Rising Voices » Hiper-Barrio

HiperBarrio: Balloon Mapping La Loma Neighborhood

Eddie Avila — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:41:12 +0000

Rising Voices grantee alumnus HiperBarrio based in Medellín, Colombia continues its participatory media work in the neighborhood of La Loma. To build upon their previous work mapping their community with Open Street Maps, the ConVerGentes team decided to explore the world of balloon mapping. Together with Fredy Rivera, a local mapping enthusiast, several members of the team took part in this new experience, as a way to gain a different perspective of their local community. Gabriel Vanegas, coordinator of the project, wrote:

Lo más divertido fue tomar las fotos aéreas y lo más delicado recuperarlas. Debemos reconocer que estas imágenes nos aportan para tener un mejor reconocimiento del territorio y aportar al ejercicio de mapeo en esto de hacer cartografía social.

The most fun was taking the aerial photographs and the most delicate was retrieving them. We should recognize that these images help us have a better understanding of the territory and contribute to the exercise of making social maps.

Here are some images of the day's activities. All photographs by HiperBarrio and used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

HiperBarrio: Celebrating International Women's Day

Rezwan — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:20:22 +0000

This is a guest post by Lully Posada from Colombia

In Colombia, the celebration of International Woman's Day has become a tradition, and it is reflected online with netizens sharing different perspectives, and the members from Hiperbarrio have also joined the celebration.

The members the El Peñol Municipality, Redconstrucción are represented by Ritsutells, which is inspired by a romantic text:

“Algunos dicen que la perfección no existe, sin embargo basta con mirar a nuestro alrededor para comprender la ignorancia que contiene esta frase, y es que con ver a una mujer se comprende que si existe, que no hay ser en la tierra capaz de brindar el amor que ella brinda, cuando con su sonrisa opaca toda una mala racha, (…)”

“Some say that perfection does not exist, but just look around us to understand the ignorance that contains in this sentence - seeing a woman understanding that if there is no being on earth capable of providing the love she gives, her smile when opaque throughout a rough patch, (…)”

Juan Carlos Caicedo writes from the Collective Villactivos, from the Commune 8. After looking at the past and present, he calls for reflection:

“En esta conmemoración del día de la mujer, no quiero ser fatalista, sino que quiero que reflexionemos (hombres y mujeres), sobre el aporte que desde nuestras relaciones interpersonales le estamos dando a la equidad e igualdad de géneros, pues, en la medida que los seres humanos establezcamos relaciones más igualitarias y equitativas, encontraremos soluciones más acordes con las realidades y que beneficien a todos y todas”.

In this celebration of Women's Day, I will not be fatalistic, but I want to reflect (men and women) on the contribution from our interpersonal relationships - giving equity and gender equality, therefore, to the extent that humans establish more equal and equitable relations, we will find solutions in line with the realities and to benefit everyone.

Elia Tamayo Rave

Likewise, the group from the Villactivos, pays tribute to the Mrs. Luz Amparo and they made a video which highlights her service to the community but also to the family:

“Ella siempre tiene un valor agregado a sus actividades como Bibliotecóloga, porque además de coordinarlas, logra realizarlas con liderazgo incansable, involucrando a los habitantes y dándoles la oportunidad de crecer y desarrollarse”.

She always has an added value to their activities as Librarian, as well as a coordinator, we did with tireless leadership, involving residents and giving them the opportunity to grow and develop.

For their part, several active members from Convergentes collective, have shared the especial publications to the Teacher and mother Elia Tamayo Rave. They with me have says between submission, review, micro story and video:

“(…) Hemos decidido hacerle un homenaje a la profe Elia Tamayo, con la participación de otros integrantes de Hiperbarrio, teniendo como buen pretexto el Día Internacional de la Mujer (8 de marzo) pero que se comienza a celebrar a comienzos desde inicios de este mes. Por lo tanto, seguimos con las publicaciones como reconocimiento a una encantadora y noble mujer que sabe muy bien trabajar por las futuras generaciones (…)”

“(…) We decided to make a tribute to Professor Elia Tamayo, with the participation of other members of Hiperbarrio, having as good a pretext as the International Women's Day (March 8 ). But you start to celebrate early beginning this month. Therefore, we continue to publishing in recognition of a charming and noble woman who knows very well work for future generations.

(…Desde ese día, el niño de mirada ingenua y de zapatitos rotos, siguió siendo el primero en llegar a la Escuelita de la profe Elia Tamayo, quien con instinto materno lo recibe día a día entre sus tiernos brazos, para luego iniciar la jornada junto con los otros 14 niños que asisten con entusiasmo, a recibir las enseñanzas que ella imparte con afectos, esmero y sin distinción, tan sólo con el interés de contribuir por una mejor sociedad.)”.

