Helloworld Project - Global

This project is a global interactive text installation combining language, landscapes, and communication technology to create a visual dialogue. While the text projections are transient, the strategy here involves combining public participation, spectacular urban landscapes, and mass media coverage to create visual icons that inspire reflection and debate. Helloworld will engage the residents of the 4 cities in a dialogue - perhaps a critical one - that spans across all continents. The idea is to create a highly visible public platform for discussion.

Central to this project is public participation. Anyone with access to the Internet or mobile phone and who can communicate in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese may take part. Specifically, from December 9 to 12 2003, citizens are asked to use their mobile phones to send an SMS to a dedicated number, which will be projected every 15 minutes on all the sites, or to log onto the Helloworld site to enter a message there. People will be asked to specify which of the 4 city locations will receive their message. The "message jockeys" (MJs) of the Helloworld Project will decide what will be projected (commercial, sexist, or racist messages or messages with personal or religious insults will not be projected. However, all the messages received will be stored in the website message archive).

To inspire discussion, the messages will be displayed on Helloworld site. However, the key communication strategy is public display on a large scale. The text messages will be projected via a laser beam onto the following: Air India Building, Mumbai, India; Jet d'eau (water fountain), Geneva, Switzerland; Morro dois Irmãos (a tall mountain), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and the UN Headquarters Building, New York City. At the same time, these projected messages will appear in the PALEXPO hall, where the WSIS will take place. The size of the projections will range from 80x30 metres (Mumbai) to 600x80 metres (Rio de Janeiro). A Helloworld postcard reads "The Helloworld Project is a real space interface for ideas that are too big to fit on a computer screen".

Organisations are also asked to participate in the project. Online news journals or gateway are asked to publicise the initiative and feature the Helloworld link on their website; public art spaces and media labs are asked to create public access to the project by putting the project webpage on public screens.

Technology.

As part of its commitment to the promotion of culture, the FOC has been following and studying the impact of new technologies on Swiss society, in particular on cultural productions. At the beginning of 2003, the FOC tested different possible topics for a cultural event, and presented them to the members of the Swiss delegation. FOC selected Helloworld because they saw it as an interactive attempt to make the WSIS visible and to actively involve the general public as well as civil society across several continents. This is appropriate in light of the fact that the inclusion of civil society, they say, is an important topic at the World Summit. Further, they say that people responded well to Zurich media artist and producer Johannes Gees' digital project called "hellomrpresident" at the 2001 World Economic Forum (WEF).