From 20-23 January, activists and bloggers from across the Arab world gathered in Amman, Jordan for the Fourth Arab Bloggers Meeting. Organised by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Global Voices, the three-day private event was followed by a public forum with panel discussions, debates, and interviews on 23 January. متابعة قراءة Citizen Lab: Cyber Stewards at the Fourth Arab Bloggers Meeting in Jordan→
On day one of the Arab Bloggers Meeting, participants threw themselves into workshops and discussions stemming from our central theme: civic expression and action online. Working in groups divided by interest — storytelling, digital security, data visualization, and Internet policy — we found that many of us are facing similar challenges in our work.
Many of us want to find new, innovative, compelling ways to tell stories. In the storytelling session, Syrian participants pointed to the mainstream coverage of violence in their country and raised the question: How do you find new ways to tell an old or familiar story? How do you work to keep the public actively engaged and interested in stories about a violent conflict over a long period of time? A common desire among participants was to develop strong methods for telling stories, presenting data, and making policy arguments in order to affect political or legal reforms.
Ahmad Gharbeia is an advocate of open source software and open content based in Cairo, Egypt. He frequently trains bloggers how to publish information securely and anonymously, and was part of the team that translated Tactical Technology Collective’sSecurity in-a-Box toolkit into Arabic. He is @agharbeia on Twitter.
Jacob Appelbaum is a computer security consultant and developer and advocate for theTor Project, a tool and privacy network which protects internet users’ privacy and security. At the Arab Bloggers Workshop he gave a presentation about circumvention, online security, and anonymity. He is @ioerror on Twitter.