Welcome to Convene

 South India Workshop on

"Popular Education/ Communication for Community organising & Advocacy"

2 – 5 March 2011

Bangalore, India

Organised by: Convene & Parishkaran

This workshop focuses on strengthening competencies of those involved in capacity building and consulting for civil society organisations, in the area of communication for community organising and advocacy using Popular Education/ Communication.

Popular Education/ Communication is a creative and participatory form of building communication that has been made to adapt to the needs of practitioners across the globe that specifically brings in the needs of grass root people.

Popular Education/ Communication skills include basic facilitation,  games, energisers, action songs, community theatre, art & drawing,  photo language, folk art, media and ICT etc., for community educating and organising.

Context:
In our work among our community groups, collectives, movements and  organisations, at some point during our work we realise that our  message could have garnered more support, our work/message can be  articulated more effectively, we could have reached out to more people. We could have been more creative.

Responding to this challenge necessitates a constant process of  institutional capacity builing, which addresses the ‘need of the time’ (Strengthening our pedagogy, methodology, strategies, skills and networks) in our day-to-day community engagement and intervention.

As an attempt to initiate the process of institutional capacity  building, Convene & Parishkaran will be organising a 6 day (inclusive  of arrival & departure) residential South India Workshop on "Popular  Education/Communication for Community organising & Advocacy". The workshop will offer basic skills of Pop Ed/Com for participants.


The Objectives of the workshop will be:

•  To share, understand and identify current methodologies used
•  To understand Popular Education/ Communication and explore its use in current work
•  To equip oneself with Popular education /Communication tools for community organising & education
• To develop skills on creatively packaging one’s work for community mobilisation & advocacy

Learning Outcomes:
It is envisaged that the participants be oriented/ exposed to a range of Popular Education/ Communication techniques and approaches to strengthen competencies:

• In creatively documenting own experiences for broader learning, monitoring and capacity building.
• In popularising and creatively presenting issues to donors, the media, governments, the general public and other education stakeholders;
  
• Basics on developing creative advocacy/campaign tools such as 'user guides', 'training  modules', 'campaign packs', ‘audio-visuals & web’ and others;
• To create an alliance of Pop Ed/Com practitioners for a strategic community organising, capacity building & advocacy

Popular Education/ Communication skills offered in the workshop are:

• Basic Facilitation Skills
• Basic Audio Visual Skills
• ICT tools
• Basic Campaign Packaging and Advocacy tools

Methodology:
The workshop design includes specific inputs by practitioners & experts; presentations & experience sharing by participants, field visits and hands-on skill development.

Participants Profile:

• This workshop is best suited for trainers, community organisers, campaigners and       communication staff.
• Maximum number of participants for the workshop will be Twenty five (25)
• The medium of instruction of the workshop is English

Basic criteria for participants:

• Working knowledge of English
• Basic knowledge in computer and internet
• Preferable training and community organising experience of a minimum 6 to 12 month
• Post workshop commitment of at least 6 to 12 months to the representing organisation

Workshop fee:
Participants will have to pay a registration fee of Rs. 2,500/-, which will cover costs of food, accommodation, training material and field trip expenses (if any) etc. Partial scholarships on the participations fee may be available for participants with no alternative financial support. Participants will have to bear the travel expenses.

We will proactively seek to create gender and regional balance of participants.

Venue:
In and around Bangalore, India. The exact venue will be communicated to confirmed applicants.
Last date for submitting applications forms: 31 January, 2011

Intimation of final list of participants: 3 February, 2011

APPLY NOW!

The workshop in Kolkata was conducted in association with Tollygunge Women In Need (TWIN) on December 18 and 19, 2010. We had a healthy blend of 16 participants (9 female and 7 male); all are students of Higher secondary standard and basic computer education provided by TWIN. The students being familiar with the basics of computers were more than eager to learn about FOSS applications. We were able to start off well and reciprocally keep each other pro-actively engaged in the workshop. There were many interesting questions that were entertained and even more creative presentations that we witnessed. To whatever was facilitated to the students an ample amount of hands-on sessions were administered.

Day 1

• Introduction and importance of the use of FOSS.

• Differences and similarities between Microsoft Windows and Ubuntu.

• Introduction to OpenOffice,

  • Presentation

  • Spreadsheet

  • Word Processor

• Brief introduction about Ubuntu.

• Group activity on Open Office (Hands – on session).

• Presentation of rgoup activity.

Day 2

• Recap on previous day's sessions.

• Question and answer round on previous day's session.

• Brief introduction with demonstration of GIMP (image editing).

• Group activity on GIMP (Hands – on session).

• In-depth question and answer round on the same.

• Feedback from participants.

We also had the computer instructor of the institute join in. The interactive session with her cleared off many more doubts and queries they had about FOSS applications and Ubuntu in particular. We ended off by distributing certificates to the students.

The TWIN personnel are interested to carry on this workshop in their other units. The response and feedback from the students encouraged them to conduct a follow up workshop very soon.

