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• Meaningful connectivity in action: giving a voice to local communities

  Sep 27, 2022 by Federico Moscogiuri / 2,104 Views

  

  There are many reasons why meaningful connectivity is important: social inclusion, technological and economic development, increased societal equity and engagement… For me it comes down to one key thing: empowerment.

   

  The empowerment of communities to demand and access the things they need to thrive and grow. The empowerment of countries to be part of the global digital economy. And the empowerment of individuals to tell the stories that matter to them about who they are, and where they come from.

   

  The internet provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to not only access and share information instantly across the world, but to communicate with people from totally different countries and cultures – and in so doing, achieve a deeper understanding of each other and of the world we live in.

   

  That, at heart, is the purpose of C4urselves: uniting people in a shared appreciation of our world, with all its variety, as seen through their own eyes. At a time when technology risks creating deeper divisions – of access, of opportunity, of worldviews – we want to use technology to bring people together, and give a greater voice to those who are seldom heard.

   

  That’s where our project, Local Voices, comes in. Last year, C4urselves teamed up with Tom Martin photography and the Kwetu Film Institute in Kigali, Rwanda, to showcase places and “snippets” of daily life in Kigali as captured and shared by people “on the ground”. Over the course of two months and three online workshops, conducted remotely, a dozen young people from the Film Institute were briefed and invited to go out and capture short videos of aspects of Kigali that they wanted to share with the world - and in so doing, tell their own “story” about what Kigali means to them, and what it’s really like today.

   

  The outcome is a rich collection of diverse snapshots, each slightly different in style, each focusing on slightly different aspects of everyday life, but together painting a single, fascinating mosaic about the many different things that combine to make Kigali what it is today – thereby providing an authentic ,“visual voice” to the stories which the participants want to tell the world about their hometown. Have a look: https://www.c4urselves.com/pages/voices-rwanda.html

   

    

  Doing this project was not without its challenges, particularly in terms of internet connectivity. Running workshops remotely is never the same as in real life, and if on one hand it was exciting to be able to engage directly with young people from Rwanda in real time through Zoom, not everyone was always able to be in the same room at the Film Institute, and several students struggled to participate fully because of intermittent internet connection.  As the GDIP has noted, fewer than one in 160 Rwandans have “meaningful connectivity” today, despite the country clearly making big strides towards being a technological hub for the region.

   

  And yet, the project was a big success, not just in terms of producing a great overall virtual “experience” of Kigali, but in terms of genuine engagement: all of the participants said that they enjoyed the project very much, and almost all felt that they were able to capture and share what they had set out to showcase – making Local Voices a great demonstration of what meaningful connectivity can achieve, particularly in terms of creating “active and participatory digital societies.”

   

  But this is just the start.

   

  Kwetu Film Institute is a center of excellence for exploring new kinds of communication, cultural expression, and regional civic engagement, and an internationally recognized media training facility. It is also a strategic partner of the Rwandan government in delivering media education, and we are hopeful about getting official backing for scaling up the project locally, and engaging many more people in creating an even richer canopy of “visual stories.” 

   

  Local Voices provides a great template for using technology to engage and empower communities and to advance meaningful connectivity, anywhere in the world. Its simple but powerful format is easily replicable, provenly impactful and fully scalable.

   

  If this is what we can do in just one place, in just a few months and with just a dozen participants, imagine how much more we could do with many more people in many different places, each of them telling their story through bite-sized videos, and showcasing them all in a single place. Indeed, a million brushes painting one picture.

   

  Could a Local Voices project help engage people and make the case for meaningful connectivity in your countries?

   

  Get in touch! federico@c4urselves.com

   

         

   

   

   

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• A million brushes painting one picture

  Mar 30, 2021 by Federico Moscogiuri / 1,837 Views

   

  When I think about my childhood, I return to the places which hold some of my earliest memories. In my mind’s eye, I walk down the streets where I grew up, just as they were back then. I see the park where my grandfather used to take me, and the hilltops overlooking the city. I’m revisiting my old school, walking along the river, looking out across the red-tiled rooftops of Florence from a skylight in my grandparents’ house. I watch the tops of the cypress trees swaying gently in the Spring breeze, and breathe in their fragrance. I smell, once again, the scent of freshly-baked bread as I walk past the baker’s shop, the tubes of paint in my grandfather’s studio, the scent of the street on a hot, sunny day. And I can summon, again, the same feeling of serenity and joie de vivre that I felt then, and which is forever tied to those places which now hold such meaning for me.

