Nicaragua: The Result of the 2.0 Meeting of Blogs and New Media

Image from Flickr user Jorge Mejía Peralta, jorgemejia, used an Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license.

The 2.0 Meeting of Blogs and New Media (2.0 Encuentro de Blogs & Nuevos Medios [es]) took place on the 12 and 13 of August, in Managua, Nicaragua, increasing the value of blogs and new media as citizen spaces for social participation in the country. The event was made possible with support from the Cultural Center of Spain in Nicaragua (Centro Cultural de España de Nicaragua [es]).

During its first edition [es] in 2009, the meeting focused on traditional and print media and writers that were migrating toward an online platform. In its second edition, 2010, creators of “native” web content were invited, from independent bloggers to corporations, social activists and even political organizations.

The meeting included guests from Guatemala (Stephanie Falla, from Maestros del Web [es] and 120Segundos.com [es] ), Renata Avila (lead of Creative Commons Guatemala, Global Voices author, also involved in other digital experiences), Cristian Cambronero (from FusilDeChispas.com [es], National Journalism Prize for Costa Rica 2010), Monica Brenes (University of Costa Rica, project La Carpio en Linea [es]), Marcela Alfaro (from Cocoa Interactive [es]), and several Nicaraguan bloggers from different backgrounds, locations and with distinct purposes for the Internet.

The meeting generated a lot of coverage from the local Twitter community (more information can be found on the site twittnic.com) which voted [es] for the tag #nicablogs10, and followed the event weeks before it began. On traditional media, like magazine Confidencial, the event was covered through various articles on web editions, later listed on the event's official blog [es], including interviews with the creators of the projects La Carpio En Linea [es], 120Segundos.com [es], Group Todo por la costa caribe [es] (Everything for the Caribbean Coast), and even video coverage for an outlet that is essentially a print weekly:

Rodney Dávila, collaborating with Confidencial.com.ni [es], wrote:

Conversar de blogs es trastocar temas sobre la diversidad, desarrollo cultural, participación e incidencia ciudadana, producción de contenido para nuevos medios, innovadores usos en aplicaciones móviles. Temáticas que fueron abordadas en el 2.0 Encuentro de Blogs & Nuevos Medios, que se llevó a cabo recientemente en la Universidad Centroamericana.

Talking about blogs means touching on subjects about diversity, cultural development, participation and citizen influence, content production for new media, innovative uses in mobile applications. Topics that were discussed in the 2.0 Meeting of Blogs and New Media [es], which recently took place in the Central American University.

Maricela Kauffman, historian for Turkulka.net [es], wrote for the project's blog:

El 2.0 encuentro de blogs & nuevos medios demostró que la cibercultura es también una “buena práctica” local; una oportunidad, una plataforma donde las sociedades centroamericanas están promoviendo proyectos innovadores, apropiándose de nuevas tecnologías, difundiendo el conocimiento local en el mundo urbano. Bienvenidos los nuevos espacios en donde “la transparencia es la nueva objetividad” (David Weinberger). — Desde la Galaxia Gutenberg a la Galaxia Internet; la transparencia es el objetivo

The 2.0 Meeting of blogs and new media showed that cyberculture is also a local “good practice”; an opportunity, a platform where Central American societies are promoting innovative projects, appropriating new technologies, spreading local knowledge in an urban world. Welcome the new spaces where “transparency is the new objectivity” (David Weinberger).From the Gutenberg Galaxy to the Internet Galaxy; transparency is the objective [es]

Emila Persola in his presentation [es] placed an emphasis on the impact of blogs in our context:

En ese sentido, yo no creo haber superado aún la idea romántica de tener un blog y considero que en términos generales aún no se supera tampoco en el país. Y no se supera no solo por una falta aún necesaria de conectividad, sino también porque aún falta un compromiso de los blogueros por desarrollar, por un lado, una disciplina de publicación y por otro, aprender a contrarrestar a las coyunturas locales.

