Expeditio

Annex taken from www.netokracija.com Along with the question whether the outdoor and indoor public spaces in Montenegro are truly public and how the state manage them, Biljana Gligoric, an architect and one of the founders of the NGO Expeditio from Kotor, in Friday started her seven days within project: "Montenegro on Twitter – Get Involved in the Changes" .

"Montenegro on Twitter - Get Involved in th Changes" is a project of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) and the Office of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Montenegro, which aims to strengthen social activism through the network.

As we announced, through the project, and through the official account @cgtvituje in the next six months twitters and the general public will have the opportunity to meet Montenegro in the way it is seen by affirmed experts from various fields,which are more or less known to the public. Every seven days from the official account @cgtvituje will twitt another participant in the project, which will publicly announce his views in the area he knows, and announce what is good and what the problems are. As Biljana Gligorić says:

I did not have a lot of thinking whether to get involved in this project because I am close to all initiatives that aim to improve the situation in the society. If I can use my expertise, to identify problems and solutions, I'm happy to do it.

She uses social networks from while ago and, as he says, believes in their power, but adds that certainly has not used all their strength.

This is an opportunity to do it in a meaningful way, to be part of the wider initiative. The power of social networking is great, but it seems to me that this power is often not used for genuine social change. But the potential is there, for us to use these channels to mobilize people for specific topics. We know about examples that shows social networks as communication channels for the movements that encouraged major political changes.

In the next seven days users will be able to follow her topic under the hashtag # space .

Even before begining, more than 600 users began following @cgtvituje

The official account of the project in the early days, before the official start of the implementation, was followed by more than 600 users. The CDT is satisfied with Twitter community reaction to the announcement of the project. As Ivana Drakić, project coordinator CDT, says:

The account obtained, just in five days of the opening, over 600 followers, only on the basis of initial information about the project. This shows us that the people aroused their curiosity, and thus the project has a better chance to be successful.

Waiting for the official start of the project, these days the users, adds Ivana, mainly required about the other participants, and the expected results.

For now, we are able to discover just the name of Biljana Gligorić as the first participant, because the project operates on the principle that one participant announces the following. We want people to get focus on important social issues, and for it is not necessary to know the names of all participants in advance.

As about the expected results of the project aconcerned, Ivana adds that via @ cgtvituje account, users will be informed on various social issues, find out what are the problems, which are positive sides in certain areas.

As the goal of the project is not only information, but also to empower of the social activism of citizens through the introduction of initiatives to address the problem, once the initiative is launched via accounts, CDT will, in cooperation with partners, the portal Vijesti and the show "Robin Hood," which airs on public service RTCG; try to work together, in cooperation with institutions and affect on their resolution.

We want to send a massage of Montenegro as a country which discusses important social issues and whose citizens are willing to be actively involved in solving problems. Certainly, initiatives that start during the project thanks to our participants interact with other members of the community will be the most important result of the project. Finally, we expect to increase the Montenegrin Twitter community, to be joined by the people who did not have an account on this social network.

Project "Montenegro Twitts – Get Involved in the Changes" was inspired by initiative Curators of Sweden (Curators of Sweeden).

In December 2011, Sweden became the first country in the world that has an official account on Twitter surrendered into the hands of citizens. Each week a new person twitt on the account @sweeden and thus shares with account followers, stories and information related to Sweden. That account currently has 67,000 followers.