In April, 1996, the project received the financial support of an Intercultural Collaboration Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation to support the publication of an enhanced version on CD-ROM, "The Revolution Will Be Digitized", and the continued development of a this web-site. This fellowship has made it possible for us to expand the project by sending a Zapnet correspondent to the April 1996 Continental Encounter in Chiapas, and to collaborate via internet connections with artists at a distant location such as Lucia Grossberger Morales. Throughout the past months, a talented team of more than 20 researchers, programmers and student interns has been working to incorporate new content and to enhance various technical features of the project. The Project's web site has been updated and improved with a site guide (www.actlab.utexas.edu/~zapatistas/guide.html) as well as new content modules developed around the Zapnet site visit to the town of Oventic. To learn more about collaboration with Zapnet, see our communiquÈ. Zapnet currently has an updated set of storyboards which map out the overall navigation of the information structure and are designed to allow for the incorporation of newly arriving content. These storyboards are in the form of a relational database which can be used to output data for inclusion into lingo searching and handling commands. We are in the process of creating collaborative agreements with diverse content providers. Together with "correspondents" of artists, writers and activists, some of whom we have been working with for more than a year, we are expanding the scope of the project. Distribution/Audience:
The Demo has been shown at The Dallas Video Festival, The Media and Democracy Congress, The National Educational Media Network Conference, and Institute of Latin American Studies Student Association Conference (University of Texas at Austin.) In addition, Zapnet's downloadable demos have been showcased on the Free Speech TV web-site. This project has generated a lot of excitement wherever it has screened and we expect that the enhanced version will appeal to a wide variety of audiences, including students, educators, artists, activists, and all those interested in understanding and utilizing the power of the internet communications. We are developing distribution plans which will include a broad-based outreach program and a fundraising strategy to provide CD-ROMs to community centers and underserved populations. In addition, several exhibition curators and academic panels have expressed interest in inviting us to install or present the Zapnet CD-ROM and web-site. |