  And almost every time that I do this, every time I take myself back to a particular time and place, I have the same exact thought.

  Our earliest memories are the roots of who we are. And they are tied tightly to places. These places are the guardians of our memories. ….Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to capture these places, with everything they hold, for ever? To preserve this beauty, this feeling, this sensation – and to share it with others? To make others participant of what we have experienced through each of our senses, as we moved through these places in our lives, so these experiences could somehow be theirs as well? ….And what if we could partake of someone else’s experience, in the same way? There is so much to see, feel and experience in the world, and so much of it is lost to us over time, and so much of it is never shared. Could there be anything more valuable in our whole existence on this Earth, than taking the deepest, most authentic beauty of our experience in this world and turning it into a genuine patrimony for all humanity?

  We obviously don’t have the means to keep a memory in a jar and then bring it to life, just as it was, whenever we open the lid. That is still fantasy. But technology is taking us closer, and moving faster all the time.  It was not that long ago that video didn’t exist. Go back just a few centuries, and neither did photography. But today, millions of people across the world have a high-resolution digital camera in their pocket, and can instantly access and send photos and videos to thousands of people across the globe at once. We can even see live video footage from Mars.

  Who’s never dug out an old photo book, and relived emotions from many years ago as they leafed through the pages? Or found some old photos from generations ago in a box, and wondered what it must’ve been like to walk through those places back then? ….Doesn’t this give us not just feelings, but meaning?

  A blank digital canvas

  Martin Luther King Jr famously spoke of having a dream. My dream is of a world where everyone who wants to can share their experience of the places where their lives are lived, even if they’re just passing through, as seen through their own eyes and heard through their own ears. A world where technology is genuinely used for the common good, and to enhance our experience of the world. A world where we can all share a sense of belonging and responsibility towards looking after our shared planet, through a celebration of its incredible beauty and diversity. 

  Not even the most avid travellers among us will be able to experience the world in its entirety firsthand. But everyday technology can now allow us all to experience any corner of it almost as if we were there. And not through some corporate clip, or a professional blogger’s narrated adventures, but through the eyes and ears of each and every one of us, all of whom become co-authors of this great, enormous canopy, like a million brushes together painting a masterpiece. And in this living canvas is the world we’ve inherited, and the world we’ll be bequeathing to the next generations.

  

  C4Urselves is my attempt at starting to paint this canvas. Already, millions of people around the world regularly capture their experience of new places, and many of them share it regularly online. But each person’s reach is limited. And we’re still, largely, reliant on the templates and algorithms of platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, all of which have a very specific business model which has little if anything to do with actually creating a genuine, shared experience of the world.

  C4Urselves exists only to do precisely that, and to do that in an ethical, fully accessible way, underpinned by our values of authenticity, transparency and integrity. We’re not trying to be the next Facebook or Google, and we don’t want to take over the world. As a social enterprise, we want to make a difference – and demonstrate that there’s a different way to do things online. We’re starting with videos, but in time this could become a fully immersive experience.

  Be part of something really big

  I want to now put a call out to every person that has read this far, and who shares my vision for a single, fully transparent, fully accessible online community where each person can share an authentic experience of the world as seen through their eyes, and experience someone else’s.

  Pick up your metaphorical brush, and paint a corner of this enormous canvas of the world.

  Next time you go out, take a short video. When you get home, or sooner, upload it to our website. When you feel like virtually exploring the world, go to C4Urselves, explore, and share what you like with others. It’s all totally free. And then tell all your friends. Help us build a genuinely global movement dedicated to sharing and celebrating the world, as it is. And let’s capture as much of it as we can, before it changes forever.

  Lots of places are today under threat - from development, climate change, neglect and more. By capturing these places as they are now, you are also helping to preserve them. And not just for posterity, but for today – because by bringing them to life, you make them worth fighting for.

  if this vision strikes a chord, then join the movement. Register for free at www.c4urselves.com, and start sharing.

  This is going to be a long, ongoing initiative, but it can be really huge. And every little contribution will make this cause more powerful, and make our overall experience of the world that much more valuable. You have the chance to be part of something really big, and really good, from its earliest days.

  Let’s put digital technology to good use. Let’s use it to celebrate, preserve, and share the world. For real.

   

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• Why I Travel

  Aug 24, 2020 by Federico Moscogiuri / 1,381 Views

   

  “We shall not cease from exploration

  And the end of all our exploring

  Will be to arrive where we started

  And know the place for the first time.”

