Please have a look at the map of my flight:


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Here are the maps I made in New Media Workshop:

Now please have a look at our soundslides project about Green Power Hike.

Tim, an editor of an education publisher, is just one Hong Kong boy who pays much attention to Olympic Games. So he decides to cover “Green Olympics” for his Hong Kong Stories project. He is curious about how the government promotes “Green Olympics” concept though a tiny part Equestrian Event and the actual effect. 

In the interview, Tim will talk about why he cares about “Green Olympics” concept and share his ideas of how to conduct his project.

Just click here to enjoy the interview.

interview-with-tim.mp3

This is a photo of lighting decoration about 2008 Olympic Equestrian Events at Shartin Park. Tim took it on last Sunday as the decoration presented the “Green Olympics” concept through using LED lamp to save electric power.

Green Power Hike is my soundslide project’s topic.

On March 1^st, I, Peter and Cindy took part in the activity and finished our interviews with organizers, sponsors, participants and medical staff. In addition, we are keeping updating the information of that activity since then.

So when I thought about my contribution to the Wikipedia, I went to the Green Power page on Wikipedia first. Then I found that the latest news of 2008 Green Power Hike had not been posted. So I added the following information on its Green Power Hike section:

“In 2008, it mobilized around 3,000 participants to walk for a green cause and raised more than HK$4,000,000 donations. All donations will be used to fund local green education in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools.”

Please find my contribution by referring to the history page.

To my surprise, this page was created by my team partner Peter on March 9. Thanks for his efforts.

Until March 10, nobody has changed or deleted my contribution. It is hoped that an increasing number of people will notice this charitable activity through Green Power page on Wikipedia. 

Wikipedia is a platform for global information and knowledge exchange. I appreciate its openness and convenience which makes everyone can actively participate in it.

Under the supervision of global people and its administrative staff, Wikipedia’s information has considerable credibility. We can learn that from its regulation that some sensitive pages can be edited only under the website editor’s approval, Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 page for example.

Anyway, Wikipedia and Google are my first choice when I search for an event or others. But after that step I will search other websites or reference media to identify the correctness and completeness of information on Wikipedia.

New Media Workshop Wiki

I have posted the contact of Green Power and listed the summary of our interviews on the soundslide project page Green Power Hike. Please refer to the related section Green Power contact and Finished interview and summary as well as the history page.

In addition, I posted replies for Cindy’s thread division of labor. We have a hot discussion on this thread.

We will go on our soundslide project by Peter’s schedule. Now we are still waiting for the reply from the Green Power founder. If he does not give any feedback until March 15, we may change our storyline according to our finished interviews.

My contribution to resource page

According to my final project’s topic, I added following links:

Hong Kong Ecotourism and Travels Professional Training Centre

Tree Top Cottage

Please find my contribution by referring to the history page.

xie-yuans-interview.mp3

Considering that visually interesting photos and sound are essential elements of a good soundslides project, I chose Green Power Hike 2008 as my project topic.

Organized by environmental protection organization Green Power, Green Power Hike is an annual large-scale charitable walkathon. Its raising funds are used to implement environmental education and conservation programmes in Hong Kong. In addition, Green Power wants to inspire people to better appreciate the natural environment and know the natural resource in Hong Kong through hiking.

It is estimated that Green Power Hike 2008 will mobilize 3,000 participants to walk for a green cause according to its official website. So it is easy to catch grand image during people’s gathering at staring line and take colorful pictures during people’s hiking along the route.

The activity contains three routes: The Peak to Big Wave Bay, Parkview to Big Wave Bay and Aberdeen Country Park to The Hong Kong Girl Guides Sandiland Centre. Besides, participants are divided into individual group or team group. Personally, I prefer to focus on team competition as team-work can produce more interesting stories.

Final “Hong Kong Stories” Report

Impressed by my photograph assignment for week 3, I will focus on organic farm produce and ecotourism in my final report.

During my visit at Organic Farmers’ Market at central, I met Mark Lau who had operated a farm in New Territories since 1992. Through our conversation, he told me the union of organic farming and ecotourism was a popular business model in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, the market of organic farm produce is still developing. For many farms, income on organic vegetables sales can not cover the daily expense. Ecotourism as a subsidiary service helps farm owners to better manage their business. For example, Mark Lau’s farm Tree Top Cottage provides organic farming education programme for visitors. Through farming, they want to inspire people to get close to nature and know more knowledge about healthy food.