A super experience in terms of facilitation for Convene indeed! We learnt as much as we facilitated.

Our workshop was conducted with working journalists at Siliguri. It was held in the North Bengal Press Club for two days. We had a total of 20 participants, but due to the tense situation in Siliguri that day we had to wind up early as many of them had to rush to different parts of the city. We covered the introduction to FOSS crisply and had a crunchy interaction on the same and its relevance in carrying out work. OpenOffice and a few Ubuntu applications were briefly explained.

Day 2 saw a floating participation as again many of the journalists were busy. However the workshop went on as planned for those who were present. We carried forward with clearing off a few doubts on FOSS and delved straight into a theoretical and hands-on session of OpenOffice followed by GIMP. We then ended up in explaining the process of installing Ubuntu. We then distributed FOSS applications to them.

We were requested to come back again to give custom FOSS workshops in the coming months.

The workshop in Kolkata was conducted in association with La Martinier SEOMP from December 14 to 15, 2010. We had a healthy blend of 22 participants (4 female and 18 male) come from backgrounds of mobile and television repairs, interior design and graphic design. Thanks to the student being active protagonists we were able to start off well and reciprocally keep each pro-actively engaged in the workshop. There were many interesting questions that were entertained and even more creative presentations that we witnessed. To whatever was facilitated to the students an ample amount of hands-on sessions were administered.

Day 1

• Introduction and importance of the use of FOSS.

• Differences and similarities between Microsoft Windows and Ubuntu.

• Introduction to OpenOffice,

  • Presentation

  • Spreadsheet

  • Word Processor

• Brief introduction about Ubuntu.

• Group activity on OpenOffice (Hands – on session).

Day 2

• Continuation of previous day's group activity.

• Recap on previous day's sessions.

• Question and answer round on previous day's session.

• Presentation of previous day's activity.

• In-depth description of Ubuntu.

• In-depth question and answer round on the same.

• Ubuntu installation process.

Towards the end of day two we also had the computer instructors of the institute join in. The interaction session held with them and the students was vibrant and cleared off many more doubts and queries they had about FOSS applications and Ubuntu in particular. We ended off by distributing certificates to the students and FOSS applications to the instructors.

Our experience at SEOMP society was potentially positive and we're hoping to get back for a follow-up workshop soon enough.

An on-site workshop was held for New Entity for Social Action (NESA) on December 7, 2010. This workshop was held to introduce to the staff the basics of how to use FOSS.

The workshop proper began with a detailed description of Open Office, brief explanation of Ubuntu and demonstration of the live installation process. And of course hands-on sessions.

The participants were indeed happy. A full fledged workshop on FOSS is already in the planning process.

Hearing from their expectations,we derived that the workshop had to stick to the basics of computers and thereby FOSS. In doing so we were able to facilitate the workshop in an efficient manner. A lot of emphasis was stressed on the practical sessions which fostered an atmosphere of collective learning.

Here is what we took them through:

• Introduction to FOSS

• Open Source (Theory and practicals)

  • Writer

  • Impress

  • Calc

• Ubuntu

  • generic overview of the basic applications

  • live installation process

We distributed Ubuntu installation copies. Towards the end of the workshop everyone were satisfied and also collectively decided upon a follow-up workshop. It was a good way to resume our workshop spree once again, thoroughly!

As the participants had a fair basic knowledge of using computers and IT the workshop had a much different flavour. From the very start, no time was wasted in capitalising on the basic knowledge of computers and IT that the participants had. We had a good blend of 18 participants coming from in and around Mumbai.

Following a crisp participatory agenda setting session a well filtered programme for the three day workshop was derived. Through the sessions of the workshop there was a lot of enthusiasm from the participants. We were able to explore and apply a lot of new topics for our IT workshops, that took us to a higher level of expertise.

The sessions we touched upon include:

Day 1

Before we began we had a hearing of their expectations of the workshop in order to mutually set an agenda for the coming sessions.

Sessions (theoretical and hands-on)

• Firefox installation

• Firefox add-ons

• Wikipedia

• Copyright and Creative Commons (theoretical)

• Break-out session

Day 2

Sessions (theoretical and hands-on)

• Google Apps

• Gmail labs

• Google Docs

• Online security (theoretical)

• Online searching techniques

• Break-out sessions

Day 3

Sessions (theoretical and hands-on)

• Organising information

• Ubuntu applications and installation

• Open Office

• Audacity

• Kino

There was a lot of interaction and we entertained many of their questions, delivering answers that clarified their doubts. We hope to have a follow up workshop soon.

Drishti had been a great support through out the workshop to both of us participants and facilitators. A special thanks to them!

as a speaker.

We were asked to deliver a general session on social media and provide some specific ideas for how professionals working for children's rights can use these tools in their work. The participants ranged from doctors, medical students, to non-profit workers, to individuals from the government agencies, and more. The diversity in the crowd did not end with their sectors of work, the level of knowledge and comfort with technology as a whole and more specifically social media ranged from zero to quite familiar.

