Programs
Education
Project Einstein is our signature educational platform. A photography-based digital penpal program, Project Einstein connects youths in refugee camps with resettled refugees and their classmates in the US. Dd is currently developing the platform and curriculum.
- Training locations: Haiti, Bangladesh, South Africa, Thailand &
Indianapolis. - Packaging curriculum and platform to make available to other
communities in Fall 2010.
Project Einstein was born from a photo training Digital Democracy conducted in Bangladesh in January 2008 thanks to support from What Kids Can Do. Partnering with MITʼs Center for Future Civic Media, Eyebeam and high schools in Indianapolis, Indiana, we are now creating a platform and curriculum for resettled refugees and their peers in the U.S. to connect with refugees overseas.
Islam Katum, 12, takes a photo during Project Einstein Bangladesh
Project Einstein, started as the vision of eleven Burmese youth living as refugees in Bangladesh. Using digital cameras to document their lives and share their story, Digital Democracy co-directors Mark Belinsky and Emily Jacobi worked with them as they learned how to use the cameras, shoot images, and chose their best on computer screens. Working in teams of two and three, they documented universal themes of: Happy, Unhappy, Peace and the Disabled. At the end of our time together, we asked the youth what they wanted to call the project. After a moment of thought one boy raised his hand and shouted out “Project Einstein!” and the others quickly agreed. Puzzled, we asked why. Their response: “Because Einstein was a refugee but could still do great things.”
The end product of our initial Project Einstein – audio slideshows for the web, a book of photographs and a wall exhibition for which we are seeking funds –provides a very powerful testament and unprecedented look into to the lives of these refugee youth. Since the project in Bangladesh during January of 2008, we have continued to work extensively with Burmese refugees in Thailand and India, and among resettled populations in the United States. The photos taken by the youth of Project Einstein have been one of our most valuable resources in educating Americans about refugee issues and the humanitarian crisis in Burma. These powerful images were organized and transformed into Project Einstein Bangladesh, an 80-page book of their photographs. Now published, Project Einstein Bangladesh is available for purchase by the public.
Dd’s Digital Pen Pal module allows users, especially children and young adults, to exchange images of their lives with their peers. Providing an identity and face to the countless Burmese refugee living around Burma’s borders and throughout the globe.
A group watches as Khaleda Begum, 14, takes her first photo
Project Einstein focuses on connecting communities – that are otherwise inaccessible to free communication and information – with home-country immigrant and refugee communities in the United States. Project Einstein will facilitate the assimilation into new societies of young people for whom life in those societies would otherwise remain a mystery; maintain a connection between refugees and their homelands; and provide an open channel of communication between closed communities and the outside world.
You can also see Hope and Challenges: Growing up in the New South Africa
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How is technology changing the world? Digital Democracy TV is an interactive TV series highlighting surprising and inspiring work happening globally on technology & citizen empowerment.
Follow along on our blog and ask us the questions you’d like to see answered in the field. Post your comments, email us and/or talk to @digidem on Twitter through #DdTv. Subscribe to the show via iTunes, Miro, channels.com, Pando, or RSS
See you there!
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Project Roebling: When the Brooklyn Bridge was built in 1893, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Built by John, Washington and Emily Warren Roebling, it was a feet of engineering that has connected millions of people.
We’re working on our own bridge, for educators to connect students around the world. Partnering with MIT Center for Future Civic Media and Digital Democracy, Project Roebling – named for the builders of the Brooklyn Bridge – is the base for Project Lumiere, our video-based digital penpal program to connect youth internationally.
Built on Development Seed’s OpenAtrium, Roebling provides a secure space for students to share photos & video and complete assignments given by their teachers. Using Roebling will promote digital literacy among the students as they learn to blog and share information online. For teachers, Roebling allows a safe space to share curriculum and lesson plans.
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Eyebeam is the leading not-for-profit art and technology center in the USA. Eyebeam fellows receive a $30,000 stipend for an 11-month cycle and a resource rich 15,000 sq.ft. space. Tiny Eyebeam exists at the scale of 1/100th that of regular Eyebeam. Applicants will be chosen in 1/100th the time, at the end of which they will be given 2 days (1/100th the regular EYEBEAM residency length) and $50 with which to complete their respective project(s).
Little Brother vs. Big Brother: With your support, we will translate the book, Little Brother, into four Burmese languages: Burmese, Karen, Chin and Kachin. The money will go to support Burmese activists living in Thailand, Bangladesh and India who will be translating it into the local languages. Each page of translation will cost approximately $3.60. By supporting this project, you’re not only helping get Little Brother into Burma, you’re supporting the livelihood of Burmese activists. The book will help teach people to protect themselves by doing such things as running applications from a USB drive, using block encryption to safeguard data on a USB stick, and hiding your encrypted data in a deniable format in the event of capture and torture.
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To bring together diverse voices, Dd sponors BarCamps, or conferences where everyone is a presenter, on issues bridging technology & the social sector.
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Handheld Human Rights
Handheld Human Rights uses mobile tools to make human rights data accessible and actionable. Using mobile phones, digital pens and open source platforms for secure communication and mapping, the program helps human rights groups communicate internally as well as promote their work internationally to lawyers, advocates and community organizations.
- Launch in Southeast Asia: In fall 2009, Dd trained Burmese techies and human rights workers based in Thailand. To date, hundreds of human rights abuses have been mapped. Next, we will expand the platform to users in Bangladesh, India, China and inside Burma.
- Election monitoring: Partnering with grassroots organizations, we’ve adapted HHR for citizen reporting on elections, including deployments of the Ushahidi platform in the Philippines and Ethiopia.
- Combating violence against women in Haiti: In spring 2010 we began working with Haitian women to address an epidemic of rapes in post-earthquake camps. Adapting HHR to record incidents of gender-based violence, our program supports the work of women’s organizations addressing this crisis.
Watch our latest HHR episode on DdTv:
For more information please see HHR at Netsquared.
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Peace Mapping
Sisi ni Amani (“We are Peace” in Kiswahili) is a project whose purpose is to raise awareness of peace efforts within Kenya by mapping peace initiatives across all segments of Kenyan society. The purpose of peace mapping is to connect previously disconnected agents together to empower this arm of civil society before Kenya’s next presidential election.
As a result of the violence that followed Kenya’s December 2007 elections and left over 1,000 dead, Kenya faces its 2012 presidential elections on what many view as shaky ground. Recent reports, notably from the BBC, have shown early signs of an arms buildup in the Rift Valley (a contentious area in Kenya) and Kofi Annan has warned that current divisions in Kenyan society could lead to grievous violence in the upcoming presidential election.
While many individuals and grassroots organizations are mobilizing to promote peace and stability, much of this movement remains fragmented and disconnected. To better empower this critical arm of Kenyan civil society, accurate information is needed to highlight these various actors, making their various efforts known to each other for the purpose of greater, coordinated mobilization.
Sisi ni Amani combines the crowdsourcing of peace initiatives with follow-up interviews to create a comprehensive guide of peace efforts. Following the collection of this information, Sisi ni Amani will hold focus groups between peace initiative leaders with similar interests. Finally, the awareness-raising component of Sisi ni Amani includes the production of eight to twelve short films profiling peace initiatives which will be distributed and broadcasted throughout the country.
Check out the website at SisiNiAmani.org and follow the team on Twitter
VOLUNTEERISM: Seeding students abroad in community-based organizations.
We have many other projects we’re involved with. Stay tuned for updates!
