empowerment symposium - Part II

Friday morning was probably not the best time to present after a conference "networking evening".  The first session I saw involved Paul Hilder from AVAAZ.org, Sara Ashton from Amnesty, Thomas Noirfalisse from Oxfam and Juan Gonzalez-Mellizo from the European Commission.  All fine speakers with interesting things to say.  AVAAZ was a very interesting example of an organisation using the internet effectively to campaign in the real world.  Avaaz means "voice" in some languages and the strange thing for me is that they have managed to get such wide and numerous support based on their ability to campaign, rather than a history of campaigning on a certain subject.  Tom Steinberg, chairing the session, expressed the real potential for the existing NGO giants to be upstaged and replaced by an efficient and effective online "competitor" like Avaaz.

The final session was dominated by Paul Waller from the Digital Inclusion Team.  I don't want to say anything, but I would like to point you to a "film" he showed.  It "was filmed in virtual reality for the obvious reasons."  Please enlighten me to what the obvious reasons are in the comments.