Since that day, the boy looked naive and broken shoes, continued to be the first to reach the schoolhouse of the teacher Elia Tamayo, who with maternal instincts get the day to day in her tender arms and then begin the journey with the other 14 children who attend with enthusiasm, to be taught that she teaches with affection, care and without distinction, only in the interest of contributing to a better society.

Finally a video that refer to:

“La profe Elia Tamayo nos cuenta en esta entrevista que mostramos en el vídeo, sobre la diferencia entre su escuela y la escuela formal, además sobre los valores que enseña a sus niños que tienen como base la dignidad; sus satisfacciones y el hecho de que con ella están dos profesores que están comprometidos con el proyecto y que enseñan inglés (Luz Adríana Aguirre) y tecnología (Yeison Álvarez)”

The teacher Elia Tamayo tells us in this interview that shown in the video, about the difference between her school and formal schooling, as well as the values it teaches your children that are based on dignity, their satisfactions and the fact that it are two teachers who are committed to the project and teach English (Luz Adriana Aguirre) and technology (Alvarez Yeison)

Rising Voices: 2010 In Review

Rezwan — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:57:27 +0000

2010 was an eventful year for Rising Voices and its community. Théophile Kouamouo, one of Francophone Africa's leading bloggers and the project leader of the Rising Voices grantee Abidjan Blog Camps, had been arrested for publishing a newspaper report and was released after spending two weeks in prison. HiperBarrio from Colombia won the First Community Journalism Award given by Antioquia University in the category of Best Community Web platform.

The community bade farewell to the outgoing Director of Outreach, David Sasaki and welcomed the new Director Eduardo Ávila.

This year Rising Voices, in collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, awarded microgrant funding of up to €2500 to three Egyptian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to train citizen media to underrepresented groups in Egypt so that they can voice their opinions.

Now let us look at some of the notable news of the grantees community we featured in the Rising Voices website in 2010.

Featured Bloggers:

Throughout the year we interviewed bloggers from different Rising Voices projects and here is a list of those features.

Shinetsetseg (Shinee) Sukhbaatar

Shinetsetseg (Shinee) Sukhbaatar from Nomad Green Project in Mongolia
Olzod Boum-Yalagch from Nomad Green Project in Mongolia
Saki Golafale from Ceasefire Liberia project in Liberia
Nat Nyuan-Bayjay from Ceasefire Liberia project in Liberia
Nora Catalina Urquijo from HiperBarrio project in Colombia
Yesenia Corrales from HiperBarrio project in Colombia
Edgar Andres Yana Lisme from Voces Boliviana in Bolivia
Getutza from Blogging The Dreams Project in Romania
Tahina Rakotomanarivo from FOKO in Madagscar
Ahmed Awadalla from Exploring Taboos project in Egypt
Randa AbulDahab from the Women of Minya Day by Day project in Egypt
Sara Abd Al-Maktari from the Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques (EWMAT) project in Yemen
Award Winning OLPC (XO) laptops Bloggers from Uruguay - Part 1, Part 2

The New Grantees Of 2010:

Barcamps And Conferences:

Otgonsuren Jargal presenting Nomad Green at the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 in Chile. Image by Krzysztof Pawliszak/GV. CC BY

The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 took place in May at Santiago Public Library in the capital of Chile. Four Rising Voices projects were presented during the two days of the summit. Here is a two part report (Part 1, Part 2) highlighting the presentations and the reactions from the members who attended the conference.

Photo of Catalina Restrepo speaking at BarCamp Santa Cruz. Photo used with permission by BarCampSCZ.

Catalina Restrepo of the HiperBarrio project in Medellín, Colombia was invited to speak at BarCamp Santa Cruz, Bolivia in January. The event also featured Hugo Miranda of Voces Bolivianas from Bolivia.

This year members of HiperBarrio were invited to the Campus Party in Colombia and was told to do something different, use the pin hole camera technique to record the activities of CampusBlog.

Contests:

In February the Best Of Malagasy Blogs (BOMBS) 2009 awards were announced. Several bloggers from FOKO, the Rising Voices grantee in Madagascar, won the awards.

Empowerment Of Women:

With the help of a Rising Voices microgrant, the project “Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques” is teaching blogging to female politicians, activists, and human right workers in Yemen to bring them in global conversation.

Ghaida'a Al Absi, the project leader, says: “EWAMT project is like a candle with other candles, which are lighting up the darkness in Yemen.”

Blogger Ahmad Awadalla of “Exploring Taboos” project conducts sexuality education workshops in Egypt and wrote about discussions about the topic of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) with his students.

