Timor Leste Radio Connect
Connecting 14 Timorese community radio stations with the nation's diaspora to create a new online international market for them
Context and Issue:
The overall objective of the project is to create a permanent new source of revenue for local radio stations in Timor Leste and to make a critical impact in the sector’s struggle to become a viable commercial activity. Creating an online e-business platform facilitates direct communication with the Timorese diaspora in Portugal, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and elsewhere, as well as with the significant community of international citizens who continue to be interested in Timor Leste. In order to do this successfully, a number of elements were put in place. In Timor Leste, the TLMDC, a Timorese NGO active since 2000, has worked with the radio stations to construct a website and corresponding updating mechanism adapted to very basic IT capabilities. In many cases, the stations themselves remained out of direct access to the Net. So, they burnt audio and text material to CDs and sent them to Dili, where content was uploaded. Internews Europe installed the e-business platform, adapting one of the many existing open source Content Management Systems and adding security elements from e-commerce platforms as needed. Finally, INDE of Portugal has promoted the system to the likely demographic attracted to the service - the diaspora and others interested in Timor - with a series of public events and publications.
Project's activities:
The main activities of the project include adapting a content management system and securitised e-commerce platform, training radio stations to go online, targeting face-to-face promotion of the service in the Timorese diaspora and among other interested parties in the EC countries. These efforts are followed-up on email. The revenues generated are disbursed on the e-commerce platform back to the radio stations in Timor. Additionally, monitoring of the radio stations has enabled identifying a lack of basic journalistic skills in some of them as the staff are mainly volunteers who have a high turnaround. Six TLMDC staff members have been trained on the use of the online content management system and three TLMDC staff members regularly use the content management system to upload news stories. They are able to solve basic technical issues and provide a first level of support for the radio station’s IT staff. Twelve radio journalists and seven IT staff from the community radios have been introduced to online news publishing and the use and maintenance of the SPIP content management system.
Participants and Beneficiaries:
The parties interested in the project were approached in at least three different ways : First, individuals and companies could buy advertising space on an individual station, sending the text of messages they wanted to be read out. The market exists at two levels - the first being a business-to-business market of enterprises run by the Timorese diaspora and the second being a consumer market for individuals in the diaspora who would use the system to publish items such as family announcements, requests for music, and so on. Second, businesses or individuals were also able to sponsor either an entire radio station or one of its specific programmes. As the stations became more confident and sophisticated, they also posted sponsorship and e-patronage campaigns for particular goals (such as, acquiring a motorcycle to enable reporting, or purchasing an extra computer to facilitate editing). Third, listeners were able to make a general donation to the radio sector, which performs a vital social function in Timor. Using a credit card, Paypal, or other widely accepted forms of e-payment, listeners can contribute to a fund in Dili, administered quarterly to support the radio sector.
Outcomes:
While the first year of the Timor Radio Connect project focused essentially on building the capacity of the local radios and allowing them to manage their online presence, the second year of the project continued to reinforce the private and community radio sector in Timor Leste and to build the foundation of trust between the radio stations and their online audience. TLMDC’s Internet connectivity improvements have significantly enhanced its capacity and sustainability and have been able to provide improved training programmes in classical and online journalism, thereby improving the professionalism of Timorese journalists. TLMDC also increased its technical capacity in managing Internet connectivity, thus building a skill set that can be directly applied to help the Timorese radio sector to use ICTs to improve the quality of programming. They can also open up to the international information available on the Internet and, therefore, lead their local communities in promoting information technology’s educational benefits. The low resources and connectivity of the Timorese community radio sector, the small numbers and generation gaps within the Timorese diaspora, and particularly its lack of familiarity with online commerce, all contributed to the focus on capacity building instead of revenue generation. However, the e-commerce platform will be ready to be deployed on the radio websites once they have reached a satisfying level of updated journalistic quality.
“Many people from Baucau are now working as labourers in Ireland and England. They would want to send messages to their families or dedicate music to them because they miss their families.”
Caetano da Costa Freitas, Secretary for Radio Comunidade Lian Matebian Baucau
“This training is very important for our radio station and and we are lucky to attend this training. We would like to thank TLMDC for inviting us for the training.”
Sico and Hugo from Radio Timor Leste
