ViaNica.com - Explore Nicaragua online

Second Encounter of Blogs and New Media

ViaNica.com | Aug 6, 2010

Cinthia Membreño

A series of conferences and workshops will be held during the second edition of the Blogs and New Media Encounter, which will take place at Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) on Thursday, August 12 and 13. The gathering will be helpful to debate about new media proposals that arise when using the web and will include the participation of Colombian, Costa Rican, Guatemalan, Argentinian, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan expositors.

The encounter, which is an evaluative activity of web tendencies and the power of alternative communication systems, is being organized by the Cultural Center of Spain in Nicaragua (CCEN), the Spanish Cooperation and the Humanities and Communications Faculty of Universidad Centroamericana, which is located in the city of Managua.

According to the website of the meeting, the activity will be divided into four topics: New media, diversity and cultural development, Citizen participation and influence, Production of new media content and Mobile applications, new uses and methods.

In a press conference given by Crea Communicaciones, David Ruiz, coordinator of CCEN, explained that the activity will be an experience of cultural enrichment, a proposal to emphasize that the web is a learning method and a tool to generate debate and impact on the public opinion.

Similarly, Rodrigo Peñalba, specialist on Cultural Production for New Media and coordinator of the event, assured that this will be an opportunity to discuss the current state of the new alternative media and the tendencies to use other formats like podcasting (distribution of media files) and microblogging (service to broadcast or publish short messages).

Day 1

The encounter will begin with a panel, which includes the participation of La Carpio en Linea (Costa Rica), the group "Todo por la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua" and the Nicaraguan social movement "Otro mundo es posible." On the following period, expositors form Costa Rica, Guatemala and Colombia will discuss topics like the influence of blogs and new media on the public opinion, the experiences of indigenous communities with the web and citizen participation.

A very attractive element will be a video conference with website developers and virtual media. It will be held on Pio.la, an on-line conferencing platform that provides a space of 20 minutes for meetings.

Day 2:

The day will start with a teleconference with Rafael Cachon, from BBC World (London, United Kingdom). In addition, there will be presentations about production and distribution of videos and content for websites, and tools for distribution of free software. Later, there will be a round table with Nicaraguan bloggers and presentations about future perspectives for big and small media companies.

How to participate:

The entrance of the event, on both days, is completely for free. However, for those who want to get official documents and other benefits must be registered. It is recommended to visit the website of the encounter. Once there, visitors must upload a registration form, answer a few questions and send the form to a specific e-mail. The spaces are limited.