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Honor Leahy recently joined the TechChange team as a Marketing and Communications Fellow! She just finished a year as a Boren Scholar to China after finishing undergrad. We recently sat down with Honor to learn more about her background and experience. Welcome to the team, Honor!

Q: Could you share a bit about your background before joining the TechChange team?

I attended the College of William and Mary and graduated in 2017. I started studying Chinese language my freshman year, and then I actually ended up making it a double major in combination with my Marketing degree. After graduation, I accepted a Boren scholarship to study Mandarin Chinese in Guilin, China for an academic year. I just got back in June!

Q: What originally interested you to join TechChange?

In college I co-founded an organization focused on building a school and providing educational opportunities to students in Nepal. I had read the book Half the Sky and was prompted to make a change in the state of education in our world. I think TechChange really lines up with a lot of the things I realized during the founding of that organization– which is really that education is the greatest tool to empower others. TechChange helps social change and international development organizations do what they do best though the best form possible–accessible education.

Q: What exactly are you going to be working on at TechChange over the next few months?

I am the marketing and communications fellow so I’ll be doing a lot of work in social media outreach and marketing strategy, managing the blog, and coordinating email campaigns. I’ll also be helping to facilitate courses and tie up loose ends wherever need be.

Q: What interests you the most about this kind of work?

I’m exited think of new ways to service a greater number of students! I like talking to people, thinking creatively, and making connections, so I’m excited to meet leaders from different organizations and understand how we can best serve their needs, as well as to get to know what tech topics students want to learn about.

Q: Anything you look forward to working on or learning at TechChange in the next few months?

I’m looking forward to stretching my boundaries– I’d like to learn more about tech in general and tech applications in international development!

Q: Lastly, what’s something that not a lot of people know about you?

I was prom queen my senior year of high school. lol.

By Neil Blazevic, TC116 Student

(Also published on Medium)

At DefendersTech we have spent years training human rights defenders and journalists in the East and Horn of Africa on security tools including email encryption tools such as GPG. These tools were created so that parties to a communication could take their privacy into their own hands and not rely on companies like ISPs, email providers, and social media companies to safeguard their privacy for them. Most GPG tools remain cumbersome to use but once you master them you will better understand the parts and relationships of an encryption infrastructure: public keys, private keys, message encryption, message signing, and key verification.

As it turns out, these are the same concepts needed to understand Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies: instead of sending and receiving messages, you send and receive money/value; instead of using public keys to identify yourself, you use it to identify your wallet (and private keys to spend from it); instead of using email infrastructure, you use blockchain infrastructure — a global network of parties reaching consensus on transactions and the balance of everybody’s wallet.

Cryptocurrency as Financial Human Rights?

Cryptocurrencies are arguable an evolution of human rights ideas in the domains of finances: financial self-determination, self-expression, and privacy. Bitcoin, the first working cryptocurrency, was created by the anonymous ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’, continues to be developed by volunteer programmers across the globe working by consensus and collaboration, and is operated by self-interested private citizens and companies. It is not backed by any nation state or central bank, and it bypasses centuries of banking regulation, international financial controls, and financial surveillance. It is smart, fast, cheap, programmable money. It breaks the stranglehold nation states, banks, and industry power players like Visa and Mastercard have on money.

When payment processors and banking institutions fell in line after being instructed by US authorities to cut off donation channels to Wikileaks, the controversial government leaks platform asked the public to use Bitcoin instead. In late 2017, when Bitcoin was in the midst of its stratospheric 2017 bull run, Wikileaks gloated on Twitter that those US instructions had turned modest donations into a significant war chest. The idea that donations to political and social causes are protected acts of free speech is one that has legal backing in many jurisdictions, and Bitcoin enabled the exercise of that right.

New cryptocurrencies, so-called ‘privacy coins’, have launched since Bitcoin which address these gaps in privacy. These coins include Monero, Zcash, Dash, and ZenCash.

Much more than money: What use for human rights defenders?

In addition to cryptocurrencies, which serve as a store of value, their underlying blockchain technology can also power a dizzying array of applications which benefit from having a decentralised, immutable, consensus-based ledger. These applications include file storage, communications, publishing, asset ownership, legal contracts, official interactions, voting, autonomous digital democracies, digital (and self-sovereign) identity, and much more.