Although I couldn't stay for the entire conference, I was able to hear some other presentations before it was my time to talk. One very important aspect that was made abundantly clear was that awareness and willingness to speak up are the biggest issues. There are many organisations, agencies, professionals, resources in India that are readily available to help children and their families when situations of abuse occur. The problem arises when people do not know where to turn. In the hopes of being a small part of changing this cycle, my talk aimed to give these professionals some more avenues to get their message out to the general public.

In order to get a deeper understand of the group that I was working with (a subset of the larger group of attendees in a split-session), I began the session asking them to think about communications, social media, their (potential) audiences, and the feedback they get from their audience. This allowed people to start to talk to one another, rather than just listen to another presentation. I heard people sharing stories about how they communicate and what tools they've used, it was a great way to get people to start talking. After this, I explained in broad terms what social media is and why it can be useful.

After giving the participants a better understanding of the technology, I once again wanted to focus on them, their organisations, and the ultimately the cause that they are all working towards: eliminating child abuse. We discussed the organisation's core messages, their calls to action from their base of supporters, their fundraising approaches, and where technology intersects with these different elements of communication.

Finally, we went through the different features and uses of some popular social media tools and then I had them share how they thought they could use some of these tools for their work. The feedback received was phenomenal! There is definitely a great need for communication support for professionals working to help the children of India secure their rights.

We look forward to working further with these professionals and developing methods for how we can support their work even more in the future. This is surely not the last interaction with many of the participants from the session.

For more information on the conference: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22700

Eighteen participants who work at the grassroots level dealing with a blend of human rights issues concerning the voiceless, marginalised and depressed communities sort their way through to apply IT in the work they do. One may pause to reason – why even invest time in IT when the stark reality here is that most people speak only Hindi and other local languages and when most people in this region still dream of touching a computer. Well, these participants at Raipur from different parts of Chattisgarh saw beyond all these barriers.

Many did not even touch a computer and saw Roman script run through on the laptops they tried to understand. As facilitators we happily slipped into breaking down English technical jargon to simple Hindi. The result: faces that smiled back and said please come again.

So what did we cover during the workshop;

• Basics of computers and computer application

• What is Information Communication Technology

• What is the internet, how to connect to it and how it is used

  • Firefox

  • Google

  • Wikipedia

  • Blogging

    • how to open a blog

    • write and maintain content

    • upload pictures

  • Email

    • how to open an email

    • send, receive mails

• What is FOSS

  • Extremely basic introduction of Ubuntu

    • Brief demo

  • Open Office

    • Word Processor

      • how to open a document

      • how to change fonts and size of fonts

      • copy and paste functions

      • save a file

For all of the above theory sessions, hands-on sessions were also taken. Hands-on sessions like practice on getting to Firefox, browsing through search engines, learning to use Wikipedia, working on OpenOffice Writer, going through blogs, opening and using an email account and a blog. Activities like typing of content on Writer, to then be copy-pasted to composing an email, to circulating the mail for changes and finally posting the content on the blog to be published were also conducted.

At the beginning of every session, a recap of what was being taken-in was discussed before proceeding to the next topic. These discussions helped facilitate the workshop even more. Towards the end of the workshop a few Ubuntu CDs were given to those participants who had computers. What was decided amongst the participants was that they would gain more practice on what was facilitated to them during the workshop to help them be more receptive and competitive in applying IT in their work.

As for Convene, I would say in the last five months this was one of the most thought provoking and action packed workshop! To conclude, this surely is the beginning for our participants at Raipur.

The workshop at Manali, Himachal Pradesh was from September 6-8, 2010. The workshop evolved towards being yet another eventful experience. We had participants coming from medical, administrative and IT backgrounds and a few from voluntary organisations.

On arriving a little before tea on the first day we had no time to waste in gathering momentum for the rest of the workshop. In view of this we conducted the participatory agenda setting session to get to know the participants and their expectations of the workshop.

On day two the workshop gathered pace after the first hands-on session, from then on participation from the candidates increased right through till the third day. Towards the end we distributed portable Free-and-Open-Source Software. One of the participants also came forward to give us a testimony of how he felt so much better in learning to use FOSS in a much more efficient manner. Smiles prevailed at the end of each session!

All in all the experience here in Manali was fruitful and proved potential for more events.

The workshop

Day one:

• Ice-breaker

• Expectations of the workshop from the participants

• Collective participatory agenda setting

Day two:

• Ice-breaker

• Sessions (theoretical and hands-on):

  • Firefox add-ons

  • OpenOffice

  • Creative Commons

  • Blogging

  • Wikipedia

  • Google

  • Migration

Day three:

• Sessions (theoretical and hands-on):

• GIMP

• Audacity

• Kino

• Ubuntu

• Ubuntu installation

• Open Disc/Portable Apps.

