blogging workshop

Yesterday I got a call from To√±o, one of many Mexicans that have come to Canada looking for better opportunities. He is young but his voice conveys a very calm attitude, almost zen-like. He has completed engineering studies back home, but the lack of local acreditations have him working as cheap labour. He is in survival mode and as such is likely willing to try almost anything. I worry that if I can’t help, someone will take advantage of his situation.

He is likely going to be one of the first candidates to participate in a blogging workshop that will allow him to explore new ventures by teaching him basic skills. While I know it is unlikely that anybody will make enough money through blogging, specially at an amateur level, the essential lesson is that people coming from remote corners of the world to the big cities should not dismiss their cultural baggage, and instead should take advantage of the wealth of knowledge. Blogging is just the mechanism to make them realize their potential.

A few months ago, I posted think culturati, an early attempt to describe what this blog was all about. The idea has evolved in directions I didn’t expect, but at the core I believe the principle of bringing the conversation of this blog to tangible results continues to be important. At the time I was spending a lot of time working with Wikipedia, so it seemed a good idea to use the army of migrant bloggers to produce information useful for bridging cultures. Today, I’m a little bit less concerned about structuring information and more about helping raise awareness to the issue of migrants shaping Global Culture.

So far this initiative is running out of my own pockets, and I expect to be able to take it much farther on my own, but if you have any ideas on how to organize a blogging workshop in the Toronto area (space, rentals, tools, volunteers, grants), please drop me a line as the first one is likely going to take place within the next couple of months. Even better, if you know anyone who would be good candidate to participate, send them my way.