As 2,000 representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 100 countries met for the 56th Annual DPI/NGO Conference, hundreds of people also "attended" via a UN webcast, while computer science students in Chicago, Illinois monitored the process. By the end of the first day, more than 500 people around the world had logged.

The webcast provided live audio and video feed of the plenary sessions of the Conference for the first time; viewers e-mailed questions to the speakers and participated in a live chat about conference issues. More than 2,000 visitors from 46 countries—from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France and Japan to Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Pakistan and South Africa—logged on during the first week of the live broadcast.

The Conference, on "Human Security and Dignity: Fulfilling the Promise of the United Nations", was held at UN Headquarters in New York City from 8 to 10 September 2003. The live webcast covered all plenary sessions of the three-day conference and was archived for future viewing. The UNTV camera from time to time panned the conference room, showing the audience at the United Nations, who were also able to watch the webcast from a large screen. A UN intern monitored a computer running the webcast and printed out and submitted questions to each session moderator; NGO representatives were thrilled when they heard, "here's a question from the Internet".

Questions came pouring in. During Monday afternoon's session on the Psychological Aspects of Human Security and Dignity, a webcast participant asked: "What can be done to repair the psychological damage done to child soldiers?" The next day, another asked: "Why do you think Governments see peace education as such a threat?"

This historic first webcast of the Annual DPI/NGO Conference was rated a huge success by United Nations staff, NGO representatives and webcast participants. Paul Hoeffel, Chief of the NGO Section in the UN Department of Public Information (DPI), said: "This was a pilot project that worked extremely well-our annual conference was truly international in scope, and it was wonderful that people who could not travel here to UN Headquarters participated through the webcast."

Photos courtesy of Patricia Szczerba

One viewer from North Carolina reported: "One benefit of participating via the Internet was that I could take notes and type commentary and questions on my keyboard as I listened. I could also look things up on the Web while listening to the speakers; for example, I looked up the Global Fund site during the Eminent Persons session to understand its mission, goals and methods."

The idea for the webcast began at the February planning committee meeting as members discussed ways to have more people attend the conference. Stephannie Mesrobian of the Armenian Relief Society, Inc. suggested the idea. Then wheels were set in motion. Mariana Amatullo of the Designmatters@ArtCenter said that perhaps their graduate students could help. The planning committee contacted Dan Utti, webmaster for the DPI/NGO Executive Committee web site and a representative of Lions International, who was enthusiastic about the proposal.

Designmatters@Art Center, a college-wide programme at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California that engages faculty and students in art and design projects of social and humanitarian importance, held an open competition at the College for the overall conference graphic image. The DPI/NGO Executive Committee selected the winning design: the close-cropped image of a mother-and-child embrace, communicating the theme of human security and dignity, designed by Graphic Design Department alumnae Candice Coh and used on all of the conference programmes, posters, banners and reports.

Students from DePaul University's School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems monitor the webcast e-mail and live chat.

The faculty at the Art Center College created a graduate course and nine students designed the webcast site in spring. A one-minute animated film with soundtrack was also designed and used to introduce the conference and its themes. The colourful work was produced and directed by five Media Design Department graduate students, with original music by Joel Astman (D.J. J Period). Dan Utti pulled the webcast elements together.

In August, the United Nations invited DePaul University to monitor the conference webcast. Steve Fenoglio, Assistant Director of Graduate Student Advising at the School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI), sent an e-mail to the officers of their Computer Science Society and within ten minutes had an enthusiastic response. Dan gave the webcast information to Steve, who in a 20-minute meeting with the computer science students had the monitoring all set up. Steve and CTI students read each e-mail and discussion board submission, and then decided whether to post the item and hid any that were inappropriate. Steve said: "One of the most critical and particularly relevant aspects of this project is security and the protection of all computers involved. Because some students were at home and others in our labs, one major issue was making sure that everyone used computers that were as secure as possible."

Even though the conference is over, people from around the world can still log on to the webcast archive and listen to or watch the plenary sessions, and continue to bring the discussion points to their organizations and classrooms. Many who attended the meeting have reported watching the webcast.
(See www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/webcast2003.htm)

Image from a UN animation film

Several have said: "It's wonderful to go home and watch the webcast and pick up points that we missed at the Conference. A lot is packed into three intense days. We can relax and watch the webcast more carefully."

In September 2004, the Annual DPI/NGO Conference will again take place and Paul Hoeffel and the DPI/NGO Executive Committee are planning on having the French and Spanish translations of the plenary sessions available via the webcast. Viewers will also be able to submit questions in English, French and Spanish. When asked if his CTI students can handle these languages, Steve Fenoglio replied: "Yes, given DePaul's diverse student body, French and Spanish are easy. We have 2,300 graduate students, many of whom are from outside the United States."

NGO representatives, university faculty members and high school teachers are already looking forward to the 2004 webcast, sending in questions to speakers via e-mail, participating in the online chat, and using the discussions in their meetings and classrooms. NGOs worldwide will gather in groups to participate in the Conference webcast, and teachers will watch in their classrooms.