MEDIA & SUSTAINABILITY

OPEN DATA & KNOWLEDGE

2 STREAMS = 1 CONFERENCE

Focus Groups:

M1: Finance Models & Economic Sustainability

M2: Content Production, Profit Orientation & Working Conditions

M3: Target Groups / Audience Research / Audience Creation

M4: Media Business & Open Source Culture

OS pt. 1: Open Sourcing South Sudan

OS pt. 2: Open Data and Knowledge

OS pt. 3: Open Innovation and ICT: Tools of the Trade

Description:

The MEDIA & MAKERS conference consists of two ‘streams’ - one with a focus on media and sustainability, the other with a focus on open data and open knowledge. Both streams consist of working groups rather then open lectures. If you wish to participate in any of these groups please register.,

Please note that the conference language is English.









>> THE “SUSTAINABLE MEDIA” STREAM <<

By Julian Kücklich & Dominik Lehnert (MICT)

Focus Group M1:

“Finance Models & Economic Sustainability”

Many media businesses in South Sudan were struggling for survival even before the current economic crisis, which was caused by the suspension of oil production in early 2012. In Juba, the privately owned daily newspaper “The Citizen” stopped production because of a shortage of foreign currency to purchase printing paper. Other outlets are also hard hit by austerity measures.

Repressive regulations expose publishers to great financial risks. Meanwhile, the lack of legislation subjects media entrepreneurs to arbitrary regulatory measures. Without exception, media outlets in South Sudan depend on direct or indirect funding from political parties or international donors. Hence, a crucial goal is to achieve ‘multi-dependence’ rather than pursuing the illusion of independent media. Which mix of funding sources could work in the context of South Sudan: government funding, NGO funding, private funding, advertisement and announcements, public private partnerships, etc.? Which model would work for these two nations: public broadcasting, community / citizen media such as Democracy Now or Global Voices, or private business ventures financed by advertising revenue?

In regard to expenditures, the crucial question is how spending can be reduced without compromising journalistic integrity and quality. However, this may be not only a financial issue, but also a question of lacking skills and expertise. This is a challenge that could be overcome with the help of capacity building and training institutions, particularly in the non-profit sector. Identifying needs and requirements could underpin a solid business plan and provide a foundation on which successful and efficient media businesses can grow.

In regard to revenue, media businesses in South Sudan primarily focus on one core product, e.g. their radio program or newspaper. The crucial question is which additional products they could offer to generate income, ideally with supplementary or repackaged products distributed through different channels, such as mobile publishing, internet publishing, special interest newsletters, etc. Additional revenue could be generated through services such as classified ads or special-interest publications.

The focus group M1 takes place on Tuesday, Dec 11, and is hosted by

Thomas Koch (Senior Advisor at Plural Media Service / Düsseldorf, Germany) and

Klaas Glenewinkel (Managing Director of MICT / Berlin, Germany)

Input Guests:

Nhial Bol (Director of the newspaper “The Citizen” / Juba, South Sudan) and

Jacob Akol (Chairman of the Association for Media Development in Southern Sudan / Juba, South Sudan)





Focus Group M2:

“Content Production, Profit Orientation & Working Conditions”

Squeezed by low incomes and high costs of living, journalists in South Sudan working for local media outlets struggle to make ends meet. Some even have to spend part of their salaries to cover research expenses such as transport. In such an environment, it may seem tempting to accept bribes for favorable reporting. In Khartoum, hundreds of journalists have lost their jobs in recent months because of political and economic pressures. Likewise, staff at the privately owned daily newspaper “The Citizen” in Juba are threatened by unemployment due to a shortage of foreign currencies, while other outlets suffer from the austerity measures as well.

How can journalists improve their economic situation, thus creating the foundation for high-quality reporting? Currently, there is hardly any specialization: journalists tend to write about everything, albeit in a rather superficial manner. By covering a particular ‘beat,’ journalists could write more in-depth articles and thus increase their job opportunities in the future. Which other funding opportunities are there, e.g. scholarships, stringer work etc.? How can media development projects contribute with specific training programs?