• Feedback session

We were invited by the Undergraduate Social Work Department of St Joseph's College to deliver a talk to final the year students on Communication for Social Change in the context of FOSS in the field of social empowerment. There were a total of 18 students present.

Most students were hearing about FOSS for the first time and were quite interested to know more. The role that FOSS can play in the field of social empowerment is an important one. Delivering the talk uncovered the bridge between the academic and professional worlds for the students.

Interaction during the talk was good and demonstrated the interest of the participants. Time was a constraint, but we hope to have more FOSS-related programmes in the department.

Special thanks to Mr D Kiran Jeevan, lecturer at the Social Work Department.

This FOSS workshop at St Joseph's Post Graduate and Research Centre to the Communications Department was attended by 43 students. The talk was two hours and drew a lot of interaction from the students.

Most of the time went into answering various doubts of the students related with the application and utility of FOSS. As a result we were only able to give a generic over view of FOSS. The Communication Dept invited us to do a few workshops of FOSS editing tools for the students. We also conducted a brief Ubuntu demo.

We distributed FOSS application CDs and DVDs towards the end of the talk. The experience was fantastic, as the vibrant interaction of the students facilitated the talk to give more information. Looking forward to a fruitful journey of FOSS in other such institutions of higher education.

Special thanks to the HOD of the Communication Department for inviting us for the talk and the students for being active participants.

Srinivas H.N  from Mahiti Infotech

Srinivas H.N of Mahiti conducted a 2-hour session on the basics of Python at Reva Engineering College, Yelahanka, Bangalore.

Approximately 50 students and faculty members attended the session to learn about the programming language and its comparisons to Java and C++. Participants were eager and asked many questions.

The principal and HOD of Computer Science have shown interest in a more advanced lab session for the students soon.

Announcing ICT workshop for non-profits in Himachal Pradesh Sept 6-8

More details and application forms are at http://convene.mahiti.org/apply

Hosted by Impulse NGO Network our last workshop in Shillong had 21 participants. This was a single day workshop, so we had to make the programme as brief and crisp as possible. Giving extra attention to the introduction and expectations round enabled us to chalk out a suitable agenda for the workshop.

We began with a brief introduction to citizen journalism that covered:

• necessity of citizen journalism

• what is citizen journalism

Following this was a session on new media and publishing :

• getting to know new media and its relevance in citizen journalism

  • discourse with the participants

Our last session was a brief on audio and video editing. Due to lack of time we could not have a hands on session. Instead the question-and-answer round sparked some important reflections. We also distributed free-and-open-source software.

This last workshop brought new comprehension of citizen journalism, even for the facilitators from Mahiti and Convene.

From July 26 to 27, 2010 we had 22 participants from voluntary organisations that work with various issues in the remote regions of Tripura. We were hosted by Voluntary Health Association, Tripura. Being a significantly poor region of the North-East, the vibrancy and dedication of our participants must be noted at the outset.

As usual, we began with screening of a few video clips on citizen journalism. Following this we briefly did a round of introductions and expectation setting for the workshop.

Day one was to clear doubts and gain a broad idea about citizen journalism, we began the workshop by asking for reflections from the respective fields of work of our participants. This increased discussion time at the beginning  lead to greater interaction throughout both days. We began with a brief introduction to citizen journalism that covered:

• necessity of citizen journalism

• what is citizen journalism

Following this was a session on new media and publishing :

• getting to know new media

  • group activity and discourse

• how to report stories

We developed a relationship with the participants, allowing for better discussions about citizen journalism and its relevance in their fields of work.

Day two began with a brief round of sharing our reflections of the previous day's sessions, which allowed a nice flow in to the sessions for the day:

• blogging

  • how to create a blog

  • writing blog entries

  • upload pictures/audio/video

  • publishing

  • networking

• image editing – GIMP

• audio

  • production

    • audio recording

  • editing – Audacity

• video

  • how to use a camera

    • basics of how to use the camera

    • composing a frame

    • shooting an interview

  • editing – Kino

The discussions we had provided suggestions to the participants on how the tools could be used in their work.

We distributed free-and-open-source applications to the participants to conclude the workshop. It was a remarkable experience so far in our journey through the North-East. An experience indeed that was a milestone in our journey with citizen journalism.

Hosted by Grassroot Development Network and Mizo Zirlai Pawl General Headquarters (Mizo Students Association) we began our workshop at the Information and Public Relations Conference Hall at Aizwal Mizoram. We had 55 participants, mostly post-graduate students, some voluntary organisations and a few journalists. The workshop was held July 23rd and 24th, 2010.

The workshop had a formal inauguration with a few dignitaries who spoke and welcomed the participants. The workshop then began with the screening of a few clips on citizen journalism.

