We’re excited to announce that GeoPoll will be running a live mobile SMS poll in Tunisia for our upcoming course Mobiles for International Development!

GeoPoll will create a pilot survey that leverages the experience of its 70 mobile health professionals around the world in TC105 to explore how Tunisian civil society organizations can better leverage mobile technology in mobile health, finance, and education.

GeoPoll is currently working with civil society organizations such as I Watch to conduct a five month 15,000-respondent a month survey on issues of democracy and perceptions related to the political transition. Other recent initiatives in Tunisia include a general health survey to better understand 2,000 Tunisians’ access to health facilities. In a variation to a typical survey, the day before the first election post the Ben Ali regime, NDI used the GeoPoll platform to conduct a nationwide voter education campaign. The effort educated people ages 18-70 through “Do you know…? “ style surveys on the elections that were happening the next day. The survey reached over 3,000 Tunisians in all 24 Governorates, educating them on key issues such as their political rights and where to vote.

Students will submit questions by Friday, April 6, after which they will be translated into French and asked to 300 respondents around Tunisia in the following week. Although the poll will be small in relation to other surveys, it will help GeoPoll better understand areas of interest to mobile technology professionals.

All relevant data will be released at the end of the class to inform mobile phone programming in Tunisia and around the world.

This isn’t our first experience with GeoPoll. We’ve also run them for our course in Pakistan where we integrated results from the DRC with Ushahidi to have students do their own CrowdMap simulation in DRC. You can read more about it in this IREX blog post.

But, we don’t believe that the only true purpose for GeoPoll is classroom simulations. Learning what audiences think in areas of the world where traditional polling methods are often expensive and slow (if even possible) by reaching them instantly on their mobile phones has tremendous implications. We’re also working with various partners to look at how GeoPoll can be used in fragile states like Yemen and Afghanistan, which we’ll be featuring in our upcoming course on Technology for Conflict Management and Prevention.

 

This article has been reposted from the Huffington Post. Read the original article.

By: Stephanie Rudat, Kevin Malone, and Christopher Neu

 

 

“It may have been just noise to you and inspiring for someone else, but at the end of the day, it’s still a waterfall.” — Modified anonymous quote via Facebook

A Challenge to Experts and a Call for Productive Engagement

The controversy surrounding the Kony 2012 campaign (nearly 80 million views) has focused primarily on the responsibility of activists to understand the conflict in Uganda, communicate it honestly to their audience and advocate for constructive solutions. Equally as important, however, is the responsibility of recognized experts (of academic, professional or personal experience) to positively engage an expanding international audience interested in human rights and Africa — an audience that is potentially now nearly three times the size of Uganda itself (33 million). While there has emerged some constructive criticism on the content of the video and purpose of the organization (e.g., here and here), these have been outnumbered by arguments that shut down the possibility of channeling this new found enthusiasm for good.

But if the primary argument against this video is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, it holds true for both activists and experts. Most critics from the expert community do themselves and their cause a disservice by relaying hyperbolic and unhelpful criticism.

To be sure, there is a conversation to be had about the role of the West in development, transparency in funding and the purpose of advocacy organizations. But the conversation needs to occur in a manner that does not turn people away from participating in causes greater than themselves to affect positive change.

Whether rightly or wrongly, Invisible Children has made it cool to care about Uganda. Perhaps the organization and its work speak to you, perhaps it doesn’t. What is certain is that there is currently unprecedented enthusiasm among the people whom Kony 2012 spoke to – the young. This is a critical opportunity to engage them and to help channel their enthusiasm to learn more and be better global citizens. And they don’t deserve to be criticized for caring.

2012-03-12-konyscreenshot.jpg
Visualization of Google searches for “kony” since 2004.

Someone Who Knows vs. Someone Who Cares?

