Day 2 of Workshop on Democracy in Asia: Opening the Space

On Day 2 we shifted the gears. We started with reports from yesterday

Here you can listen to a podcast which was generated by another group on the topic of how you can use podcasts in promotion of democracy. I like the notion that "with the dissemination of MP3-Players, podcasts are a lifestyle issue".



We prepared the Open Space together, using the wonderful task cardset of Michael M Pannwitz. went into Open Space, which I opened in the classical way that Harrison Owen has described 20 years ago. Our theme was:

Increasing the Impact of Our Work: Promoting Freedom and Responsibility in Asia

Like always, it took a few minutes until 26 people have found 18 topics they were passionate about:

• How to make "politics" interesting to attract the youth?
• How to imporve right of expression in the region?
• How to increase "responsibility" in our society?
• How to further promote our brand (of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation?
• How to make our country "unity"?
• How to organize an interactive (interesting) conference?
• How to strengthening and spreading liberalism in the region?
• How to do a nice blog?
• Which message can persuade people of liberal values
• What medium for what message?
• Optimize use of new media, make use of technology (Mac) less intimidating?
• To have frequent skills training in the region
• How to improve my technical knowledge?
• Is a one fits it all approach politically suitable for every county in the region?
• Contiune to build and promote local elite
• How to overcome authoritarian attitude of people?
• How to produce a popular video for promoting democracy
• Shall we ignore or integrate religiouls values in our liberal advocacy?
• How to improve IAF alumni participation?
• How to change myself?
  

We had three slots of 1 hour each, interrupted by a delicious Indian meal in the 26th floor of our hotel. By the way - here is a little bit of promotion: The Rembrandt Hotel in Soi 18 Sukhumvit is a great hotel for conventions. The staff is very experienced and flexible. The downside - like in many Asian hotels is that our large room does not have any daylight - quite tiresome.