Archive for September, 2007

This is a list of people who have helped / are helping with the book what I am co-authoring with Silvia Cambie on New Trends in International Public Relations. Thank you!

(I will of course be updating this list from time to time as I thank more contributors.)

Kevin Anderson - Blog Editor of the Guardian, whom I interviewed for an article on blogging in Malaysia. The information he gave me is going to be very useful for the book as well.

Asohan Aryaduray - New Media Editor, The Star, Malaysia, who also contributed some very topical information about blogging and free speech in Malaysia for an article I was researching. The information will also be useful for the book project.

Lucy Soutter - for suggesting the title to the book as we walked in a park one summer morning.

NOTE: All contributions and help given in relation to the book are subject to the terms set out in contributors release notice.

I have also found useful information from the following resources - thank you to the individuals and organisations who have made them freely available on the internet:

www.boutell.com . Thanks to Thomas Boutell in particular for his World Wide Web FAQ

www.livinginternet.com

http://netforbeginners.about.com/

www.w3.org

Wikipedia

For the book that I am co-authoring New Trends in Internation Public Relations, my co-author Silvia Cambie and I are required by our publishers to give this standard notice to anyone contributing to the book whether online here on this blog or via email, correspondence, interview or other means.

By making a contribution to the book, you are agreeing to the following:

# that we may use your contribution and edit it for any purpose relating to the book including use in any publication, media or any other form of dissemination

# you assign to us all copyright in you contribution and give consent for our use of your contribution

# you also warrant that nothing contributed by you infringes the copyright or any other rights of any third party or is defamatory or infringes the right of privacy of any third party

# you are not entitled to any payment from any source in relation to your contribution or any publication or dissemination of it

The reason we need this release notice is that the publisher needs us to give similar warranties and promises about the content of the book to them.

Thank you for your understanding about this.

This is a cross-post from my writing and cross-culture blog, Fusion View

We see news items about politics and military operations in Iraq almost daily but sometimes, it can all seem very far removed from our daily lives.

The Alive in Baghdad project shows the ordinary lives of Iraqis affected by the conflict there. Their mission statement says:

“Alive in Baghdad is empowering Iraqis to share their stories with the world, and provides a place of education and interaction for global citizens interested in the real life political, military, economic and social situation in Iraq.”

This video features child artist, Sameer Muhammad and is father, Muhammad Rubaie, who are now refugees living in Damascus. “They, like many Iraqis, have been forced to flee their country and taken refugee in Syria. They talk about their lives as artists, and how they are continuing their work despite the circumstances.”

You can support this important project by donating via PayPal - go to their site at www.aliveinbaghdad.org to find out more.

~~~~~

This is a powerful example of the use of social media to spread a message. These stories and narratives would not be so easily available a few years ago before YouTube and user-generated technology, when we were all more dependent on conventional news media as conduits for telling our stories.

This project is going to form part of my research for the book that I am co-authoring on New Trends in International Public Relations.

If you know of any other similar projects where people have come together to share their stories in this way through social media, please email me or leave a comment. I’ll credit you, of course, if your contribution is used directly in the book - you can check out my ongoing list of acknowledgements online.