The problem of the information format (for networks)

The Govcom.org Foundation organized a workshop, with generous support from the Open Society Institute, Budapest based on the Association for Progressive Communications meeting in Cartagena in 2003.

The APC, as a network deals with information formats on a daily basis but the question is, what does a network do with information formats, and what do you send a network? ‘New media’ networks differ from traditional media networks, so should information be sent in “old media” formats? For example, what does a network do with a press release?

This report seeks to understand how networks deal with information formats – are certain formats routinely filed away or deleted, whist others tend to circulate? The report provides an introduction to the some of the arguments about how to approach the problem of information formats (for networks).

Subsequently, it describes each of the projects undertaken at the workshop, including the data collected, the methods employed and the results eventually found. It also contains the info-graphics created during the workshop that aid in telling the stories in our final presentation, “The Problem of Information Formats (for networks).”