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Tactical Tech Collective work
Describe up to three main challenges for grass-roots rights advocates and NGOs wanting to use information and digital technology to advance a cause?
Complexity of start-ups: Initiatives wanting to use digital technology for advocacy find it difficult to deal with the basics of setting up a digital operation: from registering domain names, to identifying, buying and managing the right host, to installing and configuring the CMS or other tool of choice, or even starting a blog on a free service. In my experience, I found it very helpful from the advocate's point of view to use technical support that would allow the advocate to focus on the cause, then managing a gradual increase in the advocates autonomy as they pick up some of all of the required technical skills over an extended period of time.
Restrictive technology: The current social tools advocates, particularly those wanting to advance from advocacy into organization, rely on are not designed for that purpose. The Facebooks and Twitters do not include tools for collective identification, assignment and follow-up of tasks, do not have tools that encourage action, and are far shortcoming when it comes to privacy and security, even discounting their centralized architectures. A free, distributed social tool, beginning to materialize around projects like Status.net, Crabgrass, GNU Social and Diaspora promise to change this reality.
Digital Divide: Use of tools like Twitter and other mobile apps assumes the target uses and can afford a smart phone and a data plan. This renders projects such as Ushahidi (and #iranelection) reliant on a small core of dedicated digital activists, or at best, makes them not as immediate and mobile as they aim to be. With the radio spectrum heavily controlled by many governments (in the
Middle East for example) it is virtually impossible to start an independent radio or television broadcast.
Describe an info-activism initiative and explain why you find it interesting
The Front to Defend Egypt Protesters is a group of volunteers who set up an operation room on days where activists announce a public protest. The Front collects, verifies, consolidates, and channels http://www.flickr.com/photos/ramyraoof/4537322405/ information on whereabouts and condition of activists detained for joining or attempting to join protests.
The Communication Unit collects information from protesters on the streets through calls, SMS, and Twitter. It cross-checks and verifies the information, then channel each individual case to a geographically-spread network of stand-by volunteer lawyers. The lawyers track detainees in different places of detention, and provide legal support as individuals appear in police stations and before an interrogator.
The lawyers and a Provisions Committee provide food, drinks and medications to individuals, and follow-up release order procedures. Researchers and doctors come in at a later stage documenting testimonies and providing medical aid. The Communications Unit consolidates information and translates and releases information through basic and familiar channels: email, a telephone line, a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and a Blogspot blog . http://egyprotest-defense.blogspot.com/
Before taking this shape and having a name, this work-flow started in a very ad-hoc manner and is continuously evolving. Current developments include toying with FrontlineSMS to collect and channel reports to different contact lists (lawyers, doctors, journalists, core team, web team…), and using an IVR system based on FreedomFone to establish a slower, 24/7 service for detentions outside crisis times.
What I find interesting about the Front is its focus on using technology for immediately providing hard information and interference. It involves technology only for its benefits. The focus of the Front is not looking for innovative ways to voice out and attractive ways to build a following. It does not advocate putting pressure and does not collect signatures, rather focuses on building a tight work-flow and getting things done.
What is one resource you use to learn about what is happening in the field of digital advocacy and/or human rights? What do like about this resource?
My Twitter feed. It is customizable and relies on a variety of people. Although a social tool usually locks a person in their social network (mine has proved to be the right crowd to learn about things digital and activism-related), following people that are widely-spread, geographically and interest-wise, covers this shortcoming. Their tweets and retweets often lead me to new places.