Intercultural Dialogue, Civic Participation and Human Rights in the Digital Sphere Experiences from

1
Intercultural Dialogue, Civic Participation and
Human Rights in the Digital SphereExperiences
from Macedonia

• Filip Stojanovski
• Metamorphosis Foundation
• International Round Table Intercultural Dialogue
  and Digital Culture, ?????

2
Republic of Macedonia

• Population 2 million
• Independence 1991, UN membership 1993
• EU candidate status 2005, no negotiation start
  date yet
• Internet penetration gt30
• Workforce with university degrees 10
• eGovernment services sophistication average 50

3
Macedonia, a multicultural society

• Ethnic and linguistic diversity
• Macedonians 64
• Albanians 25
• Turks 4
• Roma 3
• Serbs 2
• Bosniaks 1
• Aromanians (Vlach) 0.5
• including Egyptians, Croats, Slovenes, Jews
• Diverse religious heritage
• Orthodox Christians 66
• Muslims 33
• Less than 1 includes Catholic Christians,
  Methodist Christians, Jews

4
Elements of Intercultural Dialogue

• Acknowledge the presence
• Show and receive respect
• Know about each other
• Work together
• Solve problems
• Live together

5
Digital Content Needed!

• Software localization
• FOSS (Linux, OpenOffice.org)
• Microsoft (Windows, MS Office)
• Educational eContent
• Insignificant amount of user-generated content in
  local languages other than Macedonian

6
Need for educational eContent

• Localization of software in Macedonian and
  Albanian to be used in schools
• Adapting of school curriculum
• Publishing digital content for the children, esp.
  textbooks
• Implementing Open Access
• (only 2 OA journals so far)

7
Content of Government Websites

• In general
• Without adopted standards
• Sporadic updates
• Central level
• One-way communication
• Macedonian and English language used
• Local level
• Macedonian, Albanian and some English
• Low level of citizen participation
• Closing of forums similar tools

8
Presenting Macedonia to the World

• Government websites
• Official Website www.gov.mk
• Agency for Foreign Investments www.InvestInMacedon
  ia.com
• State Statistical Office www.stat.gov.mk
• Seemingly most authoritative, comprehensive and
  most quoted source
• CIA World Factbook www.cia.gov
• Issue of political and nationalist propaganda,
  cluttering the search results

9
Commercial Media

• Online portals almost exclusively publish in
  Macedonian
• Politics / entertainment news
• News agencies
• Two also use English
• One of them also uses Albanian
• National broadcaster (www.mrt.com.mk)
• website in 10 languages

10
Citizen/User Generated Media

• Around 30,000 blogs (many inactive)
• almost all in Macedonian, few in English
• Wikipedia
• Macedonian 21,000 articles
• Albanian 22,000 articles
• Roma 500 articles
• in comparison
• English 2,630,000 articles
• Croatian 50,000 articles
• Rising tides
• Social networking tools
• Online video

11
Availability of Online Content
12
Bridging the Language divides

• Regularly active bridge blogs and other websites
  (inactive or dead in parenthesis)
• Global Voices Online (www.globalvoicesonline.org)
• mk.globalvoicesonline.org
• sq.globalvoicesonline.org
• Note Most MK language news media reuse foreign
  content (without attribution), but not from blogs
  or other citizen media.

13
Presenting Macedonian Culture

• Active Magazines News sources
• Blesok Shine www.blesok.com.mk (MK, EN)
• Contemporary Arts Center www.scca.org.mk (EN)
• Culture in Macedonia www.culture.in.mk (EN)
• Mac. Cinematography www.maccinema.com (MK)
• Content published under Creative Commons
• (CC) Macedonia Portal cc.org.mk
• Other institutions projects
• Museum of Macedonia www.musmk.org.mk
• Living Heritage www.zivonasledstvo.org.mk
• Exploring Macedonia www.exploringmacedonia.com
• Macedonia FAQ (last update in 2003)
  faq.macedonia.com

14
Diversity Intercultural Dialogue Resources

• NGOs and Projects
• Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia
  www.soros.org.mk
• Common Values www.cv.org.mk
• DIANET (Dialogue for Interaction, Advocacy and
  Networking Capacity Building) www.dianet.org
• Macedonian Centre for International Cooperation
  www.mcic.org.mk
• Bridging Religions in Macedonia
  http//mcms.powweb.com/MSM

15
Thank you for your attention Zahvaljujem na
panji?????????? ?? ??????????filip_at_metamorphos
is.org.mkwww.metamorphosis.org.mk