Twenty specialists in journalism, data analysis, and digital connectivity shared their experiences and presented some of their open-source software and tool initiatives, such as:
- Colmena, (Spanish for “Beehive”), a collaborative network for community-based media that has a digital toolbox for community radio stations and local media. Currently, the initiative also constitutes a network for the community-based media that use it and supports stakeholders who may wish to contribute to strengthening the project through various resources.
- Data Labe, a Brazilian data and storytelling lab that was founded as a civil society organisation in the favela of Maré (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). The team consists of young residents from low-income areas who create new narratives through open data and their own research, which they collect for data stories and visualisations that they produce on the information ecosystem regarding minorities and on issues of access to clean water and waste management.
- Correctiv, a multi-award-winning media outlet focuses on investigative journalism. It is also the first non-profit and non-partisan investigative newsroom in Germany. They excel at promoting public debate and citizen participation in their work, as well as fact-checking misinformation and disinformation.
- Wakoma, an open-source social enterprise helping to solve issues of access and literacy in communities around the world through open-access tools. Some of its projects aim to support the creation of wireless community networks in townships and informal settlements in Cape Town (South Africa); to strengthen the foundation of community-based digital literacy in the Northwest Territories of Canada; and to connect climate concerns with technology and education to improve soil health while enhancing food quality, soil-carbon sequestration, and regenerative agriculture.
- Tactical Tech, a non-profit organisation specialising in data technology, designing and co-developing entertaining and visionary experiences, interventions, events, and resources to invite people to consider how technology influences their lives and changes the world they are part of.
Participants were part of specific groups where they could discuss challenges and questions that arose in the earlier session, such as how to achieve greater sustainability for innovations (e.g., through multistakeholder collaboration) and how to achieve more openness to open-source innovation in international cooperation and the media. Attendees also debated ways to create synergies between projects and specialists to strengthen existing efforts, such as creating a consortium for Colmena that includes its founders and partner organisations, tech and developer allies, and other institutional partners. The group also agreed to work on a document with some reflections on the subject for further publication.