Day one, as always, started with a general introduction to citizen journalism to clear any doubts the participants had.We covered:

• necessity of citizen journalism

• what is citizen journalism

Following this was a session on new media and publishing :

• getting to know new media

  • group activity and discourse

• how to report stories

  • preparing news stories group activity

Day two dealt with the tools used for citizen journalism. The session taken included the following:

• blogging

  • how to create a blog

  • writing a blog entry

  • uploading pictures/audio/video

  • publishing

  • networking

• image editing – GIMP

• audio

  • production

    • audio recording

  • editing – Audacity

• video

  • how to use a camera

    • basics of how to use the camera

    • composing a frame

    • shooting an interview

  • editing – Kino

The session were great, with the participants able to quickly pick-up the various software. Following the session was a closing ceremony organised by the hosts to formally distribute certificates to the participants. We distributed free and open source applications thereafter.

All-in-all, participants were very receptive to the concepts of citizen journalism and helped the experience be enriching also to us.

Our workshop at Itanagar was held July 19th to 20th, 2010 at the JNK Public School. It was hosted by Centre for Cultural Research and Documentation. The 21 participants were post-graduate and undergraduate students, researchers, social workers and government employees.

We began the session with a screening of short films on citizen journalism. Following this we had a quick round of introductions in the form of an ice breaker. And to help us refine our agenda further we had a sharing of what was expected from the workshop by the participants. We had theory of citizen journalism on the first day and practicals on the second day.

Day one helped in clearing doubts and gain a fair idea about citizen journalism. We began with a brief introduction to citizen journalism that covered:

• necessity of citizen journalism

• what is citizen journalism

• how to report stories

  • preparing news stories

Following this was a session on new media and publishing:

• getting to know new media

  • group activity and discourse (in particular citizen journalism in the spectrum of new media)

The group activity helped significantly in getting an idea about citizen journalism and new media.

Day two as promised dealt with the probable practical tools used for citizen journalism. The session taken included the following:

• blogging

  • how to create a blog

  • writing blog entries

  • uploading pictures/audio/video

  • publishing

  • networking through blogs

• image editing – GIMP

• audio

  • production

    • audio recording

  • editing – Audacity

• video

  • how to use a camera

    • basics of how to use the camera

    • composing a frame

    • shooting an interview

  • editing – Kino

The hands-on sessions started before lunch and extended until the end of the workshop. All participants used the time to practice and also clarify any doubts they had. At the end of the workshop we distributed free-and-open-source applications.

The experience for us at Itanagar was memorable because of the enthusiasm of the participants who came from different sectors. The interactions here were timely and good food for thought.

Press:

Citizen journalism and new media

ITANAGAR, July 19: The two-day workshop on citizen journalism and new media hosted by Centre for Cultural Research and Documentation, organized by Foundation for People Empowerment and supported by Panos South Asia began at JNK Memorial Public School today.

On the opening day today, resource persons highlighted about citizen journalism, its aspect and need in the present day context.

The practical session of the workshop will be held in the second day.

Students, Medias, NGO and government employees are taking part in the workshop.

http://www.arunachaltimes.com/jul%2020%20.html#Citizen

A 3-day ICT workshop for Vibha partners was organized in Pune, Maharashtra from July 16th to 18th at the J.P. Naik Education Centre and attended by 14 participants from around Mumbai and Pune.

We started with an introduction and agenda discussion to gauge participant expectations from the workshop. On the first day we talked about the free software philosophy, then moved on to Google Apps and spent most of the afternoon demonstrating Google Apps and creating and sharing documents collaboratively. This was a complete hands-on session. In the late afternoon, we moved on to OpenOffice and explained its similarities to the Microsoft Office Suite, everyone was eager to learn more about this free software suite.

The second day was focused on blogging and Wikipedia.We helped many participants to create their own blogs and explained the possible uses for blogs and wikis. Wikibooks was something everyone liked since they were from the education sector. Audacity (audio editing software) was demonstrated in the evening through a hands-on session.

The final day, we talked about and worked with participants on GIMP (image editing) followed by Kino (video editing). The last session of the day was on the Ubuntu operation system, including how to install and use it. We also installed it on some of the participants laptops. Before closing the sessions, we answered any questions participants had.

CDs and t-shirts were distributed to everyone at the end of the event, and a follow-up workshop is planned in future.

At St Joseph's College, Jakhama our workshop was held on July 16 and 17. A total of 24 participants from educational, religious and social development sector. Many of the participants were students, adding their vibrant enthusiasm to the event.

The workshop began with a screening of a film based on citizen journalism. Following this we had a quick round of introductions in the form of an ice breaker. Hearing the expectations of the participants thereafter helped us refine our agenda for the workshop. We decided to have theory of citizen journalism on the first day and practicals on the second day.

Day one was planned to clear doubts and give a fair idea about citizen journalism. We began with a brief introduction to citizen journalism that covered:

• necessity of citizen journalism

• what is citizen journalism

• how to report stories

  • preparing news stories

Following this was a session on new media and publishing :

• getting to know new media

  • group activity and discourse

• jest on blogging

The session post lunch entertained a good discourse on getting to understand citizen journalism and new media.

