Now a young Thai film maker, artist, writer, graphic artist and music can together share the creative worlds in Thailand! All of the media shared in this newly opened platform use creative commons 3.0 licenses. Better yet, the platform itself is a social enterprise!
TRN and Creative New Media Network in Thailand jointly launched "FUSE!" a creative media platform as a social enterprise in Thailand. The platform consists of three reinforcing components; the web, the publication and events. The model works like this;

1. The creative media makers submit and share their works online via www.fuse.in.th. The work will be viewed, commented and shared among FUSE's virtual communities. The online platform allows the sharing of original videos, images, audio and text/publication material as well as other media under creative commons license. The site was built on highly modified Drupal, a popular open source platform.

2. The best works are published quarterly as publication with a DVD in order to spread the works, the concept and FUSE through out various bookshops and universities in Thailand. This will serve as special incentive for creative media makers to showcase their works through FUSE as well as attract other interested people to go to the website and participate.

3. Monthly "FUSE-Camp" un-conference, where young creative media makers showcase their works among their peer once a month at some prime location in Bangkok in a very informal setting similar to "Bar camp" or "Pechakucha" style unconference. Each have around 7-9 minutes to talk and display their works and networking among themselves.

The model is running quite well for the last 3 months, the first FUSE SHOWCASE was published 2 weeks ago, the first 3,000 printed copies are sold out as FUSE! gain rapid popularity among Thailand's various indie groups. The fifth FUSE CAMP was held with hundreds joining the event. And the website (all in Thai unfortunately) is picking up in popularity.

Interesting multimedia experiment is also being carried out here, Human mapping project is campaigning on FUSE! where hundreds of open source footage are uploaded on fuse.in.th for young film makers to remix and add their own material to convey the message of doing good for society. It's the first online open-source film making experiment in Thailand. Those footage can be viewed at http://www.fuse.in.th/category/keywords/centerhumanmapping

The social enterprise is getting regular sponsorship from businesses and even Non-profit agencies in Thailand. As young media makers are trend setters in Thailand, many sponsors are now focusing on this group in order to boost their brand image for businesses and create great social awareness for the organizations, and FUSE! could serve sponsors' needs both offline and online. The past sponsored themes were Volunteerism, Animation, Documentary making and Violence.

This is another great model that could be replicated else where in order spread the Internet-driven cultural revolution in developing countries!

Sunit Shrestha