Rural India is hungry for digital tools
Social media has drastically changed the style of communication. Today Internet has redefined communication. Digital Empowerment Foundation with American Centre as an Outreach Partner conducted a workshop in Kohima on 31st March, 2015 with YouthNet as our local partner.The focus was on North-east to increase the effective and intelligent use of social media as a tool for development is a part of the project, because it is believed that penetration of social media in North east is quite low, despite immense potential and possibilities. Hon. Member of Legislative Assembly, Mhonlumo Kikon, opened the workshop with his key note. Amba Jamir, followed soon after with his presentation on potentialities of social media in empowering public and giving them voice in the formulation of important government policies, which have direct impact on their lives. Lezo Putsure from http://www.youthnet.org.in/, our local partner, spoke about presence and penetration of social media from the North-East’s perspective. They are doing incredible work in using social media to share inspirational works and stories from Nagaland that wouldn’t have reached people otherwise. Sunny Sharma, Founder & CEO spoke about the use of social media for development from a national perspective. Yanpvuo Yamfo Kikon, Founder of Naga Blog Nagaland government has been on an upswing of late when it comes to Information and technology, and Mr Kikon utilized this opportunity to speak eloquently about their initiatives. Dr. Tali Ao, Librarian Dr.
Tali Ao is a librarian and an archivist by profession, who thinks deeply about the status of social media in North-East. He believes, collaboration is the key. Lawrence Miglialo, Social Media Manager, Barefoot the CCO & Co-Founding member of Valhalla Movement; internal marketer & social media manager for Barefoot College; and blogger & social media manager for sustainable human gave an international perspective regarding the impactful ways of using social media for development. All the speakers invariably stressed on collaboration, connection, unity, generating voice and integration while speaking about social media. However, everybody cautioned against irresponsible usage of social media. People raised questions and discussed on how to take this further. They believed, now they have the power and awareness to bring about a change. It’s time to change the status quo. Almost immediately, Whatsapp group was created and brain-storming started to find a solution to the problem that has plagued them for years. They aptly named the campaign ‘Mission H2O’.
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