Voces Bolivianas

Elia Varela Serra and Eduardo Ávila speaking at the Digital Citizen Indaba

Eduardo Ávila, executive director of Voces Bolivianas, was invited to share his experiences at this year's Highway Africa conference in South Africa, the largest conference for journalists from across the African continent. Speaking with Elia Varela Serra from Maneno.org, Ávila presented Voces Bolivianas as a case study of how citizen media projects can welcome under-represented languages to online conversation by adapting open source tools and collaborating with volunteer translation networks. A re-cap of the session on the Digital Citizen Indaba blog:

Just as in most African countries Internet access in Bolivia is still concentrated in major urban centres, where people have Internet at home or at work. “This not only leaves out the rural resident and lower social economic sectors but also indigenous groups and women”, says Eduardo Avila, Executive Director of Bolivian Voices. But in addition, Eduardo argues that there has been an online resurgence of indigenous languages in Bolivia.

Ávila also participated in the roundtable discussion “Are people ready to have their own means od disseminating information within their communities?”

Abidjan Blog Camps

Nadine Tchaptchet-Kouamouo from Abidjan Blog Camps, a collective of bloggers from Ivory Coast who are holding regular workshops and events to bring new bloggers into their midst, was also at this year's Highway Africa conference where she was awarded the “Best Woman ICT Reporter” prize. Looking back on her time in Johannesburg (where she stayed longer than she had expected), Nadine writes:

I do not regret having tried the “way of life” of this great country of South Africa, whose level of development can be frustrating for us, but can also inspire us in our own development. Starting with representatives at the community level (women, children, youth, etc …) it is necessary for us to see farther, think bigger, and envision the best …

Blogging Since Infancy, Uruguay

Pablo Flores from Plan Ceibal, Uruguay's One Laptop Per Chile project, and Blogging Since Infancy presented at this year's Ars Electronica Symposium on Cloud Intelligence. Pablo asked the audience to consider how those who have the most to gain can benefit from the information amassing online. The value of intelligence, after all, is in solving problems facing society. Flores points to housing, nutrition, and education as three major social issues which can be improved with more access to better information. In order to bring intelligence and information from the cloud to everyday citizens in Uruguay, for example, they need a network of connectivity and devices.

Flores points to a class which set up a blog to interact with fellow students across the border in Brazil. Of course such pen pal projects have existed for decades, but the blogs allow the students to interact in real time and incorporate other tools to learn Portuguese and Spanish. His presentation concludes by emphasizing the importance of avoiding black boxes - technological gadgets which function properly, but don't allow us to understand how they function. Plan Ceibal values open source technologies as a way of promoting curiosity so that students are encouraged to look “inside” the programs and adapt them to their cultural needs.

Ethan Zuckerman live-blogged Pablo's presentation. Pablo's conference statement was published in the Ars Electronica 2009 Catalog.

HiperBarrio

HiperBarrio was represented at Ars Electronica by Álvaro Ramirez, Gabriel Jaime Vanegas, and Diego Gomez. Álvaro's presentation introduced the history and evolution of HiperBarrio and how the group of young bloggers and citizen journalists in San Javier La Loma have managed to maintain a sense of community while still introducing new members to remain open and inclusive. He stressed that HiperBarrio re-thinks the roles of libraries as more than just places to consume culture produced at the institutional level; but rather that they should serve as collective laboratories to produce and publish culture from the grassroots. HiperBarrio served as a model for Chile's national library network as it re-thought the role of its libraries for the digital era, and was also presented in the application by Fundación Empresas Públicas de Medellín which eventually led to a $1 million grant from the Gates Foundation. (Ramirez points out that none of the $1 million is currently budgeted for HiperBarrio or similar grassroots new media training programs.)

