Tomorrow’s exhibit is the result of a year-long photo training with students from two Indianapolis high schools – Southport and North Central. Their photos document life in their new country, covering everything from school to home to play.The photographers will be on hand to discuss their images with the public. Don’t miss this special opportunity!

What: Project Einstein photo exhibition

Where: The Indianapolis City Market farmer’s market – 222 E. Market St, Indianapolis

When: Wednesday August 10th from 10:30am to 1:30pm

To learn more, read the press release and check out images from the spring photo exhibition at North Central High School, taken by my mom, Freddi Stevens-Jacobi.

Its an honor to be invited to speak at the White House . Its especially exciting to see an administration that understands the power of youth and works to pull in our voices.

The White House was pulling together 20 “awesome” youth leaders to discuss the future of international foreign aid. The conversation was between us, the head of USAID (United States Agency for International Development) Raj Shah, and the internet. It was broadcast live on the White House website, with a realtime conversation happening on Facebook and on Twitter, hashtag #USAIDyouth.

For instance, in the Middle East, almost 65 percent of the regions’ people are youth. In many places, they’re stuck under oppressive regimes and increasingly frustrated by the lack of positive prospects for their future. In Egypt and Tunisia, this came to a head. Politicians around the world took notice. The US government is starting to realize that despite its large foreign aid packages, youth were not involved in the decision-making nor in the reception of this aid, despite being a majority of those affected by it.

A 48 starred flag, painting of George Washington, an eagle, and the golden chandelier lent the air of authenticity to remind me that this building has stood for hundreds of years and that this conversation can, at its best, change the course of history. 20 eager youth, experts in the fields of environment, health, security, and technology all sat with intense looks in their eyes. The groups varied from Truman National Security Project, National Center for Global Engagement, 350.org, Americans for Informed Democracy, Bamyan Media, The Millennium Campus Network, and others. We were ready to take up the challenge.

Many of the ideas bouncing around the room seemed to agree that there was a need to fund the best and most innovative groups, not the ones that were just the best at writing applications and getting funded. The tension is how to do that successfully while doing large-scale support and making sure that they money trail is transparent and trackable.

There’s also an interesting tension in the perception of this aid to the American people from which its coming. Recent debates about cutting the US economy have targeted wings of the government such as this foreign aid. It’s not surprising why, when the average American sees it as consisting of 20% of their taxes. The reality is that it accounts for less than 1%. There’s not much room for innovation when under fire.

It’s important to be able to see how investments in science, technology, education and math (STEM), as well as green technology, are going to have a positive impact on our own economic prosperity in addition to those people working their way out of poverty around the world. But for the innovative and impactful ideas, it’s the youth who are closest to the new solutions and can help usher them in with the right support.

We all went to the White House, and were excited and honored to have been invited, but not for the photo op, but rather to make some changes. I’m encouraged by the dialogue but hope that we’re able to.

Please see the video below and visit the USAID YouthImpact site for more information about the initiative.

“Einstein was a refugee, but he could still do great things.”

Since those humble beginnings, our digital literacy program has grown to now be in Bangladesh, Thailand, Haiti, Kenya, South Africa, Guatemala, Kazakhstan, and in the USA to Indiana and New York City.

I’m excited to now offer our curriculum free for download. Working with IREX International on the Kazakhstan project, we were even able to have it translated into Russian and Kazakh languages. I hope that you find this helpful and please let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see in future issues so that we can incorporate it. As always, it’s Creative Commons license, so feel free to share and add to it yourself also! Just let us know so we can follow the awesome.

Project Einstein Manual

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

A participant in Project Einstein Thailand

Digital Democracy is delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant from the Clowes Fund of Indianapolis, Indiana. The grant will support the launch of Project Einstein Indianapolis, a digital penpal program that teaches 21st century skills while facilitating cross-cultural dialogue. Project Einstein will connect young Burmese refugees and their classmates in Indianapolis with students in Burmese refugee camps in Southeast Asia.

We’ve been working with Chin and Karen refugees in Indiana since spring 2008, and I’m excited to be working with schools in my hometown, where thousands of Burmese refugees have been resettled. Our goals for the project are three-fold:

a) Create a space for the Burmese youth and their classmates to share personal stories and forge new friendships,

b) Create a map of community resources – charted by the young people – that will be available for Burmese refugees as they are resettled into the new communities,

c) Spark community engagement by offering opportunities for community members to learn the stories of the refugees and discuss concepts of citizenship, freedom and democracy.

Too often, resettled refugees feel divided from their new communities. Indianapolis-based youth journalism program Y-Press has reported on the situation, quoting a young refugee who said “I don’t really hang out with American kids so much because they don’t seem to like us. I thought people would welcome us, talk to us, hang around and have tea.”

We will be launching the project with two Indianapolis-area high schools in the fall. We are excited to facilitate the photography projects, connection with youth in Thailand and India, and community storytelling aspects of the program. We applaud the Clowes Fund for supporting the immigrant and refugee communities in Indianapolis, and are honored to be among their grantees.

