25 August 2005

British Council launches inter-cultural dialogue between young people from the United Kingdom and Arab countries around Information Society issues

Empower your generation!

The second phase of the United Nation’s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) will be held on 16-18 November 2005 in Tunis. The British Council is working with CholertonShand (youth engagement consultants) to develop an online forum – reach out - to engage young Arabic and English speaking people in WSIS.

The purpose of reach out is to provide young people with an opportunity to voice their opinions about WSIS related issues – cultural diversity, the digital divide, Internet governance, media freedom and e-learning / employment - in a safe and dynamic environment. The forum will run from 20 August – 04 November 2005 as part of our build-up to the WSIS II event in Tunis.

The online discussion will culminate in a face-to-face event - Café Informatique International - in Tunis, with a live video link-up with Manchester. Young people selected from the online discussions will meet up with people from the region and the UK to discuss further the ‘hot topics’ and work together towards a year-long regional project.

We would like you to reach out to youth networks and get involved - express yourself and empower your generation through the online discussions!
For further information please contact reachout@britishcouncil.org
To register with the online discussions please go to www.britishcouncil.org/reachout

what am I gonna do?

G+1.
A+1.
N+1.

Perhaps I'm going crazy. Perhaps I've been coding for just a bit too long. But recently, as I've been writing pages and pages of code, I have realised something. Code is art. Some of it at least. Because you have to think of the big picture in a page of code, or a script, making it perfect is like weaving. Some code is just ugly. But mine isn't, not anymore. Perhaps it's just Dreamweaver's incessant use of colour in separating parts of the script that does it - who knows.

I should probably stop.

After stressing for far too long about whether or not the Arabic online discussion software I'm developing to be used in an inter-cultural dialogue project was going to work or not, today I finally tested it. And it does work. Which is good. Otherwise I really didn't have a clue how to make it work. The problems came with pasting Arabic text into Macromedia Fireworks graphics; the software somehow splits the letters up - and anyone who knows Arabic, or is learning it, will know that the joining of letters correctly is vital. Nevermind, because I got around it (wouldn't dare tell you how).

So British Council reach out will be launched tomorrow (Friday), and dialogue will begin Saturday. Watch this space, and others, for further publicity when soft-launch happens.

On a personal note, Arabic is a really cool language, which I can't wait to learn (next year maybe). I'm looking forward to spending more time in the region. And running more projects which are connected to it.

Other things are:

- Problems with finding a home in London. Things are too expensive, too small or just damn inhumane. Really don't want to leave early, so I hope it comes to a good conclusion soon. Anyone have a room or a flat to rent?
- I can't wait for Autumn/Winter - simply much better than Summer (cosier, warm (in a bizarre way), moody, and the best time to drink warm beverages away from home).
- I will be attending WSIS PrepCom III in September - who else will?

Wow! Well done Maybach. But really, could you see yourself driving one of these?