1st 4M Annual Meetings: What future for digital media?

Digital media for tomorrow International conference on issues inherent in the switch to digital for media in the Mediterranean region.

On 17 and 18 June 2011, CFI is organising an international conference on issues inherent in the switch to digital for media in the Mediterranean region, in partnership with Rue 89, the Lille higher school of journalism (ESJ) and the Institute for Technoscience for News and Communication (ITIC) at the University Paul-Valéry (Montpellier 3).

The "4M" conference aims to create an environment designed to promote an exchange of know-how between media players in the Mediterranean region covering the challenge posed by the digital switchover. Now is the ideal time to share a host of diverse experiences and it offers these new web players both a testing ground as well as an area offering free reign where innovation plays a pivotal role.

The aim of this conference, to be held at the university Paul-Valéry, Montpellier 3, is to provide an opportunity to discuss these innovations now shaping the new media scene.
It will be attended by nearly 80 participants from France and ten Mediterranean nations: Tunisia, Egypt, Croatia, Algeria, Lebanon, Bosnia, Jordan, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories and Serbia.

The programme will be geared around four major plenary sessions (1 hr 30 min):
1. Digital revolutions: issues for the future
2. Building an economic model: good methods, nasty surprises
3. Hiring, training and managing on the web: an organisation on the move
4. The web as a vector for democracy

Plenary sessions will alternate with a series of 16 hands-on workshops lasting 45 minutes each, based on first-hand experience. "4M" responds to issues crucial to the development of the region and, by mobilising the new media players on the Mediterranean rim, will contribute to fostering dialogue and sharing on both coastlines. With the emergence of these new media players from civil society, this conference is of singular importance.

Interview with Cedric Kalonji, Founder & Editor of Congo Blog