Multimedia for Caribbean Communities

Project Background

UNESCO is piloting access to the Information Society by building on traditional communication and information resources such as community radios or libraries and enhancing them with modern information and communication facilities. Wikipedia Community Multimedia Centres are an efficient gateway to the Information Society and provide for  a platform on which further community development activities such as distance learning, micro-lending schemes and electronic commerce may be based.

Project Objectives :

§         to empower selected marginalized communities with access to knowledge resources, modern communication tools and training

§         provide new social and economic opportunities by transforming existing community radio stations into Community Multimedia Centres

§         enforce the communication and support within the Caribbean  network and  with similar UNESCO initiated networks around the world.

Participants:

In the first phase four representative community radios in the Caribbean have been selected to develop the core CMC network. The core CMCs will be:

§         Roots FM (Kingston, Jamaica) ; Radio Toco (Trinidad);  Radio Cocodrilo (Cuba) ;Radio GED (Barbados)

In the second phase additional community radio stations will be invited to join the network and by doing so establish a culture of including new members to the network :

§         Radio PAIWOMAK (Guyana) ; Radio Muye, (Suriname) ; Radio em ba Mango (Dominica) ; Carib Community Radio (Dominica).

4. Project Outputs as seen by UNESCO: 

§         Establishment of a sustainable regional network of Community Multimedia Centres

§         Production of increased local ICT and radio content

§         Introduction of 40% of the local communities to modern ICTs

§         Introduction to the Information Society by “Radio Browsing”  and by using new ICT services

§         Sensitising of community leaders, local government representatives, teachers, business people and learners

§         Completion of guidelines on how to establish Community Multimedia Centres in the Caribbean

§         Contribution to the development of the Global Information Society from the Caribbean civil society.

The Vision

The Vision for the first phase of the MCC project is being implemented by a team from the Multimedia firm, VILCOMM Services International Ltd,. Team members include e-Learning tutors, digital artists, digital audio/video technicians, Multimedia developers , database programmers and communications specialists.

MCC’s  Vision for Community Radio Stations – a 15 step approach:

• Deployment of computer in studios to  write scripts
• Use of computers to store, index and catalogue recordings with re-writable CDs
• Mastery of  sound editing software to create and edit digital audio files
• Integration of  automated radio management system by programme producers
• Creation of automated play lists for talks, music, sound effects and jingles
• Interfacing with telephone hybrid for call-ins and live on-air sessions
• Browsing of the  Internet and the WWW for downloading and sharing information  i.e.  radiobrowsing
• Facilitation of on-line discussions  and debates about issues through e-forum
• Design and maintenance of  own web sites for community promotion  with streaming audio
• Access  to community cyber café to browse the Internet and WWW in person
• Development of community database of  frequently needed information
• Eventual transformation of broadcasters into  MultiMedia practitioners
• Provision of Multimedia services to business community and stakeholders
• Participation by community members in e-commerce
• Growth and development through online courses or e-learning activities

2.0 Community involvement and contribution
through baseline studies documented in traditional formats and on the project web site

Approximately 75 community members from the four radio stations were interviewed regarding their use of ICT on a personal, community and professional level. The findings from three stations were tabulated and analyzed, with Radio Cocodrilo to be translated and included for the next report. The discussion topics covered the following:

- place of learning, use of computers in daily life, areas of interest, income earning activities with computers, integration with the radio station, community computer services, main trainers, whiz kids and any comments or needs.

(See Table II in the Appendix for details on all the compiled responses)

The findings and participants have been posted on the MCC project site. Some significant findings may be summarized as follows:

• About 20% of the participants were self-taught
• The most frequent usage was word processing and e-mail at 30%
• Radio GED, as expected, showed high frequency usage for assignments and research
• Interestingly, Roots FM had a notable ratio for desktop publishing
• Most popular areas of interest included the Internet, web sites and graphics
• About 50% of those interviewed were unable to identify computer trainers and whiz kids in the community

We have included a sample of the responses for two areas below:

How could we apply our computer knowledge to the radio station?

What kind of computer services are available in the community?

Based on recommendations from the previous report, changes were made to the specifications of the computers. The specifications below show that each station has received at least one fully equipped Multimedia computer with CD/DVD –ROM play back capabilities. The new specifications should facilitate the following:

• Increased storage from the hard drive (30 Gb) and the ability to store audio files and other multimedia files on CD-RW, in preparation for the transformation to community multimedia centres
• The ability to purchase and use e-Learning materials stored on DVD-ROMs and not just CD-ROMs, with the added advantage of full screen video displays.
• The new operating system (Windows XP), a modem with adequate speed, speakers, sound cards and networking card will allow for good audio recording and the ability to network to existing computers.
• The digital cameras will allow for on screen presentations using the slide show software which comes with the gadget. It will also push start the archiving of community activities which will then be uploaded to the station web site or used in Multimedia presentations.
• The web cams will facilitate live online links and video-conferencing capabilities between stations which is all part of the networking objective of the MCC project.

One challenge for the radio stations will be the need to have web editing software such as MS FrontPage. This will be needed to update the site on a constant basis. The immediate plan for the training session is to acquire a 30 tries trial version while the situation is remedied, where necessary. One other challenge will be the need for local support and maintenance after the initial one year warranty period would have expired. These issues will be part of the planned training session scheduled to take place in the next round of activities.

The specifications are seen below:

1 Dell Dimension 8250 Series, Intel Pentium 4 Processor at 2.40GHz
256MB PC 1066 RDRAM
17 in. Monitor
64MB GeForce4 MX Graphics Card with TV-Out
30 GB Hard Drive ;3.5in Floppy Drive
Windows XP Professional
Scroll Mouse ;Integrated NIC Card
56K Data Fax Modem
CD-RW/DVD Combination Drive
Office Small Business XP
Harmon Kardon Speakers;Integrated Sound Card

1 Kodak 2.0 Megapixel Zoom Digital Camera
2 Logitech Quickcam Pro Web Cameras

10 Benefits of Community Radio for the Caribbean:

• Builds local identity, character  and culture through a diversity of programmes and content
• Promotes community access to Caribbean and local community content
• Focuses on specific community issues  concerns and events
• Highlights  various interest groups and community personalities
• Shares local   news  by giving voice to the voiceless
• Includes minority and marginalized community members
• Facilitates mastery of radio equipment  and basic broadcasting techniques
• Promotes democratic process, social change, development, civil society and good governance
• Acts  as a form of public-service broadcasting  independent of government and  party politic
• Relies on the community resources it serves rather than the whole nation