Back... For Now

It's been a week since we returned to Canada, and I am writing this to thank everyone for their support. The trip went extremely well, and we will be wrapping up and debriefing for the next few weeks, so there won't be much news for a while.

In general, I'm extremely hopeful for the future, especially after seeing open source software and cell phones in action. Such technologies have huge potential in developing nations, especially ones having trouble with freedom of expression. Over this past week, Nepal has been in the news a great deal, and I'd just like to mention that the government has shut down the cell phone networks there. There's a good reason for this -- with phones being so prevalent, it's easy for people to use them to organize politically. It's a threat to governments that do not respect human rights. I'm happy to say that Five Minutes to Midnight is now gaining the expertise to use such technologies to help organizations and groups make media and promote human rights.

This was the first of hopefully many international trips for Five Minutes to Midnight, and we will be updating everyone as time goes on. To keep updated, subscribe to the FMM newsletter.

Going strong

Hi all. I am currently writing from Addis Ababa to give a last account of the A13I events on the field (at least for now!).

I just compiled the results of a survey I gave to the Rafigui members, and I am glad to announce that they all felt as good as we did about the training FMM provided. We are also proud (and bewildered) to announce that we went beyond our expectations by giving more than 40 hours of workshop, writing a 20 page French guide about open source software and leaving Rafigui with 5 computers, a digital camera, a USB key and a printer. I am also glad to announce (!! I am out of vocabulary) that a new issue of Rafigui is on the market starting today! 250 F cfa anyone interested!

Our last week is N Djamena was of the most colourful and the most puzzling. I had the best time just observing people around me and discovering new parts of town. We were splitting our time between hard work and cultural and social events with the Rafigui people, which are amazing folks; they are moved by an uncommon drive.

After talking to several people from the media and hitting the newspapers myself, we became more and more aware of how the conflict is evolving with Sudan. It was so live to witness big political summits going on in the city about that and hearing that the police was making raids at night for sending young unemployed people to war. In a sense, we were shielded in the most quiet neighbourhood of the city and talking about technology that most Chadians will never come close to know, unfortunately... We were not really affected by the events (besides the fact that by 7 pm everybody wanted to go home!), but still. It brought us to reflexion.

Yesterday we had a press conference in which we exchanged attestations, gifts and goodbyes. I was very sad (obviously...) but I was cheered up by the enthusiasm that everybody had to continue being involved with us in the future. In fact, Rafigui will be providing training to other youth newspapers on ICT and the media, and since they are really excited about the open source technology (you would be thrilled to see how everything they do is team and discussion oriented - much more democratic than in Canada!), I am confident that it will take them somewhere unexpected.

We have good threads for the research, and we are looking forwards to look into the future possibilities for open source and the media, a combination that can make terrific positive change.

Internet Woes

I don't know how the Internet here works, but it's all a bit shadey... Every second time I'm at the cyber cafe here, it's using a proxy server. It doesn't matter when I go to use the computers, either. This is a big problem right now: this "proxy server" makes it difficult, if not impossible, to access FTP, GMail, and other services... Ahh!

Progress Report

Before we left for this trip, one of the things that we were warned about was that we weere being too ambitious with our goals -- 40 hours of workshops, a newspaper issue, a trip to a village (which we just returned from), among other things... Well, I'm happy to report that we are on our way to meeting our goals, and even surpassing them! Just before our trip to the village, we made a short video clip that will be shown at the local movie theatre to promote a picnic Rafigui is organizing. Below are two screenshots:





Also, here's a photo from the village -- it's a picture of an outdoor church in the village... Pretty eerie, eh?

Bourriquet, biquette, cochonnet et canasson

We just came back from Kelo, a village in Southern Chad, to relax and enjoy the transition to 2006 far from Linux. As you can see from the pictures, we had a great time on the road rapping to the music of Yeleen and admiring the sceneries and the nature of the savanna. I have vivid memories of walking under the stars on unlit red dirt roads, killing a goat, swimming in cotton and playing gotcha with kids that though my hair was the funniest thing in the world. I don't have a lot of time so I am hoping the images will speak for themselves.







The project is more than half way through now and we are sharpening our research focus. More on that (and on other exciting matters) later... Happy New Year!