Month: December 2008

One of the exciting new improvements is that featured videos are now shown
via a flash player on the front page of the EngageMedia website so there’s no need
to go digging for your first streaming video experience!

Anna
Helme from EngageMedia believes this new release of Plumi will do much to
enhance the user experience on the website. “We wanted to focus on making it
easier to manage your content on the site,” she said. Other enhancements to the
user experience include a new animation during video upload to indicate
uploading, transcoding messages that are now only seen by site managers, workflow
improvements (consistent across videos, callouts, news and events), a video
listings template improvement (the country metadata on each video is now listed)
and implementation of the latest version of the Transmission Metadata Standard. 

And what does the future hold for the development of Plumi? According
to Helme, the next major release of Plumi will be upgrading to Plone 3, a big
jump in the development of the underlying platform. “This will contain some
really exciting improvements in the visual HTML editor, versioning of content,
easier collaboration and sharing and inline editing without having to reload
pages,” she said.

For a
full list of changes incorporated into Plumi 0.2.2 you can view the changelog
and you can download this version of Plumi in the Plone repository.

I was registered with FTX to join the Wireless Mobile Technology for Advocacy training track. This track provides information on the various hardware and secure software packages available for mobile advocacy, including portal text messaging and mobile telephony. The track ran for four days and in that time participants learned about obtaining local and wireless internet connections, using open source software (called “Frontline SMS”) for portal text messaging, and using the the latest open source software for mobile telephony called “Freedom Phone”. Almost every mainstream media provider already offers these features however we learned to source alternative media so we can perform advocacy securely and monitor the software independently as administrators. One of the major issues related to training in these technologies is that it is an area often viewed as “macho”. Training and information exchanges such as those provided by FTX are very much needed in the feminist area to establish an understanding that women are entitled to equal knowledge of technology.

This year, all FTX participants were able to attend the annual AWID International Forum in Cape Town. The FTX training program, which I attended, was held prior to the commencement of the 2008 AWID Forum to encourage FTX participants to contribute their knowledge and apply it during the AWID Forum. During the four day AWID Forum, participants from FTX built an FTX hub that connected all FTX and AWID participants as a means of celebrating technology. The theme of this year’s AWID Forum was the ‘Power of Movement’, which led to discussions on a wide range of issues. One particular area discussed extensively was the use of technology for feminist advocacy. Another topic frequently raised in the sessions was that intergeneration, LGBT (Lesbian-Gay-Bisex-Transgender) issues, and disabled women are all actually women’s issues. There was also some petition for  freedom across the countries held just outside the plenary. The Wireless track I had been participating in with FTX contributed an SMS portal called “FTX SMS” that informed FTX participants of the main outcomes of the FTX Hub and AWID Forum. The FTX hub was a space at the AWID Forum set up primarily to practice the knowledge we had gained during training, before applying those skills in real life.

EngageMedia is well-known as one of many alternative media sources for online video distribution. After participating in the FTX and AWID events, I began to realise that technology plays a huge part in all the changes that occur in the modern world. Each day I think to myself “AHA!” and “Yes” when I think about EngageMedia as the solution to the questions: Where will we screen the video? Who will watch it? What will the impact be after it? This is particularly true as EngageMedia’s focus on social justice and environmental issues matches closely with the “movement” that was discussed at length throughout the AWID Forum. It is now clear in my mind, through my work with EngageMedia, how I plan to address these issues. Beyond the feminist theories mixed with technology that were discussed inside the FTX and the AWID Forum, the most important thing is to explore how we can positively utilise the technology that has already become faster and more effective than we ever imagined. I no doubt consider myself lucky to have attended the two events in Cape Town. Without the knowledge I gained, I may never have fully grasped the idea of how to use the technology as a “tool” rather than letting technology “fool” me.

links:

http://ftx.apcwomen.org/

http://www.awid.org/