Language:

Ruben Hilary of Voces Bolivianas project, with some local volunteers of El Alto, Bolivia, established the virtual community Jaqi Aru. The goal of the Jaqi Aru website is highlighting and spreading Aymara language in internet through creation of digital media contents, which involves translation, use of multimedia and social media tools.

Culture, Travel And Lifestyle:

Bus shaped balloon at the Festival de globos de La Loma 2010

The citizen journalists of the Rising Voices grantee Hiperbarrio shared some photos and videos of the Balloon festival of La Loma (Festival de globos de La Loma 2010).

Nine citizen journalists from Nomad Green in Mongolia visited Taiwan to learn more about Taiwan's social and environmental issues and local cultures and receive citizen media training.

Sustainability:

Hiperbarrio from Colombia finally got its legal identity this year as a nonprofit corporation. This allows the organization to continue to grow as they can be hired by public and private institutions for outreach activities. According to an agreement between the EPM Foundation Network and HiperBarrio from Colombia, citizen media outreach activities in 3 new communities in 3 libraries of Medellín (Villatina, La Esperanza and EPM) were started in 2010.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded Ceasefire Liberia project a $10,000 grant to start a new arm called Ceasefire. This project will focus on creating a citizen media project for African immigrant and African-American youth in Staten Island based on the Ceasefire Liberia model.

Thanks to the bloggers of the different projects of Rising Voices we could read many stories from Liberia, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Mongolia, Romania, Colombia, Yemen, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Bolivia, Ukraine, Uruguay, etc. Some Rising Voices bloggers also participated in and contributed for the Blog Action Day 2010 and the One Day On Earth initiatives. We hope to continue hearing from them. The ‘Introduction to Global Citizen Media Guide' has been translated in Macedonian and Albanian.

We wish the members of the Rising Voices Community and our readers a happy and prosperous 2011.

HiperBarrio Won First Prize In Community Journalism

Rezwan — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 22:11:14 +0000

HiperBarrio team receiving the award. Image courtesy HiperBarrio

Last Wednesday HiperBarrio from Colombia won the First Community Journalism Award in Municipality of Medellín by Antioquia University in the category of Best Community Web platform. In this award Antioquia University highlighted the works of press, radio, audiovisual and the digital media. The Mayor of Medellin presented the awards. HiperBarrio will also receive 6 million Colombian Pesos along with the award.

The award giving ceremony took place on December 1, 2010 at the University Theater Camilo Torres of the University of Antioquia. Álvaro Ramírez Ospina writes in the HiperBarrio blog [es]:

Under the conditions of registration specified in the category “Best Web Community Award”, the jury would award “the best website devoted exclusively to community content. Could compete with multimedia web content, animation, rss, interactivity, and links to other networks and to offer innovative content, relevant and timely, with adequate language for web!”

The event was attended by a large group of members HiperBarrio, especially the HiperBarrio-Villactivos that took the stand en-mass to receive the award.

Kelly Munera of the Villactivos collective writes [es]:

These awards have enabled many to see that it is possible to be heard, that dreams are just that, are realities that await their time to perform, grow and strengthen as the fruit of a tree, by being accessible to those in need, these grow daily. And it is expected that each fruit is picked with gratitude.

First Community Journalism Award for HiperBarrio. Image courtesy Kelly Munera

More photos of the award ceremony can be found in this Facebook page of Kelly Munera or the HiperBarrio's photostream in Flickr.

Anderson Valencia gives credit [es] to the HiperBarrio team for this feat.

You might wonder what kind of community journalism the members of HiperBarrio are carrying out. If you read our features on the project regularly you will have an idea. Or you can look at Gabriels's post [es] about a missing citizen of La Loma, or the growing number of armed gangs [es] spreading fear among the citizens.

However, these young bloggers do not portray only the grim pictures of the society but also highlight encouraging reports about people like the cellist Juan David Roldán, who are struggling to transform their communities and their environment:

In the towns of Medellin not only there are echoes of bullets and cries, one also hears the sounds and arpeggios of great talents. When the press and we insist on highlighting the violence and do not we realize that we ended up overshadowing the presence of many anonymous people, that despite many difficulties struggle to transform their reality and their communities. With this video we want to emphasize that it is better to take up an instrument or a book than a weapon.

We emphasize the work of virtuoso Juan David Roldán Villatina neighborhood a young brave with his cello makes a sound of hope.

Here is a reaction [es] of a participant, who took part in the trainings provided by HiperBarrio.

Note: All excepts were translated from Spanish with the help of machine translation.

