[NetBehaviour] Transmission Asia-Pacific (TX-AP): open source camp in asia pacific

[marc garrett]

Transmission Asia-Pacific (TX-AP):
Media Activists from the Asia Pacific gather in Indonesia.

Video makers, media activists, software developers and artists from 15 
countries across the Asia-Pacific will be gathering in Sukabumi, West 
Java from May 19-25 for an online video skills camp. The goal of the 
camp is to bring together open source software programmers, video makers 
and media activists to develop the strategic use of online video 
distribution for social justice and media democracy.

TX-AP is a joint initiative between media activists in Australia and 
Indonesia. It is organised collaboratively by EngageMedia (Australia), a 
video sharing website and free software development, training and 
networking project and Ruangrupa (Indonesia) a non-profit artist 
initiative supporting the development of art in the cultural context 
through events, exhibitions, research and documentation. 50 specially 
invited media activists and artists will be coming to Indonesia to 
attend the workshop and share their skills and ideas.

The camp will provide a unique opportunity for artists, video makers, 
software developers and activists to collaborate and share skills in a 
global context where on-line video communication skills have become an 
increasingly important strategy for activists.

Andrew Lowenthal of EngageMedia explained “Transmission Asia-Pacific 
will be a unique face to face meeting between video makers and open 
source software developers to shape open source online video sharing 
applications and their strategic use for social aims”. He went on to 
explain “free and open source makes sense for organisations with limited 
means, both from a strictly economic point of view and also as part of 
their overall strategic aims, as the system of open collaboration and 
sharing that free software is based on has a natural philosophical fit 
with organisations working on environmental or social justice issues”.

Participants will attend from around the region, for example 
participants from from Hong Kong making videos about communities 
resisting gentrification and over development of urban areas in Hong 
Kong and China. This group puts video cameras into the hands of those 
most affected by these policies and then helps them edit and share their 
work on-line. Projects such as these increase the communication rights 
of marginalized and displaced peoples allowing them to articulate their 
concerns to a wider public.

Another media activist from India has been using on-line media 
distribution to raise awareness of censorship of diverse sexualities in 
mainstream Indian media outlets. They have produced a satirical and 
humorous look at queer moments from Bollywood films to draw attention to 
the marginalisation of these voices within Indian society.

Transmission Asia-Pacific is the 4th in a series of events bringing 
together video activists and web developers. Previous events have 
occurred in Rome, London and Amsterdam.

For media access to the camp, stories of individual participants and 
topics of discussion at the event please contact:

Andrew Lowenthal (EngageMedia): +61 439 093 779 (Australia) 
+6281319339823 (Indonesia) http://engagemedia.org
Mirwan Andan (Ruangrupa): +62 813 1924 2965 http://ruangrupa.org

For more information on the workshop: http://transmission.cc/txap.

Transmission Asia-Pacific is supported by Hivos and the Open Society 
Institute.