Digital Democracy

“Saddam tried to use the indictment of Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal to show how shameful and perverse the United States is. The message that Iraqis heard was that in America, no one is above the law. Not even the President.” ~Anes (trainee) I recently returned from a trip to Erbil, Iraq, a [...]

Violence is closely correlated to elections in the minds of many voters in young democracies. With elections and democracy correlated as well, there’s a dangerous chance that people will draw causation between violence and democracy. We launched Ethiopia Vote Report with a local partner in Ethiopia knowing that the turnout would be low. The project [...]

This week the U.S. Senate votes on a $60 billion supplemental aid bill for Haiti. Our work with Haiti helped bring together a coalition of twelve U.S. Senators to take up the issue of sexual and gender based violence in Haiti and ask that funding be earmarked for the protection of Haitian women and girls. [...]

For the amazing work that has been done by the Ushahidi volunteers at SIPA, Tufts and elsewhere, our advisory board member Patrick Meier received an award this past weekend from Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global University Initiative. Well done Patrick! Humble as he is, he dedicated the Clinton prize to all Ushahidi volunteers. Congrats [...]

Today we’re honored to have a guest blog post by Digital Democracy Advisory Board member Sean McDonald, taking a look at the US State Department’s focus on Internet Freedom. Sean, Director of New Media Business Development at MetroStar Systems, brings a background in journalism, law and peace & conflict resolution. The Unfortunate Simplicity of Freedom [...]

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 [...]

In August 2008, Digital Democracy conducted research with Burmese community groups operating in southern China, near the Burma/Myanmar border. While researching the use of communications technologies, one young Kachin man explained the difference between the Internet in China and Burma, stating, “To me the web in China is totally free.” Censored though the Chinese web [...]

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 [...]