In that sense, I don't think I have gotten over the romantic idea of having a blog and I think that in general my country has still not gotten over the idea either. And we have not overcome the idea not only because of a lack in connectivity, but also because we still lack a compromise from bloggers to develop, on the one hand, a publishing discipline and on the other, learn to counteract local situations.

Javier Barrera, from 1001medios.es, created a podcast episode dedicated to “the small corners of the Internet.” You can download the podcast, in Spanish, here. In the same post Javier reviews the participating blogs and bloggers [es].

Rafael Chacón, Interactivity Senior Producer for BBC Mundo, presented via Skype about how BBC Mundo uses social networks to spread and find stories and sources:

Ahora ustedes también participan en la generación de noticias, pero además llegan a ellas de forma distinta: sus amigos las recomiendan y las comparten en las redes sociales, hablan de ellas en sus blogs personales.

Now you also participate in generating news, but also you reach news in a different way: your friends recommend them and share them on social networks, you talk about them in your personal blogs.

The comments from his presentation are now part of a post on his editor blog in “Un (BBC) Mundo Más Social [es]” (A More Social BBC Mundo).

Conexiones [es], a new blog dedicated to investigative journalism, covered the event:

Iniciativas de cómo incidir en la sociedad a través de blogs y nuevos medios alternativos en la web, crear participación entre la comunidad desde esos espacios, generar contenido y conocimiento, fueron los temas expuestos hoy en el auditorio Xavier Gorostiaga de la Universidad Centroamericana (UCA)… Decenas de personas, interesadas en desarrollar blogs y nuevos medios a través de la web 2.0, estuvieron atentos a la ponencia de nicaragüenses y centroamericanos sobre el desarrollo de sus blogs y el impacto que han logrado con éstos. La actividad es organizada por la Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) y el Centro Cultural de España en Nicaragua (CCEN).

Initiatives on how to influence society through blogs and new alternative media on the web, create participation in the community through these spaces, generate content and knowledge, were the subjects presented today in the auditorium Xavier Gorostiaga in the Central American University (UCA)….Dozens of people, interested in developing blogs and new media through the web 2.0 were attentive to the presentations by Nicaraguans and Central Americans about the development of their blogs and the impact they have made with them. The activity was organized by the Central American University (UCA) and the Cultural Center of Spain in Nicaragua (CCEN)

Blogger Emila Persola was interviewed [es] by local newspaper El Nuevo Diario because of the 2.0 Meeting:

No hay que dar tregua. Hay que contribuir más bien a criticar esa idiosincrasia del nicaragüense, pues en el fondo no es digna de admiración. Somos un pueblo muy intolerante, desafortunadamente esperanzado más en las bendiciones o maldiciones que provengan del cielo, que en preocuparnos por encontrar una conciencia capaz de superar nuestro atraso económico, social, político y hasta espiritual.

One must not “let up.” One must contribute to criticize the Nicaraguan idiosyncrasy, because after all it is not admirable. We are a very tolerant people, unfortunately more hopeful about the blessings or curses that come from heaven, than about worrying for finding a conscience capable of overcoming our economic, social, political and even spiritual delay.

Other media that covered the event include the European Press Agency [es], the Enlace Académico Centroamerican [es], the Tulum Magazine [es] from Guatemala, and El 19 Digital [es].

On Flickr there is a set of images dedicated to the 2.0 Meeting, with pictures under a Creative Commons license, courtesy of Jorge Mejía. The images from this post come from the same set.

Maestros Del Web after the 2.0 Meeting created a “Guía para organizar en 5 pasos un evento de tecnología e internet,” (Guide to organize a technology and Internet event in 5 steps) where part of the process of the event's organization was taken into consideration. Like previously mentioned, Maestros del Web participated in the event, represented by Stephanie Falla. The guide includes these points, among others:

El curador o equipo organizador … debe plantear un conjunto de ideas claras para transmitir en el transcurso del mismo:

The curator or organizing team … should come up with clear ideas to share during the event

No se trata de llenar un auditorio de gente que habla una después de otra, sino crear un discurso que entre en la gente, en los participantes, en los otros expositores, y en los medios de comunicación que cubran el evento.

