Transformers 2

Behind the scenes - transformers 2 negotiations. What do you think about the part after 2:00??

More on new media and democracy

David blogs about his time in Warsaw. You can also see us listening to one of the New Media New Democracy debates: the photo was used by one of the debaters to prove his point:

At the beginning of my presentation I took a picture of my audience. It is a symbol of how the way we use media changes around the world. Media consumers more and more often become media makers and the distinction between the two roles disappears.

(I feel strange when I can't tag a photo to show who's where.. too much facebook)

And another picture, no point to prove this time (from the left: Joe Rospars, me and David Silver):

New Media New Democracy Forum

I'm back from the New Media New Democracy Forum organized by Gazeta Wyborcza and US Embassy. Again, as yesterday, some very interesting discussions. First with Joe and David, who today talked more about democracy. Thanks, among other things, to difficult questions from an independent journalist from Khazakstan.

Then there was an interesting panel about new media and traditional media in Poland. More here (only in Polish).

Joe Rospars and David Silver in Warsaw

Joe Rospars and David Silver at a FOR debate today.

Joe told us how the grassroots movement forged during the Obama campaign is still alive and well. I've seen the Organizing for America e-mails etc but didn't expect people to stay so involved even after the election. The campaign had a clear goal, a strict timeframe, obvious opponents.. And now? But it seems the number of meetings organized through Obama's supporters network is only slightly lower than before 11/4. I wasn't the only one suprised by that, Piotr Pacewicz from Gazeta Wyborcza being one of the others.

David talked about how the generation of his students is becoming a generation of media makers, sharers and commenters - and how that can be used to start great conversations and help explore the world around us. We also started to talk about the risks of such use of new media.

The other topic was the September Project. It promotes grassroots-organized conversations about freedom and democracy. Maybe David will inspire us to have such events here in Warsaw in the fall!

(and of course there was lots of other stuff but this post is long enough already!)