by Ron Mader

Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca – Planeta.com is organizing its most ambitious, innovative social web workshop March 19-22 titled All Travel is Local (Todos Viajes Son Locales).

The workshop will contribute toward the movement toward local travel in all its forms — conscious travel, indigenous travel, cultural travel, eco travel, responsible travel — using the social web and face-to-face encounters.

The workshop coincides with two important events: the anniversary of Benito Juárez’s birthday (March 21) and the Lent celebration of Friday of Sorrows (Viernes de Dolores) which rivals Muertos in the construction of elaborate altars.

No sit-down classroom seminar can rival the success of learning in a more stimulating environment with hands-on training. Participants receive practical tips for using the social web and an opportunity to meet locals in a World Heritage city.

We showcase good practices in Oaxaca’s public parks, traditional markets and world heritage sites which will be of interest to locals, Mexican nationals and foreigners. By structuring the event as a series of games and rallies, participants will learn how to make practical and responsible use of their smartphones.

Participants are asked to create accounts on the following sites: Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Google, Twitter, YouTube and WikiVoyage. Those with smartphones are asked to download the apps.

The workshop builds on a 10-year-plus history Ron Mader has in Oaxaca and nearly 20 years in Mexico. It also builds on the momentum generated in February during the fifth annual Responsible Travel Week.

Ron Mader has offered web workshops in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Oaxaca in Mexico as well as international clinics in Quito, Ecuador and Hyderabad, India, site of the recent Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and Global Workshop for Indigenous and Local Communities organized by the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The workshop agenda reflects the values of Open Space Technology in which participants have ample opportunity to move their two feet toward a variety of local events. This is a mobile training session in more ways than one. The workshop manifests Open Space’s Law of Two Feet which states: “If people find themselves in situations where they are neither learning nor contributing, they are responsible for moving to another place — using their two feet to find a place where their participation is more meaningful.”

The agenda and registration information is updated on the Oaxaca Wiki: oaxaca.wikispaces.com/local.