The focus group M2 takes place on Tuesday, Dec 11 & Wednesday, Dec 12, and is hosted by

Dominik Lehnert (The Niles, Editor-in-Chief / Juba, South Sudan)

Leila Bendra (The Niles, Editor / Juba, South Sudan)

Jess Smee (The Niles, Assistant Editor / Berlin, Germany) and

Tolu Ogunlesi (Int'l price winning author of fiction and poetry / Lagos, Nigeria).





Focus Group M3:

“Target Groups / Audience Research / Audience Creation”

Media businesses in South Sudan often fail to relate to their audience. A recent MICT study on the Sudanese press found that newspapers in Khartoum largely serve as a forum for the ruling class and as a platform for political parties. Likewise, the press in South Sudan mainly caters for Juba’s elites. Political restrictions have impeded systematic research into Sudanese audiences but studies by the BBC and Internews on two local radio stations in rural South Sudan conducted in 2010 showed that their target groups clearly prefer programs in vernacular languages, and have greater interest in educational programs than in political talk shows. A 2008 survey for USAID, however, identified English and Arabic as the favored languages. These conflicting results demonstrate the need for more opinion polling. This group will probe how to pinpoint a media’s audience and how to best serve readers, listeners and viewers. Awareness of the audience is especially relevant for journalists seeking to specialize and deepen their coverage.

The focus group M3 takes place on Thursday, Dec 13, and is hosted by

Vivien Marles (Managing Director, InterMedia Africa Office, Nairobi and Lead, Global Media / Nairobi, Kenya)

Anke Fiedler (Media Studies at MICT / Berlin, Germany).

Input Guests:

David Chan Thiang (Director of the National Bureau of Statistics / Juba, South Sudan)

Charles Haskins (Country Representative Fondation Hirondelle/Radio Miraya / Juba, South Sudan)

Moderator:

Peter Biar Ajak (Deputy Country Director IGC / Juba, South Sudan)





Focus Group M4: “Media Business & Open Source Culture”

> Part 1: Open Source Culture & Economic Sustainability

For journalists and editors, access to public information is becoming more and more important in the age of data journalism. However, the stated policies of South Sudan differ substantially from the actual practice of granting access to government data, despite pressure from international donors such as the World Bank.

> Part 2: Publishing, distribution, and the use of new technologies

The distribution of media in South Sudan has traditionally been an almost insurmountable problem due to the poor infrastructure, great distances, geographic and climatic extremes. Newspapers hardly reach beyond the national capitals and a few urban centers. Given these logistical challenges and high illiteracy rates, radio is still the main source of information, especially for the rural populations in the peripheries. However, vast stretches of both countries are not covered by local stations because of technical and financial constraints. At the same time, mobile phone networks have expanded massively over the past years in the two countries. Internet penetration is still relatively low, especially in South Sudan, but growing rapidly along with those networks. This poses both new opportunities for media businesses, e.g. distribution via remote printing technology, and threats to their already ailing business models, particularly for print products as their decline in more developed countries demonstrates.

The focus group M4 takes place on Wednesday, Dec 12 and Thursday, Dec 13, and is hosted by

Edetaen Ojo (Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda / Lagos, Nigeria)

Dickens Olewe (The Star, Hacks/Hackers / Nairobi, Kenya) and

Roman Deckert (MICT – Media in Cooperation and Transition / Berlin, Germany).

Input Guests:

Joy Kwaje (Chairperson of the Committee of Information, Telecommunication and Culture / Juba, South Sudan)

John Penn de Ngong (Author of Weakleaks / Juba, South Sudan)













>> THE “OPEN KNOWLEDGE” STREAM <<

by Stephen Kovats (r0g_media)

The ‘Open Knowledge’ stream of MEDIA & MAKERS builds on the groundwork of #OSJUBA and TEDxJuba in exploring the means and structures of contemporary open culture in South Sudan, with a focus on open data & open knowledge, ICT, and innovation. As 'Makers’ - active and hands-on people who innovate by creating, testing and implementing new solutions to complex challenges - the participants in this component of the event work through a strategic visioning process to identify needs and opportunities around the practice and implementation of 'open’ solutions in South Sudan (incl. open source, open data, open knowledge, open ICT, etc.). Using the means and methodologies of the world’s leading open source communities, in particular those of leading African initiatives, they look at how South Sudan can capitalise on its historic window of opportunity to create a unique and innovative new identity for itself amongst the community of nations.