Privacy features of cryptocurrencies can apply to decentralised blockchain applications as well. How will privacy features get baked in to blockchain applications? How will blockchain applications effect the human rights equation as they emerge both as decentralised anarchic entities as well as in use by existing centralised authorities as governments and industry contemplate adoption? What new human rights fights will need to be fought? What new tools will come into the hands of human rights defenders?

At the recently-concluded World Blockchain Forum in Dubai, I had the pleasure to talk with Robert Viglione, Co-founder and President of ZenCash. ZenCash is building exactly some of these applications on top of their privacy-focused blockchain network include private messaging, file storage, online publishing, and making access to the network censorship-resistant.

We talked ideal users, usage for human rights defenders, new tools, usability, and online democracy. Read on for the full interview, edited lightly for readability.

An Interview with Robert Viglione, Founder of ZenCash

Q: Why did you decide to create a privacy coin?

RV: The whole point of it was to create a censorship-resistant network so people could have privacy on their transactions, privacy on messaging, privacy on publishing. It was really designed to open the world up and tear down borders.

Q: Who do you expect to use ZenCash?

RV: The first group is people who care about privacy. People in the Bitcoin world who realised it isn’t very private — That was our first audience. Now we are trying to build out our audience and mainstream it. The core audience is people who need privacy around the world.

Q: Do you see any use case for activists, dissidents, human rights defenders?

RV: Of course that’s who we think about as the user. That’s where the censorship resistant aspect comes from, and why we have it. I think it’s a perfect tool for them.

Q: What are the new applications you’re building on ZenCash and how can they be used by human rights defenders?

RV: ZenChat is messaging which lets users communicate with each other without fear of repression or surveillance even for people who are in parts of the world which deny them access to parts of the internet. We’re developing a domain fronting application called ZenHide which hides your access to the network. It looks like you’re using a Google server or an Amazon server and it’s designed to get you into the network so you can use all of our tools.

Then ZenPub is for secure publishing — if you’re a journalist in a repressed part of the world or a whistleblower and want to publish something without fear you can do it with ZenPub.

Q: Security tools are often difficult to use, how usable are the Zen tools?

RV: The first generation was not very usable. The second generation will be very usable. Right now we have what we call “operation radical usability” which is a huge product push to redesign our products and make them super simple for new users. I’ll be honest, the first generation products were really designed for more technical users, just to have something out there already that they can use.

Q: What else in the blockchain space are you excited about?

RV: I’m looking at liquid democracies concepts like what we’re doing with our voting systems, because we want to empower people and this can be used for communities where you can have proof of fair elections, or figure out how you can do resource allocation together. I really like those applications because I think it’s an interesting governance domain — not just publishing and accessing networks, but once you’re a networked community, do you have a voice in that community?

I think our voting system within ZenCash is the most exciting — not just because I’m biased but because it actually comes from game theory research. We’re solving two big issues with voting systems and DAOs [decentralised autonomous organisations]. One is that you don’t want the voting system itself to influence the outcome, so we have secret balloting. We use our privacy technology where at the end of voting the votes are revealed, rather than having them revealed along the way which could tilt the vote. The other issue is voter apathy — we want to overcome it by actually paying the voters. So we use a bit of economics there. It’s cool because as a member of the community you can actually earn an income by being a good citizen.

Q: Thanks so much Rob!

RV: My pleasure Neil.

Coda

I do hope to contribute to a conversation about usage of blockchain for human rights promotion and by human rights defenders. How will cryptocurrency, privacy coins, blockchain applications especially with privacy features built-in be of use in their hands? Please share your thoughts in the comments, Twitter, new posts, etc!

Learn about Blockchain: What is blockchain? The most disruptive tech in decades (ComputerWorld) | Still don’t understand the blockchain? This explainer will help (World Economic Forum)

Learn about Bitcoin: www.bitcoin.org

Learn about Zencash: www.zencash.com

If you would like to donate cryptocurrency to the work of DefendDefenders, we would love to accept it. We are currently working on a policy to enable this within the formal structures of the organisation. Shoot us an email at crypto@defenddefenders.org to be notified when we begin accepting cryptocurrency donations.

