We make citizen media training in the Arab world social and scalable while keeping it local and sustainable.

Problem

Developing training materials in Arabic for Arab audiences consumes enormous amounts of time and money, owing to the need for localization and translation as well as to technical issues encountered when formatting documents and Web pages. Once the materials are complete, even if they're posted online, they can end up languishing unused because there aren't clear paths established for others to find, retrieve, and adapt them. What's more, a lack of coordination between the organizations hosting citizen media trainings can result in duplication of efforts that not only wastes valuable aid dollars but also has a high opportunity cost, since that time could be spent localizing materials or creating ones that don't already exist. We expect this situation to persist post-revolutions, especially as international NGOs emphasize training citizens and journalists in the strategic use of digital media for self-expression, reporting, and good governance. At the same time, donors want scalable solutions. In training, this is often conceived as a TOT tree. We think we have a better idea, one that keeps learning social and local: scale through the sharing of open-license Arabic training content.

Solution

We will gather and categorize open-licensed, Arabic-language digital and social media training materials and make them findable and retrievable via a distributed database in a variety of formats for a variety of devices. We would continue to develop and catalogue our own resources and work with other individuals, trainers, technologists, and media development organizations to catalogue and repurpose theirs. SMEXbeirut would then develop licensing partnerships with both established and new local independent Arab media organizations across the region and license access to the database, much like a university library buys access to J-Stor, from their web presence. We would also help the media outlet market the database access and provide citizen media training of trainers, if requested. Finally, the database would have social features for trainers and trainees to rate and comment on the materials as well as perhaps to design and submit agendas or materials of their own. Our idea is innovative in four ways: 1. It brings together Arabic-language training and instructional materials 2. It delivers them through local media partners, thereby enhancing the presence of that outlet and their commitment to community media and citizen participation 3. It generates income from open-licensed materials by licensing the database access to the outlets, not the materials themselves, and 4. It generates more Arabic content, through comments and because the content will be easily adaptable and localized and can be re-shared back to the database, perhaps for some benefit or credit

Example

Take Libya, for example, "an almost virgin territory for media," according to Jamal Dajani, vice president for Middle East and North Africa for Internews. Since the conflict began, more than 120 new publications, 5 new radio stations, 3-5 new TV stations have been established. Many will disappear after Ghaddafi goes, but many will become a part of the new media landscape. New outlets in many cities will need quick access to multimedia and social media reporters to survive. Emerging reporters will need multimedia and social media training. Both they and their trainers can access the database to find relevant, contextual materials to learn the skills they need. In addition, Libyan local media outlets who license the use of the database will establish themselves de facto as supporters of community media. They will have the trust of their local networks. They may even eventually develop the kind of community media training programs that we see with public-access television. Having the database will raise their profile and draw traffic to their websites, which in turn will spur more digital literacy, creating a self-sustaining ecosystem. Over the past three years, we've been asked many times, Why don't you set up SMEXTunis or SMEXAmman, or even SMEXBaghdad. We were, of course, flattered, but had neither the resources nor the inclination to franchise like that. Partnering with local media and technology organizations, such as Aikilab in Damascus, for example, in a way that sustains both SMEX and the local partner is much more in line with our abilities and our ethos.

Marketplace

At the moment, we don't consider ourselves in competition with any other organization or company, although there are overlaps with other organizations in terms of producing materials in Arabic and conducting Arabic-language training. That said, we have learned that we do need to coordinate closely to avoid duplication of efforts. We already cooperate with many media development and tech-for-change organizations, by translating and sharing materials (directly and through open licensing as evident at smex.org/translation), which is why we believe that we have the relationships and the knowledge of the field needed to create and sustain the database. Some organizations may view the aggregation of their materials as a threat, especially more traditional international NGOs, who consider the development of trainings materials as work-for-hire and aren't as accustomed to open licensing. We have confronted this in our own contracts and have so far succeeded in convincing all partners and clients of the value of open licensing.