Day two, as promised, dealt with practical tools used for citizen journalism. The session taken included the following:

• blogging

  • how to create a blog
    

  • how to write an article

  • uploading pictures/audio/video

  • publishing

  • networking

• image editing – GIMP

• audio

  • production

    • audio recording

  • editing – Audacity

• video

  • how to use a camera

    • composing a frame

    • shooting an interview

  • editing – Kino

We also had an online video call regarding online activism with an activist from Mumbai, with who the participants were able to interact. It proved to be very useful and enabled the participants to have a better understanding of citizen journalism and online activism.

A hands on session was conducted thereafter and we concluded the workshop by handing out free-and-open-source-software.

The vibrancy of the participants added on to the quality of the workshop. It was yet again a different and a great learning experience for us.

Press: http://www.cathnewsindia.com/2010/07/20/church-gives-students-a-taste-of-new-media/

This month, we're spending a lot of time in the North-East of India conducting Citizen Journalism workshops. We started this tour in Dimapur, Nagaland and partnered with with the Foundation for People Empowerment and Panos South Asia. Around 30 people from the NGO, religious and defence sectors attended the workshop.

The session began with screening a few videos based on Citizen Journalism. Following this a brief introduction to Citizen Journalism was given covering:

• necessity of Citizen Journalism

• what is Citizen Journalism

Following this a session on reporting and publishing was given on

• how to report stories

  • preparing news stories

• connecting to the internet

• creating blogs

Due to time constraints two interactive sessions were held for the participants to gain some practical knowledge on citizen journalism and citizen journalism reporting. A number of queries pertaining to the practice of citizen journalism led to healthy discussions. We also distributed portable software applications.

 The workshop was a great experience for us.

Press:

Adding on to the learning curve of Convene was the recently held ICT workshop in Jaipur. Most organisations present were dealing directly with disabilities and special education and choicest services to deprived children. And at this juncture of our journey, we feel quite enriched and humbled to facilitate the learning of our participants. This was yet another moment where we saw technology cut through various barriers making information available to those who searched. We could only learn more in the process to make our workshop modules even stronger and efficient.

The Workshop

The workshop had eleven participants from four organisations. Three organisations from Rajasthan and one from New Delhi.

Day one:

• Ice-breaker

• Spectrogram

• Expectations of the workshop from the participants

• Collective participatory agenda setting

• Sessions (theoretical and hands-on):

  • Firefox add-ons

  • OpenOffice

Day two:

• Ice-breaker

• Sessions (theoretical and hands-on):

• Creative Commons

• Wikipedia

• Google Apps

• GIMP

• Break-out session:

  • Exercise on applying Creative Commons, Wikipedia and Google Apps in fields of their organisations.

Day three:

• Ice-breaker

• Sessions (theoretical and hands-on):

• Blogging

• Twitter

• Audacity

• Kino

• Ubuntu

• Ubuntu installation

• Open Disc/Migration

• Feedback session

Visits

Prayas

We visited Prayas (Jaipur), an organisation dedicated to the uplifting of the mentally challenged, physically disabled and socially deprived children. Through three centres around Jaipur they serve close to 500 children through different programmes.

What we did there:

• Feasibility study of the organisation's migration towards Open Source

• Finding additional requirements and probable possibilities for the workshop to strengthen our syllabi for future workshops

• Tour of the organisation

WASCO

• On a post workshop visit we also went to WASCO (a NABARD funded organisation dealing with watershed management) to fix their internet connectivity.

Perhaps one of those days when the weather in Chennai is friendly and not all that harsh especially for those from outside city. Well, it was a one of a kind of climate that facilitated the ambience at our workshop in Chennai. We had a favourable blend of 24 participants from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu who worked at various levels in the formal and non-formal education sector.

The levels of participation was significant despite the workshop being conducted almost simultaneously in three languages. The time spent was well utilised by both the participants and the facilitators. Challenges posed in their respective fields of work were fairly discussed, that lead to certain sessions being dedicated to their requirements. Towards end of the workshop an air of satisfaction did prevail. Indeed yet another humbling and enriching experience.

Foundation for People Empowerment,(Guwahati) in association with Mahiti (Bangalore) are organising a series of workshops on Citizen Journalism in the Northeast between July 15-27, 2010.

Citizen Journalism is an extremely important tool that  has enabled the populous to play 'the gate keeper of democracy'. Citizen Journalism with its robust, random and unconventional style of reporting has gained significant attention in the eye of the mainstream media. The dawn of new media has facilitated the growth and spread of Citizen Journalism through the powerful use of the internet and simple mass media gadgets.

This is an event for professionals actively working with marginalised communities having experience in advocacy, campaigning, and having regional or international networks. The workshop participants would be advocates, technology specialists, designers and strategists who have used OR PLAN TO USE technological tools and tactics in their campaigns. They need not be experts but need to have an aptitude for the use of technological tools and basic computer usage skills, along with a track record of active involvement in rights advocacy initiatives. Participants whose work centres on the gathering, dissemination and design of information
would benefit immensely.