Álvaro referenced the story of Suso as an example of how citizen journalism is forming a process by which the young people discover more information about their own community and become invested in its future. He also pointed out media production is providing an appealing alternative to gangs and drugs for the community's young people. An article in Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper adds:

The project was presented to the public at Ars Electronica with a video which highlights the important role HiperBarrio plays to help young people find alternatives to crime, violence and drugs in a region that has been marked by the drug trafficking, guerrillas and paramilitaries.

“When people have no access to media, and are given the opportunity to tell their stories and show who there are, then they take that opportunity,” Ramirez said to the public.

Cristina Quisbert in El Alto, Bolivia

On her Spanish-language blog Cristina explained why she wasn't able to post much while in Chicago:

Ya me encuentro en Chicago con motivo de participar en otra version de la Conferencia de BlogHer. Esta es la primera vez que llego a este lugar, asi que muchas cosas son nuevas para mi. A modo de anectoda les comento que todo el hotel tiene acceso gratuito a internet en las habitaciones. Esa es una dicha total, tener internet gratuito y veloz, pero es una paradoja completa al mismo tiempo para mi, porque no tengo lo mas importante, una laptop, asi que escribo desde un pequeno restaurtant en el hotel que da internet gratis, siempre y cuando consumas algo y el ingreso al internet es con clave y con tiempo controlado. La clave que se supone tiene que funcionar no funciona, asi que tuve que prestarme de alguien su clave para poder usar.

Cristina's note reminds us that a free internet connection still doesn't guarantee free internet access without the purchase of a costly computer. Fortunately the prices of so-called netbooks are falling every month, but most bloggers in the developing world still depend on their office computers, cyber cafes, or public libraries in order to participate online.

Thanks to Twitter we know that Cristina has arrived home in Bolivia safely. Her session at BlogHer was reportedly a hit. As Barb from The Middle Way writes:

I happened to meet Cristina Quisbert from Bolivia at lunch on Friday, which changed my mind about my Saturday schedule. I am so glad I attended the International Activist session! These women reminded me that blogging can be more than an exercise in self-expression — it can truly help change the world.

Rock and Roll Mama agreed, though was disheartened to find some BlogHer participants choosing to instead attend sessions on branding, gossip and marketing. Wrong Shoes writes that she couldn't have been any more impressed with the session and, like expateek, lamented the fact that so many BlogHer attendees were more interested in Britney Spears.

For her part, Cristina continues her impressive writing. On World Pulse she has just recently published an in-depth history of the treatment of indigenous populations in Bolivia. Here is an excerpt:

Last time I was in Santa Cruz, a man shouted at me “¡Indian, go out!”. I had done nothing that could disturb anybody. Just to be an indigenous woman was enough for that man to treat me that way. However, those authorities and some people, who call the indigenous peoples as a wicked race or use other scornful words, forget that Human Rights Universal Declaration in its article 13 says that “Any person has the right to freely walk and to select its residence within the territory of any State”. This is an example of how certain behaviors are alive. In the Bolivian case, I think it is important to look behind to see where these come from.

One of the biggest Bolivian diaspora communities is located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. [..]

In keeping with the mission of Voces Bolivianas, which is to work with underrepresented communities, we have decided to begin the first series of workshops outside of the Bolivian borders. On July 12, six participants took part in the first workshop to learn about blogs and each created his or her own blog. Subsequent classes will focus on content creation, including the posting of photos and videos and how to incorporate themselves into the greater Voces Bolivianas community.

Through a partnership with the Santa Maria Episcopal Church in Falls Church, Virginia, we were able to promote these workshops to take place in their computer classroom with highspeed internet, which they graciously provided for the classes.

More news comes from the Voces Bolivianas Twitter (machine translation from Spanish):

11:10 AM Jun 21st We made a presentation - VB in a church in the community bowl. in Virginia there is a poignant, blogging workshops in July

6:47 AM Jul 26th: Machine ready for the second workshop of Bolivian Voices in Virginia USA. Today - learn how to upload photos to their blogs.