A GLOSSARY OF OPEN

The three days of MEDIA & MAKERS will gravitate around eight elementary terms which shape and define our common cultural practice, even if we might not always be aware of this. However, if we try to really grasp the meaning of notions such as “Open Source”, “Open Knowledge”, “Maker Culture” or “Sustainability” we often end up being caught in a multitude of concepts and movements. All these terms in many ways avoid being pinned down to one single meaning. This in part due to their “openness” & connectivity, but also because of the different contexts in which they reside. It is for this reason we will work to connect the various inputs during MEDIA & MAKERS to these basic terms, thus creating a particular meaning within our particular practice. This will become the basis of a glossary and a common mapping of resources, that cab act as a guideline for shared endeavours in the future.





OS pt. 1:

Open Sourcing South Sudan

The Open Sourcing South Sudan Focus Group is intended to introduce the concepts behind the global open source movements and the broader realm of 'open cultures’ as generators of knowledge, capacity building and citizen empowerment for the democratic and social development of society.

Leading international open culture organisations such as the Free and Open Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) and the Open Government Partnership (OGP) are playing major roles across Africa in helping to create stable and open civil society structures. Their missions in promoting the adoption of Open Source in national policies, or to help empower citizens, and harness the power of new technologies to make government and civil society structures more effective are powerful models to be considered in South Sudan’s path towards building a strong and independent voice among nations. One of the major barriers to achieving such goals across all sectors of society is the acute lack of access to knowledge and data, and the means to process this material into meaningful information. With more focussed implementation of open source solutions and collaborative technologies, existing organisations that lack adequate internet connectivity and technical infrastructure such as the Juba Civic Engagement Center could more effectively fulfil their mandate and vision to provide such access and opportunities. Using open source solutions including free software, public domain resources, and the power of active international peer communities these initiatives have the potential to become key players within a network of partners that includes government, media, education and civil society organisations. Open Source tools and methodologies such as those employed by UNESCO’s Open Knowledge Communities are also recognised by the United Nations as key resources in achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).

The focus group will examine how Open Source concepts using innovative, often African-based open source and ICT solutions relate to the future of South Sudan as an active contributor to regional development alongside its international neighbors.

The focus group O1 takes place on Tuesday, Dec 11.

Lead-in Contributors

Ela Kagel (Free Culture Incubator, Supermarkt / Berlin, Germany)

Dorothy Gordon (Director General at Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT / Accra, Ghana)

Guest Specialists

Hon. Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin (Minister for Information and Broadcasting / Juba, South Sudan)

Davide Storti (Open Suite Team, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO / Paris, France)

Peter Lasu Ladu (Civic Engagement Centre / Juba, South Sudan)

Moses Simon Soro (Commissioner of Morobo County / Central Equatoria State, South Sudan)

Moderator/ Facilitator

Asteway Negash (Addis Ababa Institute of Technology / Addis Ababa, Ethiopia).





OS pt. 2:

Open Data for Open Knowledge

Open Data is a cornerstone of civil empowerment, supporting economic and social development, improving government transparency as well as government’s own understanding of the world in which it operates. Open Data acts as a gateway to better education and knowledge, fostering communication and interaction between numerous communities across society. The Open Data for Open Knowledge focus group is designed to identify resources, opportunities and gaps in data & knowledge collection, sharing, and management processes in South Sudan, with a focus on specific sectors (e.g. education, health, economic development, media, culture & identity, resource and crisis management, food security & livelihoods, and emergency response).

The session will begin with an overview of data collection and information management systems, followed by an introduction to the concepts of ‘open data’ and knowledge management for development scenarios. A series of brief talks or presentations will introduce key ideas and theoretical frameworks, and examine leading open data programs such as the Transparent Africa initiative of the Kenya Open Data portal. Open Source platforms such as Kenya based Ushahidi which creates tools to crowdsource, or collect, map and visualise diverse forms of citizen and government data (i.e. to monitor elections) to activist projects such OpenOil, which aims to publish the data in oil contracts help to 'democratize information’, will be discussed in their capacity to increase transparency and lower the barriers for individuals to share their stories. The concepts behind Open Data, including making government more accountable to its citizens, providing open information to create public knowledge 'commons’ which greatly impacts on citizens ability to develop new scenarios for generating income or expressing independent opinions through open and verifiable means. Initiatives such as the High Frequency South Sudan Survey being conducted by the South Sudan Bureau of Statistics create new forms of demographic narratives and cultural histories that are aimed at preventing renewed violent conflict by 'closely monitoring economic, social, and political stress factors that can compromise the country’s path from fragility to stability.’ In addition to open data and knowledge management, the focus round will explore the themes of real-time data collection and the importance of actionable data, in relation to existing uses and potential projects. Speakers will be identified based on experience to-date (in South Sudan or elsewhere) and talks will mix general overview with concrete examples.