Neil Blazevic is the DefendersTech program manager at DefendDefenders, an organisation committed to protecting and supporting human rights Defenders across East and Horn of Africa, and CTO at BlockchainAG, a Uganda-based blockchain service company. Tweets from @neilblazevic.

TechChange’s “Blockchain for International Development” course is back September 10! Sign up here!

Mitch recently joined the TechChange team as our GDPR Research Fellow! Mitch just graduated from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada with a Masters in Public Policy, where he focused on digital development, data privacy, and technology policy.

We recently sat down with Mitch to learn more about his background and experience. Welcome to the team!

Q: Could you share a bit about your background before joining the TechChange team?

I started working in digital development at Cisco Systems, where I worked on improving telecommunications policy and connectivity in emerging markets. More recently, I completed a Fellowship with the UN Foundation’s Digital Impact Alliance, or DIAL, where I worked on the Principles for Digital Development.

Q: What originally interested you to join TechChange?

Training and evaluation is so important in this sector and I saw how TechChange is filling a unique gap that a lot of organizations face in learning from success and failure in digital development programs. Being involved in digital training for practitioners in this space is really interesting to me—especially when it comes to understanding how organizations are using data in increasingly different ways to solve challenges.

Q: What exactly are you going to be working on at TechChange over the next few months?

So, the General Data Protection Regulation (a bit long to write, so we can just say GDPR), is a regulation that came into effect on May 25 that really changes the way that technology-oriented organizations are dealing with personal and consumer data.

Last month, TechChange facilitated a course on how the GDPR is affecting—and going to affect—donors and implementers in the international development sector. I will be working to better understand the implications behind this new regulation so that TechChange and its partners can offer timely, accurate, and constructive information as everyone tries to understand how the GDPR will affect them and how their relationship with personal data will shift.

Q: What interests you the most about this kind of work?

I’m really interested in understanding how NGOs working in the field are using data in different ways in their programs and in being a part of that training first-hand through TechChange’s learning platform. As more organizations continue to use technology and leverage mobile connectivity, questions around data privacy will continue to be asked. Going forward, finding out how to anticipate and answer those questions for development practitioners is crucial.

Q: Anything you look forward to working on or learning at TechChange in the next few months?

Outside of data privacy research, I am really looking forward to brushing up on my design skills and learning more about how TechChange’s instructional platform works as an online learning tool.

It’s really neat to see how TechChange has developed and used its online learning platform to inform and train both individuals and organizations on so many different aspects of international development. So, it will be exciting to see the platform in action over the next few months!

Q: Lastly, what’s something that not a lot of people know about you?

I competed in the provincial bobsled championships in Whistler, British Columbia, this spring. We went pretty fast down the ice—142 kilometers an hour—but it wasn’t fast enough…We came in second place!

For the sixth year in a row, TechChange was honored to host three brilliant girls from the TechGirls State Program.

The program encourages Middle Eastern and North African teenage girls to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers. In the next few weeks, they are traveling throughout the U.S. for the first time to visit technology companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and Instagram.

This year we had Tatiana Kassem of Lebanon, Lara Saket of Jordan, and Meriam Boutaa of Algeria come to the our office and shadow our staff for the day.

They began their day by working with our creative team to create their own animated assets. Watch the animated asset they created below!

Next, we showed them the TechChange platform and helped them create two of their own custom courses, one on gene therapy and one highlighting the cultures of the Middle East and North Africa.

Finally, they learned how to use Articulate 360 by working with our instructional design team.

At the end of the day, we took some time to sit down with the girls and learn more about the program and their passions.

Q: What drew you to the TechGirls Program?

Tatiana: They take girls from the Middle East and encourage them to go in to the STEM field because in the Middle East girls usually go into teaching or liberal arts. But if a girl is passionate about going into the STEM field, she should be able to. Our gender should not be a factor when deciding future occupations or finding our passion. Even as kids, girl get barbies and boys get legos. TechGirls has been important in shifting that dialogue. It also encourages us to be leaders and change our communities. It has helped me build confidence and learn the importance of building relationships.

