please forward! Communications Rights Delegation to the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela Call for Participants! A group of activists and policy advocates who work to change the media are forming a delegation to the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela from January 22nd to 29th. The goals of the trip will be to facilitate cultural exchange between the movements for communication rights and media reform in the North and South. We hope to learn about how movements for media reform are more deeply embedded in and interconnected to movements for social change in the Latin American context. It is a very opportune location, because Venezuela has a thriving new community media sector which includes radio and TV as the result of the corporate medias complicit role in the attempted coup against President Chavez. Also important is recent Venezuelan leadership in intellectual property issues. We will bring a broad, representative spectrum of members of the communications rights movement, from inside-the-beltway organizations reform groups to grassroots media justice activists. There will be preliminary and ending sessions so that the group can draw conclusions together about the lessons US advocates can learn from the Venezuelan experience and the World Social forum, and facilitating reporting back to the wider media and social change community. A reading packet will be prepared about world social forum and Venezuelan communications issues. Visits will also be scheduled to community radio and tv stations, government ministries, grassroots groups and other places of interest. All delegates must be representatives of groups that have a role in media and social change issues. As part of the delegation, you'd be responsible to contribute to discussions of the opportunities for international collaboration and the lessons of the liberation movements of the south that may be brought home to the communications change issues in the US. We will also want to know what community you are accountable to in the US, how you plan to share your experiences with that group and others, and how you hope to draw these international connections into your work. The delegation will be roughly ten to fifteen people. Funds are available for scholarships. Deadline for application for scholarships is December 31st, 8 pm eastern time. Deadline for joining the delegation is January 2nd, 8 pm eastern time. The application is the same, but scholarship slots are limited and will be decided by a committee by January 1st. The cost for participation is not exact yet but will be roughly $2000, airfare and hotels and admission to the WSF included. Scholarships will be sliding scale, with smaller organizations getting more of their costs covered. The delegation is being organized by Third World Majority and Prometheus Radio Project, with major support from Consumers Union, The Social Sciences Research Council, and others still joining. One of the slots will involve a partnership with the Social Science Research Council's "Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere" Program. The "Necessary Knowledge" program is seeking a delegate with interest and/or experience in research for media/communications advocacy, particularly in participatory methods that engage activist groups and communities in research projects. In this role, the attendee will be asked to help the identify research needs and opportunities in and around the media research community present at WSF (both within the US delegation and internationally), as well as to explore models of participatory research that others are using to build movements for social change -- and then to write up the findings in an informal written report. (SSRC will provide a list of the questions we hope to explore). In this context, an additional $250 honorarium will be provided. Please indicate if you would like to be considered for this role. Send completed applications or questions to [log in to unmask] call 215-727-9620. Petri will be available throughout the holidays, so do not feel shy about calling during that time. if you did not receive a copy of the attached application, you can find it at www.prometheusradio.org/wsf.doc -- Kate Coyer Department of Media and Communications Goldsmiths College University of London www.radiostudiesnetwork.org.uk