Participants of the Digital Literacy Workshop El Alto III

El Alto III workshops:

5:29 PM Jun 20th Workshop for El Alto III blogs (transmision on-line): Live Broadcast by Ustream.TV http://tinyurl.com/my5bzy

1:53 PM Jun 27th: 2nd session of the El Alto III www.vocesbolivianas.org this time to teach the old and new participants - learn more (via @ mrduranch)

Hugo Miranda posts pictures and videos of the snowy road on the way from Oruro to La Paz:

Cristina Quisbert writes [es] from Chicago where she attended the Blogher Conference.

The entire hotel has free internet access in the rooms. That is such a treat, having free internet and fast, but it's a complete paradox for me, because I don't have the most important thing, a laptop. So I am writing from a restaurant in the small hotel offering free internet provided you consume something.

The Voces Bolivianas Team. Photo by David Sasaki

The members of Voces Bolivianas (Bolivian Voices) are delighted to win an honorary mention in the 2009 Prix Ars Electronica awards. This international recognition will certainly boost their enthusiasm towards blogging. They congratulated [es] the Hiperbarrio team for winning the Golden Nica in the digital communication category at the same event.

Rising Voices Director David Sasaki was in El Alto, Bolivia recently to greet the team and talk about the other Rising Voices projects. Mario Duran posts [es] about the 6th of June get together of the Voces Bolivianas. Here are some images.

Some of the Voces Bolivianas members wrote about different events and issues on Bolivia. Here is a quick look at them.

Alberto Medrano writes [es] about the Fiesta de Jesús del Gran Poder (Jesus Almighty), one of the larges celebrations in Bolivia outside the Carnival.

The Parade of Gran Poder, Image courtesy Alberto Medrano

Christina Quisbert posts some pictures and writes:

About 58 groups participate in this parade starting in the neighborhood called Cementerio dancing kilometers and kilometers until to arrive to downtown. It generally starts early in the morning about 7:00am. and ends 2:00am. on Sunday. Each group of dancers aproximately dances about five or six hours from the beginning until the end of the route.

Here is a video of the celebrations:

Hugo Miranda posted [es] the twitter messages and pictures uploaded by one of his friends @alvaromendez reporting the birth of his son Miguelito.

Christina Quisbert introduces [es] blogger Limachi Sabino:

With Bolivian Voices in late January this year we were able to find bloggers and bloggers of various cities in Bolivia Bolivian Voices Summit. Among them I had the fortune to meet Limachi Sabino, a member of the Puka Puka, Tarabuco in the department of Chuquisaca. On that occasion I commented on the music project that had begun with other young people from that community to form the group quechua de los Andes Puriy. Sometimes the distance or circumstances make initiatives like the community of Sabino remain invisible. However, we can put our bit to help this musical talent to proceed. The contact information for them is in the blog Progressive Indian.

Christina also writes about the descendants of Africans who arrived to South Americas during colonial times.

Rock Boliviano [es] continues to portray the rock scene of Bolivia. The blogger writes about a concert in Hernando Siles stadium, which is scheduled to take place today:

Concert JUNTUCHA arises from the need to support, disseminate and publicize the new Bolivian musicians. On this occasion of its 5th year celebrations 22 bands will perform on Saturday, June 13, 2009.

(All translations were done using machine translation)

Cristina Quisbert

Rising Voices congratulates Cristina Quisbert, a member of the Voces Bolivianas community, for winning the BlogHer ‘09 International Activist BlogHer Scholarship. She was selected as one of the 5 bloggers around the world who will be attending the Blog Her international women blogging conference in Chicago on July 24-25, 2009.

According to Cristina's nominator:

“The mission of this blog is to strive to show indigenous communities as a source of pride. There are a lot of misconceptions about indigenous people, and Cristina shows a more personal side and uses her own voice to represent other members of indigenous communities in the Bolivian Altiplano. Cristina is a bridge blogger, allowing fellow Bolivians who may not identify themselves as a member of an indigenous community, to interact and learn about indigenous communities in another region of the country. By also writing a blog in English, she is able to reach a much wider audience and show another side of life in El Alto, Bolivia.”