  TS Eliot, Little Gidding

   

  The world is vast and it’s for us to explore. “Because it’s there” was George Mallory’s response as to why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. I was in Nepal in March, just before I had to return home to the UK and lock-down started. I wasn’t trying to climb Mount Everest, but I was trying to see and do at lot else that was there.  Prior to that I’d been in Sri Lanka and India.  Unlike Gertrude Stein’s famous and somewhat rude description of her home town, Oakland in California, “There is no there there”*, there’s an awful lot of there in the Indian sub-continent. 

  I travelled around India by train for 10 weeks or so, from Kerala in the south to Amritsar in the north, west to Rajasthan and east to Kolkata and Darjeeling. Fantastic and varied scenery, amazing buildings, a whole new history to get my previously-Eurocentric head around, some stunning wildlife, a remarkable range of foods, experiences such as autorickshaws and sleeping berths in huge train carriages, teeming cities, and, in many places, new friends.  I could happily have carried on – the only limit was the duration of my travel insurance policy. With my tablet instead of a PC I could run my life quite effectively from a cheap hotel room. Occasionally I signed up for very touristy experiences – the zip-line ride in Jodhpur, the tour of an informal settlement in Mumbai, the canoe ride along the canals in Kerala – but many other times I sought to head off away from the beaten tourist track to find out a little of how people lived. Sometimes I discovered something really worthwhile, other times I just got hot and footsore and tired, once or twice I came a bit of a cropper. But without the risk of bad times you can’t get the good times to enjoy. 

   Since then I’ve been under lock-down in London, though in more recent months gradually enjoying more freedom and scope for travel.  Soon I hope to be properly under way again, off to Italy and Greece by train and ferry.  But life in lock-down has also offered the opportunity of exploration more locally to my home base. At first I walked – to Limehouse, to Alexandra Palace, to Hyde Park Corner. Then I got a bike and headed slightly further afield – to Barnet and Barking and Teddington.  TS Eliot may have meant something deep and metaphysical by the lines from his poem at the top of this blog, but I like to think of it as I discover a park or attractive street or distinguished building within a few kilometres or so of my home that I’ve never seen before.

   

  Whether you’re stuck at home for the foreseeable future and can only dream of travel, or whether you’re actively planning your next trip, C4Urselves.com can be a useful resource to find out about the world, stimulating ideas, and providing information by way of other travellers’ impressions of a place. The site relies on its contributors, so, staying within a short distance of where you live or exploring the wider world, do shoot and upload some videos for the site. It couldn’t be easier.

  I shall not cease from exploration – to do so would be a kind of death of the mind.  And I’d like to think that everyone else would want to do so as well. Whether the travel is local or far from home, somewhere that’s entirely new to you or somewhere with which you think you’re familiar but which may well still have unexpected corners, it’s always worth the effort.

   Martin Lunnon

   Check out Martin's videos here: https://c4urselves.com/user/MartinLunnon/

   

   * Gertrude Stein was being unnecessarily rude about Oakland, I feel, if the quote is interpreted as it usually is. I’ve visited the city a few times, even living there for a few weeks one summer over 30 years ago, and there’s quite a lot there. I mean, for celebrating a local hero, a socialist author who loved wilderness, with a shopping mall and a parking lot, the place deserves at least second prize in a world irony contest.’

   

   

   

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• An Interview with... Alan Chua, seasoned traveller and YouTuber

  Feb 9, 2020 by Federico Moscogiuri / 1,307 Views

  

   

  So many people are already taking great videos of so many places all over the world. Today we’re talking to Alan Chua a seasoned traveller and YouTuber from Singapore who’s already got lots of videos of walks to his name.

   

  Alan, when did you start taking videos of places you've been to?

  I started my video recordings in late January 2019.  

  What inspired to start recording your experiences? 

  It started with a travel problem I faced. In December of 2018, I had arranged to make a trip to Harbin in China and was keen to see what the place was like. Harbin is located in Northeast China and is one of the coldest places, with a minus-20 degree temperature at that time. I had never been to a sub-zero location before, and was keen on understanding how life is like over there. When I did my Youtube research on Harbin, I realised that there was a real lack of videos on how the place is like. Most of the searches that turned up were on the tourist attractions in the region, which was useful, but not what I was looking for. I just wanted to see "what it is like, without any sort of filter or video editing on the location". 

  After my trip, when I went back to Singapore I started to research if such videos existed about my country, and I realised that it faced the same issue. There were highly-edited videos about Singapore and its tourist attractions, but nothing to show what it really is like. So I decided to start recording.

