Access to information is an important part of every community. It allows residents to learn and inform each other about local issues and is just as important of an infrastructure system as roads, water pipes, and sewer drains. During July and August 2008, Candy returned to Johannesburg for Global Studio, an action-research program where interdisciplinary students, academics, and professionals collaborate with community groups, residents, and local government. Spearheaded by the UN Millennium Development Goals, the program promotes forms of education and practice that will benefit under-served communities and facilitate bottom-up, collaborative partnerships. Candy's Communication Team worked closely with the local non-profit group Diepsloot Community News (DCN) to facilitate their needs and help improve ways residents can share information in Diepsloot township. DCN was started by Bongani Baloyi after a little girl was lost in Diepsloot. While she was safely found, it took three days because of the lack of tools to reach out to all residents.

After conducting a community survey on information accessibility last year, the team spent this year helping to develop skills, capacity, and networking contacts, and explored ways to immediately establish affordable mediums for collective communication. Inspired by a community chalkboard model in Liberia, the team installed community chalkboards in Diepsloot. Public and paperless, the chalkboards gives residents an accessible platform to share information and self-organize on a daily basis. The team will monitor the chalkboards to see how they can be improved, and they will continue their longer-term projects to expand communication tools, including a local radio station, a local newspaper, and SMS mobile technology (great resources: Mobileactive.org, Knight News Challenge, Kiwanja.net).

Team participants: Bongani Baloyi, Lucky Mkah, Lungile Maphumulo, Tebatso Lebotsa, Selaelo Chuene, Phumlani Suka, Warren Mabona, Lawrence Matshidiso, Sam Sikhosana, Anja Bredell, Jennifer Graeff, Belinda Kanpetch, Crighton Nichols, Elonah O’Neil, Dr. Marc Aurel Schnabel, Michelle Tabet, Candy Chang

Download more detailed Information report (1.6 MB pdf)