social media for peace: your help needed
by asi
Dear friends and fellow bloggers,
I really need your input on this one (and I’ll try to make a long story short….)
I might have an opportunity (and a budget) to finally do something online with my PhD thesis. I’ve been shortlisted for an EU prize that aim to help young researchers to publish/communicate their work to a wider public (beyond academic publications) and, hopefully, to make an impact beyond academic circles.
In short, in my research I dealt with children in protracted conflict and the ways in which they are able or unable to take the perspective of the other, or to see the world (the conflict) through the eyes of their enemy. While I was working with Israeli and Palestinian children the challenge is to design a platform that would be relevant and applicable for any children stuck in a conflict like in northern Ireland, kashmir and others.
So I really need your help with brainstorming this:
- How can we use social media to get children who could not be in contact because of a conflict to talk to each other?
- What kind of experience can we design to facilitates self-expression, communication, and dialogue among children?
- How can digital help in seeing other people beyond the stereotyped members of group, race, religion, nationality etc. ?
- How can we create a safe and welcoming platform/environment for children to tell their personal stories?
any input, thought or idea are very welcome – please give it a moment.
many many thanks for any contribution.
Palestinian child (left) as depicted by Israeli child.
brilliant, well done. this is a pretty fertile ground – I’m sure there’s loads of stuff from gaming especially that’s useful here. why don’t you put a time for a real brainstorm session in a pub sometime? see if faris wants to make it into a worthy-cause-brainstorm beersphere. We could do this for an hour and a half before getting leathered…?
ant
Yes. I’m up for this. I thought the blogging community getting together during the asymetrical warfare on Lebanon last year was really interesting because it was I think the first time that two sides in a conflict were talking to each other through the quasi warfare. It was heated, it was tense but it was unprecedented. So count me in for a brainstorm. I think seeding of internet computers in conflict areas is the most critical thing.
really happy to help if I can. One initial thought & you probably thought about this already….
I think one key is to realise that children live in quite a small world, roughly the size of their school and neighbourhood. They see news, music, sports and other stuff on a bigger stage but I think in that the local & mostly child populated community is where a lot of their interest & ideation sits.
Because of that, rather than an uber melting pot, it might be interesting to look at twinning schools. Things like this were done if I remember right during the troubles in Northern Ireland. Today with the internet they can have daily contact; share projects, but also compare notes, let kids form clubs based on interests like soccer or fashion or music, play video game tournaments, quizzes etc. You could even do that old trick of a video wall in both locations so each school can see the other in real time.
ps did you see this http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/108
David Alberts at Grey London was involved in this for a while and had this whole take on it that was about finding child ambassadors to make little films about other cultures I think – if you wanted to check where they got to so far and what they invented/discovered I’ve got his details
Hi there,
You don’t know me but I’m doing a PhD at LSE in the soc psych dep’t and am looking at precisely this kind of thing – how British children construct their understandings of Muslims, so would be interested in the David Alberts info if it could be posted… By the way, loved your PhD Asi. Your lecture on the Masters course last year prompted me to read it, and gave me a lot of inspiration for my PhD – so, thank you very much!!
Ali
Asi – you should talk to the guys at opendemocracy.net – they’ll have ideas a plenty and loads of people to put you in contact with. Other people that would be worth talking to are Lee Bryant, Becky Hogge and many others. Drop me a mail if you want contact details.
many many thanks for all your help – I really appreciate it.
A.
Hi Asi,
You should check this :
http://www.ck-blog.com/cks_blog/2007/07/new-models-new-.html
This is a fantastic idea from CK I’d like to share with you. Maybe not directly responding to your question, but that could be integrated or taken as model for part of your mission.
The link between good business intentions and values and good human values. The interface between bloggers and action on the field. Food for thought at this stage, but that might turn into food for the poor, help for people, children in need.
If I can be of further help in that direction, don’t hesitate to contact me.