European Bloggers (Un)Conference “East meets Westâ€
Showcases
Overview
Showcase: Café Babel
Vanessa Witkowski presents Europe-focused magazine Café Babel, highlighting the struggle of maintaining multilingualism while evolving into a more dynamic platform
The project manager of Café Babel’s e-community is herself an example of the multi-faceted generation she wants to serve – born to an American mother and French father, she is bilingual, has lived in several European countries and has attended universities on two continents.
A ballerina from Naples who is living in Paris – this is the Euro-generation, Vanessa Witkowski said at Westergasfabriek on Thursday morning.
Giving a voice to this group is paramount, she added, so as to stimulate local debate around Europe.
Café Babel’s ultimate objective is to contribute to the emergence of a European public opinion, Witkowski said. It aims to present professional content with a trans-European perspective – in seven languages, no less.
Babel is an NGO founded in 2001 by four Erasmus students studying in Strasbourg
“What Café Babel really wants to do is to fill the democratic gap in Europe,†the 30-year-old Brussels resident said.
The site is at present struggling to apply aspects of Web 2.0 while keeping its multi-lingual bent – truly the most unique facet of the site.
“It’s really about learning by doing,†Witkowski said.
Blogs are being slowly integrated into the platform, as are forums and socially-oriented user profiles.
But technical evolution is at times hamstringed by the time needed for the Café Babel team of professional translators to rewrite material. It can take up to a month to translate an article for Café Babel’s magazine, Witkowski said.
One solution has been to employ multi-lingual moderators on the site’s forums, which can indeed be accessed in multiple languages.
In all, about 1,000 volunteer writers and translators work for Café Babel, which is based in Paris.
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Video showcase Cafe Babel
Interview Vanessa Witkowski
Showcase: Skoeps
News and more news: that’s what Skoeps managing editor Michael Nederlof wants you – yes, you – to capture with your mobile phone and send to his website
What started as an empty web platform in October, 2006, is now the most popular citizen journalism news platform in the Netherlands.
With the slogan, ‘Everyone reporters?,’ Skoeps has had over 10,000 contributors – and they’re still coming.
Michael Nederlof, one of the managing editors at Skoeps, spoke frankly about his site – the success of which has far surpassed his expectations – to the bloggers gathered at the (un)conference.
“We don’t know where we are heading,†he said.
Skoeps does not claim to feature professional journalism. It encourages ordinary citizens with camera phones to get involved in society’s discussion with itself.
It is because of the open nature of Skoeps that practically anyone can engage in a two-way media dialogue. People of all ages, sex or occupation are asked to take a photo or movie on their mobile phones and send it to the site, where it is rated by viewers and positioned on the site accordingly.
Skoeps’ citizen journalists –who are asked to abide by a polite code of ethics (asking sources before they take video, for example), can see their work published on Skoeps within five minutes of uploading their work (via mobile phone or Internet connection on a computer).
“If this works in Holland, why wouldn’t it in other countries,†Nederlof said.
Skoeps is now branching out to many places around Europe – and Africa. It launched a project in Africa where citizen reporters cover local news and publish the stories online – all via mobile phone.
If the content of Skoeps reporters is requested by and sold to mainstream media outlets, the company gives 50 percent of the profit to the reporter. The rest is invested back into the community.
Video showcase Skoeps