Countdown To Santiago:
Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Liberia, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen.
Those, in case you were wondering, are the 60-plus countries and counting, that will be represented at this year's Global Voices Citizen Media Summit.Biblioteca de Santiago, venue for the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010. Photo courtesy Biblioteca de Santiago
Around 200 people from 60 different countries will be meeting to discuss about contemporary issues in citizen media, transparency, censorship, advocacy and there will be workshops and presentations of different leading projects and initiatives across the world. Here is the program format. The main summit will be on 6th and 7th of May, which will be live broadcast via streaming web. Please keep an eye on this site. We have workshops and internal meetings before and after the public summit.
The first Google/Global Voices Breaking Borders Award and latest round of grantees for Citizen Media Outreach in Egypt will be announced.
I am pretty excited with the prospects of meeting old and new friends and colleagues - many of whom I have never met. I am also glad that this time we are able to bring two volunteers of Bangla Lingua page, Kowshik & Bijoy from Bangladesh. I hope it will be a good experience from them meeting bloggers and online activities from across the world.
I had my first hiccup as my flight with Emirates was cancelled and pre-poned for 10 hours and I had to take visa for the hotel during the extended layover. But sadly I will arrive at night in Dubai and my next flight is in the morning so won't be able to see Dubai. The flight to Sao Paolo seems daunting 17 hours and I have a short connection time towards Chile. All in all looks a pretty challenging journey which spans almost two whole days.
For the next two weeks I will be either on the road or busy at the summit so won't be able to update much. But lets keep the fingers crossed. Wish me luck!
