Baldati e-dialogue project

When the dialogue is the most missed element in Lebanon on both the political level and the public level, especially when it comes to youth issues, and since we never had referendums, we are always blocked when politicians disagree and we have neither the tool nor the place where citizens can bypass this obstacle, meet, discuss and express themselves.

Baldati.com (which means My Village on the net, in Arabic) is a national project aiming to reform and empower the Lebanese Communities through the Internet. Lebanese Villages, Clubs and Diaspora are the main target groups of this project.

Baldati.com aims to animate these communities and to facilitate communication and coordination among them. It is a way to let communities interactively develop and collaborate on many levels, mainly on the social and human ones. It also aims to prepare and expose these communities to new international perspectives.

The action is to launch a Lebanese E-Dialogue in parallel to the needed “well known” Lebanese National Dialogue. When the second (omitted most of the Lebanese), closed the streets of Beirut for security reasons and couldn’t implicate more than the Lebanese leaders, the first comes to invite all the Lebanese (especially the youth) to assume their responsibilities in their communities wherever they are, whenever they want, abroad, at home, at work, in their village or in the city, in the car or in a café, they can be part of it since it is an E-Dialogue over our Lebanese communities’ portal www.baldati.com . After all, we will elect the Best Baldati Moderator, Facilitator, and Host in a final ceremony where people will touch the results through presentations and witnesses and hard workers will be rewarded in the best way.

          We believe that with clear predefined objectives, and valuable incentives, the right technical preparation, a good promotion to reach every Lebanese in the World, a well studied follow up and capacity building for those who need it, switching between a neutral cyber space and typical targeted outdoor activities, participants should come up with a sort of E-Referendum that can be our guide to a better and stable E-Lebanon.

Our E-Dialogue will be the only place that can host MILLIONS without even disturbing “the traffic”, no parking needed, no classic suits required, just a good will to make a difference.

Baldati E-dialogue’s main objective is the creation of a youth community able to promote inter-communal Dialogue between displaced, locals and emigrants through www.baldati.com , the Regional Media Tool.

 The e-dialogue@baldati.com

Offers the opportunity for:

    Participants:

-         To choose the10 topics they are most interested to discuss with another Lebanese.

-         To discuss those topics online with other Lebanese.

-         To learn how to be active citizens through workshops, trainings, hiking trips and events.

-         To compete on National level and be candidates for the Baldati best moderator’s award that will be announced in the final ceremony.

    Local NGOs to participate in the contest too, facilitate, promote, submit members and be candidates for the Baldati best Associate awards.

    Municipalities to participate in the contest too, facilitate, promote, submit members and be candidates for the Baldati best host award.

Target groups are Lebanese youth.

Rules of the game

1-    Register on www.baldati.com and fill in your profile.

2-    Join the website and fill online the polling about the 10 issues you are most interested to discuss with other Lebanese. http://www.baldati.com/dialogue/topics

3-    Once the 10 topics are gathered, check on periodical basis (every 15 days) the new topic to be discussed.

4-    Participate in online discussions by posting your messages on www.baldati.com

5-    Participate in training sessions and hiking trips to continue the dialogue.

6-    Don’t hesitate to ask for help on the website or by contacting Baldati offices (info@baldati.com+961 4 922 999)

7-    Messages will be rated by other members and a jury from Baldati. You’ll get your points at the end of every discussion.

8-    You’ll be rated according to:

-         The number of mails sent over the period of discussion.

-         The relevance of your ideas and argumentation in the message.

-          Your active participation in physical meetings: hikes, training sessions, discussion meetings.

-         Your ability to respect opponents.

-          Your role in the group (leadership skills, face to face dialogue skills…)

Baldati E-dialogue, a national e-referendum!