In one of her latest blog entry she posts this beautiful Slideshow on the Sun Island in Titicaca lake.

Check her flickr account for some great photos.

She writes is her Spanish language blog about the Digital City - Technology Fair in La Paz which took place between 15-17th May, 2009.

Hugo Miranda has more details about this fair.

Prof. Lic. Elsa Muruchi Paco of the Voces Bolivianas Santa Cruz community writes about the importance of working with secondary students:

At the secondary level teachers are in constant personal contact with students. Often teachers communicate better with students than their own parents sometimes happens that a student finds a teacher in his only means of communication with the world of adults, the rapid growth of the student's physical, mental, and emotional, their reactions are unpredictable, this makes the challenge is greater.

Sergio Gutierrez posts some photos of a memorable class trip.

Dora Romero of Las Ideas Son Primero (Ideas Are First) writes about the developments of the city of El Alto that only about a year ago she had to go by bus more than half an hour to find an internet shop. Now there are Internet shops in each block in her locality, even on a single street there are three Internet shops. She fears whether this rapid growth of technology will make people slaves of machines.

Alberto Medrano at Noticias El Alto posts about Miss La Paz with photos.

For more details of the Rising Voices grantee Voices Bolivianas community please refer to the project page.

The Digital Literacy Project began in September 2007 with a pilot project, 23 participants opened their own blogs, talk about their experiences and shared stories of their communities through the Internet. This first experience was “very gratifying”, as its leaders, barely five months later, the regions of El Alto and Santa Cruz started similar projects. (machine translation)

Here is a slide show by Hugo Miranda showing the progress of the Voces Bolivianas project [es]:

Meanwhile you might be interested to learn how the project affected the Voces Bolivianas bloggers. Cristina Quisbert writes in World Pulse in a post titled “Dealing with Web 2.0″:

To sit down in front of a computer is something really important for me. I know that lots of women can´t not do this, neither in my country nor in other countries. In general, although women are half of the world or more, access to to mass media is limited, sometimes nearly impossible, so to have the possibility to use tools involved in Web 2.0, I think is a challenge, an opportunity to communicate what we have to say. In my case, I am eager to know stories of women of other countries. Probably, I will never know them personally but I can learn about their own life experiences and I can share with them women situation too. […]

Mass media sometimes covers only what men have to say. To navigate in the internet and to use these tools gives me a feeling of strength and motivation. I am in process of learning. When I opened a gmail account I was surprised and when I wrote my first posts I was also surprised. Insecure at first, but step to step I am gaining confidence and this has a positive meaning for me.

Cristina portrays the indigenous culture of Bolivia to the world readers in her English blog Indigenous Bolivia and Spanish language blog Bolivia Indigena.

She writes about Kallawaya, one of the ancient indigenous peoples in Bolivia and posts a video of the Tarqueada Dance in La Paz, Bolivia.

The “tarqueada” it is danced in the main feast when the blooming of the sown fields is celebrated which is in Anata or Andean Carnival, when the happiness enjoyment and games are manifest, a real manifestation of a celebration and the beginning of the period of harvest.

She also writes about the carnival in Bolivia and posts a video:

Cristina celebrated the first anniversary of her English blog. She started her Spanish blog in September 2007.

Resistencia Bolivia 2009, a blog dedicated to rock scene of Bolivia and a member of Voces Bolivianas (Santa Cruz), informs:

The international television channel MTV Latin America that reaches more than 30 countries of the Spanish-speaking world has included in its programming, for the first time (Querembas) a band from Santa Cruz.

Mario Duran discusses how to create a network of distributed minipost (RMD) of the bloggers. He also debates a remark of the government official that ‘Bolivia is worthy of wearing used clothes from United States' and shows how the local clothing industry can provide alternatives.

