Sunday, January 29, 2006

Technology: I'm a blog mentor for the young Caucasus women project

This week I'm a blogmentor for the Young Caucasus women project and posted a blog entry on the topic: who in the world would you like to send an email/letter and why?. The women will have to post a blog entry on the same topic and I will try to comment; and they will also be encouraged to comment on the other blogs. If I'm correct, all women are from Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. I hope the other mentors will also jump in.

Details about the project copied from their site:
'Recruited from current FLEX students, the young women will be trained in personal citizen journalism to be published on a weblog (a WWW publishing tool, available for public consumption.) The students will post a minimum of once a week on an assigned topic. They may post on other topics throughout the week as well. After the students return home, they will receive a monthly assignment, but may post as often as they like. Each week a blog “mentor” with post early in the week to help inspire the young women. The mentor will be an adult blogger from around the world, with a particular focus on bloggers from developing countries who are having an impact on the dissemination of news from their countries.'

The purpose of the blog project:
  • To highlight the similarities and learn about the differences between young women in these neighboring countries.
  • To promote citizen journalism in developing countries as an alternative to mainstream media.
  • To promote weblogs as a method of democratic expression.
  • To expose young women to journalism and technology.

I decided to participate because I'm curious whether and how you can stimulate people to blog. I'd like to see whether other people can become as enthusiastic about blogging as I am. (and if not, why not?)

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