We have recently been inspired by the Keepod campaign to create a new initiative to promote digital media skills in our children.

Keepod if you haven’t heard of it is a fantastic campaign to give children in Kenya access to their own operating system. Computers are scarce in Kenya and the opportunity for young children to spend time on a computer is limited. Things are made even more difficult by the fact that they have to share the operating system and cannot have their own files and software installed.

Keepod are fighting that by providing the children with free android operating systems that they can boot from a usb stick. It’s a great scheme that really caught our attention here at Project BlueSky. Check out this video if you want to learn more.

Inspired

We’ve been inspired by the concept of Keepod to create something similar for Project Bluesky. The idea came to us from Arnold Clavell who is a master if minimalist packing and getting everything he needs into  small carry on luggage.

One way that Arnold does this is not to travel with a laptop. Instead he runs his operating system off a usb stick with all this graphics and media software preinstalled. That way when he is travelling he can simply plug his stick into any computer that is available and all his operating system, software and files are available to him.

When we run our workshops we need software for the children to work on. Often computers are available but they don’t have the graphics or video editing software that we require preinstalled. Also, schools don’t want us turning up and installed a bunch of photo or video editing software on their school pcs.

Our solution thanks to Arnold is to turn up with a set of usb sticks that have a bootable version of the Linux operating system complete with our favorite suite of open source digital media software. We are currently running:

• Gimp
• OpenSHOT
• Inkscape
• Notepad++

It’s a great solution and because all the software is freely available we can provide the child with the usb stick to take away for only the small cost of the device. It’s a great way to get anyone up and running quickly with a set of tools to acomplish most tasks. And since our aim is to teach the broad principles rather than a specific software application it suits us perfectly!

We recently carried out our first Project Blue Sky google hangout workshop. Emily Adams from Firework Design did a 90 minute show about the basics of how to make money from a website to a group of 11 and 12 year olds from Glasgow, Scotland.

The students were all part of local teachers Business and IT class and the event was arranged after we were contacted by Ian Carpenter from Easterhouse High School.

We connected Ian with Heidi Jacobs who runs Firework Design and has also created some small project websites that earn money.

Easterhouse is a deprived area of the city and the children that attend Oakwood Primary School often come from underprivvaliged backgrounds. Ian Carpenter hopes that the presentation by Julia has inspired the children and together as a class they plan to create their own website project and earn money for the school funds.

Perhaps one or two of the pupils will take the lessons learned and develop things even further!

Project Blue Sky are on the look out for media agencies with expertise that they can share to teach the next generation of web designers, web developers, graphic designers, video creators, seos and internet entrepreneurs.

Our aims are to connect with young people and in particular young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

One of the most powerful aspects in our transition to the information economy is that it allows people from disadvantaged backgrounds to compete globally in the workplace. Providing of course they can learn the skills required to compete.

Our remit is to connect canadian businesses with digital media experts with young people who could really do with a helping hand to develop this skills they need.

We do this through the creation of free online learning materials, online workshops and hangouts as well as real life workshops.

If you think that your agency fits the bill and you have some time to spare. Even it’s simply 1 day per month we’d love to hear from you. 

What’s In It For You?

Aside from the warm glow of doing something good Project Blue Sky is a great opportunity to network with other digital media professionals. Some collaborations have already taken place our partners host a monthly online meetup to discuss Blue Sky projects.

On top of that participating on Project Blue Sky is something that you can be proud of and share the good news with your clients and potential clients.

We expect further business development opportunities to present as Project Blue Sky develops.

You might not think that todays young people need any advise regarding social media however there is a world of difference between chatting with your friends and uploading photos to engaging with customers.

Today’s most digital savey businesses use social media as a tool to connect with their customer base. They use it to for public relations, for understanding their marketplace and for driving traffic and increasing turnover.

As part of the Project Blue Sky programme 1st year students at the University of Western Ontario were recently treated to a Social Media For Business Workshop by Alicia Davenport of Scrann Media.

Alicia showed how she uses social media tools like facebook, twitter and pinterest to manage customer relations on behald of Scrann Media’s clients.