Digital Villages

[Steve Thompson]

Thank you for inviting me here Franz. I have many stories to tell and many links to share so this may happen over time. I have been using the concept of "Digital Villages" for a while but it's really a metaphore for something more concrete. You may recall Franz that when you visited Teesside I used the concept of "Rivers" to describe where you were in the world and how my heritage and mindset was focussed by the three main rivers that define my region in the North East of England.

My work with Digital Villages has been very rewarding since I can redefine the concept at will to take on any new community I come across. It all fits. Here are some words I have written that define my view on what a digital village is.

A Digital Village is a space where a community expresses their identity though ICT and Digital Media. This may be from an artistic, heritage, or economic perspective or a mixture of all three.This can be done through poetry, digital stories, community newspapers online, image collections (old and new), audio (Internet radio, oral history), animations, video, and text. To engage in the activities the participants need to learn new skills and so the Digital Village also becomes a learning community.

[Franz Nahrada]

Hi Steve, how is the status of your approach of networking Digital Villages? And what are the best results you have achieved so far in terms of expresion?