Cultures in Dialogue 0 Reply
Dialogue Cafe featured in UP!
The main idea of this project was creating a global and independent platform that permits intercultural dialogue. The Dialogue Cafe is already open and working in Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro and Amsterdam and its major objectives are encouraging the exchange of experiences collaboration between organisations and individuals from very different cultures and backgrounds. This is exactly what happened when the Amsterdam cafĂ© opened recently. Students doing Master’s degrees in Lisbon interacted and exchanged experiences with artists and social entrepreneurs who were in the Rio de Janeiro and Amsterdam cafĂ©s. Oslo, SĂŁo Paulo, Warsaw and New York also joined the global get together via link-ups from local Cisco offices. The opening finished with a jam-session with musicians in Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro playing for a virtually connected audience.
The alliance between cutting-edge video-conferencing technology and yet unexplored possibilities of global social networks makes the potential of this project almost limitless, considering that it seeks to establish local partnerships for the development of the places in each city. In Lisbon, for example, this partnership was made with MUDE – Museu do Design e da Moda, a place that is special for both its location and the number of visitors it gets every day, making ideal for sharing experience and knowledge. GuimarĂŁes, European Capital of Culture 2012, will be the second Portuguese city to be part of the Dialogue Cafe network.
“CafĂ©s were always places for conversation and the exchange of experiences. And it is precisely that aspect that Dialogue CafĂ© aims to tap into, but this time on a global level, using the technology we now have and which allows us to talk almost face-to-face with someone of the other side of the world”, explains Sara Piteira.
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