September 01, 2004

New Internet Gateway Gets Americans and Non-Americans Talking About the US Election

For Immediate Release
Sept 8, 2004

‘The World Speaks’ Launches as a Collaboration between Five International Websites

THE HAGUE, LONDON, NEW YORK, SEATTLE, STOCKHOLM and TORONTO —The World Speaks (www.theworldspeaks.net) launched today, creating a global online gateway that facilitates a multimedia dialogue between Americans and non-Americans in advance of the US presidential election.

Through www.theworldspeaks.net, the 700 million people connected to the Internet on every continent have the opportunity to talk, write and send video messages to Americans about their hopes and concerns for the most anticipated and important US election in recent history. And Americans are responding!

With only two months to go before Election Day, www.theworldspeaks.net lifts the quality of debate while bringing the discussion down to an intimate and personal level. No press secretaries, no ministry spokespersons, just real people with real concerns. Whether non-Americans support Bush or Kerry, they want US voters to think about the world before they drop the ballot. And recent polls clearly show that Americans care what the world thinks, understanding that security at home starts with being respected internationally.

The World Speaks is a spontaneous collaboration between five international websites based in Canada, The Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Together, they have a collective audience that runs up in the hundreds of thousands, and through media partnerships and syndication, millions.

The five groups are:

openDemocracy.net - My America: Letters to Americans
www.openDemocracy.net is a website for debate about global politics and culture. Leading up to the US election openDemocracy is publishing a weekly exchange of letters in which Americans and non-Americans share their thoughts and feelings about the world’s lone superpower. My America: Letters to Americans delivers a wide range of fresh, provocative and stimulating exchanges as politicians, writers, and artists with differing viewpoints describe what America means to them. Letters exchanges so far have included: Chinese human rights activist, Wei Jingsheng and Anne-Marie Slaughter of Princeton University; British economist Will Hutton and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform; Indian editor Antara Dev Sen and Dinesh D’Souza, writer of What’s So Great About America. This project is an example of what openDemocracy.net does best, assisting hard thought about global issues through strong argument and counter-argument.

Solana Larsen from www.openDemocracy.net says: “Without dialogue there is no understanding. And the world needs to understand America’s decision, regardless of who is elected. World peace depends on it. Of course, if foreigners can help sway America’s decision: great. The United States isn’t alone on the planet.”

Talk to US
“Pretend your camera leads straight into the living rooms of all 300 million Americans, and then answer the question: "What would you like to say to the people of the United States?" Talk to US is a global forum created to broadcast the ideas, concerns, or stories of people around the world to ordinary US citizens through short video clips. World citizens record their opinions, and submit them to www.talktoUS.org The video clips, captured by professional filmmakers, as well as by anyone with a video camera and the desire to express themselves, already feature people from more than 15 countries and turn global issues from impersonal statistics into personal stories. It is these stories that have the power to open hearts and minds, raise important questions and create connections across borders. Some of the partners in this project include: Americans for Informed Democracy, American Voices Abroad, Global Exchange, Link TV, Mercy Corps, National Alliance for Media Artc and Culture, OneWorld TV and YMDI/Media Rights.

Kajsa Klein from www.talktoUS.org says: “There is a tremendous desire around the world to communicate with the American people. The biggest hope for keeping the United States mindful of international public opinion, are the estimated 700 million people connected to the Internet.”

Voices '04
www.Voices04.org combines the personal quality of letter-writing with the massive scale of global and instantaneous electronic communication. Launched exactly one year in advance of the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the project invites all non-U.S. citizens to submit Dear America letters and all U.S. voters to contribute statements to the world. The result is a much needed exchange of ideas among those who can vote on November 2nd and those who cannot. Authors of Voices ‘04 letters can write on any number of topics: including specific foreign policy issues, the Republican, Democratic, and Third Party candidates, the electoral process, or the current state of America-World relations. To date, the site has received letters from world citizens based in the U.K., France, Austria, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, The Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Australia, China, Haiti, Mexico, Canada and the United States. Voices ‘04 is supported in part by the University of Toronto’s McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology.

Peter Deitz from www.Voices04.org says: “The online projects we link to on www.theworldspeaks.net enable world citizens to talk with one another - not as governments to governments across borders – but as people to people.”

The World Votes
Theworldvotes.org is the first global e-democracy experiment and provides citizens around the world with a voice in the US election. The idea is to hold a mock election via the Internet at individual discretion, giving everyone around the world with access to the Internet the chance to cast a vote. Bush or Kerry? Voters choose the candidate they think is best for the world, giving reasons for their choice. The final outcome of the global vote for the U.S. President will be published on November 2, 2004. During the election campaign, intermediate polls will be published as well allowing U.S. citizens to take world opinion into account when making their own decision. This is what theworldvotes.org seeks to be: a community for the world’s citizenry to let present and future presidents know what they expect of the world’s most powerful state. Theworldsvotes.org gives everybody a chance to be counted.

Wiebe de Jager from Theworldvotes.org says: "The foreign policy of the next president is of direct concern to citizens around the world. What was missing was a way for citizens around the world to express themselves and be counted."

Earth to America
www.EarthtoAmerica.org will bring the faces and voices of the world to the eyes and ears of US voters before the 2004 elections. Our goal is for Americans to hear directly from people worldwide about how the outcome of the 2004 US election—and the policies that will follow—will directly affect their lives. Earth to America will contact over 2,000 organizations in more than 160 countries that are Partners in the EarthAction Network, and invite them, and their millions of members, to send messages from the Earth to America site.

Lois Barber from www.EarthtoAmerica.org says: “By increasing US voters’ awareness and understanding of America’s interconnectedness to the rest of the world, we believe more Americans will be motivated to vote for a candidate who will work to create a more just, peaceful and equitable world.”

Posted by worldspeaks at September 1, 2004 02:57 PM | Email to a friend

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