Capturing the World in a day through a day in the World

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 12 May 2011 15:08

Your IT - Entertainment

The Sweden based non-profit foundation Expressions of Humankind has kicked off, with Ericsson as its founding sponsor, an ambitious project to gather as many photographs as possible from as many people around the world as possible over a single 24 hour period.

The foundation has set up a web page, www.aday.org, where anyone can upload photographs that will be shared and used in exhibits and other related projects. The web site promises to show every picture. "Visitors will be able to search by country, time of day or theme, it says. "This gigantic archive will inspire and entertain, and provide a tool for schools and universities around the world. Several major exhibitions will travel the globe. A book will be produced with one thousand images selected by a jury."

According to theday.org: "This is an unprecedented global survey of humankind. Never before will so many people have interacted simultaneously to document their lives and those of their neighbours. Never before will such a powerful message have been sent between so many people - and from the present to future generations."

The foundation's Jeppe Wikström, said: "We want to show that there are more things that unify us than differ between us in this world'¦The photographs, to be taken on an as-yet un-named day in 2012, will ultimately serve as a basis for studies in fields as diverse as sociology, environmental sciences, economics, social medicine and anthropology. The beauty of it all is that we really have no idea how people will use these photographs in one hundred years."

Ericsson is a founding partner and member of the project's technical advisory board. Richard Brisius, head of Ericsson Global Marketing Communications, said: "People are closer to each other thanks to good quality, high-speed connectivity. This is a great project about global collaboration and learning, something we believe is central to humankind, now and in the future."

A Global Advisory Council will oversee the project's integrity and formulate the overall photographic assignment. Among the council members are: Jan Eliasson, former Swedish Foreign Minister and elected President of the United Nations General Assembly. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland; currently United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.