Hiperbarrio: Podcast Workshops For The New Groups

Rezwan — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:06:25 +0000

Ever since the Hiperbarrio project from Medellin, Colombia was replicated in three other libraries in Medellin, we have seen that the new and enthusiastic young participants are receiving training and now they know how to voice their opinion on issues that concerns them. Hiperbarrio has been commissioned by the Foundation Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM Foundation) to provide these trainings. Recently these groups participated in a series of podcast workshops.

Yuliana Paniagua writes about a podcast workshop arranged for the revolución Esperanza (hope revolution) group based in the library La Esperanza:

The first activity was to explain to the participants the meaning of podcast, because this term was completely unknown to them.

After giving this brief introduction, we moved on to creating a character, followed by parameters of age, profession, date of birth, fragrance, clothing, etc. Where each and one was given the task of writing and making a presentation on the progress.

The interesting thing about the creation of this character in the podcast workshop is to make its relationship with one voice, that is, lead to the identification of the character to hear the sound it makes when he speaks. (machine translation)

Nancy at Revolución Esperanza blog says:

I invite the youth of our community to come to our group Revolución Esperanza instead of standing on the streets of doing nothing.

Podcast workshop for Villactivos group- learning about audacity. Image by Hiperbarrio. CC BY-NC-SA

Meanwhile there was another podcast workshop arranged for the Villactivos group. Jorge writes:

On Saturday 16th of October there was a podcast workshop session at the Library Family Villatina. The goal was to get participants to work and acquire knowledge about free software and the audio editing program called Audacity, so to generate quality podcasts.

In the first part of the experience was the basics of audio editing platform, and they learned to cut, alter the management of audio and sound effects. [..]

On Sunday the 23rd of October the fifth session of the podcast workshop for the Villactivos collective took place:

The objective of the fifth session was to provide the expertise to accommodate audio content on a platform called blip.tv.

Bliptv accommodates embed video and audio to WordPress and also one of its advantages is the ability to distribute content under free licenses that are hosted on this site.

Here are three workshop videos prepared by the participants of the Villactivos group.

Juan Carlos writes about the sad story of Martin Descuidado, a victim of drunk driving.

Gabriel at Convergentes blog calls for taking care of our own life:

At present the Lom is a path that belongs to the township of San Cristobal de Medellín. It is the most densely populated village in Colombia and is characterized by a rural urban.

This is an area where some 15,000 people walk through its roads and streets, dodging buses, buses, dump trucks, private cars and motorcycles to get to work, going to school, do any errands, go to the library and even to go to a medical appointment.

Its inhabitants are aware of the fears and the risks they face when passing through the streets, sidewalks here are needed for safe transit. (machine translation)

Members of Funacrate collective learning about audacity. Image by Hiperbarrio. CC BY-NC-SA

The group Funacráte also had their podcast workshops recently. Henry El Sucio writes:

The final product of the workshop is the result of group work, which led to the construction of 4 separate scripts, which were used in groups to produce and edit the material to produce the next podcast group, which simulates a radio program called Radio Funacráte.

To listen to dale click the following link: Finished product workshop podcasts: Radio-Funacrate

IV Festival of Books and Culture. Image by Hiperbarrio

Paulaandreamazzo of the Funacrate group informs that some members of the collective attended the IV Festival of Books and Culture held last September in Medellin.

Rising Voices Bloggers On Blog Action Day 2010

Rezwan — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 03:54:37 +0000

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion around an important issue that impacts us all. This year's theme is ‘water'.

Some participants/facilitators of the Rising Voices grantee organizations have also participated in this event. Let us look at some of their efforts.

Juliana Rincon from Hiperbarrio, Colombia writes [es] about spending too much water on washing clothes and bathing because of daily workouts at a Gym:

Obviously spending a LOT of water. Because even when filling the tank to a minimum I have to look for more clothes to wash, just because there are 3 rags floating in the water. So today I put my hand on the heart and the other in my pocket and went to buy more clothes for workouts. [..]

Moreover, multiple showers in the day also are pushing up and raising the water meter. So I've decided to give up my habits and [..] I bathe once a day, after exercise. [..]

Because if it is so easy to save water, there can be nothing more I need. (machine translation)

Water Scarcity in the Southern Parts Of Madagascar. Image courtesy Ariniania

Ariniaina from Foko Madagascar writes about an innovative method to purify water:

I heard that in the Southern part of Madagascar, people really suffer from lack of water. This zone is dry. People have to walk for kilometers to find water which is not even clean. Some people had even the idea to market clean water at a very high price.

One of my friend shared a simple method to disinfect water during our English Club meeting. I believe it can be a good idea to share it here today. The method is called SODIS (Solar water disinfection).

