Digital Democracy

PROJECT EINSTEIN

is our signature educational platform. A photography-based digital penpal program, Project Einstein connects classrooms youth 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.

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.

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
Back to Top

Handheld Human Rights (HHR)

Refugees International estimates that three million refugees live around Burma’s borders. Escaping ethnic violence, forced labor and political incarceration that exists inside the country, native Burmese peoples are forced to flee their homes and communities. Many community organizations operate from Burma’s border areas to report abuses and educate the community on how to recognize these human rights violations, collect pertinent data and protect themselves. These organizations face numerous obstacles to their work including logistical challenges, technical limitations and lack of coordination. Specifically, they lack the tools to communicate effectively and securely with other similar groups who are separated by international borders.

HHR uses mobile phones to make human rights data accessible and actionable. Using open source tools, HHR allows networks to communicate securely via mobile phones. Human rights groups use the platform to share informational both internally and with the outside world for advocacy.

• Currently deployed in Thailand, expanding to India, Bangladesh &
  inside Burma 2010.
• Potential deployments in the DRC and Colombia.

Handheld Human Rights uses mobile phones to connect human rights workers around Burma’s borders. Using mobile text messages connected with a detailed computer interface, HHR helps aid workers quickly and securely share critical information in order to coordinate responses and save lives.

HHR allows groups to:

• Disseminate key information and messages to field workers.
• Facilitate communication between groups.
• Collect data that can be mapped on an international website.
• Rapidly disseminate news of human rights violations to the international community and advocacy groups.

Watch our latest HHR episode on DdTv:

For more information please see HHR at Netsquared.
Back to Top

Digital Democracy TV

How is technology changing the world? DdTv 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!
Back to Top

Barcamps

To bring together diverse voices, Dd sponors BarCamps, or conferences where everyone is a presenter, on issues bridging technology & the social sector.
Back to Top

Sisi ni Amani

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.
Back to Top

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.
Back to Top

Tiny Eyebeam

Tiny Eyebeam isn’t exactly a spectacularly large idea really, it’s simply a coming to terms with certain economic realities, the solution to the majority of which we’ve found is to just scale back. We tend to think of it as the field of dreams of residency programs, except, in NYC it’s not just about building but finding space. But, if you’re curious about the nitty gritty of it, it is a foundation devoted to supporting small scale creative acts, even against a backdrop of dreary projections and failing forecasts.

Our economic model is really niche, or rather, we’re in the market of finding nooks and crannies. Specifically, we exist inside supporting structures. See if you can guess where we are now!
Back to Top

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.
Back to Top

VOLUNTEERISM: Seeding students abroad in community-based organizations.

We have many other projects we’re involved with. Stay tuned for updates!