Objective of the workshop: Introduction and hands on experience of new media tools to grass root activists.

Participant's eligibility
(1)   Communication skills in English
(2)   Basic computer operation skills: Internet, email, word processing, etc.
(3)   All participants must be available throughout the event.

The break up of the dates and venues follow below;
15-July: Dimapur, Nagaland
16-17 July: Jakhama, Nagaland
19-20 July: Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh
23-24 July: Aizawl, Mizoram
27-July: Agartala, Tripura


Please note:
- Venue and date: Workshop venue will be informed to the participants
by email and Phone/SMS.
- Selection: Due to limited resources, only selected candidates will
be invited to the workshop.
- There will be no travel or accommodation allowances provided to the
participants.
- Food will provided at the venue.

For details, please contact:
Babul Gogoi
Phone:  +91-9613222362, +91-9868182079
Email: training@fpe.net.in
Website: www.fpe.net.in

Mahiti participated in this year's Majja Run & Costume competition!

On May 23rd, thousands of Bangaloreans came out to the Sunfeast Marathon with the noble cause of raising funds for charity. The Mahiti team participated in the costume competition with the theme of Free and Open Source Software.

There were five categories of race:

WORLD 10K (10 km), OPEN 10K RUN (10 km), MAJJA RUN(5.7 km), Sr. Citizens’ Run (4 km) and Wheelchair Event.

Mahiti team participated in Majja Run scheduled to begin at 9:00am in Kanteerva stadium. We reached there at 8:00 am to make sure to get a good place, with four people wearing Free and Open Source Software mascot themed costumes. Before the start of run we had an opportunity to talk to the media about our choice in costumes, who we are and why we were supporting the Sunfeast Marathon. We described the meaning of Convene and Free and Open Source Software.

 At around 9:00 we started the run, with the weather well-suited for such a day. It was great to see how enthusiastic everyone was about running for a social cause. As the name Majja (Fun) implies, it was full of enjoyment and fun! There was no sign of tiredness on any face as we were greeted by Bangaloreans lining the streets while we were on our way. We completed the race around 11:00 am and though it was over, people were still energetic because of how much we enjoyed ourselves. It was a nice experience, especially given the positive impact that we all contributed to.

Kipling's Court resort located close to the Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh was quite an eccentric destination for the workshop. Located almost no where close to the arteries of infrastructure in the country, tech4change went ahead in it's attempt to demystify technology and it's utility in the social development sector.

tech4change is a yearly conference created by Convene, a platform for tech-based social innovators, facilitating development through support, collaboration, peer learning & local adaptation. This year tech4change saw the participation of candidates cutting across various types of social organisations in the country.  The themes included four different categories: communications, information for decision-making, rich media and mobile technologies.  The themes helped to structure the event, by streamlining interests and enhancing group activities.

In the course of the workshops some games and a safari to the Pench Tiger Reserve forest were organised. The participating organisations shared information about their work through short presentations.  On the last evening, the participants exchanged gifts that held meaning related to their local initiatives. Network building amongst the participants also took place on the last day of the workshop and will continue through a mailing list that has been establish for this purpose.

for more pictures check out our facebook page

At Seva Kendra, Kolkata, the workshop was attended by 14 participants from different grassroot organisations. We explored ICT in the education sector. As a result of the participants of the workshops being from almost the interiors of West Bengal, there was a lot of of mutual learning that took place. A deeper understanding of the role of ICT in the educational sector was surely realised. Was a good experience.

Pics from the workshop in Delhi jointly conducted by Sarai CSDS and Mahiti .There were a  total of 13 participants who attended ,we covered the following topics:

FOSS philosophy

Firefox and Open office

Ubuntu Linux intro and installation

Local language computing ,wikis and blogs

OpenDisc and portable apps were demonstrated ,the former a selection of quality open source software for windows platform and the latter a portable version which can be carried along on a pen drive.

 Krishnakant from Sarai talked about monopolies and about creative commons and how content can be protected and licensed for easy shared.

Also demonstrated how to use hindi bolnagri fonts for typing in hindi .Participants had many questions about fonts and we suggested they use unicode fonts for uniformity across different systems.

We just finished a FOSS workshop for non-profits in Jaipur at the Vesta Maurya palace with 14 participants.This workshop was done in participation with Sarai CSDS Delhi.

We covered some important FOSS tools at the 2 day workshop :

Open office and firefox    www.openoffice.org  www.mozilla.com

Audacity audio editing . http://audacity.sourceforge.net

GIMP Image editor www.gimp.org

We also demoed OpenDisc which is a CD containing open source software which can be run on windows.Also demonstrated portable applications which is like a portable version of many popular FOSS  tools which can be run direct from a pen drive.

Finally we distributed the Ubuntu CDs and OpenDisc/portable apps CDs and handed out t shirts to all the participants.

