DLTQ.org

This week, I was approached by the Danish-based organization SILBA and asked if I want to

1) Videotape election observers and their activities during the Georgian Parliamentary elections on May 21st as well as document aspects of the election. We will do our election observing in the city of Rustavi in the south-east part of Georgia.

2) Hold a workshop on videoblogging at the May 23.-30. Seminar “Developing Gender and Minority 2.0 Tools” in Tbilisi. The seminar, which is for youths involved with minority issues and who originate from several countries, will to a large extent focus on how they can use new media tools in their work.

It did not take a lot of consideration for me to accept this invitation, despite knowing that Georgia is not going to be the safest place on earth in case there are demonstrations in connection with the election.

I have earlier been holding workshops on videoblogging in among other places Sarajevo, and I am aware of some of the challenges associated with talking about videoblogging to a mixed audience like this. I have talked with the organizers of the seminar, and we agree that a hands-on approach is ideal - that they get to use the tools themselves and experiment with the medium.

I am leaving already in two weeks, so time is short, and there are many questions that need to be looked into. What is the internet situation like in Rustavi? What kind of footage will we want to put up on Youtube and similar sites? What do we do if we find that there are electoral irregularities in Rustavi?

What kind of footage would You like to see? If you had the chance to see the election in Georgia from first-hand accounts and not just filtered through the main-stream media - what would you be interested in?