Global Voices Online- a Project to follow

In my recent trip to Asia which included the Cambodia, Thailand and Nepal, I specifically asked our local partners to point me to local bloggers. I'm struck by how many people are using blogs, even if usually not for purposes outside of personal journaling. This reminded me of the blogging conference at Harvard last year, and I looked online to check its outcome. I'm impressed by how much has happened in a mere six months!


If you are a blogger, especially one from a developing or non-western country, get involved!


Quick facts:

• Global Voices Online was developed out of the one-day blogging track as part of harvard's Internet and Society 2004 conference. I posted a couple of briefs about these two events below. This blogging conference was led by Ethan Zuckerman (technologist and Africa expert) and Rebecca MacKinnon (former CNN Beijing and Tokyo Bureau Chief), both Berkan Center Research Fellows. 

• A very "Rebecca Mackinnon, CNN"-like podcast about the importance of global blogging and the voices of non-western bloggers assessed on the Harvard webspace here (interesting interviews with bloggers from China, Iraq, Kenya and other countries. who were at the conference).

• Global Voices online is now at www.globalvoices.org instead of in addition to the longer Harvard url: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices. If you would like to get involved (and it seems to be a very inclusive project), look out for the announcements for input and participation. 

• Technologically, it now uses an rss aggregator to track recommended blogs from around the world, but there is a call for you to 
• Start publishing a roundup on your own blog 
• Translating posts and other documents into English
• Let them know about good global blogs, so they can include it in the aggregator and index (if not already)

• Global Voices also produced a Manifesto authored collaboratively by the people at the blogging conference (note: In light with Global Voices' mandate, they are asking for translators for this manifesto via the Global Voices wiki):

Global Voices Manifesto:

We believe in free speech: in protecting the right to speak — and the right to listen. We believe in universal access to the tools of speech.

To that end, we seek to enable everyone who wants to speak to have the means to speak — and everyone who wants to hear that speech, the means to listen to it.

Thanks to new tools, speech need no longer be controlled by those who own the means of publishing and distribution, or by governments that would restrict thought and communication. Now, anyone can wield the power of the press. Everyone can tell their stories to the world.

We seek to build bridges across the gulfs that divide people, so as to understand each other more fully. We seek to work together more effectively, and act more powerfully.

We believe in the power of direct connection. The bond between individuals from different worlds is personal, political and powerful. We believe conversation across boundaries is essential to a future that is free, fair, prosperous and sustainable - for all citizens of this planet.

While we continue to work and speak as individuals, we also seek to identify and promote our shared interests and goals. We pledge to respect, assist, teach, learn from, and listen to one other.

We are Global Voices.