In 2009, I made several trips back to Armenia. I compiled the research I did into a report. Please find that below and let me know what you think. I hope that in the future I will be able to continue working with my friends and colleagues on the ground in exploring and implementing radical new opportunities to engage people throughout the country in political life, facilitated through technology.

Digital Democracy Armenia Report 2009

On this episode of DdTv Emily Jacobi and Abby Goldberg travel to Port-Au-Prince, where they are invited to meet with organizations working on creating a mechanism to streamline methods of protection, documentation and service provisions for women around gender-based violence. While there, Emily and Abby meet with local women leaders and conduct a photography training to help empower women to raise awareness of this violence by documenting their lives and struggle. This episode gives an inside look at this photography-training with these amazing women.

How do these women describe themselves and other Haitian women? How do they photograph their communities and the people in them? This episode premiered at our event honoring Haitian women last week, on the six-month anniversary of the earthquake. We gave 75 people at the event the opportunity to chat live with three inspiring women in Haiti (and participants of the first photography training this spring) representing two grassroots organizations – FAVILEK and KOFAVIV – both organizations working locally in Port-Au-Prince to combat violence against women.

But most importantly, I’m meeting with some of the amazing grassroots women’s groups who are working to combat gender-based violence in the camps. Their stories are sometimes harrowing and often inspiring, and I don’t just want to speak with them myself – I want you to speak with them too.

On Wednesday, Digital Democracy is hosting an event at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Come join us for a livestream discussion with Haitian women, music, drinks and more.

Get your ticket today to attend the event and support our work with Haitian women.

In this episode of DdTv venture back with us to January 2008 to see the origins of Project Einstein. Mark and Emily spend several days working with youth in Kutupalong refugee camp in Southern Bangladesh, home to thousands of Rohingya refugees from Burma. Stateless, the Rohingya, a muslim ethnic group from Western Burma have fled to Bangladesh to escape the human rights violations they’ve suffered in Burma, where they are also denied citizenship.

In the camp, Mark and Emily train a group of youth ages 9-14 in digital photography skills, enabling the kids to explore where in their lives they encounter such universal themes as peace, happiness, the disabled and sadness. See their photographs, listen to them as they reveal their dreams, their hopes for the future, and become the inspiration behind the creation of Project Einstein.

Little Brother - Burmese Cover

When brave people risk their lives for the greater good. When they’re accidentally giving an aggressive military a full roadmap to their extended contacts and friends, it’s unfortunate. Given Facebook’s recent breach of trust, allowing for more private data to leak out than people are comfortable with, there has been a growth in people knowing about their digital rights. This 21st century literacy is crucial.

But in places where data leakage is most risky, I’ve found that it’s also least understood. Cory Doctorow’s “Little Brother” is a compelling book about a teen and his friends who use technology to challenge an authoritarian regime. Using real-life technologies, the book is more than a thrilling story, but it can also become a viral training manual for activists who need to use technology to do their work and can start to do so more securely and effectively.

If you haven’t read the book yourself, I recommend buying a copy or downloading one for free to see what all the fuss is about. Why free? He talks about the benefits of publishing for free online over at the Guardian.

Thanks to all those that supported our Kickstarter campaign, I’m happy to bring to you the first in what will be our serialized release of “Little Brother” in Kachin, Karen and Burmese languages. To our partners at ABITSU for the translation. And thanks to Jonathan P. Berger for his cover design and overall inspiration.

Comments and questions from you are always appreciated. Our question is, when “Big Brother” is watching, who is watching back? This is another step towards answering it.

Little Brother - Kachin Cover

Little Brother - Karen Cover

Humble as he is, he dedicated the Clinton prize to all Ushahidi volunteers. Congrats again teams! We’ve been writing a lot recently about the successes that volunteers have had crisismapping in response to earthquakes and it’s exciting to hear Patrick to set a goal to train “100 universities in the developing world” in crisismapping. It’s a brilliant idea and a powerful way to have pre-crisis preparedness. Particularly when coupled with 21st century learning initiatives like Project Einstein, where young people on the ground can use photography and mapping to build out the critical infrastructure necessary for a crisismapping system like Ushahidi to be effective.

Advisor Patrick receives award from Bill Clinton

Government slogan in Ruili: “Speak Civilized, Act Civilized, Be Civilized.”

In 2008 Digital Democracy sent a team of researchers to China to investigate the state of Kachin youth in community-based and human rights organizations and their use of technology on the China-Burma border. The team conducted interviews with Kachin youth leaders and educators and led new media literacy and photography trainings. We are now releasing the results of that research and our recommendations in a new report.

For more information about our work there, please see the following report:
Digital Democracy China Report 2008

While in Northern Thailand, Mark and Emily meet with Digital Democracy’s partner The All Burma IT Students’ Union (ABITSU) to set up equipment and train ABITSU’s core staff, as well as members of other human rights groups working along the border, in the uses and features of Handheld Human Rights (HHR) for its initial launch. HHR enables organizations to communicate securely through the use of mobile phones, and to make human rights data accessible and actionable. ABITSU, an organization that teaches the next generation of young leaders critical IT skills to be effective leaders in the 21st Century, also runs a school and technical support for human rights organizations working along the border. While working with ABITSU, Mark and Emily hear a powerful personal story from one of the organization’s head trainers – his determination at any cost, to do this important and necessary work.

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate with Digital Democracy as we  turned one year old.

Digidem Party Flyer

Over 200 people came to eat, drink, and be merry at the Open Planning Project’s gorgeous penthouse & rooftop in Soho, NYC for a party highlighting young change-makers in NYC. Even more tuned in to watch LIVE as we streamed interviews with people, asking them how they are changing the world. Filmed on our new Nokia n97s, by interviewers Michael Morgenstern & Dan Latorre, you can check out 20+ short answers, or contribute your own below. Others still added to our Twitfall by tweeting in their own responses.

Presenting 1 year of work to an amazing crowd of supporters

Thank you to our sponsors: TOPP for the amazing space, Henry’s Restaurant, Sustainable Party, Medea Vodka, and Dr. Joel M. Spiro MD (and Park Ave Liquors), WOMWorld/Nokia. Thanks to media partners TBD and StartingBloc. Extra special thanks to photographer Annie Powers for the wonderful pictures , to Anthony Ina for the beautiful flyer design, and to DJ Blanche Dubois.

Remember: please drink & program responsibly.

Showing off the Twitfall & Mobiles for change

The topic of our class was “Grassroots Development – Techniques & Strategies,” discussing Digital Democracy’s experiences doing fieldwork.  Before introducing the process by which we developed Handheld Human Rights and the story of developing it in the field, we wanted to have an understanding of how the students have begun to grow their own ideas. Having just completed their midterm assignments, we went around and had each group introduce themselves and their project, touching on these four points:

1. Who are you and what is your project?
2. How did you determine the need?
3. What’s your biggest barrier to success?
4. What impact do you hope to achieve?

Social Activism using Mobile Technology class & Dd Advisor Abby Goldberg

Visit my blog to read more about the class and their projects.