The Voces Bolivianas Flickr page has uploaded pictures of the celebration of 24th founding day of El Alto city. In an administrative reform on March 6, 1985 the district of El Alto and surroundings was politically separated from the City of La Paz. Every year all the social organizations participates in this important event.

Meanwhile Hugo Miranda informs about more seminars which will take place in La Paz, Bolivia about earning money from blogs, initiatives about introducing OLPC (One laptop per child) project in Bolivia. etc.

The recently concluded Voces Bolivianas summit at Cochabamba, Bolivia titled “Web 2.0 for Everyone” was a success. Some of the participants have blogged about their experience. Cristina Quisbert at BOLIVIA INDIGENA [es] writes:

As expected the majority arrived on Friday January 30 at the Martadero, a former slaughterhouse today become a place for art and culture in its various manifestations. There we were received by three bloggers in El Alto, Marisol, Nancy and Dora then enter to hear the presentations.

In her English blog INDIGENOUS BOLIVIA Cristina writes:

During three days, people that participated since 2007 in the workshops to learn how to use blogs to show and share information about our cultures, about daily life, etc. in different cities within Bolivia, were able to have this meeting.

It was important for me to participate in this Summit, since it was an opportunity to know other bloggers from Bolivia and work together to analyze what has been done up to now and what else could be done in the future.

Daniel Sempertegui writes [es]:

The truth surpassed all expectations, was a very successful event held in Cochabamba - Bolivia, or that I think few or none in this city. I hope this is a firm step to further promote the Web 2.0 and Blogs to all persons, without limits of age, creed or economic status. (machine translation)

Virginio Sandy writes:

At this Summit of voices in Bolivia, was (about) understanding and collecting experiences by members of Voces Bolivianas (Bolivian voices) throughout Bolivia, this summit also served to assess and plan the future actions of Voces Bolivianas projects for the benefit of the less represented in the (Bolivian) cyber world.

Bolivian Voices has human resources in the cyberspace, what is lacking is the logistical support for this non-profit institution to fulfill its goal and reach the farthest points of the Bolivian territory. We are convinced that the Web 2.0 is a tool to reach out and make us known to the world; our culture, our concerns, our projects, our identity, our archaeological wealth and much more.

The Internet through the Blog, is now a window that connects us to the world and we cannot continue digital illiteracy, we must join the world community with this tool to leave many people, indigenous communities are mired in anonymity because of the lack of a tool such as the Web. (machine translation)

Here is video of an interview of a participant [es] by Hugo Miranda:

And what impact these efforts by Voces Bolivianas project has on Bolivia? Alberto S. Medrano Flores writes in El Alto Noticias that a hybrid of journalism, blogs, and Web 2.0 covered the news of the Bolivia's constitutional referendum from Friday January 23 to January 27.

Cristina Quisbert writes about the importance of this referendum regarding the reform of constitution:

Why is the New Bolivian Constitution so important? There are a lot of reasons. One of these, is in the first article, which says that Bolivia is a Plurinational, free, independent, intercultural, democratic State and with autonomies.

The inclusion of all the population in this Constitution is an important reform. Since the Constitution of 1826, most of the inhabitants belonging to the indigenous peoples were not included in this document, but now, it is not only recognized the existence of the indigenous peoples of high and low lands in Bolivia, but also their languages, their own spiritual beliefs and practices, etc.

The new constitution won with more than 60% of support from the population and it was promulgated by the President on 7th of February.

She uploaded a video of people singing songs to celebrate the new constitution:

Friday's public event began with an introduction to the fundamentals of Web 2.0 by Anne Arrázola. Hugo Miranda then moderated a panel on the history of Voces Bolivianas and their training workshops.

Mario Duran, with the help of Daniel Sempertegui and Virginio Sandy, introduced Twitter, and Alexis Argüello held court while various bloggers explained how to upload photographs and videos to the web. Finally, Maria Amparo Carvajal and Nicomedes Flores discussed the use of free software to narrow the digital divide.

