The State Department, Facebook, Google, MTV, AT&T and others will bring leaders of 17 organizations from 15 countries together with technology experts next month in New York City for the first-ever summit to empower youth against violence and oppression through the use of the latest online tools. These young leaders will form a new group, the Alliance of Youth Movements, which will produce a field manual for youth empowerment. The Dec. 3-5 event at Columbia Law School will also be streamed live online by Howcast.com and on ThinkMTV.com.
The manual will stand in stark contrast to the Al-Qaeda guidebook on the basics of terrorism, found by Coalition Forces in Iraq, officials said in a Monday press release. The gathering was inspired by the success of the One Million Voices Against the FARC, a group started on Facebook by young people in Colombia who led 12 million people in 190 cities to take to the streets in protest against the longstanding extremist Colombian group. Summit speakers include "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy James Glassman.
Panel topics include: How To Build Transnational Social Movements Using New Technology, How To Use New Mobile Technologies and How To Preserve Group Safety And Security. Participants will also be honored at a red-carpet event featuring celebrities, business leaders, and civil society figures at MTV's Times Square headquarters. Glassman said at a briefing that State provided "a small amount of money on the order of, I believe, $50,000" to help bring participants to the United States. Howcast.com, a Web site that offers how-to videos -- like how to tie a tie and how to avoid jet lag -- is the event's main sponsor, he said.
Meanwhile, the State Department and Adobe Foundation will announce the launch of an online video contest to amplify U.S. public diplomacy using Web-based outreach campaigns and social media platforms on Monday, Dec. 1. The “My Culture + Your Culture = ? Share Your Story” contest is part of a Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs initiative to encourage cross-cultural community building and mutual understanding via the Web and social media platforms.
Video submissions must be less than three minutes in length and will be accepted through Jan. 26, 2009. The agency's ExchangesConnect community will vote on the entries and two foreign and two American winners will be selected.
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