The focus group O2 takes place on Wednesday, Dec 12

Lead-in Contributor & Moderator/ Facilitator

Philip Thigo (Open Government Partnership Initiative, Co-founder of Social Development Network SODNET / Nairobi, Kenya)

Guest Specialists

David Chan Thiang (National Bureau of Statistics / Juba, South Sudan)

Mark Kaigwa (Speaker, Writer and Digital Media Consultant at Afrinnovator.com / Nairobi, Kenya)

Amrit Naresh (Media Correspondent, OpenOil / Berlin, Germany)

Peter Marino Modi Pitya (Director-General for Physical Planing at the Ministry of Housing & Physical Planing / Juba, South Sudan)

Severin Peters (Project Manager at AgenZ, GIZ / Frankfurt am Main, Germany)





OS pt. 3:

Open Innovation and ICT: Tools of the Trade

The Open Innovation and ICT (Information and Communications Technology) session is designed to build on the discussions and key outcomes of the Open Data for Open Knowledge focus group, identifying opportunities to leverage Open ICT in South Sudan as tools of social interaction, community development vehicles to address the country’s many challenges. As with the Open Data for Open Knowledge session, the Open ICT focus round will begin with a series of short talks to introduce key questions and themes, and share examples of Open ICT successes and challenges relevant to South Sudan, such as the economic and conceptual benefits of wide-scale open source software implementation. The session will explore ICT infrastructures and access and the notion of open source development of ICT tools, with a focus on the approaches needed for structural, government and citizen empowerment.

The session will establish the principles of open innovation in relation to products, programs, processes, and partnerships. Using the examples of innovative projects using open ICT such as a proposed ‘interactive’ Children’s Pavilion to create and map out a network of African playspaces for children, to community-based initiatives such as the African iHubs or ICE (innovation - collaboration - entrepreneurship) network, to global initiatives to promote innovation and ICT for development in major bilateral institutions, such as UNICEF’s Innovation Unit, the key principles of openness and inclusiveness, user-based design, building on experience, scalability, and sustainability will be explored. In doing so, the session will also come back to the roles of the ‘Makers’ and how capacity building strategies using DIY (Do-It-Yourself) and DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) can generate new forms of innovation.

The group will focus on identifying selected open ICT-based projects to realize their vision for Open Innovation and ICT, along with the related collaborative and management practices involved. After identifying a project, the participants will explore the processes, programs, and partnerships necessary to design, deploy, and scale their ideas with a focus on innovating within existing structures. The discussions and exercises constituting the Open Innovation and ICT session are designed to lay the groundwork for an overall (or inclusive) innovation ecosystem for South Sudan. The vision here is for partners leading and participating in the forum to define the potential framework for an Open Juba Innovation Lab (as part of a South Sudan Innovation Lab/Hub network), to be launched in 2013.

The focus group O3 takes place on Wednesday, Dec 12

Lead-in Contributors

Eugenio Tisselli (Artist, Programmer, Co-Director for the Master in Digital Arts at the Pompeu Fabra University / Barcelona, Spain / Mexico City, Mexico)

Mark Kaigwa (Speaker, Writer and Digital Media Consultant at Afrinnovator.com / Nairobi, Kenya)

Guest Specialists

Kenyi Ndipa (IT Officer at the Office of the President / Juba, South Sudan)

Iduol Ahang Beny (Professor of Architecture at the University of Juba, Children’s Pavilion / Juba, South Sudan)

Jay Cousins (Community Catalyst at Open Design City / Berlin, Germany)

Severin Peters (GIZ, AgenZ / Berlin, Germany)

Mikael L. Clason Hook (The World Bank / Juba, South Sudan)