Nicomedes, the director of the Manuela Garandillas Center for the Blind, is helping develop an open source tool so that fellow blind internet users can more easily participate on the social web.

The public event was held at the mARTadero, which, in the words of Anne Arrázola, is an “incubator of the arts, and has the objective of responsible social transformation through culture and the arts.”

Courtyard of the mARTadero

Already some of the attending bloggers have written their thoughts about the event. Aeromental, a veteran of the Bolivian blogosphere, wrote:

La verdad sobrepasó todas las expectativas, fue un muy buen evento realizado en Cochabamba - Bolivia de los que me parece o hay pocos o ninguno en esta ciudad. espero este sea un paso firma a seguir promoviendo la Web 2.0 y los Blogs a todo tipo de personas, sin límites de edad, credo o situación económica. Incluso se pudo conocer a un Blogger que carece de vista pero postea y responde comentarios.

In his introductory presentation to Twitter, El Alto resident Mario Duran described how the brief messages of Bolivian Twitter users on the day of the constitutional referendum were translated into English and Polish on Global Voices and then featured on the website of the New York Times.

Blogger and Voces Bolivianas participant Virginio Sandy.

Tomorrow the third and final day of the “Web 2.0 for Everyone” gathering gets underway with an internal meeting for members of Voces Bolivianas. They will take advantage of their time together to meet face to face and discuss where they want to take Voces Bolivianas in 2009 and beyond.

We have another example how the engagement of stakeholders like the local entrepreneurs can create more opportunities and even prompt wider outreach initiatives. On the 14th of December 2008 the ‘Bolivia Webprende' or ‘the meet of the Web Entrepreneurs in Bolivia' took place in La Paz. From
its website [es]:

Bolivia Webprende is an event that brings together entrepreneurs, businessmen and Bolivian web community in a forum to share experiences, ideas and projects. [machine translation]

Christina Quisbert, an active member of Voces Bolivianas who blogs at Bolivia Indigena, reports:

A combination of actors, Alberto Saavedra, Voces Bolivianas (Bolivian Voices) and Entel (the state telecommunications company) made it possible for a group of stakeholders interested in various facets of the web to gather this morning in the auditorium of Entel Bolivia in the city of La Paz. [machine translation]

Hugo Miranda of Voces Bolivianas project writes [es] about the context of the meet:

The idea is to learn a little about what other entrepreneurs from across the country are doing on the web..This event is not just for people who have their own website, their own company or their enterprise online, but also for people who have an idea and want to share.

Mario Duran notes:

On a personal level, this activity had an extra extra significance, “I would not have been at the event, if I didn't have a blog.”….

Participants of the event including Voces Bolivanas members. Image: Hugo Miranda

Hugo Miranda shares the experiences after the event. He mentions the initial idea was to do an an informal reunion to gather a few entrepreneurs who are doing interesting things in Internet but it turned out to be something phenomenal:

Thanks to ENTEL and Mario Duran (of Voces Bolivianas), things took a different path and it became a kind of BarCamp, and so what it became was a geek gathering, and it became a social gathering where we could see other things people are doing in terms of software in Bolivia.

About seventy people were present and why so that much turnout? Miranda notes that because the Voces Bolivianas team could be part of such great initiatives like Bloguivianos, blog outreach workshops of Voces Bolivianas, the Open source software Congress, the Campus Party etc., they have created a network of cyber activists and many of them came to participate.

Working Group 2.0 - Image: Voces Bolivianas

Hugo Miranda continues:

Something that is clear is that Webprende Bolivia is just the first step of something that just began. We intend to hold meetings every month if possible, do it in every department in Bolivia, launch contests on enterprise web, try to organize workshops, create revenue sources to support initiatives in Bolivia site, seek investors, generate social networks for the talks that began not just shut down … in the end there are a lot of ideas, suggestions that we are seeking these days, to begin to generate possible document on what we will do by 2009, something that became more clear:

We will not wait for the government or somebody else; we know what we can do here and now, that when the complaints have come and gone, that if we do not, nobody else will do it, at least not as we think.