Avylavitra from Foko Madagascar talks about protecting water resources and the importance of distribution of safe drinking water:

Water is very, very expensive. Plus, the South part of Madagascar is suffering of lack of water. They must buy water far away of their house, and then bring it back home on a cart pulled by donkeys.

Therefore, moderate use of water is needed, we shouldn’t waste water, and should keep it drinking.

* The “Re-use of wastewater to water the rice fields, after filtering it successively with charcoal and sand “.

* There is no latrine, or better toilets. In the case of Southern area of Madagascar, they suffer of the lack of water. They need to buy water brought to them by car, or cart pulled by donkeys because there is no local water source. There’s mostly desert.

What attitude to adopt to avoid this kind of pollution? Image courtesy Avylavitra

Cristina Quisbert from Voces Volivianas, Bolivia writes:

“There will be no water from 13:00 am to 20:00 …” read the statement the local water company in La Paz in March 2008. The reason was that maintenance should be done after the pipeline of the Hampaturi Plant borke, which provides drinking water to the south, east and south east of La Paz.

I remember that for three weeks, 25 districts of the (La Paz) city had no regular water supply. Several high water tanks were located in these areas. However, receiving water in this way involved an additional problem for these families, carrying water in buckets, cans, etc.. [..]

This difficulty still persists and several families still are unable to have drinking water at home, not only in La Paz, but also in other cities in Bolivia. This is because the sources of water formed by melting of the mountains as in the case of Hampaturi are disappearing, and at any time they will be unable to supply the growing population of El Alto and La Paz. (machine translation)

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Hiperbarrio: Bloggers on Violence in Medellín

Rezwan — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:26:01 +0000

This is a post by Lully Posada of Hiperbarrio, simultaneously published in Global Voices Online.

Violence, murder, theft and crime are constant affairs in Medellín, Colombia and its metropolitan area; issues all people must learn to live with and a social phenomenon that has grown in the last year. Members of the Rising Voices grantee Hiperbarrio expressed their feelings and different viewpoints on this matter in their personal and group blogs.

Yuliana Paniagua, in the Hiperbarrio site [es], highlights the area of Castilla, where members of the blog Hope Revolution (Revolución Esperanza) went to take pictures. She also shows the importance of Hiperbarrio as a positive alternative for the community.

Jorge Vasquez wrote at Villactivos collective blog [es] about the influence of a lack of values as a result of an uncontrollable situation, despite the government's investment in military spending:

Se ha configurado aquí un mundo del sigilo, de la desconfianza, de la prevención, en el cual reconocer un error es resbalar, un mundo con sus propios leyes, iconos y figuras ejemplares para los jóvenes provenientes de los bajos mundos, de las imágenes de los comerciantes de los medios de comunicación serios, que han hecho de la apología del violento un negocio lucrativo. Un mundo despiadado, donde al niño se le enseña con el ejemplo, que ser bondadoso con el otro es ser tonto, que disputar el centímetro de calle, el pupitre en el colegio, el favor de la pareja es lo que vale. Y aquí están algunos de estos barrios hechos a imagen, semejanza y escala del egoísmo de los poderosos, unos más, otros menos, como vórtices de fuego, mientras la autoridad, de este país, que está entre los 10 de mayor gasto militar en el mundo, no ha podido controlar la sinfonía de fusiles que arrulla el sueño de sus habitantes.

What has been set up here is a world of secrecy, mistrust, prevention, in which recognizing a mistake is slipping, a world with its own laws, icons and exemplars for young people from the underworld, from the images by the businessmen in the serious media, who have made a lucrative business our of the advocacy of violence. A heartless world, where the child is taught by example, that to be kind to another is to be dumb, that to compete for a centimeter of a street, for a desk at school, for the favor of a partner is what counts. And here are some of these neighborhoods made in the image, likeness and scale of the selfishness of the powerful, some more than others, like vortex of fire, while the authorities in this country, which is among the 10 largest military spenders in the world, has not been able to control the symphony of rifles that lulls the dream of its inhabitants.

Photo of Comuna 13 neighborhood in Medellín by author Lully Posada

Luis Elías, a member of Convergentes, cries out in his personal blog [es] for the war in the neighborhoods to stop. He wrote a second post [es] where he also refers to unemployment and laziness as causes for this violent situation:

Estoy harto de esta guerra , no respetan ni los niños menores de edad, ya lo utilizar como carrito para cargar armas, pero eso también va en los padres que no se han dado cuenta de lo que están haciendo sus hijos o también de los hermanos que están metidos en los grupos armados le piden en favor para que le lleve el cuerpo del delito , y para mal de todos acabar con los barrios que son buenos para vivir, ¿esto cuando se va a terminar? ¡Ojalá rápido! Matan a los que no tiene nada que ver con el conflicto.[

(…] cuando llega el desempleo o la falta de estudio para los jóvenes buscan otras opciones para salir de la misma rutina en la que estaban y probar cosas nuevas, cosas fáciles para sobrevivir en mundo que está lleno de corrupción.

