The First Mile

Supported by the SSHRC-funded First Nations Innovation Project

I recently came across a 2008 article by Philip Lee that I think has connections to our discussions about 'First Mile' oriented approaches.

Here's the link to the full article, which argues for the need to demonstrate grounded examples of communication rights in areas like health, education, etc (Lee uses the UN Millennium Development Goals as his framework).

In particular, on p. 11, Lee mentions work by Jo Tacchi on 'voice', which has a 2-part definition (I quote Tacchi here verbatim):

1) “Voice” can be related to active participation in the development project itself, in establishing what should be the focus of development, in the design and implementation of development initiatives, and in the assessment of whether or not positive social change has resulted. This I discuss as “participatory approaches and voices of the poor”.

2) Secondly, “voice” can refer to local content creation, to the expression of a diversity of voices through a range of local media and ICTs. It can be related to the idea of media literacy and digital inclusion and I present this as “local content and creative engagement” (Tacchi, 2008, pp. 12-13).

Tacchi's project website 'Finding A Voice' has some downloadable resources that might be useful for the (potential) 'First Mile' video production project.

• A book on the project's 'themes and discussions' aimed primarily at program-side policy strategists and decision-makers.
• A book on 'principles and practices' for participatory content creation for development that "highlights the application of participatory methods to the design, implementation and evaluation of culturally appropriate systems for local content creation".
• A paper on preliminary findings of the 'Finding a Voice' project.
  

- Rob