Spore by satellite
Spore is now broadcast daily on satellite, as part of a strategy to make it more widely and more quickly available, especially where the mails are slow, and normal Internet connections are poor. The magazine has been available on the Internet since 1998, but this is not yet an appropriate technology for most readers, even if our Internet readership is booming. With effect from Spore 100, electronic versions of Spore will be transmitted regularly on the WorldSpace radio network. WorldSpace is a commercial broadcaster which transmits digital radio programmes, including many from other international broadcasters, to special digital receivers in Africa, Asia/Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean. (See Spore 78). The public access broadcasts of WorldSpace are provided by the Multimedia Service of the WorldSpace Foundation (WSF), a separate not-for-profit organisation. It is through this service that Spore is broadcast via the AfriStar satellite to receivers in Africa, which are registered and known to WSF, or its agents. Other continents will follow! The broadcasts are intended to be received via WorldSpace digital receivers and adaptors purchased from WSF, or its agents, and are specifically for the use by educators and policy makers in Africa. (Prices start at about US$ 120). These receivers are widely spread throughout Africa; the adaptors make it possible to receive digital files of texts and images for transfer to any computer. Initially, the Spore broadcasts will comprise the latest and recent back issues of Spore and Esporo in three languages, with lists of contents and covering notes. During the trial period of 1 year, extra issues of Spore, and other CTA publications and media products, including rural radio programmes, may be added to the service as demand grows. Will you 'hear' Spore on the broadcasts? No, not yet this is not exactly the Radio Spore idea that so many readers keep asking us to run! What is actually broadcast is a digital file of images of Spore, the same as on the CTA Website. So, even before the paper Spore is being printed at our printers in France, anyone, anywhere, in Africa, can be receiving the latest edition on their WorldSpace receiver and printing it for local use. We thank our enterprising colleagues in the Arid Lands Information Network in Nairobi for giving us the idea their Baobab magazine is similarly broadcast to reader groups throughout Africa. Who knows, if you look up to the stars tonight, you might see a little Spore twinkle in the sky. But have no doubt, this is more than a twinkle in our eyes, this one is for real!
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| Format: | News Item biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
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Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
2002
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/47658 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/99603 |
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