I'm tired of this war, they don’t even respect under-age children, they use [them] as a cart to carry weapons, but that also goes for parents who have not noticed what they are doing to their children or also siblings who are involved in armed groups and ask [under-age children] to take away the body of a crime, and worse of all they ruin neighborhoods that are good to live in, when will this end? Hopefully soon! They kill those who do not have anything to do with the conflict.

[…] when it comes to unemployment or lack of education for young people they look for other options to get out of the routine in which they were and try new things, easy things to survive in a world that is full of corruption.

Jaider Ochoa makes a positive comment about Hiperbarrio in the collective blog Revolución Esperanza [es]:

La idea de recuperar la memoria social y cultural de los barrios, de destacar esas cosas buenas con las que se cuenta, pero que se ven opacadas por el despliegue mediático sobre la violencia, permiten ver que estas comunidades no sólo tienen delincuentes, sino que también hay quien pueda decir que en ellas hay un sinfín de rasgos, personajes, tradiciones y actividades que hacen la diferencia y que permiten conocerla como un lugar donde también se puede habitar en condiciones dignas.

The idea of restoring the social and cultural memory of the neighborhoods, of highlighting these good things that are available, but are overshadowed by the media hype about violence, allow us to see that these communities are not full of criminals, but that you can also say there are endless features, people, traditions and activities that make the difference and allow us to see it as a place where you can also live in decent conditions.

Finally, Henry Osorio at the Funacrate collectibe blog, raises some questions after narrating an event [es] experienced by an acquaintance called Manuel.

Pasaban los minutos, Manuel seguía observando desde la terraza y vio a un miembro del Ejército, como alienaba con su fusil a un señor que se trepaba por otra terraza de la vecindad, cuando el primero tuvo la oportunidad le disparó casi botándole el brazo. Después que Manuel me narró su versión, quedé con una cantidad de interrogantes que me hacen reflexionar sobre la situación violenta en algunos sectores de la ciudad y la intervención de la Fuerza Pública en las comunidades.

¿Cuál es el tipo de intervención que debe hacer la Fuerza Pública cuando suceden estos hechos? […] ¿Cuál es el tipo de confianza que brinda la Fuerza Pública cuando interviene las comunidades afectando algunos habitantes de estos barrios? ¿Las personas que corren en busca de refugio ante estos hechos acaso son delincuentes?

The minutes passed, Manuel was watching from the terrace and saw a member of the Army, how he alienated with his gun a man who climbed another terrace in the vicinity, when the former had a chance he shot him almost busting his arm. After Manuel told me his story, I was left with a lot of questions that make me think about the violent situation in some parts of the city and the intervention of the Public Forces [the Military and Police] in the communities.

What is the type of intervention the Public Force should have when these things happen? […] What type of confidence does the Public Force bring when it interpheres in communities, affecting some inhabitants of these neighbohoods? Are the people looking for refuge in these events deliquents?

Translated by Silvia Viñas.

HiperBarrio: Campus Party Colombia And Pin Hole Photography

Rezwan — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:36:43 +0000

Campus Party, one of the Spanish-speaking world's largest technology conferences came to Colombia first in 2008. It has been replicated ever since with growing successes and the Rising Voices grantee Hiperbarrio community in Colombia has been actively participating in these events with enthusiasm (2008, 2009).

Hiperbarrio team in Campus Party 2010

Deisy Alvarez in Hiperbarrio blog reflects [es] about the impact of Campus party in their lives:

Since 2008, the year in which they conducted the first campus party Colombia, it has become well established in what it is today, an event which is not only national but international, and that from its inception it has become a center for conversion work, collaborative experiences and it is also clear that it is the biggest technology festival in the country.

Therefore we have implemented a “give to receive” approach, which means each person transfers his or her learning to an individual who does not have this knowledge in areas such as campus blog, development, free software and more.

Today I reflect and conclude that in CAMPUS PARTY technology is not about only human relations, information sharing, or a monetary value [..] it is a friendship that is generated from what others think. [machine translation]

This year HiperBarrio was invited for the Campus Party Colombia and was told to do something different [es]:

The proposal was to use the pin hole camera technique to record the activities of CampusBlog among others.

Franky Posada's pin hole camera

Now what is a pin hole camera?