The terms “activist” and “expert” are better understood as overlapping identities instead of mutually exclusive positions. Activists are often well informed on their pursuits and experts are among the most passionate for affecting positive change. An activist acts with the intention to affect positive change, while an expert has the necessary qualifications to do so. With that understanding, the threshold to become an activist could be considered low (including “slacktivist” behavior such as sharing a video or buying a bracelet), while the threshold for an expert is significantly higher. But experts do not just appear out of nowhere — they have to start somewhere on the ladder of engagement.

There is understandable skepticism on the value of counting viewers of online videos as activists and raising awareness for a solution with which one does not agree. Fair enough. Let’s look at it another way: Where do experts come from?

If you consider yourself an expert on a topic or region, you most certainly started at a point of curiosity, perhaps a college campus. You probably watched or read something that got you fired up about a particular issue in another part of the world. Then you researched, visited the area, talked with those affected and realized that it was much more complex and nuanced than you originally thought.

What if right now there are 100 million potential more yous out there, seeking your guidance? Let’s settle on 10 million and still be amazed. If just one in one hundred of those 10 million seek out the education, experience and nuance, we are now left with a cadre of passionate and involved 100,000 experts — impressive by any measure. The bottom line is that the inspiration has been served.

You might say, “If I knew then what I know now…” But that’s exactly it: You may never have started, especially if a respected peer attacked you for being involved. Since you do know far more now than you did then, this may be your chance to help others skip some painful learning experiences in the process. Actions do matter more than intentions, but the intention to inform the debate from your perspective is not enough; it has to be done responsibly. If you are criticizing because you care about the future of Uganda, then please care enough to do so in a manner that keeps the conversation going.
What Can Be Done Right Now: Partnerships between Knowledge and Influence

The simple solution is to encourage civilized dialogue. However, a brief scan of the comments sections throughout the blogosphere would scare away even the most knowledgeable and well intentioned critics and activists. Civility is an important lesson but only part of the problem. Central to the argument critics take is the lack of the ability of those newly interested to understand the concepts at work.

Here is the opportunity to engage, to educate, innovate and to democratize the “expert knowledge.” It is imperative on us to ensure that the work that experts do resonates with the next generation of citizen activists, philanthropists and voters.

One such solution would be to encourage think tanks and advocacy organizations working on high-level or “complex” matters to team up with the organizations with strong will and social marketing strengths.

One example, “Exploring Humanitarian Law,” is a toolkit developed by the American Red Cross for use by educators and youth leaders to teach the principles of international humanitarian law (a “complex” issue) in the classroom. Projects such at these are designed to bridge the information gap and create a future of well informed adults, whether they become activists or not.

There is a lesson to be learned here: combining the knowledge produced by high level advocacy organizations with the incredible reach of Invisible Children’s recent campaign will yield a potent mixture of knowledge and power. This combination and could shape the arena in which America’s young adults learn the tools and knowledge that will inform a more productive and positive relationship with not just Uganda, but the rest of the world.
Moving Forward: Training an Expanding Conversation

With the expansion of media production and dissemination evidenced by Kony 2012, it’s no longer possible for the expert community to keep the activists out of this complex conversation. Attempting to do so will only dampen valuable enthusiasm or create disastrous disconnects between doers and thinkers. The only practical response is for experts to positively engage this expanding global dialogue and to teach the conversation upwards.

Activists are still responsible for their message and will unquestionably benefit from expert scrutiny. But right now there are potentially hundreds of millions of youth interested in Uganda and hungry for guidance. They may not be there tomorrow unless we are willing to engage.

 

Co-authors: Christopher Neu and Kevin Malone are facilitators TechChange for the online course: Global Innovations for Digital Organizing. Chris and Kevin have differing perspectives on the current value of the #StopKony campaign, but are excited about the potential impact for social media and human rights. They’re happy to continue the discussion @TechChange.

Follow Stephanie Rudat on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SRudat

Today we are excited to announce, in conjunction with our friends and colleagues at Ushahidi, one of our first new 200-level courses: Ushahidi: Frameworks for Effective Platform Management, a four-week, online course running this summer from June 4th – 29th.

