In this last weekend me and assistant trainer Fabiano Angélico concluded the in-presence part of the AT&T funded course Digital Tools for Public Service journalism.

It took place from Friday, the 20th to Sunday the 23rd at the newspaper Folha de São Paulo’s training room.

All the 12 students selected for this part of the training attended the course, in which they exposed in power point presentations the main themes of their projects.

They ranged from a blog devoted to the current wave of blackouts in São Paulo to a website devoted to the rights and aspirations of reintegration in society of former convicts from the Northeast region of the country.

The topics were as diverse as that of monitoring public and alternative transportation situation in an area in the country side of the state of São Paulo to following the campaigns for local representatives in Rio de Janeiro in the coming national elections.

Thankfully, Patrick Butler, our vice-president of Programs, who arrived in São Paulo on Sunday, managed to attend the last day of the course and to see many of the presentations made by the students.

Although now the group has dispersed and many have already gone back to heir home cities, we've made clear that we wish everyone to stay in touch and to provide regular updates, including some of the core group of the course, but who ended up not making it to the final round, in order to keep track of their projects, and to help them in finding potential funders and partners through phone calls, emails and/or reference letters.

In order to make this project have a lasting result, it is necessary to keep track of what possible breakthroughs our pupils are making, what are the challenges they're facing, what changes they believe their projects need to undertake in order to become either more feasible or attractive to a funder or a potential partner.

This is an ongoing dialogue. We will carry on overseeing what they are doing and will our doors open for suggestions and for discussions.

I'll tell you more about the different projects later on. There's a lot to talk about, they've all done a remarkable job, but the game actually starts now.

This next phase is when they'll have to chase people who can help them accomplish what they need to make these projects become reality. It'll be the period when they'll have to network and research into how to make it hit the target or targets and be around for a long while, in order to have a lasting social impact.

We are sure they can do it and they have our full support.