In addition, Hong Kong Ecotourism and Travels Professional Training Centre begins to provide courses for Professional Certificate in Organic Farming Tourism from 2008. It has listed a series of relevant farms such as O-farm on its website.

I would like to follow a certain farm which practices this business model. The owner can talk about his experience in ecotourism and his opinion on the market of organic farm produce in Hong Kong. Participating in activities in his farm can make me take interesting photos to show their management.

Staff of The Greeners Y.Y Kwok said Lunar New Year is the peak of discarding material. Through this promotion activity, they would like to call on citizens to recycle  their Laser printer Cartridge as many of them are still useful.

“If you collects five or above printer cartridges, you can call us and we will go to your home to take them,” the volunteer of The Greener said.

Another environment protection activity Organic Farmer’s Market is a major part of One Tonne Challenge Campaign. On every Sunday, the Market is held at the Star Ferry Pier. During the activity, fresh organic farm products are presented at booth.

“Now the middle-class is our major consumers. Through this market, we want to call on more citizens to buy products of low food mileage. Compared to imported food, local food can provide fresher taste but reduce distances from farming field to market and CO2 emissions,” said Cheng Mei-chun who is the Sustainable Living Officer of this project.

The organic produce market was first held in Kadooie Farm and Botanic Garden in 2005. Local organic farm produce market is the third regular organic maket in Hong Kong which is organized by Tai Po Environmental Association, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, Hong Kong Organic Farming Association and The Star Ferry Company Ltd.

According to my research, I have found two events which can be developed to photo news.

The first event is Organic Farmer’s Market at Central.

Organic Farmer’s Market is a major activity of One Tonne Challenge Campaign. On every Sunday, the Market is held at the Ferry Pier. During the activity, fresh organic farm products, organic process food and other environment-friendly productions are presented at booth to call on citizens to buy products of low food mileage. Compared to imported food, local food can provide fresher taste but reduce distances from farming field to market as well as CO₂ emissions.Organic Farmer’s Market is a series of activities to call on citizen to pledge to reduce one ton CO₂ emissions per peroson every year. In addition to the market shopping, entertainment show, demonstration and workshop are held to promote ideas of slowing down the process of global warming.

Tai Po Environmental Association, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, Hong Kong Organic Farming Association and The Star Ferry Company Ltd are major organizers. The event will held from 11am to 5pm. I plan to make a phone call to the enquiry hot line to confirm if I need to get permission to take photos there and I hope I can do some interview of the organic product suppliers and citizens.

The second idea comes from the event Say No to GE Food.

The event is held in Mong Kok by non-profit organization Green Peace. It is also a series of activities and Feb 3 will be the last day for it.

Staff of Green Peace has made a Guide Book for Refusing GE Food: 2008 Version for the coming Lunar New Year. In the book, a series of festival foods which refuse to use GE as raw material are presented. Besides, the book introduces bad effects of GE food to people’s health and environment.

On Jan 20 and Jan 27, the members of Green Peace have sent out the guide book to citizens in Mong Kok. They also gather 500 citizens’ signatures in order to push Hong Kong SAR Government to carry out strict limitation on GE food.

I put this event as my second choice as the major event on Jan 20 has passed. So I am not sure if the activity can still attractive lots of citizens.

My research method

As I still have not done my make-ups of the second lecture with Ben, I just try to follow class notes on New Media Workshop Website to do the search.

I first try to search for“Hong Kong Environment Protection Organization” in Chinese in Google, one of the result is the category of Hong Kong Environment Protection Organization in wikipedia. The category presents introductions and links of 8 major organizations. From friendly links on the website of The Conservancy Association, I found the organization Hong Kong Organic Farming Association and Greenpeace. The latest news of above two organizations provide my photograph topics.But during the process, I found that some websites do not provide RSS. For example, the website of Green Student council which has a series of news on issue “no plastic bags” does not have RSS function. Though I am very interested in this topic, I can only bookmark it in my favorite list to keep myself update their latest news. In my opinion, as many environment protection organizations are small non-profit organizations, they can only build up very simple website to give some brief introduction. 

I have set up a folder environment issue in my Google Reader and subscribed to some websites have RSS feeds such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Green Power. From the study and practice, I think traditional research engine is the quick way to access target websites, Google Reader is the second step to keep myself update latest news from those websites, and phone call helps me confirm interview detail.

My feeds

I have subscribed to email news from New York Times for a while, but now I found Google reader is a more convenient and simple way to get access to latest news from various publications or blogs. I have subscribed to feeds of New York Times, Washington Posts, Financial Times, The Standard, RTHK.