Digital Democracy

Ever since Digital Democracy began working with Burmese populations we have believed that it is essential to have a completely comprehensive understanding of the country and the challenges it faces. This means going beyond the well-understood populations living on the border with Thailand to understand conditions on the ground inside Burma and along all of [...]

Huge thanks to the 58 backers who helped us reach and exceed our goal for our Little Brother vs. Big Brother campaign. Thanks to their support, we’ll be translating Cory Doctorow‘s Little Brother into four Burmese languages. We used Kickstarter to run the campaign and we’re extremely happy with the results. Kickstarter is a funding [...]

Thanks to 46 backers, we’ve raised 75% of the money we need to translate Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother into four Burmese languages. It’s been amazing to see such support. But we only have until Dec. 15th at 8pm EST to raise the rest of the amount. Can you chip in and pledge? If we don’t [...]

To mark the the one year anniversary of Digital Democracy, we’re launching Little Brother vs. Big Brother, a campaign to translate Cory Doctorow‘s compelling book Little Brother into four Burmese languages. By translating and distributing electronic versions of the book to Burmese readers, we hope to broaden the debate on using technology in the struggle [...]

In September 2007, despite less than 1% mobile penetration, mobile phones played a critical role in monk-led protests inside Burma. How were mobiles used inside the country, and around the borders? Read about this in the 3-part article I just published on MobileActive: On Sept. 26, the protests were still going strong. It was 11 [...]

Emily and I had the pleasure of guest lecturing at Nathan Freitas’ Social Activism using Mobile Technology class at NYU’s ITP program. It was a wonderful opportunity that you can read more about below: The topic of our class was “Grassroots Development – Techniques & Strategies,” discussing Digital Democracy‘s experiences doing fieldwork.  Before introducing the [...]

This weekend, Digital Democracy is heading to join the conversations at the first International Conference on Crisis Mapping (ICCM 2009). Co-organized by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and John Carroll University (JCU), ICCM is bringing together leading thinkers and practitioners in the field of humanitarian work and human rights, along with scholars, software developers, policy [...]

In April we collaborated with Not An Alternative and Eyebeam to host an event for their Upgrade! series highlighting the role that technology plays in the Burmese democracy movement. Hosted at the Change You Want To See gallery space, the event was live-streamed, and the video has just gone up. We are pleased to share [...]

D2′s co-founders Mark and Emily are representing Handheld Human Rights at N2Y4, NetSquared’s annual conference. It’s thrilling to be at a conference focused on supporting projects on the ground. This past weekend, D2 spent time with exiled monk leaders of Burma’s September 2007 Saffron Revolution. U Pyinya Zawta, U Gawsita and U Agga were all [...]

Overcoming Obstacles, Creating Opportunities: Presenting the Situation of Displaced Burmese Youth in Thailand Last year, the Center for Peace Building International (CPBI) sent a team to research the situation and perspectives of youth living on the Thai-Burma border. Now, CPBI invites the international NGO community to share in the Burma Youth Project’s work with this [...]