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 makers and donors.

Co-organizer Patrick Meier of HHI, a member of Digital Democracy’s Advisory Board, was recently quoted in the Reuters article Crisis mapping brings X-ray style clarity to humanitarian response:

“Crisis mapping is to the humanitarian space what x-rays are to public health. It helps us to understand at a micro level the behaviour we see in humanitarian emergencies.”

We are looking forward to sharing our own work on crisis mapping in Burma and around its borders, including our recent work in Thailand on Handheld Human Rights (HHR), and learning from the work of fellow attendees.

The goal of ICCM 2009 is to formalize the field of crisis mapping, and we are honored to participate in conversations that will help shape the future of the field. The TED-style conference will include Ignite Talks, Tech Fair demo’s, Birds-of-a-feather sessions and Open roundtables. Digital Democracy will be representing HHR in the Tech Fair, as well as covering the event for DdTv. Watch our Twitter stream and ICCM 2009 for live footage of the conference.

ICCM 2009 is sponsored by the Open Society Institute (OSI), Humanity United (HU) and the US Institute of Peace (USIP).

For us, choosing a technology platform is all about reaching people where they are. Read more on Alex’s post on Developing SMS Infrastructue in a shiny-new-thing world.

By the way, check out Alex’s liveblogging from Personal Democracy Forum – June 29-30.

About FACT: “The French American Charitable Trust (FACT) is committed to addressing the fundamental inequalities and injustices in our society by helping develop and sustain networks of community-based groups in the U.S. and France that educate, organize, and empower people to actively participate in developing public policies that directly affect their lives.“

We had a lot of fun during the conference promoting, tweeting and implementing on the ground actions to get the word out about our project…

One part of the conference that the team really enjoyed was a special invite-only event *after* the conference to meet and jam with other projects on how we could best collaborate in the future.  We had some great brainstorming sessions with the other projects and look forward to continuing our relationships with them past the conference.

In addition, we were interviewed by Netsquared about Handheld Human Rights, including what kind of change we’d like to see from the implementation of the project, and the help and resources needed for its success. Check out the video.

Here’s to a big, big THANK YOU to all the folks who voted, re-tweeted and said hello to us at the conference.  Rock on!

What might our collaborations look like in the future?

(left to right) Emily, Morgan and Mark

Howdy dear readers and mobile advocacy for human rights fans. The D2 Team is currently at the NetSquared conference working, jamming and spreading the word about our cool project, Handheld Human Rights.

We’re of course having a lot of fun, meeting cool people, tweeting about what we do and would love to meet you.  So…come on by and say hi to us!  Here’s a pic so you know the friendly bunch to say hi to!

I’m serving as D2′s Project Champion to help get the word out about the project and brainstorm and excute ideas to promote our project.

Twitter user?

You can follow Digital Democracy here: @digidem

The rest of the awesome team is here:

• Mark – @mbelinsky
• Emily – @emjacobi
• Liz – @Red_Banana
• Gabe – @BFGabe
• Morgan (me) – @memeshift

Come say hi!  Now off to the receptionz….:)

U Pinya Zawta of the All Burma Monks Alliance demonstrates using a FlipCamera hidden under a robe

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 involved in planning the September protests, and forced to flee the country. We just partnered with their organization, The All Burma Monks Alliance on the launch of their new website – check out allburmamonksalliance.org

We also interviewed them on the current needs of Burmese communities, particularly the monks inside the country. U Pyinya Zawta told us:

“In Burma, the military controls all communications technology. But technology is very important to change. The Burmese military is trying to hide human rights abuses inside (the country). To show human rights abuses we need technology. People who are doing bad deeds need to be afraid.”

D2 partners with groups like the All Burma Monks Alliance and other grassroots organizations to facilitate communication and collaboration among groups.

Handheld Human Rights uses mobile phones to securely connect human rights workers around the country. Mapping text messages, it helps groups quickly share critical information to coordinate their responses and save lives.

We need your help to make Handheld Human Rights a reality. We’re working with local partners on the ground to build an open source project. We’re seeking to match them up with designers, programmers and others. Whatever your skill set, you can help.

This is a mobile tool to make human rights data accessible and actionable. If you’re attending N2Y4, please vote for us, and put human rights response in the hands of local actors.