About the foundation: The Clowes Fund is a family foundation established in 1952, in Indianapolis, Indiana. It makes grants in Indianapolis; Seattle, Washington; and northern New England to support human services, education and the arts. We are grateful for their support and excited to launch Project Einstein Indy!

A refugee from Burma displays his "Hoosier Works" card that connects him and his family to Social Services.

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

This report details the findings of their research, gives an overview of the Project Einstein curriculum adapted for Haiti and provides recommendations for how training young people will be a critical aspect of reconstruction, providing 21st century skills and an infrastructure of empowerment by monitoring aid and corruption.

Project Einstein Haiti

The project on the ground was led by two students at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, Joshua Haynes and Chrissy Martin. Chrissy had this to say about her experiences:

Project Einstein Haiti developed out of a serendipitous meeting in New York with Mark.  I was leaving for Haiti in a few days to conduct research with youth on their attitudes towards finance.  Despite experience working on and researching financial inclusion and mobile technology, I didn’t know much working with youth.  As a result, I reached out to Digital Democracy, aware of their work with youth and digital photography.

I walked away from the meeting with a research methodology, four digital cameras, and the nicest phone I’ve ever used: a Nokia N97.  The Project Einstein methodology was an ideal way to accomplish my goal of understanding the youth attitude towards finance in an engaging and fun manner that would be rewarding for the participants as well as the researchers.

The two days that Josh and I spent with the twelve high school students in Gros Monde were extremely rewarding.  We spent time discussing the power of photography to tell stories, as well as time discussing how difficult it is to earn money in their community. I was extremely impressed by their enthusiasm and the ease at which they engaged with a technology that they had never used before.

I could not be more thankful that I had the opportunity to work closely with this group of Haitians before their country was destroyed just three days later.  A few pictures survived, although I regret that their photographs did not.  I can only hope that they will again have an opportunity to tell their story through digital tools that will allow the rest of the world to hear.

Because of tools such as photography, Twitter, Facebook, and SMS, Haitians have been able to contribute to the international coverage of their own crisis in a way that would not have been possible just a few years ago.  Mainstream media sources including CNN and CBS News have relied on these alternative sources for aspects of their coverage, giving voice to locals rather than relying solely on international journalists. In addition, new tools such as Ushahidi allowed international organizations to plan their response based on near real-time mapping of reports from Haitians through a wide variety of media sources. Amidst the devastation, I find hope in the possibility of leveraging these technologies to give Haitians a voice in their own reconstruction as well.

For more information about our work, please download the following report:

Digital Democracy Haiti Report 2010

In early January 2010 we partnered with Tufts University’s Center for Emerging Market Enterprises (CEME) to conduct research and a photography training with young adults in Haiti. Researchers Chrissy Martin and Joshua Haynes, using the Project Einstein curriculum, worked with young adults ages 18-24 to explore – through the use of digital photography – how these youth view money and finance in their society.

Several days after the completion of this training a devastating Earthquake shook the country. In this episode of DdTv, Chrissy discusses her experiences being in the Earthquake, witnessing first-hand the toll it took on the country and its people, and her reflections on the photo training that took place only 3 days prior. In addition, the emergency response through the use of Ushahidi, spearheaded by Chrissy and Josh’s classmates at the Fletcher School and our Co-Directors Mark and Emily, which helped get critical updates including information about missing persons, locations of danger zones and available aid to groups working on the ground.

Indonesian Journalists at Digital Democracy office

Not long into the conversation, Kristianto expressed that in Indonesia, citizen journalism is very lively but it’s the demonstrations that are a lot harder. A recent incident of accusations of malpractice against a hospital brought support from millions online but when it came to taking to the streets, only 8000 or so came out. We spoke a bit about all of our conceptions of activism, the role of information and the changing tides of “action” in a digital state.

Another concern was that in East Java, some Islamic organizations ban Facebook saying that it is against the religion and sometimes it goes so far as people being arrested for posting illegal material on the site, under libel laws. Part of a 21st century journalist’s toolbelt is not only knowing what sites exist that can help spread information, but also the consequences of harsher punishments. If information isn’t in a public forum, the conversations will often continue, but in a more dangerous space.

The conversation took a shift to the complications of working with different legal structures and the always important question of verification. Having just seen the Prachatai episode of DdTv, Herry mentioned that it seemed to him our philosophy was similar to a quote from Prachatai Editor Jiew, that “democracy is not the answer. It’s the path to find something.” It was exciting to hear him say that and really opened up a lively discussion on the continuing problem that many in Indonesia view US culture as either ” American Idol” or “Iraq War” and see much less of the innovation, creativity and community-led media that we were talking about.

Muhlis then chimed in that, “It seems ideology is no longer important. It’s about communicating and helping people and help themselves.” I couldn’t agree more.

Excitingly, it turns out that Kristianto is also the principal of a high school of 300 students in Lampung, who just received news yesterday that they will be getting an internet connection. He says that he wants the students to learn about the kind of democracy we’d been discussing. Hopefully we’ll be able to connect with him on that. I promised to bring bagels.

Indonesian Journalists at Digital Democracy office