Actually, I missed most of the second day's sessions, which is a shame. I'm now sitting in the lobby of the Africa Media Matrix building at Rhodes University where the conference has taken place, sucking up the last few minutes of connectivity I'm likely to find until sometime on Sunday.
Very funny: I've been sitting here by myself for the past hour or so, and nearly everyone walking by has called out to me on their way to the stairs: "You 'blogging'?", followed by a laugh. (The tone of voice used to pose this question implies that there are quote marks around the word "blogging"). For some reason, I find it embarrassing to admit that I *am*, in fact, blogging...a sure sign that in my secret heart, janethaven.com is more related to self-gratification than anything more noble. Anyway, it seems that our two days of blog-talk have imprinted on the group pretty firmly. If it's Tuesday, it must be Harare; if you're using a computer, you must be blogging.
So, here are a few quick vignettes from the brief part of the morning that I did manage to attend:
Tom Johnson from the Institute for Analytic Journalism told us, "I'm mad as hell. Are WE going to take it?" as he raged against the cruelties of systems administrators who operate on the "when in doubt, lock 'em out" theory. (He's also mad about Microsoft Powerpoint, incidentally: "Microsoft: may it rot in hell. Things were fine with Office 2000.")
Tom advances a great metaphor that I intend to borrow whenever possible. He argues that system administrators should act like librarians: let everyone in and protect the data, rather than keeping everyone out and protecting the network. I absolutely agree him...but only when we're talking about the world of nearly-unlimited bandwidth that both Tom and I are lucky enough to operate in most of the time. Given the crowd and the location, I'm not sure how fair it is to agitate for the punishment of systems administrators.
My problem with his presentation is that he seems to be assuming unlimited resources and plenty of bandwidth. Tom says nothing about the larger issues around access that plague much of Africa. In most of the continent, system administrators are charged with incredible feats of resource distribution, and are, in my opinion, truly heroic. Earlier this year in Uganda, I met a university network administrator from Zimbabwe running the entire institution on a 1 MB satellite link. The conjuring tricks she required to pull off on a daily basis to keep the library connected to the outside world were amazing, and yes, they absolutely included limited bandwidth and reduced access to data that everyone wanted. Closer to home, even though we all complained about the connectivity issues here at Rhodes, I give them kudos for having a functional wireless network up and running for Highway Africa and the Digital Citizens' Indaba: a year ago, such a network would have been illegal in South Africa. They've learned fast.
Tom is speaking on a panel somewhat obscurely called "WeMedia", which has already been rechristened "Grumpy White Guys". The grumpiness has mostly had to do with the blogging v. journalism debate, which seems to be inevitable at these types of meetings. And useful, I might add. Blogging (or citizen media, more broadly) is a concept that people need to come to terms with on an individual basis, and I think part of that coming-to-terms is understandably going to include an examination of what journalism means, and what the dangers and joys of an army of self-publishing citizen reporters mean in that context.
I've been interested to see that twice at this conference the specter of Rwanda has been raised when people seek to articulate fears about what it could mean for broader citizenry to have access to tools that amplify individual voices. In the United States and western Europe, I don't think we yet have a truly compelling negative example of mob journalism. Every African, however, knows that the Rwandan genocide was carried out with the voices from Radio Milles Collines in the background, urging on the slaughter of neighbors and friends who fell into the wrong tribe. My friend Ethan Zuckerman pointed out to me in conversatoin that Milles Collines wasn't a community radio station (instead, it's state-owned), but I think that the point made by those at the conference can't be ignored. I obviously don't think that means that citizen journalism and information access should be stifled to prevent genocide, but it's a useful reminder that the fears some express over citizen media are not unfounded.
On the next panel, "Activism", Ory Okolloh who writes the wonderful blog Kenyan Pundit, talks about her project Mzalendo. Mzalendo means "patriot" in Kiswahili, and indeed, the project is a patriotic effort by Ory and her anonymous partner "M" to use bloggers to document the proceedings of the Kenyan parliament (a project that the Open Society Institute Information Program, my employer, has helped to support in a very small way). Ethan has blogged this session in detail over at "My Heart's in Accra", so I'll just underscore one point that Ory made which I thought was lovely.
Ory talks about blogging as "micro-activism"; she acknolwedges that blogging alone is probably not going to bring down Mugabe or solve global poverty or bring social justice and equality to Africa. What is does do, she says, is allow the freedom to act and express individually without needing to start an organization or get a bunch of like-minded people in one room together. Ory argues that micro-activism can counteract political laziness, or as Ory puts it, "whining"; she says that young Kenyans complain about their situation but do little to change it, and points to blogging as a small but impactful way to react.
Take a look at Mzalendo -- it's impressive. And it's built entirely on WordPress, the open source blogging tool loved by thousands of bloggers. Ory's been encouraging people throughout the conference not to think of blogging tools as "just for blogging"; rather, Ory says, they are the starting point in a range of possibilities. And as she takes us through the different uses she and her partner have put WordPress to in the service of Mzalendo, I see that she means this quite literally. WordPress has turned into a multi-service platform that blogs, supports an MP database with query function, tracks bills going through the parliament, etc. And as Ory points out, so far the costs incurred by Mzalendo are only hosting and the (not insignificant) time devoted by her and her partner.
And by the way, it would be great to know what other activist uses WordPress has been put to. Anyone have a list? (Matt?)
That was pretty much it for me at the DCI. But more on proceedings over at Ethan's blog, and at the general conference blog. And thanks to Colin Daniels and the rest of the DCI team for pulling it together. I'm going home.