A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens and with a single small aperture — effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box. (Wikipedia)

Franky Posada explains [es] in a three part video how to build a pin hole camera:

Here are the results of using the pin hole camera technique for photography:

You can watch more pictures taken in this technique from the Hiperbarrio Flickr page.

Apparently this technology has created a sensation in the community. So HiperBarrio started arranging workshops [es] on Pin hole photography for its citizen media projects.

Some HiperBarrio members wrote about their experiences in the Campus party. Henry El Sucio wrote about the talks and lectures given in Campus party, especially learning about Creative Commons License and its implication in using others contents such as texts, images etc.

Yeskenia writes in Convergentes blog:

Campus Party Colombia, is a digital event in which many people around the country gather with guests from other regions to share knowledge. In the 2010 version new areas were introduced that did not exist in the minds of the previous Campus parties: Innovation, Creativity, Security and Networks.

I'm impressed and also the group of HiperBarrio was also impressed to learn that in the field of astronomy it became practical and easy to handle the tools required and we should not be “Astronomers” to develop satellites and learn to observe the sky. [machine translation]

She also shares a video about a campus party attendee:

HiperBarrio: Ituango Without Electricity

Rezwan — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:56:24 +0000

Palo Blanco village in Ituango. Image courtesy Andria Jaramillo.

About a year ago the activities of HiperBarrio expanded to Ituango in Antiqua, located 195 miles northwest of Medellin, Colombia. Ituango, a small municipality with a population of less than 50000 inhabitants recently became a shelter for refugees fleeing fighting in the Colombian countryside.

Workshops on citizen media were arranged in Ituango in conjunction with the Catholic University of the North, with students from the Diocesan School John Paul II. Nora Catalina Urquijo lead the workshops and we have highlighted her experience earlier.

Now, because of these workshops a few bloggers emerged and we can read many stories about Ituango and its inhabitants.

Paisajesituanguinos writes about a typical day in Ituango and how full of life it is. However this bustling life was put to a halt because of lengthy power cuts.

Roxana shares how these power cuts affect the society:

It all began on the evening of Saturday 15. Ituango was in its normal routine, the music of the bars, some young people pulling cash, families in their homes, some others were sleeping. From one moment to another strong blackout disrupted our lives and everything went dark, leaving out the night in its full splendor. When dawn arrived at the village, it was still without light and everyone was wondering why. A few hours after they began to hear rumors, some said three electric towers were being put up, other than in St. Joseph, after a while we realized we had actually been in the valley. Ituango was without power for four days. The first day people still continued with the monotony, with the difference that businesses closed early and young people were anticipating to goto their homes, for their warm home. The place was quiet and could sight diversity of colors and stars in the magnificent sky, this resulted in many meetings between neighbors, since there were bonfires on every street corner with people around, some sharing a chocolate bread, some rice with milk, or just a friendly company.

Read the rest here.

Ituango without electricity. Image courtesy Angelesituango

AngelesItuango describes his experience during the blackouts:

From six in the evening the city began to darken and apart from abundant dark silence fear among Ituanguinos escalated. Previously the first leg of the warning light was that “the guerrillas entered a war,” but this time it happened for something else, thank God, the reasons for the lack of light was obviously because of the eve of elections.

The next two days were spent practically the same, did not see people in the streets after ten at night, and it was because it was totally dark. Businesses were forced to close early and those with power generators got rich charging the battery of cell phones. For many, the lack of electricity meant a great economic loss as the products that needed refrigeration were damaged.

However the blogger finds some solace here:

The lack of electricity meant for me, and perhaps for many a chance to get closer to our family, friends and neighbors, living moments are priceless.

Nora Catalina informs that power service has been suspended again in Ituango because of the guerrillas which has affected almost 100,000 people :

At the time, both Ituango other four municipalities in northern Antioquia (San Andrés de Cuerquia, Toledo, San Jose, Mountain and Little) are without light, because, apparently, FARC guerrillas blew up a power tower.

Adriana Jaramillo writes in a recent post:

From Saturday June 19, because of elections, the guerrillas (perhaps the cause of such damage) wanted to push causing suspension of power service, and people are anxiously awaiting for arrival of this service on Tuesday, I have heard many times by the people that question why the community has to pay the price?

Somos Ituango writes how girls between 12-15 are physically abused by relatives or armed groups.

Nora Catalina writes about a YouTube Video she found:

In just 37 seconds, this ituanguina who has lived the harsh reality of displacement tells us:

“It's a very horrible story …”

Immediately I remembered the entry in which Adryjaramillo referred to this phrase.

Nora also says:

It is sad that our country continues in this absurd war in which most affected the civilian population.

Translations were done using a machine translation tool.

