Roaming with Fellow Globalists

I’ve spent much of the last 24 hours with the lovely Solana Larsen, Global Voices’ managing editor. It’s a bit strange to realize that this is only the second time we’ve met face to face – like many of the most important people involved with Global Voices, our relationship is mostly virtual, but it’s never a surprise that it’s great fun to spend time in the same place.

Solana’s been filling me in on some of the going-ons of my GV colleagues, ten of whom recently shared a house in Miami to attend the WeMedia conference. Evidently when you put this many global geeks in the same place, some odd conversations result. For instance, a Bolivian/Bahraini collaboration has led to a new website – LolQats – which promises insightful commentary on Yemen, Somalia and other qat-consuming nations.

It’s not like Solana has any shortage of cool projects to work on. For one thing, she’s the President of the Danish-Puerto Rican Society, an international organization that’s for PuertoDansk people (all ten of them) and for anyone else who is of confusing ethnicity.

Actually, the membership criteria are a bit broader than that. Quoting from the membership page, “It’s a friendship society, which means if you’re friends with a Dane or a Puerto Rican (or any combination thereof) you are eligible.” Based on my friendship with the society president and the odd fact that I routinely get invited to conferences “to provide an African perspective,” I qualify. You probably do, too.

Solana and I were speaking at Chris Lydon’s seminar at Brown University. As of the world’s great radio hosts, it’s only predictable that our class would have to turn into a radio show. Keep your eyes on the Radio Open Source website, where our conversation will be posted sometime soon.