Late last night, American participants of the U.S. State Department sponsored DOTCOM [1] project to bring Armenian, Azerbaijani and American teenagers together to create socially conscious media arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan, ahead of the Social Media for Social Change conference [2] to be held on 9-10 April in Tbilisi, Georgia.
The DOTCOM: PH International blog posted video of their arrival and reunion with project participants in Azerbaijan [3]. At the end of the week the American participants will also visit Armenia via Georgia before returning for the conference in Tbilisi.
In August last year, Global Voices Online interviewed [4] DOTCOM Program Director Elizabeth Métraux on the initiative to bring teenagers from the U.S. together with those from two countries still effectively in a state of war to tackle social issues such as the environment, gender and human rights globally as well as at home.
Podcast: Play in new window [5] | Download [5]
Incidentally, following last week's reporting for BBC Azeri on the role social media can play in conflict transformation (Part I [6], Part II [7], Part III [8]), Global Voices Online's Caucasus editor will once again be working with Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines [9] blogger and regional analyst Arzu Geybullayeva when they co-present at the conference [10].
Until then, DOTCOM can be followed on its travels here [11].
[2]