Digital Democracy

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 [...]

Project Einstein started as photo training with a group of youth in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, so named by one of the participants because “Einstein was a refugee but could still do great things.” We’ve since expanded the project, working with youth in Pretoria, South Africa, a Burmese refugee camp in Thailand, and the [...]

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 [...]

On January 12th, a devastating earthquake shook Haiti. We had a team of people on the ground working with young Haitians. Thankfully they all survived, but what was life like before and what can it be like after? Today we’re proudly publishing our report from the research they were conducting, looking at the economic livelihoods of  young [...]

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 [...]

Today we had the pleasure of hosting five journalists from Indonesia at the Digital Democracy office. Although none of us on staff speak Indonesian and none of their English was particularly strong, we managed to communicate through 2 translators who had a portable translator toolkit that connected the group via wired headsets. While it looked [...]

In October 2008, Mark and Emily did a digital storytelling photography project with youth living in shelters in Pretoria, South Africa. During the course of the five-day training the 13 young people learned how to use digital cameras and flip video, and how to critique and edit their own photos. They traveled throughout the city, [...]

Last weekend, just a few days before a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, Digital Democracy partnered with students from Tufts University’s Fletcher School on Project Einstein: Haiti. We are thrilled to report not only that trainers Chrissy Martin and Joshua Haynes returned to Boston safely, but all the young participants of Project Einstein survived the earthquake, [...]

This morning on New York’s WNYC Radio program “The Takeaway” Mark discussed technology in the developing world, emergency response, and specifically the Ushahidi install in Haiti in response to Tuesday’s devastating earthquake. Ushahidi is currently mapping crisis information from the ground including continuing threats to the area, locations of relief services, and information about survivors. [...]

In the wake of yesterday evening’s devastating, 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, we join the many other groups expressing concern for the people of Haiti. While communication with the island remains limited, colleagues around the world are working hard to use technology to support the efforts on the ground. Check out: – Ushahidi’s deployment, currently being [...]