iEye
journalism
project takes off with WebTimes
WEB
REPORTING AT ACACIA
CONFERENCE
Staff Reporter
TRAINEE journalists will join a team of
professional IT and development writers to produce a unique online newspaper,
the
WebTimes,
with intensive coverage of an international conference to be held in Southern Africa during April.
 The WebTimes
will be flighted for the first time to report the Acacia
Conference on "Networking Africa's Future".
Acacia is a leading research organisation
funded by the Canadian government, and for the past five years has been studying
the role of the Internet and other communication technologies at the community
level in Africa. Its
2003
conference is being held at Kwa Maritane Game
Lodge, Pilanesberg, from 13-16 April, and is expected to attract about 200 participants from French West Africa,
East Africa, Southern Africa and other parts of the world.
Speakers
will present and debate the findings of research,
giving unprecedented insights into the adoption of new communication
technologies by educators, rural farmers, small businesses, NGOs and government
agencies in various parts of Africa.
Global coverage
Senior journalists
have been recruited produce regularly updated editions of the WebTimes, ensuring
a high standard of coverage. Web users locally and globally will be able to read
about the conference, while reports will also be made available through African
and international news agencies.
On the training side, the web mentoring project
called iEye and is being run under the auspices of the Cross Media
Training Centre. This is a non-profit college based at Honeydew, Johannesburg, falling
under the Print Industries Federation of Southern Africa (PIFSA).
"The media profession has been identified
as a key element in any efforts to overcome the digital divide
separating
most of Africa from the world's advanced economies," says Clive Emdon, news
editor for the WebTimes project. "We hope that by offering Internet training
closely tied to newspaper work, can help to put in the field a new generation of
web-savvy journalists serving the news and information needs of Africa."
Sponsorship
Sponsors have come forward for
the satellite Internet connections and hosting, and for a network on which the project
will be run. Sponsors are assured of high levels of exposure at the conference
itself and on the website and in the media.
iEye is working
closely with the African Eye News Service which
will have a representative covering the conference. The
Acacia website for the
conference incorporates the WebTIMES which has been specially developed to run
for the first time at this event.
The conference offers a unique opportunity
for aid agencies and policy makers to assess the best ways of implementing new
technologies and plan future connectivity.
|
See
report
 Satellite
link for the Acacia Conference sponsored by Telkom Internet
 WEBTIMES PROVES
VIABILITY OF TRAINING CONCEPT AIMED AT FAST-TRACKING YOUNG JOURNALISTS
The launch of WebTimes at
the Acacia conference in April 2003 was a milestone in media training. It
marks a new departure in short, focused courses. Strongly practical, yet
based on formal classroom training, the courses to be offered by Cross
Media Training (a non profit centre attached to the Printing Federation of
SA) aim to take promising young writers, designers and publishers from
disadvantaged backgrounds and provide them with a background in electronic
media. See panel at left for contacts and further links. |
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