The world is changing, new, more open media platforms are replacing older closed ones. Even in parts of the developing world with unreliable Internet access and state censorship to contend with, mobile phones, WIFI, 3G and programmes like One Laptop Per Child are increasing awareness of, and access to, Internet and mobile channels.

In this new environment, new media literacy – a complex combination of the technical, creative, editorial, design and multimedia production skills – is fundamentally important: we believe that those who best understand and utilise these new media will have most influence on the narratives that inform the politics of development.

Practically speaking, we want to help others in the developing world and the international development community utilise new media to tell their stories more effectively, and:

1. Promote new media communication tools and forms for international development

2. Tell those stories ignored or censored by other media

3. Reach as wide an audience as possible with these stories

4. Include stories and voices from the widest possible range of backgrounds and perspectives

5. Create an archive of projects for development communications professionals

6. Pass on our skills and knowledge so that others can tell their own stories more effectively

7. Use, where possible, free and open source tools and services

8. Create resources that have practical application in the field

9. Experiment with new forms of multimedia story-telling

10. Encourage uptake of creative commons and other more open forms of intellectual property