative news writing and for example censorship. They publish all their content in english, arabic and french to cover more readers and to reach out to more wider audience.

My interest for Mashallah News grew while reading the articles and discoring their agenda. How big is this, how they work closely with, what kind of challenges they encounter and what kind of public reaction they get? These are the key questions I'm interested to find out.

Sahabat Alam

I'd like to introduce Friends of Nature (Sahabat Alam) In the Go Green category. Producer Adeline Tiffanie Suwana, co-producer Stephanie Aldilla.

The diverse and vulnerable nature of Indonesia is a good place to start conserving the earth. A few years ago the twelve year-old Adeline found the effects of climate change very upsetting and so Sahabat Alam was founded. For her love of nature she initiated different projects to help the environment and excite other young people to join her. They would plant trees, help animals and clean beaches, and now these projects continue. They are giving an example for the world on how to start saving our planet by real actions, and they are giving seminars at schools and making students discuss the issue. Spreading information about the environment and giving ideas on how to protect it is what Sahabat Alam is all about. Green energy and clean water are also part of it. The children feel they need to take action because the world is their inheritance and the way people live now is not very friendly towards the earth. The project has a website, seminars, exhibitions and a TV programme to help spread the word.

Adeline Suwana is an inspiring kid. She has won many awards already with her work and she seems eager to learn more so she could share that knowledge directly with the youth of the world. I can't wait to interview her or someone from her project to learn more about their agenda. They have already mobilized a lot of children, maybe we have the start of something very big here, something that could make a difference? The website could be more appealing and modern without the animated gifs but I'm sure it is good for the target audience. The project does state that it is important how to wrap the message so that children will open the package and absorb it. I'm sure there are also a lot of volunteers to help with marketing and appearance for such a good cause. At least for me the way the kids have really taken initiative and literally put their hands in the dirt to save the planet is awe-inspiring.

Iluméxico

Iluméxico design and install solar power technology specifically for rural areas where it is difficult to obtain electricity. Infact in these areas they heavily rely on candles and battery powered lights. These can obviously be dangerous as well as polluting and expensive.

By using renewable energy they are able to improve people’s living conditions as well as give better lighting for working, studying and other activities. In Mexico there are over 640,000 households without an energy supply. This project could of course potentially have wider implications and it is thought that worldwide over 1.44 billion people have no access to electricity.

A key aspect of the project is that they develope everything that is needed to implement their systems. From the actual solar panels to the overall lighting solutions themselves that they call “Prometeo”. In addition they arrange workshops and courses for how to use the equipment. On their website is one example of a success story that has had additional unexpected impacts perhaps. The family’s home has become a meeting places for the children in the area.

Website: http://ilumexico.mx/

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/ilumexico/184981224954

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ilumexico

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ilumexico

For us this provides an interesting usage example of solar power that could certainly be used beneficially more than it is currently. It will be interesting to learn about the way they make it a realistic possibility for rural areas in Mexico as there must be financial and practical barriers. On a media side of things ilumexico have started to create a strong brand for their venture with catchy logo, YouTube videos and clear concise information on their WordPress based website.

There is just about enough information in English as well to allow an international audience to access their work. It may be worth us asking about their plans for the future and do they see it as a project only for mexico or do they have ambitions to take it to other countries. The work obviously focuses on rural and less developed communities but perhaps there would also be elements worth considering in areas that already have access to electricity. It seems that solar energy can be appealing to many who are then put off by the large initial investment required.

Introduction by Douglas Symon and Otto Varrela