By FD for APCNews SFANTU GHEORGHE, Romania,
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When Strawberrynet started up in 1994 as a project of the Nemere Hiking Association, there were virtually no internet (service) providers in Romania. “There was the APC-type communication. We were in contact with GreenSpider of Hungary and decided that we wanted to hook up, create a network. We installed a server, started offering support and trainings,” recounts Mihály Bakó from his modest workplace in eastern Transylvania.
The Strawberrynet activists got a project financed by the National Environmental Centre in Budapest and bought an unlimited license to distribute the ‘Emil’ email client to organisations in Romania. The front end designed for enabling unix-to-unix copies (UUCP is an international protocol) provided a nice interface for email exchange, a practice still in its infancy at that point. Distributed to about 120 organisations in Romania, the Emil email client software was the first ever software programme translated in Romanian.
Since then, connectivity improved dramatically and big players started offering a full range of internet services. Strawberrynet concentrated on the non-governmental organisation (NGO) niche, providing solutions so that they could communicate effectively and with the lowest costs possible.
Databases and campaign tools
One good example of NGO support is the online national NGO database. This interactive platform running on APC-supported content management system (CMS) ActionApps can be updated by the users themselves, since its launch in 2004. Strawberrynet has collaborated with CENTRAS of Bucharest to achieve this easily updatable database with more than 900 subscribers. It has muted in the main reference on NGOs in Romania and cross-referencing on many websites of Romania’s environmental organisations. The database is part of the national portal http://www.ngo.ro with an average of 22,000 visits per month.
But Strawberrynet is not only about NGOs. It is also strengthening campaigns on the technical side. For the ‘Save Rosia Montana’ campaign in which social movements, environmentalists and local communities fight against plans of Canadian gold company Gabriel Resources to exploit an open pit mine in western Transylvania Dan Craioveanu came up with two important tools.
He developed an online payment system that was put on the campaign’s website and allows donations to be made in several currencies to the campaign organisations. The second tool is a coordination tool for lawyers. “It helps coordinate their actions. It’s like a calendar tool with special features and it’s heavily in use, since there are many legal challenges and issues arising in that campaign!” Mihály counts.
Hosting for social change
“We are hosting around 60 NGO websites,” says Mihály. For instance, APC member Strawberrynet recently built a new ActionApps driven site (under upload, to be launched) and hosts the website of Terra Mileniul III, one of the most active environmental NGOs in Romania. See http://terraiii.ngo.ro.
For those wondering where the domain name NGO.ro comes from, Bakó explains that it is Strawberrynet’s portal domain name, only dedicated to environmental and social NGOs, as well as civic initiatives. “It’s like a root domain, as well as a progressive NGO brand,” says Mihály. “Groups that fit with our values [1] and effectively are NGOs can get a domain name with us.” That is a difference with the general ORG.ro root domain handed out by the Romanian ROTLD, RNC, Mihály insists. “They don’t filter at all, meaning that you could have a company running under ORG.ro,” he observes.
1 Strawberrynet relies on four core values, which are the respect of people and the environment; equality of chances and opportunities; involvement and engagement, as well as; digital inclusion (understood here as the opposite to digital divide).
Training the untrained
Training is part of Strawberrynet’s projects and is arranged on demand.
Back in 1995-96, it was offering free trainings for NGOs, in order to get their workers to use email for the first time. “In the same period, we did general information and communication technology (ICT) training with the APC WNSP (APC’s women’s programme), explains Rozi Bakó, trainer and consultant at Strawberrynet. “We explained email ethics to women’s groups, rose basic awareness about ICTs, offered online assistance and even distributed modems,” Rozi recalls, a smile of remembrance on her face.
2003 was also a good year in terms of trainings. Strawberrynet offered a series of three ICT trainings that took place in Sfantu Gheorghe, Bucharest and Galati. “We provided training on information issues, content uploading and on how to use ActionApps, how to publish on the web. These were partly technical and partly journalistic,” Rozi explains.
Since then, Strawberrynet has been laying low on trainings. “We had half-day workshops and presentations within organisations. More like consultancy, guidance work,” says Rozi, who is a lecturer at the Sapientia University, in the middle of the Seklerland [2].
2 Sekler is the name given to the Hungarian minority living in Central-East Transylvania, Romania.
Whether developing tools, hosting websites or assisting civil society organisations through trainings, Strawberrynet remains determined that social movements can contribute tremendously in reversing the top-down culture that marks Romania until today. “It takes time to build, it takes a second to wreck it,” says Rozi, quoting lyrics from a song by rap trio Beastie Boys. “But we’re building and we’re doing it as a team,” says she.
Strawberrynet has been a member of the Association for Progressive Communications since 2000 (partner since 1996) and Mihály Bakó is presently on the board of APC.