Just as we did with Voces Bolivianas, as I did with my Blog of San Jose, as I do with my network of blogs, and everything else … [machine translation]

That is a bold statement and these efforts will set a role model of many such initiatives across the globe.

Pictures from the event can be found in Voces Bolivianas Flickr. For more updates from the bloggers of Voces Bolivianas check the highlights in Spanish, English and in Aymara languages.

On a Saturday morning in El Alto, Bolivia, a group of men and women intensely watch the computer screens at the Internet Café Scorpio. Some of the users have never had access to the internet and now they are learning to write messages, digital photography and video techniques, tools necessary to have a voice within the global online conversation that is the Internet.

This is how the magazine “Américas” of the Organization of American States (OAS) introduced the works of the Rising Voices grantee Voces Bolivianas project in its October 2008 issue.

It all started when well known Bolivian bloggers Mario Duran, Hugo Miranda, and Eduardo Ávila envisioned a digital literacy project for the underrepresented communities of Bolivia. Eduardo remembers in his blog the early days of Voces Bolivianas (Bolivian Voices) project, before it started to take shape. He shares with us a short plan on blog outreach which was made sometime in late 2006:

Needs:

One facilitator/mentor
Ten interested university students or older
One partner internet café

During the first three-hour session, the facilitator will introduce the concept of blogging by showing concrete examples of Bolivian blogs, in which the students will be asked to consider the differences between reading an online newspaper where they cannot respond, nor dispute anything.

Students will be shown how to create his/her own blog and invited to write something.

For the next week, students will be given coupons for an hour of internet time at the partner café that was negotiated at a reduced rate.

The facilitator/mentor will comment on the blog and encourage the others to do the same.

It is a long story how the project had expanded from El Alto to other cities in Bolivia like Santa Cruz and Beni where passionate blogger volunteers imparted blog, video, photography and podcast workshops to hundreds of Bolivians.

Eduardo Ávila notes:

The project still tried to retain much of the original thinking, such as the need for mentors and ongoing support.

In their project blog in Rising Voices Eduardo Ávila talks about the challenges the project faces now:

“Since the beginning of the Voces Bolivianas projects, it can be roughly estimated that 20% of the trained participants continue to write in their blogs after the classes end. Some might argue that this number is way too low for the resources invested into the project, while most would probably agree that the number is higher than the average for the general public, for those who open blogs and continue to write.

Without a doubt, one of the main reasons for the decline in activity is connectivity issues. Based on demographic polling, only 1-2% of participants have internet at home. For regular bloggers, they can attest that this steady access really encourages regular posting.”

He cites an example that Ruben Hilari, a VB participant who is now living in USA increased his posting frequency because of better internet connection.

The passionate Voces Bolivianas team has defied all these obstacles and has been successful in their outreach projects because of their innovations and sincerity.

Voces Bolivianas has published a guide on how to open a Wordpress blog. The guide is in Spanish language and was released under a Creative Commons license. The manual was developed by Annelissie Arrázola of Bolivian Initiatives, an web 2.0 venture from Santa Cruz with the help of Hugo Miranda, Jessica Olivares, Karen Heredia and Liliana Colanzi. Here is the Manual for Wordpress:

For those who prefer Blogger (Blogspot) platform, Hugo Miranda has one manual for them too (in Spanish).

Here is the Manual for Blogger:

Check the Voces Bolivianas pages (English, Spanish and Aymara) for highlights of the participants' blogs.

Virginio Sandy at Nacion Suyu Suras Parcialidad Aransaya writes about the tradition and the meaning of All Saints Day (Todos Santos) and the threat of modern Halloween culture.

Cristina Quisbert at Bolivia Indigena writes about the Day of the Dead in Bolivia. She posts a video of the cemetery and several pictures of the celebrations of the day which is an important holiday in Bolivia.