What has us most excited about this course is our approach toward one the highest-profile and most utilized programs in the current generation of ICT4D tools. Working closely with Patrick Meier, Ushahidi’s Director of Crisis Mapping and Strategic Partnerships, and Heather Leson, Director of Community Engagement, we’ve developed a syllabus that focuses both on building confidence in using the Ushahidi platform as well as putting equal attention on essential logistical issues like building trust networks, bolstering security and privacy, and generating effective, actionable data.

“Ushahidi collaborates on a number university courses focused on either Ushahidi software development, research or project work,” said Leson. “The TechChange course offers more access to various community leaders and a holistic participatory process which will complement our Ushahidi programming, inform existing knowledge (wiki.ushahidi.com) while growing the community of deployers. Someday these people will mentor others to make map change around the world.”

As with all our courses, we’re inviting several guest experts to join us in creating a space to discuss these principles, learn from existing case studies, and apply best practices toward new ideas and programs, including members of Ushahidi’s core team.

About the Course
Our lead moderator for the course is Rob Baker, TechChange’s Director of Training and Strategic Partnerships, who facilitates our online course on Tech Tools and Skills for Emergency Management. Rob has worn many hats working with Ushahidi, including being project and/or technical lead for over a dozen deployments around the world, conceived and co-developed the first iteration of the Ushahidi Community website, is the first inductee into their Trusted Developer Network, was Director of the Universities for Ushahidi program, and has spoken at several events, conferences, and universities on behalf of Ushahidi including the World Bank, US State Department, MIT, and Harvard University.

As this will be our first 200-level course, we are proud to offer a discounted rate of $395 with an early-bird rate of $295 for those registering before May 4th, which is lower than other TechChange offerings.

If you think this course is right for you or your organization, please check out the details at our course page. Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us anytime.

We look forward to hearing from you and hopefully working with you this summer.

This post is cross posted from Charles Martin-Shields’, TechChange’s Director of Conflict Management and Peacebuilding Programs, blog Espresso Politics.  

Just got back from ICTD 2012 down at Georgia Tech, and am excited about the state of the field.  This conference is a gathering for academics and practitioners working in the international development and technology spaces.  We got to see talks about everything from mapping to public health, mobile phone applications and new open source software.  The keynote speaker, the Honorable Omobola Johnson, the Minister of Communication Technology in Nigeria, provided participants with an insightful and inspiring look at Nigerian ICT policy.  Nigeria’s efforts to integrate ICT’s into cross-sectoral governance were highlighted and it’s clear that their strategy is robust as technology continues to play an expanding role in governance and peace.

A few highlights:

  • Ramine Tinati‘s model for tracking and studying interactions and group development in the Twitterverse.  What his model does is show us who the important actors between groups are; while someone might have thousands of followers, what he is finding is that the people who are actually propagating ideas are often unknown users who have shared interests and are retweeting information between the users with large followings.  From a conflict analysis perspective, this could be valuable research because it can help practitioners and policy makers identify the actors who can link two thought leaders and spur new ideas or action.
  • Thomas Smyth and Michael Best’s Aggie software, developed at Georgia Tech, which can analyze social media streams and has been used to track information during elections.  The software allowed a user to filter information, tag valuable data and track patterns in the social networking space.
  • IREX’s Paul-Andre Baran came over from Romania to attend and pointed me to a mapping project in Romania called BursaSpagilor, which is an open source map where users can upload information about where they paid bribes and how much they spent.  He explained that bribery was an accepted part of life in Romania (even if it’s illegal), so the idea was to create a market place where consumers of services could see what the competing rates were for different services in different locations.  While this could be collected and used for prosecution, what was even cooler about it was that the program itself might eliminate the need for legal action.  If services providers know that they are competing for customers and that their bribe is being undercut by a competitor, they will bribe less to keep their customers.  This creates a downward spiral, drastically reducing or possibly eliminating bribery.

