Brussels was just a whistlestop on my recent Europe tour. Kris Hoet, a really nice marketing manager for Microsoft had invited us for a quick walking tour of the remarkable marketplace followed by a fabulous lunch, made more fabulous when Microsoft Belgium picked up the tab. I figured, I might get a couple of good leads on business apps for social media, then catch the plane to the next stop..
But the lunch topic got bigger than that... a lot bigger. First there was Pieter Baert, a talented photographer, who has co-founded a fascinating site that selects a single citizen-generated photo of his home town each day, then lets you clicks back one day-at-a-time to see a very cool photo story of a single physical community.
That got me into a talk about the universality of photos and their internet advantages. Photos are language agnostic, and the implications are still evolving. This brought me to the very special Ine Dehandschutter . The soft-spoken, but passionate, Ine has pioneered a photo project that seems to me to be a small but very effective step toward world peace.
What has that to do with a book on business and social media? I don't know. But Ine's is one Hell of a story and it seems to me that if people shoot more photos and fewer bullets at each other, the world may have more safe markets for conducting business.
The following is mostly Ine's story in her own words with a few editing liberties taken on my part.
1. Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your work?
©Catherine Vanholder
I live and work in Belgium as a freelance photographer and web designer. I'm busy with making a living. I am neither a politician nor a peace activist, but I do try to make best out of life and understand it.
I became a photographer to show the world what I saw and mostly what I wanted to see with my own eyes, was what was going wrong. I traveled to Iraq back in 2002 when Saddam was still there, and I saw what the UN embargo did to the people, I was in Russia in 2002 when the last 'free television' station was shut down by Putin, and was stunned the world didn't react to it. I lived in Israel for 2 years and I still have the feeling I cannot grasp it. I traveled the Middle East: to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and I was in Israel when the US-Iraqi war started and I still have the feeling the West doesn't understand what it is doing. Photography is a language to me, very powerful since it is so universal. It provides a way for me to tell the world my opinion.
2. Did you always want to be a photographer?
Actually, my dream had been to become a journalist and report. But once I was working as one, I realized the news is ruled by money and the public only sees the highlights, missing bigger pictures. Content is produced to please readers, instead of really informing them.
So I dropped the dream and figured out the internet is a nicer way to tell your story.
There is no editor. I can tell my story and spread it. I stumbled into blogging that way: I started to write my daily story on a site for friends. After a while I noticed I had many more readers than I thought I would have, and met a lot of people I didn't know. That's when I learned people are looking for alternative sources of information.
I learned blogging works. The power for me lies in the personal story. Blogs add a nice background to the news, additional info that can differentiate the main story, add accents, put faces on it.
Make it personal and thus touching.
The nice thing about blogging and the internet, is that there is one very important added value: contact. Today I open a site, I add a comment and I am in real contact with a stranger I don't know.
3. How was the idea for Snowblog born?
©SnowBlog
I studied photography in Israel. While living there, I was stunned that more than a physical wall which is being built. There is also this psychological wall.
I had 2 friends, one Israeli and one in Palestinian. As a 'free traveler' with the right passport and nationality I could move freely between Palestine and Israel. I spent a lot of time there and talked with many people, two of them good friends, one Yasser, a Palestinian guy and the other, Sigal, my Israeli roommate.
I'd carry conversation back-and-forth from one to the other, I told the other side what I had seen and what they said about each other. I kept getting into these circular conversations of "well tell your friend this, and tell your friend that." At a certain point I had enough, so I emailed the two of them: "Look, I love to hear all your arguments but maybe you should just talk to each other."
I think this stunned them both because neither one answered for a while. I don't remember who first sent the other an email, but then they started writing to each other, and the next moment they were phoning each other.
So I thought, heck, it is that simple...but there were other pieces.
Back in 2003, I started Photoblog with some friends as a project for fun that grew into a community. We started with 50 people and ended up with 400.000. We were showing pictures to the world, but most of all, exchanging ideas about photography and thus becoming friends and exchanging ideas out of life.
When PhotoBlog grew so popular, I remember thinking: this is it, people that never thought they would know each other are exchanging words, worlds and are widening their horizons. Suddenly we had Israeli's and Iranians online, and they were putting comments on each others blogs. And they started to communicate, eager to talk to each other.
That's when the basic idea for Snowblog was born. Snowblog was supposed to be a one-year project, while I studied in Israel.