It's not about filling up an auditorium of people that talk one after the other, but rather creating discourse among the people, the participants, the presenters, and the media that is covering the event.

Rodrigo (Peñalba) agrega que el discurso se va creando desde como se agrupan los temas de los expositores, sea una charla técnica, una charla de una experiencia de trabajo, o una conferencia con preguntas y respuestas o si es una sesión de vídeo charlas:

Rodrigo (Peñalba) adds that the discourse is created when the presentation subjects are grouped, be it in a technical speech, a speech about a work experience, or a conference with questions and answers or a session of video talks.

Que cada expositor entienda lo que se le esta pidiendo exponer y de como calza en el programa en general. De ese modo puede preparar el enfoque de su participación acorde a la idea básica general que fijamos para diseñar el evento.

Each presenter must understand what they are being asked to present on and how it fits with the general program. This way they can prepare the focus of their presentation according to the basic general idea that we set to design the event.

The participants

The blogs and projects that presented in the event are the following:

BBC Mundo [es]
‘Espacio Comunicación Alternativa-ECA’, from the Group for Sexual Diversity from Carazo [es], Nicaragua. Their blog is up since 2007 and it supports initiatives in favor of sexual diversity.
Cocoa Interactive [es], Costa Rica. Presented on how businesses can use Social Networks to collaborate and participate with their client and collaborators.
Confidencial [es], Nicaragua. Presented on how a print weekly is changing its editorial line to generate web content, with multimedia resources.
Emila Persola [es], Nicaragua
Freddy Quezada [es], Nicaragua
Fusil de Chispas [es], Costa Rica
La Carpio En Línea [es], Costa Rica. Works to visualize the agenda of the people in the La Carpio de San José neighborhood in Costa Rica, improving the way that traditional media focuses on the neighborhood.
Leogg [es] / comuNIdad [es], Nicaragua. Presented on how free software communities use the web to generate sympathy, participation and collaboration with the Free Software philosophy.
Movimiento Social Nicaragüense ‘Otro Mundo Es Posible’ [es], Nicaragua. Presented on how they have created collaboration networks with communities in Nicaragua and Central America.
penalba.info [es], Nicaragua. Event Curator.
Primer Palabra [es], Guatemala. Renata Avila from Primer Palabra participated in the Meeting, but her presentation was on the use of ICTs and new media to create hyperlocal online communities.
SIMAS – Servicio de Información Mesoamericano sobre Agricultura Sostenible [es], Nicaragua. SIMAS produces several blogs about ICTs in rural zones and agricultural producers:
- The importance of the Committees of Drinking Water and Sanitation [es] (CAPS)
- The importance of consuming local seeds [es]
- Another blog which visualizes the efforts and struggles of rural families [es]
StephanieFalla [es], Guatemala
Sueños del Caribe [es], Nicaragua. A blog by Ronald Hill, where he writes opinion post articles on the Caribbean Coast.
Telefonica Movistar, Nicaragua. Presented on the use of new media for internal corporate use in a transnational corporation.
Todo Por La Costa Caribe / Facebook [es], Nicaragua
Videocanal de Fabio Buitrago [es], Nicaragua. This Youtube channel started as an escape from work that Fabio produced, and it recently became a TV show on Cable [es].

To summarize what each of these blogs do would merit writing several post summarizing the work of each of them and the many other blogs that could not be presented on during the event's official program. We invite you to visit all of them; the participation of these bloggers is what made the Meeting a success. We hope to see you there next year!

Disclaimer: Rodrigo Penalba was a Coordinador for the event.

Written byRodrigo Peñalba

Translated bySilvia Viñas