These were only three of the many cool papers and products presented at the conference.  The fail faire was also fantastic, and a great deal of learning was done as we all discussed our mistakes and lessons learned working in the ICTD field.  I’d strongly encourage anyone working in this space or interested in what is happening with technology and social change to attend the conference next year.  It’s going to be in Cape Town during the Southern Hemisphere summer, so if nothing else it’s going to be a fantastic location!

If you’re interested in what is happening with technology for governance, transparency, conflict prevention and peacebuilding, mobiles for development check out our upcoming courses: “Mobiles for International Development”, “Global Innovations for Digital Organizing”, and “Technology for Conflict Management and Prevention”

This is a guest post from Laura Ogden, an alumna of our course, TC104: Global Innovations for Digital Organizing. If you’re interested in learning more about using technology for democratic change we’re running the course again in May

 

Image Source: Stars Foundation

‘I don’t have an email address at the moment. Can you send me the new finance policy on Facebook and I’ll drop in my signed copy to the office next week?’  This modern-day utterance came not from the secretary of a high-school prom organizing committee, but rather from the youngest Board Member of Ba Futuru, Timor Leste’s preeminent peace building and human rights organisation*.

Whilst this seemingly bizarre request might be interpreted as an encouraging – or amusing – sign of the times, where Internet and social media are penetrating business in all its forms across the globe, our Facebook-friendly Board Member is in fact an anomaly in Timor Leste, which continues to be Asia’s poorest country, after more than a decade of independence, billions of dollars in foreign aid, and years of UN administration.

In a country where (relatively) reliable Internet costs $1-2 an hour (on top of an initial $90 layout for the USB modem) and yet where national GDP was just $594 last year, it’s little wonder that the internet penetration rate in Timor Leste hovers around 2%, eleven years after the first internet connection was established in 2000 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (more…)

By Gerard McCarthy and Christopher Neu

 

Please note that this post pertains to a customized course developed with IREX for alumni of the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program in Pakistan, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, US Department of State (administered by IREX).

If you’re interested in learning online with TechChange, check out Global Innovations for Digital Organizing. Class starts on May 14!

 

UGRAD-Pakistan

Pictured: Talha, an exchange student with Global UGRAD-Pakistan

 

Last month we discovered that our enthusiasm about exchange 2.0 was exceeded only by that of our international exchange students in Pakistan. A select group of forty students, all alumni of the Global UGRAD-Pakistan program, shattered every quantifiable participation record at TechChange for online learning. One student received over a thousand Tech Points (equivalent to nearly 500 posts/replies) for participation, while another student wrote a first draft of their final blog post project on the second day of class. As we mailed out the completion certificates to cities including Lahore, Islamabad and Abbottabad, we wanted to share some thoughts on how online courses like ours can be used to engage with the alumni of exchange programs in the future.

So, in no particular order, here’s four key lessons we’ve learned that might be useful for anyone thinking about using an online course to reach out to international exchange alumni networks.

1.Encourage social learning: Come for the class, stay for the community
On the first day of class, we divided the forty students into four smaller moderated groups of 8-10 students. On the second day of class, the students created their own alumni groups so that they could reconnect with their friends in the Global UGRAD program. This was a surprise for us (as we usually disable this function), but it was also an opportunity for the students to make our platform their own. Instead of closing down on these unauthorized groups, we decided to fork their purposes: “Official” groups would be moderated to advance class discussions and work on projects, while the unofficial alumni groups could be used for off-topic interactions. The decision paid off and we were lucky since the students created their own space for conversation. Next time, we’ll actually plan on letting students create their own groups.

2. Implement collaborative projects: Learn together, work together
As fun as it was to let the students chat among themselves in their alumni years, we didn’t want them to only talk with other students they already knew. The best way we found to stretch the social experience is to give them something to do. So, each week we came up with an exercise:

  • Week 1: Students selected health-based questions (specifically on malaria) to be asked in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by GeoPoll, a new text-message based survey tool that allows large-scale polling in hard-to-reach places including Afghanistan and Tunisia.
  • Week 2: PEPL created a custom deployment of FrontlineSMS in Pakistan to demonstrate how their mobile polling and metrics and evaluation tools worked.
  • Week 3: We received real results from the DRC from GeoPoll, and split the students into teams to verify and map hundreds of reports in a customized Crowdmap using Ushahidi technology.

3. Be aware of local context, but maintain an international focus
Working in Pakistan, we dealt with a gamut of issues: low/sporadic bandwidth, frequent power outages due to load shedding, and other issues which required flexibility and creativity. However, the most important consideration wasn’t the technical, but the social: Based in DC, we had little idea as to what programming in Pakistan is really like. So we quickly reached out to local partners to talk about how they were applying online tools to their work for local challenges, including Khudi who work on counter-radicalization and Pakistan Youth Alliance’s work on aid delivery during floods. However, we also wanted to keep an international focus, and one of the most popular guest experts was from Sri Lanka Unites, where students discovered that their challenges for building a nation and need for an offline strategy are shared around the world.

4. Make it last:
Students taking a four-week online course often are only getting settled in by the end of the first week when they realize that the class is nearly over. That’s why we keep our classes up and site open for three months after the class has concluded. We knew we were onto something when the students’ anguish over losing this opportunity to reconnect was uplifted by the realization that the conversations and collaboration doesn’t have to end when the class does. They’re already online and leaving with a new suite of tools to work together–what more could an educator ask?

In the end, the best way to make the experience last isn’t just to keep a site open, but to continue thinking critically about the best way to integrate online platforms with in-person international exchanges.

To quote our favorite USIP Special Report on Exchange 2.0, we need to make sure international exchange programs:

“Embed the virtues of exchange with ongoing contact. Sponsored exchanges can leverage the investment by enabling participants to remain engaged, continue to enhance their language abilities and cultural understanding, and share their experiences with a broader audience.”

Following this lead we’ve designed our online courses to be platforms for extended social and collaborative learning- and it’s resulted in unprecedented levels of student participation.

We’re sure our four lessons are not comprehensive though, so we’d like to hear from you about effective approaches to online learning and student exchange! Feel free to comment below and we’ll check in regularly. In the meantime, we’ve copied in below some of the course feedback from the Pakistani students. Over to you!

What Our Students Are Saying:

  • It is a great course, and you will understand the basic purpose and benefits of social media and how to use them to have a great outcome of it.
  • My expectations for the course were beyond imagination. I was able to learn the use of tools that can be applied in times of disaster, when one wants to help his fellows. and the tools and ways of communications that were different from my field
  • I would highly recommend my colleagues to learn and experience the beauty of online learning
  • I think I would highly recommend this course to all my friends who are running their NGOss or wish to work on welfare projects. It provides us a platform to learn from people who are serving their societies using modern technologies and innovations. Specifically I have learnt how a simple thing like text message can be so useful in collecting data and reaching out to people and revealing the truth.
  • If you feel helpless that you can’t help people at the time of disaster then u should take this course because after completing this course you will learn quiet much stuff and you will be everywhere, while at home, to help people in trouble 🙂
  • This was first online course and was very good experience. I gained very much useful information. I would recommend my colleagues to take this course as this is very effective in our daily global networking.
  • If one wants to be successful in 21st century .. or really want to be accepted by the fast paced,post modern 21st century .. Then one should make sure to attend this course .. so that he or she will become pro of modern technology,innovations & communication tools. The Ultimate Course of 21st century!!
  • Before taking this online course, I could never imagine how effective and engaging an online course can be!
  • It is simply the height of innovation – come and experience the uniqueness of this virtual classroom!
  • This was a great opportunity for us to learn different issues about social media and communication with the people of different locations. I would say that I have learned how can we make development, how can we work with organizations and how can we use our abilities in a good way… Rob and Stephanie explained different issues very well and i can say that if i started the project about community development that i have to, i wont have any problem and i will be able to overcome the problems correctly…
  • It is worth-taking if you really want to explore the communication world, the ways that you would never had imagined!
  • If you want to learn more in short time just go for TechChange
  • The course is structured in a very learner-friendly style and the moderators are always there to guide you.

