So today I will not tell you what I have learned on TH!NK3, though I do start to think about the end of the competition we are approaching. I will leave it for later. Today I would like to share with you thoughts of a person whom I find very inspirational - Ethan Zuckerman, co-founder of Global Voices. He was presenting his ideas during this week's TEDGloabal conference in Oxford.
You see, I agree with him on many points. New media carries great potential, but also responsibility. I think many of us do work with new technology, with the web in order to achieve a better, global understanding of issues - and we all work on various levels (local, regional, state or international). Can we live up to Ethan's expectations?
(cover photo is mine and shows Oxford University)
It’s a great talk.
The new media are only in their infancy. We cannot imagine what they will be like in 10 years time or the extent to which they will encompass the developing world.
Zuckerman is hilarious. I agree with you, Kevin, but have to admit it is not without fear that I think of how new media is going to impact the world.
He is hilariously inspirational! I agree with you all, and I agree more with Mr. Zuckerman, we have so many things to fix (media, education etc).
Take a look at this great link he suggested: http://www.afrigadget.com/
Loved it. Thank you Sylwia.
I am glad you find him inspirational too;)
Intersting about the new media/responabilities issue… that makes me reflect! thx
@Kevin - I’m frighten how they will look like, so I agree with you Helena
He is really inspriational, and he raises some very important questions… I can really recognice myself, how I tend to hang out with people like me (and tweet a lot about the oil spill, as white folks do
)
The thing is that English is really the language of the internet, which I think is the basic reason why most Wikipedia articles come from the US. If you speak a smaller language, your local wikipedia is really not as interesting as the English one.
As he mentions, there is an awful amount of work only to translate English content to local languages - to translate local content to English is even more, and the ultimate solution, to translate everything to everything, so that I could click a button and get chinese pages in Swedish - I can’t see how that will ever happen.
And if you look at the TED page itself, speaks are translated into local languages, but the great thinking is still done in English. That is a problem for the internet.
Iwona & Daniel
I don’t think that Ethan is pessimistic just provocative. We do live in an English language hegemony but there are many signs that this is changing. Lingua Franca does not mean mono-lingualism. wkipedia sites like the Aymaran one show that it is a much richer picture than many first-worlders think.
Yes, and no… Let me first say that there are lots of interesting things being done, and that I think Global Voices is one of the best ideas ever
I can also see how the internet could help really small native like the sami languages from becoming extinct.. There is also a democratic empowering aspect, which your video is about. He is right - people have the right to use their native language, and they should do so.
On the internet as a whole, English will continue to dominate I think. Lingua Franca does not mean monolingualism, But it gives you a lot of advantages if the Lingua Franca is also your mother tongue.
It is true that this maybe is a first world problem.
But many people in the developing world actually use very big languages like English, Spanish and French. It is probably a bigger problem for spoiled Swedish speakers 
There are also disadvantages if the Lingua Franca is also your mother tongue. It discourages bi/multi-lingualism, can encourage xenophobia and can shut out worlds of knowledge, understanding and enjoyment.
By coincidence I’ve just visited an Indian website Banavasi Balaga that promotes Kannada. a langauge of Southern Indians. Well worth a look.
Yes… When you speak to British natives here in Europe you notice that the English that I use when I speak to a German is not really what they speak at home, and that must also be pretty frustrating for the native speakers. Maybe the Lingua Franca situation is a little uncomfortable for all, but it is not a disaster for anyone.
But I don’t expect this situatiation to change, even if technological development of the internet continues.
Thanks for the link about Kannada! It seems they have a lot of awesome projects going on.