A statistical analysis tool called PSPP was demonstrated to a few participants and they were quite interested in taking it up when they go back to their organizations.

Further feedback on the software is awaited .

So with the latest and greatest version of Ubuntu version 10.04 being released on April 29, we at Mahiti decided to cut a cake celebrating the occassion in keeping with the tradition of ubuntu release parties worldwide and we will be doing this every release from now on.Here above is the pic of the nice and yummy cake,we got our newest recruits Chaitra, Vanitha and Lokesh to cut the cake.

Mahiti Bangalore along with Sarai CSDS is conducting a 2 day ICT workshop for non-profits in and around National Capital Region in Delhi on May 18 and 19 .

Those who would like to attend from Delhi  may register here >  http://bit.ly/bfWv8S

Those who would like to attend the Jaipur workshop may register here http://bit.ly/9pthVB

 To read full details go here > http://convene.mahiti.org/2-day-ict-workshop-for-non-profits-in-delhi-and-jaipur

For any enquiries contact  nandeep : nandeep@sarai.net or call him on 09818588334

Registration is free, lunch and snacks will be provided.

Free & Open Source Software workshop was held at Guntur, AP on 22nd Mar to 24th Mar 2010.About 8 NGO's and 45 students attended the programme.

Students were from a girls college and were quite excited to learn about the open source philosphy,something which they had never heard of in college curriculum.We held and question and answer session and distributed some t shirts to those who gave a reasonable answer.Of course , questions were kept very simple so everyone had a fair chance.

• Introduction to Linux based distributions Fedora, Ubuntu.and installation

• Open Office Tools.

• Internet Tools (firefox, messengers).

• Gimp image editor, blogs, Wikipedia

• Audio/video editing tools (Audacity/kino)
• Open Disc & Portable Apps.
  

FOSS workshop was held at Hyderabad concluded successfully with 20 participants

attending the workshop.This workshop was held in partnership with Consumer education society ,who helped in organizing and logistics.Participants were eager to learn all the internet tools like wikipedia and blogging, and were very interested in the concept of creative commons.,A video about 10 tactics from tactical tech was also showed by CES at the workshop.Two students who did volunteer work also attended and were very much interested in taking this up in their college.

A broad range of topics were covered :

Free Software philosophy

Ubuntu installation

Open office and firefox

Audio, Video editing tools

GImp image editing and inkscape vector graphics editor

FOSS CD's & T-shirts were distributed to all the participants.

Hello folks,

Our Annual 5-day residential programme for non-profits is back and its bigger and better than ever. Formerly NGO-in-a-box, we have relaunched and renamed ourselves to Convene.

Date: To be announced.

Registrations are now open and seats are limited, so hurry up and click below to read more and to apply.

Tech4Change 2010  information and application forms

Our Citizen Journalism workshops have received a lot of appreciation from people across the globe, here is some local coverage of the event in one of the local newspapers Dainik Janambhum.The workshops have made a mini celebrity out of our very own Lingaraj and his colleague VIshnu is probably feeling slightly jealous about it :).

We completed the last workshop at Guwahati workshop, Guwahati, Assam.

We had some 25+ students attend the workshop at Dept. of Communication and Journalism, GU, Assam.

Mr.Chandan Goswami, Professor, Dept of Comm. and Journalism, said that the workshops will help Assam rebuild.

The following topics were covered in the workshop:

• Citizen Journalism & New Media
  
• News Ethics
• Blogging
• Image/Audio Editing
• Video Editing

This workshop conducting team comprised of:

A workshop on awareness of citizen journalism was held at JCC Channel Office, Jagiroad.

27 people attended the workshop.

The following topics were covered in the workshop:

• Citizen Journalism & New Media
  
• News Ethics
• Blogging
• Image/Audio Editing
• Video Editing

This workshop conducting team comprised of:

Today we attended the press meet at Guwahati Press Club, Guwahati.

We displayed the proceedings of our workshop and the second batch of workshops which will be residential workshops focussing on technical expertise

Some journalist club members and students attended it.

They were well interested in the presentations shown and the work done so far.

The following topics were covered in the workshop:

• Citizen Journalism & New Media
  
• News Ethics
• Blogging

This workshop conducting team comprised of:

Today we did a workshop at Dhubri Press Club.

Some 25 enthusiasts enjoyed the new concept of journalism.

They welcome the awareness of the New Media in their town.

The following topics were covered in the workshop:

• Citizen Journalism & New Media
  
• News Ethics
• Blogging
• Image/Audio Editing
• Video Editing

This workshop conducting team comprised of:

We did the workshop at Silapathar District Amateur Athletic Association Hall, Silapathar, Assam.

20 participants enjoyed the awareness on CJ.

The participants were glad to get in touch with the concept and the technology.

The following topics were covered in the workshop:

• Citizen Journalism & New Media
  
• News Ethics
• Blogging
• Image/Audio Editing
• Video Editing

This workshop conducting team comprised of: