studioedirisa

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This week's (Studio) Edirisa event at Fat Cat Backpackers was a great way to reconnect with different generations of our veterans. We will make sure that the main points of the presentation and the discussion that followed become available online as well - for those of you who are too far from us! Photo by Rumanzi Canon

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Edirisa in Kampala

Don't forget - on Wednesday 15 Oct 2014 at 6pm we are meeting at Fat Cat Backpackers, Kamwokya!

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Can you help promote our marvellous region on Facebook? We have a cool Gorilla Highlands FB page there liked by 850 people, its most attractive current feature being the daily photo trip through southwestern Uganda (see the screenshot above). Yet Facebook wants money to deliver this content to any significant number of our likers... Without sharing on personal walls our updates can easily stay below 100 viewers! All we need from you is to click on "Share" when you fancy something we have posted. You can begin here. (Oh, and retweeting anything from the Gorilla Highlands Twitter account is also greatly appreciated!)

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This week we made our main project’s website much more presentable - and beautiful! 

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Our next gathering will be at Fat Cat Backpackers in Kampala on Wed 15/10 at 6pm. There will be slides from our trek, an update on Edirisa and more.

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We have the contract, we have the road (well, almost), so let's restart our equatorial location!

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New to Studio Edirisa? Make sure you check out our website for general information and this post for how to join us. On the photo: Joshua Okello, Roland Niwagaba, Lindsey Kukunda, Liz Kamugisha, Patricia Kahill, Selam Agegnehu and Miha Logar at the Little Donkey on 3 September 2014. Our next Kampala meet will happen in October.

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Please download the latest draft (2.1) and send us your feedback via studioedirisa@gmail.com.

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Some stills from Miha Logar's video camera, giving you an idea of what we saw in July-August around three Ugandan national parks. And in September we will be, well, editing, editing and editing again...  

[studioedirisa]

Weekly Question: Open Street Map

Should we, for the Video Map and possibly for other products, start using OpenStreetMap as our map layer? If we chose this option, we would be contributing to a collaborative open source project at the same time... Email us your opinion to studioedirisa@gmail.com.

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Weekly Question: Including Queen Elizabeth National Park

The next edition of our highly regarded Pocket Guide will be the first Gorilla Highlands product to include Queen Elizabeth National Park (as a natural extension of a visitor's itinerary). But how to do it properly - how much of Bwindi, Mgahinga and Queen should be in the booklet? The number of pages will increase by 50-100%, so there should be enough room, we only have to make some radical choices... Please have a look (download the PDF version if you don't have the brochure) and advise via studioedirisa@gmail.com.

[studioedirisa]

We have been busy. After a fruitful video visit to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Lake Mutanda (southwestern Uganda), we are now sending you greetings from Apoka in Kidepo Valley National Park (northeastern Uganda). Whenever we feel that our Gorilla Highlands have received enough love, Kidepo and Karamoja should better be our next project!

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Weekly Question: Future-Proof Video Map Solution

Taking into account the large number of videos we are currently working on, we will soon need a new solution for the Gorilla Highlands Video Map - one that merges pins. Please see the proposed new map and two pop-up windows below (such a window would open when you click on a pin). 

We are eagerly expecting your opinions on studioedirisa@gmail.com.

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Weekly Question: Gorilla Highlands as a PDF

As you will see in the photo album 50 pages of our Gorilla Highlands ebook, when highly compressed, weigh under 4 MB. However, when they are not and the photos look really good, the size increases to over 15 MB... We have about 400 pages in the ebook - should we offer them as separate chapters when in a PDF form? Please send your advice to studioedirisa@gmail.com.

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Global team, rejoice! A couple of days ago we had the 2.2 version of the Gorilla Highlands Interactive eBook swiftly approved by Apple, and now we have a new PDF Info Pack available too, on 50 pages. The "Background Story" chapter talks about us. Download it from here (it's under 4 MB).

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Weekly Question: Edirisa at Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

We have received a high-profile invite to submit our proposal to hire Amajambere Camp. As we are making Mgahinga Gorilla National Park our top priority and planning to direct a lot of hiking and gorilla traffic there, this is definitely interesting. But should we really be running another physical location? Please express your feelings through studioedirisa@gmail.com.

Photo by Blasio Byekwaso.

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Gorilla Highlands Radio Show Progress Report

We have had a breakthrough with our radio partner Voice of Kigezi (VOK) for the long-awaited commencement of the the Gorilla Highlands Radio Show. The manager of VOK has allocated a presenter to the show, Brenda Mugwisagye, and our meetings have intensified. Regular Saturday broadcasting is expected to begin in August. The show will be in English, its main target university students/secondary-school leavers and the central topics tourism and conservation. Our intention is to assure rural development through the fruits of tourism reaching the youth, particularly the semi-urban poor. The tourism opportunities are immense and can be identified and utilised, moreover, they will rise the young people's interest in their culture and history. On Wednesday 2 July 2014 the Studio Edirisa team comprised of Ben-Eric Muhumuza (radio show coordinator), Kidron Googo (Kampala correspondent), Liz Kamugisha (Kampala correspondent), Maria Pentzold (Bunyonyi-based international volunteer) and Miha Logar (Gorilla Highlands leader) met at The Heart to chart the way forward (see the photo). We agreed that we would start preparing content next week, based on the tentative list of topics compiled in March. We would like to extend our invitation to all of you - become a member of the radio show team! Send us an email to studioedirisa@gmail.com.

Text by Ben-Eric Muhumuza, photo by Miha Logar.