Starting today, December 7, OneWorld UK will be bringing the Copenhagen climate change talks live to the world via Second Life, webcasting, and Twitter. From December 7-18, audiences in the virtual world will be able to get live updates on the status of the negotiations, participate in Q&A sessions with key players, and get involved in critical debates during the conference.
This ambitious effort builds upon OneWorld UK's coverage of the Posnan and Bali climate change talks over the past two years. Sounds like they have really ramped up their efforts to bring in as much public participation as possible in the government negotiations.
Beyond observing the talks, virtual attendees can also check out the many information kiosks in the "350 Pavilion" set up by various eco-groups (click here to teleport).
Head to http://www.oneclimate.net/copenhagen for more info and the live webcast. And read on for the complete announcement about "Virtual Copenhagen"....
Global participation in COP 15 without travel carbon
An initiative of OneClimate.net - http://www.oneclimate.net
From 7th December to 18th December OneWorld UK will have a posse of people in Copenhagen. They will be streaming live information from the United Nations Climate Change talks when binding targets may be set for the future of our planet. Watch online http://www.oneclimate.net/copenhagen or in various sims in Second Life.
OneWorld will be interviewing key players & bring you all the critical debates throughout the conference. See what happened here in SL last year for Virtual Poznan - http://oneclimate.net/poznan
You can send your messages direct from here to Copenhagen where they will go straight to the interviewee from our team - you can watch the stream from oneclimate.net and join in through twitter too.
IN MORE DETAIL
OneWorld’s OneClimate programme has been developing different forms of peoples’ broadcasting since the Bali and Poznan COPs, with the overall aim of opening a window of involvement for more and more people around the world to participate without flying. The high point was perhaps the decision by Congressman Ed Markey to give his conference speech virtually rather than flying to Bali.
There is a short video report on Virtual Bali.
We call our approach ‘EcoCasting.’ By combining the best of video conferencing and webcasting, we can offer clear environmental benefits at much lower costs: using laptops in place of outside broadcast trucks, and the internet in place of satellites. The participation element comes from the ability to include remote participants by Skype, and to put the comments and questions of the worldwide audience via Twitter and texting to the people on-camera at the summits. At Poznan people were surprised to be able to question Yvo de Boer in person.
Now, for the crucial Copenhagen COP, we plan to produce a continuous live EcoCast throughout the second week. It has been described as ‘CNN with attitude’: people’s television that offers the latest news and insight into what is being decided – and not decided – in the climate negotiations on behalf of people everywhere.
Every day of the crucial second week of the COP, we will have an EcoCasting set-up in the exhibition area where presenters, analysts and interviewers will combine their skills to produce a lively all-day, all-evening show with the latest on what is happening - and what ought to be happening - at the COP. We’ll be putting together the coverage that people want to see:
- live interviews with key players
- feeds from the most significant press conferences and plenary sessions
- our own film reports
- stories from the many campaigning organizations who would like a global showcase for their videos
- voices from the global South that might otherwise not be heard
- surprising comments and questions from the public around the world.
As this becomes a must-watch show that concerned citizens want to check into for the real story as the conference comes to its climax, then we will want to offer it as widely as possible - as a live, continuous video feed that campaigning organizations can feature on their websites.
We already have a lot of interest in working with us, which should add up to a really significant global audience for the live stream:
· our broadcast partner, LinkTV, will feature it online and also as programme segments on their satellite-based shows and cable channels (broadcast reach: 50 million)
· our streaming partners, JustinTV, will feature it on their front page, which is worth tens of thousands of viewers
· we are working on an agreement with the Guardian for joint programming with their journalists and a presence on their very influential site (more than 30 million uniques a month)
· Spanner Films would like to use the live broadcast for the online premiere of The Age of Stupid and their own daily Stupid Show
· YouTube are considering front page promotion of Copenhagen and have invited participation from Spanner and thus Copenhagen Live 24/7
· our video-link partner, Skype, has indicated interest in providing marketing and promotion worldwide
· we are discussing with Greenpeace the idea of clips from the EcoCast being displayed on their Jumbotron outside the Bella Centre
· ActionAid has requested 4 EcoCast events during the COP
· We will be writing to all participating NGOs to offer our live stream to enhance their Copenhagen coverage.
Putting all this together, this initiative will offer a powerful new service to a worldwide audience of engaged people who want to participate in the COP without emitting travel carbon. It will also provide a showcase for all the civil society groups using media at the event and looking for global outlets to showcase it.
In these ways we would like to work with the leading campaigning groups at the COP, offering a number of possible forms of co-operation:
· a dedicated, branded slot each day for your organization or coalition. You could use it for presentations, video inserts, or for your leading lights to be interviewed, either in person or remotely over Skype video
· ‘open your meetings to the world’: EcoCasting your side-events at the COP means remote panellists can participate; the event can be webcast worldwide; comments and questions can come back from web viewers and from avatars in virtual worlds; and a high quality video recording of the event will be produced
· the most appropriate video clips from your organization (shot at the COP or pre-prepared) can be featured on the live show
· a video feed of the live show to put on your own sites, with the chance for your constituencies in particular, and the public in general, to feedback with comments and questions via online chat or Twitter
We hope all this proves to be a real win-win, where bringing together the best of the content produced by the campaigning organizations and then broadcasting it to their combined constituencies and audiences will mean more chances to mobilize the people power we need - demanding and supporting courageous decisions from the world’s leaders.
The resulting continuous EcoCast will be made available in a wide range of ways:
· on screens at the COP (provided by YouTube, Google and Greenpeace)
· on the Guardian, LinkTV, OneClimate.net and many civil society sites
· on screens in many locations within 3D virtual worlds like Second Life, so that avatars in many countries can meet around the issues as they arise
· in episodes on YouTube, Facebook and many other video and social network sites
· on mobile phones
· as continuous links on Twitter.
We believe that, with the combination of hi-tech and low-cost that we have pioneered at previous events, and with the media-power of all these news and campaigning organisations, we can deliver - for a fraction of the cost of conventional broadcasting - a professional and engaging encounter for audiences around the world.
The OneClimate team of eight people in Copenhagen will combine their journalism and broadcast skills with those of the teams from The Guardian, The Age of Stupid, and many other campaigning organisations. The initiative will be co-ordinated by Peter Armstrong, an award-winning BBC producer and BAFTA new-media laureate.
For more information please contact: peter.armstrong@oneworld.net +44 7801 14238
In SL contact PeterSan Slade or Coughdrop Littlething