Lara: TechGirls encourages community service, getting involved in our communities, incorporating technology to make positive changes, and build projects in our home countries.

Meriam: TechGirls has helped me improve my confidence and leadership.

Q: What projects are you currently working on?

Meriam: When I go back to Algeria, I want to teach my friends, ages 14-17, about the TechGirls program to develop their personalities, be more open-minded, and have support in their communities. You have to start within your own community.

Tatiana: I want to teach younger generations and tackle the issue of illiteracy. I want to open them to new fields and build a curriculum with an internally motivated mindset. I want the youth to regain their passion and confidence. I want to do that through a blog. I also want to use my tech skills to innovate within the medical field in the future.

Lara: There is a lack of therapists in Jordan. I really want work with the refugees in Syria who are dealing with depression. I would like build a project around that. I also want to make a difference in public education in Jordan.

Q: What was your favorite part of the job shadow day at TechChange?

Tatiana: I enjoyed being familiar with the work for the future and gaining the knowledge and meeting everyone at TechChange!

Meriem: I was always curious about how animations worked and today I learned how to make one. I thought it would be hard but you guys made it fun and easy.

Lara: Today, I felt like I saw my future. I enjoyed working with the creative team and I know that is what I would like to do.

Always a pleasure to have you here TechGirls, thanks for joining us!

This article was written and contributed by Kate McAlpine , Director of CCR Tanzania.

Community for Children’s Rights [CCR] is a Tanzanian social enterprise that is building and mobilizing a community of civically minded citizens across Eastern and Southern Africa who will act to prevent and protect children from violence. At our core is a commitment to enabling people to tell their story, and to manifesting new realities of solidarity and collective action.

We want to shift a critical mass of citizens from a perspective of saying “It’s none of my business” when they see a child suffer to one where they take the first protective action.

Once we have identified and mapped the location of people who have a predisposition to protect children, we offer them the opportunity to build their toolbox, so that they can take decisions that are in children’s best interests. We assume that it is possible to offer these citizens a transformative experience in a digital and mobile space.

This is where our relationship with TechChange comes in. It provides an opportunity to ally with a like-minded, entrepreneurial partner who is keen to experiment. The online learning platform provided by TechChange helps us to reach protectors at scale; and in this way, amplify our impact.

 

We have traditionally facilitated learning with our child protectors through face-to-face dialogues and courses that create a space to build relationships. Facilitators and learners connect in the spirit of empathy and mutual curiosity. Now our partnership with TechChange presents us with a challenge: “Is it possible to build these deep connections in an online space?”

Our initial sense from prototyping our first course on the TechChange platform is that the platform allows us to mimic the face-to-face learning environment to an extent. Through the Members page and active forum interactions on the platform, we have designed  journeys that start with learners’ experience and reality and scaffolds off that.

Learners and facilitators are able to connect on their own terms, meaning that they can engage at a time of day that suits them; and at the same time courses need sufficient structure so that participants can log-in at the same time and experience real-time conversation with their peers. The TechChange platform admin dashboard further provides real-time analytics of how our participants are engaging with the platform. The platform also has the capacity to design courses that tap into multiple ways of learning.

The keys to effective learning do not only lie in the design of the course and platform on which it is delivered. It is also critical to target learners who are committed to their own development; and to provide a space and incentive for learners to pursue their own development once the course is complete. With this in mind; CCR is targeting citizens who already demonstrate a track record of taking actions to protect children.

We incentivise their involvement in our community of citizens for change by offering them access to the online courses on a freemium basis. The TechChange platform model further  supports our freemium model, in addition to the flexibility of supporting payments if we decide to use other non-freemium models in the future. Finally, once the course is over we continue to involve them in community conversations with other protectors; via social media, community meet-ups, information sharing.

Skeptics tend to argue that Africans will not adapt to online learning environments; because of the unfamiliarity of the medium and the costs associated with access to data. Our experience so far contests this. As the unfolding enthusiasm for e-commerce in Africa reveals, there is a huge latent demand that is ready to be tapped.

We believe that the high-quality online learning opportunities at TechChange are a huge opportunity for actors such as CCR who are concerned with identifying, equipping and mobilizing citizens for change across the Continent.