The HiperBarrio Experience Multiplies by Three

Rezwan — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:42:55 +0000

This is a guest post by Lully Posada of HiperBarrio, which was translated by Silvia Viñas.

Hiperbarrio [es], a Rising Voices project from Colombia, is an outreach collective which “practices and promotes new ways of expression and participation” through blogging. The group is made up of members from the blog Convergentes [es] who live in the working class neighborhood of La Loma of San Cristobal in the city of Medellín, Antioquia. Hiperbarrio accepted an invitation from the Fundación Empresas Públicas de Medellín [es] (EPM) to replicate their experience in other libraries in the city of Medellín.

Consequently, the blogosphere is growing thanks to the work of the members of Hiperbarrio. The group advises bloggers from the first repoduction of Hiperbarrio, the group Ituango [es] in the municipality of Ituango in Medellín. They also teach workshops on blogs, and multimedia in general, to three groups of approximately 20 people in each one; results are already visible, as participants have began publishing in their collective blog, and will hopefully create their personal blogs soon.

Picture of the group Villactivos, taken by author Lully Posada.

The group from the Villatina library [es] is made up of various people from the neighborhoods of Comuna 8 and its surroundings, a place located northwest in Medellín. The blog and the group are called Villactivos [es] and in their first post they can’t hide their enthusiasm [es]:

Nos complace contarle al mundo que hoy nace un nuevo grupo de hombres y mujeres con actitudes e ideales para cambiar la visión. Ubicados en Medellín – Colombia; donde nosotros, los miembros de los barrios de Villatina, La Libertad, Las Golondrinas, Villa de Guadalupe y Las Estancias, queremos crecer todos unidos y aprender de estos medios virtuales de forma recíproca.

We are pleased to tell the world that today a new group is formed by men and women with attitudes and ideals to change views. Located in Medellín –Colombia; where we, the members of the neighborhoods of Villatina, La Libertad, Las Golondrinas, Villa Guadalupe and Las Estancias, want to grown united and learn about this virtual media in a reciprocal way.

Image courtesy Funacrate and Tiempo pasado 24 horas

Another group, headquartered in the Empresas Públicas library in Medellín, named their group “Funacrate” and created a blog called Tiempo pasado 24 horas [es] (Time Elapsed, 24 Hours). Here are some contributions from their first post:

En el grupo de Biblioteca epm, se encuentran con personas que vienen de diferentes espacios cómo: Fundación “Servicio Juvenil programa bosconìa”, Fundación “semillas que crecen” y usuarios frecuentes de la Biblioteca epm relacionados con la experiencia en dicha biblioteca. Una fundación enfocada a ayudar a los jóvenes y otra orientada a rescatar a personas adultas que quieren salir de esa forma de vivir, y la otra que “brinda el espacio” para soñar despiertos (…) La que nos brinda la enseñanza del proceso de blogs es HiperBarrio, qué es un grupo de personas que brindan la enseñanza para Muchas Personas, esa es la esencia.

In the group Biblioteca epm [es] (EPM Library) there are people that come from different spaces like: Foundation “Servicio Juvenil programa bosconìa” (“Juvenile Service Bosconia Program), Fundación “semillas que crecen” [es] (Foundation “seeds that grow” and frequent users of Biblioteca epm [es] (EPM Library) knowledgeable with the experience of that library. These are respectively, a foundation focusing on educating and helping youth and another one focusing on rescuing adults that want to change their way of living, and the other one which “provides a space” to dream while awake (…) The organization that provides the instruction on the process of blogging is HiperBarrio [es], which is a group of people that teach many people, that is its essence.

Revolución Esperanza [es] (Esperanza Revolution), is the third group that was created with various members [es] from library La Esperanza, in a neighborhood in the north of Medellin; their blog bears the same name, and in their first post they write:

Hoy te abrimos la puerta a un lugar nuestro blog, Revolución Esperanza, donde jóvenes, niños y adultos trabajaremos conjuntamente, mostrándole al mundo que revolucionando vidas podremos lograr, basados en el diálogo, promover los derechos de los niños y contar historias de un lugar llamado La Esperanza, sede de este nuevo colectivo, que pertenece a la red HiperBarrio.

Today we open the doors to you to our blog, Revolución Esperanza, where youth, children and adults will work together, showing the world that by revolutionizing lives we can, based on dialogue, promote rights of children and tell stories of a place called La Esperanza, the headquarters of our group, which belongs to the HiperBarrio [es] network.

We congratulate Hiperbarrio and all the new users from the blogosphere who dare to tell their stories, do citizen journalism, and work to never lose the historic and cultural memories of their localities, fine arts, free expression and free culture; while also transcending borders.