related links:

Tonga.Online

Tonga Voice on the Internet: Tonga.Online

A 'Big Blue Van', a mobile Internet centre on a truck, has been the first connection tot the Internet of the Tonga-people in Zimbabwe. It is one of the achievements of the Tonga.Online project, which has been awarded a Honorary Mention in the Net Excellence category.

Tonga.Onlinewas initiated by 'Austria Zimbabwe Friendship Association' based in Linz. It is a project on media, information & communication technology and art focusing on the Tonga people in the remote Zambezi Valley bordering Zimbabwe and Zambia. The project will be presented during the Ars Electronica Festival.

The project goal is to promote a Tonga voice on the Internet. In turn it provides people in the Tonga area with the most advanced tool to communicate and to represent themselves to the outside world.

What are the implications, results and effects of such an endeavor? This was and still is a matter of discussion and reflection within the working group, among the stakeholders involved and with the wider public.

The project reflects the gaps and imbalances which still exist or are rather widening in the 'global village'. Such imbalances are no longer just a question of resources but also of access and the capacity to use modern communication tools. Access has become a crucial question of political rights too:

In the 21st Century, the capacity to communicate will almost certainly be a key human right.'
Nelson Mandela

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2 comment(s)
I do not understand this project at all. (TURE SJOLANDER / 2002/5/19 9:46:22 PM)
Re: Tonga Voice on the Internet: Tonga.Online (Buckminster Tonga / 2002/5/18 2:35:42 AM)