Eventually, I found Language Connections, a nonprofit group of teachers working for world peace. They had an existing educational framework, but they had not yet considered the internet and its power. It turned out to be a perfect match.
Working with them, I would go to different locations, such as Gaza, to teach kids some basic photography and have them take pictures and put them on the web. We adapted Photoblog to our new needs, closing the environment for safety and legal reasons. Instead of just nine kids, 120 became involved.
I am still involved in the technical part.
4. Precisely, what is Snowblog?
Snowblog is a closed blogging site where children show pictures of their own lives and start to talk about them online and thus get acquainted with each other's cultures. It is not only the site, but is accompanied by an educational context, where children are taught a basic in photography, internet and English. All in a project form, integrated in the English class in traditional school rooms.
Why not get children to talk to each other through the web? Children who could not be in contact because of a conflict. Like Israeli and Palestinians. I went to my Belgian consulate in Jerusalem and asked them if they were interested in supporting a pilot project featuring nine kids: three Israeli, three Palestinian and three Israeli Arab. The consulate was enthusiastic and provided financing for what they called 'Preventive Diplomacy.'
5. What's the origin of the name "Snowblog?"
I wanted to call it "Snow in Jerusalem," because I once saw snow there. It was magical and is burned into my memory. Nobody thinks of snow in Jerusalem. It was surreal when I saw it. Israeli soldiers were playing with Palestinian kids, throwing snowballs to each other. The weapons became innocent snowballs and a game and it appeared on that day that peace was possible.
Anyway, we changed the name to Snowblog, because it was all about blogging and not limited to Jerusalem but snow remained a perfect match for self narratives on the web.
6. Where does the concept of Snowblog go?
My biggest dream is that Snowblog becomes an 'open source' thing, where teachers from all over the world can plug in their projects and use the 'framework' or platform or call it network to enable the exchange of ideas and have children widen their horizons. Where other teachers can look into these projects and re-use them.
My main example to refer to is the Apple Learning Exchange Program where projects are shared by teachers--a very strong statement. But the most important thing isn't available there and that's the network. I think a teacher should be able to say 'this month I'll do a project on Palestine, so let me find a school that wishes to connect with me.' or This month I am talking about Jews, so let's exchange cultures, by really exchanging cultures and not just 'talking about it'.
But that's the dream.
7. Give me an example of how the kids learned from this project?
We had a project 'food' where they exchanged pictures and ideas about food. The teachers got the kids to think about food. They wondered how to picture food.
We explained that they had to think beyond the obvious, so they learned food also could be seen as 'something important in cultural events, like the Muslim feast, Jewish Passover or Christian Christmas.
©SnowBlog
As they started to explain the meaning of the food rituals they ended up explaining their culture to each other and they liked it a lot.
8. What did you learn?
That kids are eager to know each other.
An interesting project sidebar was that problem kids, who were difficult to handle in other lessons, or had learning difficulties, were extremely enthusiastic and active in our lessons. One teacher told me one of her kids NEVER did anything during the whole year, and he keeps on asking when you are coming.'
We managed to arrange a meeting between 2 schools after the kids insisted on it, which was really not that easy, considering the political situation. At first, they were very shy, but then pointing to each other, 'hey, you are Amal, I recognize you from your picture' and it ended in a soccer game with mixed teams. The buses left home way too late, and then too, I had several kids coming over, saying 'teacher teacher, thank you so much for giving me a friend'
9. What lessons are there for people in general in the Snowblog experience?
On a high level. when you have an idea, or a dream, try to realize it.
More pragmatically, there's a need for a good program evaluation and changes for the program to evolve and keep current. For example, PhotoBlog was developed in 2003. It is almost 2007 and online platforms have developed a lot.
Also, kids today are different from the kids of 3 years ago. Today, youngsters have mobiles, SMS and the internet, so the program needs to get into them more profoundly.
And always, the program lacks funding.
10. What would you say to those who would argue that projects like Snowblog are too small and insignificant to make a difference?
If you manage to change only one person, making a difference for that person, then it is worth the effort.
One could say it is all cold water on a hot plate, evaporating. But it isn't. Some kids are changed by such projects. Maybe only in their own life or maybe in a bigger sense.
I really believe with the project we changed the idea of some kids, not because we said so, but because they decided for themselves.
©SnowBlogAnd we have to keep in mind: the kids of today are the leaders of tomorrow.