  Why do you think it is important to share an authentic experience through your videos?

  I think it is about letting a person make a decision for themselves regarding the location. I can describe how a location looks like, or how I felt about the place, but I think what is important is how the viewer feels themselves. So I choose to eliminate all commentary and captions, and letting the viewer decide for themselves how they feel about the place.

  What do you want people to experience through your videos?

  I want my viewers to feel authenticity when they see the footage. When they look at it they will know that it is real. There are no gimmicks or attempts to sway their opinions by video editing. What you see is what you get.    

  Do you have any favourite videos?

  I think one of my favourite walking videos is by Rambalac who did a video of Tokyo Shibuya at night. It was a real inspiration to me, and a validation that such walking videos can attract a niche audience, yet reach a mainstream audience as well.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qGiXY1SB68&t=1971s  

  As well as taking videos, do you like to see what other people are posting as well?

  Even though I make such videos, I myself rarely watch other creators' footage. I occasionally watch the bigger players in the walktuber scene to get inspiration and ideas regarding their film style, camera movement, choice of YouTube thumbnail etc. But I rarely watch them as entertainment.

  What places would you love to "experience" virtually, if not in person?

  Probably harsh environment locations which makes filming rather challenging (sub-zero temperatures, extreme wet weather etc).

  What do you like most about C4Urselves?

  That there is a group of people who are motivated about sharing the world with others.

  Would you recommend our website to other people? 

  Yes  

  

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• Facebook, Cambridge Analytica… and Hippocrates

  Feb 7, 2019 by Federico Moscogiuri / 2,544 Views

  

  Pixar’s Wall-E is one of the most prescient films you’ll ever see. Having literally trashed Planet Earth, humanity’s home is now a private company spaceship run by a HAL-like computer whose occupants have become so hooked on their comfortable, technology-dominated life that they’ve physically evolved to become practically incapable of even standing up.

  Digital technology has fundamentally, irreversibly changed the nature of our society.

  We instinctively know this to be true. But we also instinctively ignore the implications, because digital technology is just so… well, normal. Alexa is now just part of the family.

  More and more of our lives today is lived online, and shared with people across the globe. We use the web for information, for work, for curiosity, for escapism. We belong to virtual communities, and we share our experiences, our memories and our lives with people we’ve never met.

  This is in many ways a great thing. But it also raises a number of concerns, from how our personal data is used, to how algorithms do a lot more than just feed us targeted ads, to social media’s social impact - including shortening our attention-span and creating an “always on” culture of instant gratification.

  Much has already been written about how technology is dominating our lives, affecting our quality of life, eroding our privacy and changing our behaviour in ways we don’t fully understand, and this has come into sharp relief following the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal in particular.

  But technology can and should be very much a force for good.

  A reaction has already begun. We have learnt to appreciate the perils of the digital revolution. Communities of socially-conscious digital professionals and entrepreneurs are starting to get together under the banner of “humane tech”. The Centre for Humane Technology is a very exciting project, and I’m personally looking forward to reading Roger McNamee’s new book, Zucked.

  But this isn’t just something for digital geeks or entrepreneurs.

  Online communities like C4Urselves too have a role in ensuring that digital technology is both ethical and actually enhances our lives, instead of controlling them. Indeed, it is central to our entire ethos.

  We’re doing this in two steps:

  • First, do no harm. For us, that means avoiding the things which have started to take digital technology down a dark path, chief of which is an algorithm-driven model of increasingly insidious, targeted advertising. So we decided to break the mould, and rely entirely on partnerships and sponsorship from like-minded organisations which share our values. No algorithms, no targeted advertising.  

  • Second, actually do good. We want to encourage people to pause, slow down, look around - and notice things. Explore the world through someone else’s eyes. Rediscover things. Find beauty. Not amidst a jumble of clickbait, but through a single, ethical community dedicated to enhancing our experience of the world.

  We’re not destined to become a population of digital lotus-eaters. A different way is possible, one that puts technology back at the service of people, and the real world.

  But we’ve got to step up. Whether or not the digital world needs its own version of the Hippocratic Oath, what’s clear is that a Wild West approach to digital technology will no longer do. Digital technology today wields great power – and in the words of a famous celebrity, with great power comes great responsibility.

  It’s up to us, the digital generation, to recognise and embrace the many opportunities that technology affords us, and use them wisely.

  Today, technology risks dividing us. Let’s help people reconnect instead - with the world around us, and with each other.  

   

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