Needs assessment survey results

IN a survey conducted during the conference, delegates identified needs and strategies on how to better protect cyberspace in Asia in the areas of technology, capacity-building/training, funding/business model, reach expansion, and issues of safety, defense and advocacy. Below are the results of the survey. Please call my attention to any entry that I may have erroneously interpreted in the process of transferring the results from the matrix format.

MEDIA SUPPORT AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS

Technology

• Provide technical tools, hosting, knowledge-sharing (in terms of expertise and relevant tools)

Capacity-building/Training

• Trainings in different countries on the following topics: website development, ICT, journalism, investigative journalism, podcasting, blogging, media management, CMS (content management system), web business models

Funding/Business Model

• How to raise funds

Expanding Reach

• hold programs in rural areas
• provide networking support in Asia
• help in information dissemination regarding Forum for Media Alternatives’s (FMA) research and trainings

Safety/Defense/Advocacy

• spearhead an anti-web censorship advocacy campaign
• increase membership by including lawyers, activists
• create a network of bloggers
• improve capacity to make available PDF e-books on government censorship
• go beyond Southeast Asia

DONORS

Technology

• provide tools and equipment
• distribute technology to digital ‘have-nots’

Capacity-building/Training

• conduct annual forums to keep up with changes and share lessons
• support trainings
• fund national blogger associations, annual conferences on business and technical issues

Funding/Business Model

• provide funding for web newspapers, wire services
• conduct survey on Internet users in Cambodia

Expanding Reach

• provide funding support for the echo sessions of the trainings as well as on communication rights advocacy — e.g. free, open-source software (FOSS) as an alternative to the current intellectual property rights (IPR) regime

Safety/Defense/Advocacy

• support media development organizations
• fund “Journalist Protection Unit”

MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS

Technology

• share knowledge about technology

Capacity-building/Training

• share knowledge, skills on investigative journalism, best practices, and ethics

Funding/Business Model

• provide help on how to sell research papers and publications online

Expanding Reach

• expose blogging to more people, especially in Cambodia

BLOG AGGREGATORS

Technology

• share the technology behind the ability to aggregate feeds and integrate these into sites

Capacity-building/Training

• develop blogging training manual

Funding/Business Model

• share their business model

Expanding Reach

• provide services in different languages
• collaborate with blog search engines

Safety/Defense/Advocacy

• lend support to freedom of expression (FOE) campaign

BLOGGERS

Technology

• help others build blogs

Expanding Reach

• write about blogging in the mainstream media, preferably in the local language

Safety/Defense/Advocacy

• support for FOE campaign, keep in touch with each other

JOURNALISTS

Capacity-building/Training

• train bloggers about journalism principles

Expanding Reach

• write about freedom of expression (FOE) in the national media

Safety/Defense/Advocacy

forge solidarity with other journalists

ACADEMICS

Expanding Reach

• create materials in local languages
• build the theoretical support for certain tools and trainings and campaigns — e.g. free, open-source software (FOSS)

Safety/Defense/Advocacy

• ensure that students aware of their rights and know what to do when arrested

TECHNOLOGISTS

Technology

• develop bypass software, blog hosting software, Khmer-language blog software, anti-spam software
• help customise free, open-s0urce software (FOSS) for special needs

Capacity-building/Training

• provide training for other technologists