[huridocs-tech] ONEWORLD TV - video and the Internet for human rights

Dear Huridocs-Tech members,

At OneWorld www.oneworld.net we have been developing our use of video on
the Internet - we believe that this aspect of ICT represents a powerful
and largely unrealised tool to raise the impact of organisations working
on human rights and sustainable development. We are now publicly launching
OneWorld TV and details are below for your interest.

The UK newspaper The Guardian also has a piece on OneWorld TV this week,
available online here:
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,764719,00.html

Many thanks,

Glen Tarman, Publicity Manager, OneWorld http://www.oneworld.net
tel: +44 (0)20 7091 4541 email: media@oneworld.net

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ONEWORLD TV PROVIDES VIDEO STORYTELLING TOOLS TO PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD

OneWorld (http://www.oneworld.net), the international network that includes
more than 1250 NGOs across the globe, now leverages that broad reach to
empower ordinary people to tell their own video stories on OneWorld TV
(http://www.oneworld.net/tv).  OneWorld’s online interactive TV provides
tools to integrate each story with those on similar topics from peers in
other countries.

This radical approach marries the power of video with the Internet for
collaborative storytelling that helps complex issues come to life in the era
of globalisation.

“The future for video on the web is all about the immediacy of raw clips
from filmmakers themselves. For us, it means people on the frontline of
human rights stories who have a camcorder and can access the Internet to
place their footage on OneWorld TV,” says Peter Armstrong, Director of
OneWorld International and for 20 years an award-winning filmmaker for the
BBC.

“Video offers a powerful medium that more and more people can use. We have
devised a format that prompts users to explore stories about climate change,
AIDS or the Middle East conflict in a totally new and interactive way.”

In developing this unique ‘open documentary’ software, OneWorld TV
encourages contributors in different countries to upload their own stories
to the site and to add clips to other people’s stories as part of this new
collaborative approach to storytelling online. OneWorld TV has been
developing links with a growing community of filmmakers, video journalists
and other contributors around the world. Their input is vital to put in
place each piece of the OneWorld TV global jigsaw.

Interactivity is the key to the process, not only in enabling producers to
edit and upload coverage from their laptop wherever they might be, but also
in offering the user a unique experience whereby he or she can choose their
own path through a given story landscape.

Watching OneWorld TV at a recent London BAFTA preview renowned film director
Mike Figgis concluded: “OneWorld TV is an impressive response to a global
media system that all too often is filtering out both innovation in
film-making and the wider communication of social issues to citizens around
world. If you are a filmmaker concerned about what's going on in our world
today, add your stories to OneWorld TV and join this radical network at the
cutting edge of technology and social change."

One organisation that has already seen the possibilities OneWorld TV offers
is Amnesty International. Their video reports investigating recent events in
the West Bank have been uploaded to the site. Amnesty’s Dan Thurley says:
"OneWorld TV is an exciting new space for NGOs, video activists and
filmmakers to take video and human rights out onto the web.  It combines the
Internet and digital cameras in the fight to save lives and reduce human
suffering."

Gaza-based filmmaker Tamer Mansour said: “OneWorld TV enables me to tell the
stories that you never see on the news – stories from the frontline about
people here waiting for a chance for peace to come.” Amir Terkel, an Israeli
filmmaker based in San Francisco said: “As someone working to bring out the
voices of peace and coexistence in our region overlooked by mainstream
media, OneWorld TV is like a reward for all those years of frustration - a
vital window to the world".

Research shows that people in the West gain their view of the world
primarily from television. Yet the amount of factual programmes on the lives
and issues affecting people in developing countries is decreasing as
mainstream TV becomes more commercial and entertainment based. OneWorld TV
also aims to help redress this growing trend providing a forum to increase
international understanding and informed action on world poverty, human
rights and the environment.

The technical capacity needed to access video online largely restricts the
audience to developed countries. To counter-balance this digital divide,
OneWorld TV will be a place for voices from developing countries to
articulate their own stories, agendas and perspectives to audiences that
they would not otherwise reach.
_______
For media enquiries about OneWorld TV contact Glen Tarman (OneWorld
Publicity Manager) tel: + 44 (0) 20 7091 4541 email:
media@oneworld.net

Individuals and organisations who would like to contribute video stories or
become a member of the OneWorld TV community, should contact Jo Hill, email:
tv@oneworld.net, tel: + 44 (0) 20 7091 4545.

- ends -



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