06/03/2012

Available for over a year

It is almost a year on from when the first demonstrations began in Syria against the government of Bashar al-Assad. Since then it has become a humanitarian crisis. Activists say the military is shelling cities, burning houses, arresting and killing protestors. It is hard to confirm the reports. There is little media access and infrastructure is being destroyed: power lines, phones and the internet are often down. Now a new German website, set up at the end of last year, is trying to support the opposition activists on the ground by giving them a platform where they can offer themselves up for adoption. Click's Abby D'Arcy reports from Berlin that one key aims is to provide recording equipment that can capture what is unfolding in Syria. Dan Stowell uses computer programming language to create dance music. Specifically he uses the SuperCollider audio programming environment. He joins Gareth Mitchell in the studio to demonstrate the code and music, a month before a workshop on SuperCollider that is taking place in London. What do you do if you have uploaded all of your family pictures to a website that announces it is due to shut down? Well, you might call the Archive Team (or the A team). The team describes itself as a loose collection of rogue activists, programmers and writers who are dedicated to saving our digital heritage. The founder, Jason Scott, says the group not only attempts to salvage family snaps and personal remembrances but also websites bearing material that others may not want to retrieve, such as that of the former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.