Digital Democracy

You were born in KweKalu, a place near Mae Sot, Thailand. You live there one year when the Burmese government attacks the poor camp. Your fifty year old grandma carries you to escape, with bombs and fire all around. Thank God, your life is not taken away. When the attack is clear, many people in [...]

Allegedly a country with less than 1% Internet & mobile penetration, Digital Democracy traveled to Burma/Myanmar in August 2009 to conduct research on ICT in the country to uncover the realities of how people are communicating. The trip offered a unique opportunity to look at how people and companies are developing unique mobile & internet [...]

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 [...]

On the border of Thailand and Burma/Myanmar, I met Aung Zaw, who told me about risking his life  to document human rights abuses performed by the government of Myanmar. His hope was that this information could help to defend his people. At the end of our talk, he asked if we could become Facebook friends. [...]

We just wrote about the power of the volunteers who have worked on Haiti. However volunteers are not only useful in times of crises. Digital Democracy’s core team is small, and we accomplish our work through partnerships and collaborations. Our volunteers and interns play a crucial role, and today we want to highlight the work [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]