 

Editor’s Note: This post has been revised to reflect corrections submitted by PeaceTXT and Sisi Ni Amani

I’ve long been interested in how new media can play a unifying/integrating role vs. a divisive/partisan one and, in this regard, I came across some interesting information recently on a tool called PeaceTXT that I thought I would share. But, first, some background.

It all started with a meeting hosted by PopTech at Google headquarters in Chicago in May 2010. A group of social mobile leaders—including representatives from Ushahidi and MedicMobile—got together with CeaseFire Chicago, which has a long and impressive history of utilizing “interrupters” to prevent gun violence. The Interrupters is now an award-winning documentary. Based on the premise that violence can spread like a communicable disease from one person to another, CeaseFire uses a public health model that combines science and street outreach to detect violent situations and then applies disciplined strategies to cool the situation down. The question on the table for the exploratory group was what role new technologies could play in interrupting violence. The group worked collaboratively with CeaseFire staff, as well as high risk individuals to gain insights on the “triggers” for violence and, ultimately, developed text messages that could help defuse tensions in the “heat of the moment.”

PeaceTXT was launched at PopTech 2010 as a multidisciplinary project to explore the potential of mobile technology to amplify CeaseFire’s proven approach to reducing violence. The collaborative team developed a variety of messages and a mobile campaign fashioned on the same model as “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” on the premise that SMS messaging could be used as a supplementary tool to help CeaseFire interrupt gun violence in marginalized neighborhoods.

Concurrently, those behind PeaceTXT have launched a pilot program in Africa as a next step, and before attempting further work on breaking through the infrastructure hurdles in the United States. Work began with Sisi Ni Amani in Kenya. Sisi Ni Amani (“We are Peace” in Swahili) was founded in July 2010 and developed a model to use mobile phones for peace promotion. Under this model, community members subscribe to a phone number in order to receive free SMS on civic education, civic engagement, and peace promotion. All the messages that go out are moderated and created by local chapters, which consists of vetted local peace and civic education leaders. The network in Kenya was at 10,000, and after the first two weeks of outreach supported by PopTech, it has doubled and is now almost 20,000 strong.

One of the longer-term goals is to cool down violence that may be associated with the elections later in 2012. A lot of election violence in early 2008 in Kenya was triggered through rumors, misinformation, and hate speech. Violent actors utilized widespread mobile technology, and specifically SMS, to spread inciting information and to plan and organize attacks. The problem at the time, added Filderman, was that there was little to counteract negative messages and dispel rumors. The aim this time around is to figure out how to use digital platforms to educate voters, to interrupt violent episodes, and as a tool for reconciliation.

PeaceTXT and Sisi Ni Amani are working together—with support from Poptech—to expand the subscriber base. And the Praekelt Foundation (the platform developer for this project) is also involved. Efforts right now are focusing on developing content as well as making the tool more interactive and scalable. There will be an 8-week test phase beginning on 1 April. CeaseFire staff will also be traveling to Kenya in the summer and the trip promises to be a fruitful two-way exchange. The aim is to see how the interrupter model can be adapted to the Kenyan context and also be used in conjunction with the SMS-based programming.

In short, a lot of groups are working together to explore how to effectively use these new tools to both interrupt violence and build networks for peace. It will be interesting to follow what comes out of these initial experiments … to be continued.

For more information, see an Ushahidi blog posted in December, 2011. (Many thanks to Leetha Filderman, Patrick Meier, and Rachel Brown for their input on this article!)

Zarrin Caldwell is a consultant with Global Dreams Consulting.  Her website www.modelsofunity.net examines models that bridge social capital across traditional divides of race, religion, and ethnicity.