SwiftRiver: Where Software Meets Social Change
You land in a country that is recovering from a long war. The infrastructure is limited, but there is a nascent democratic government. To make up for the lack of infrastructure, citizens use text messages sent to a central receiver or Twitter feeds to let government officials know what they need. I’m describing E-Democracy, and [...]
What the world can learn from Egypt… so far
2011 has begun as a momentous year in the history and practice of nonviolent civil resistance. Tunisia and Egypt have sparked movements across North Africa and the Middle East as ordinary people rise up to resist the autocracy, corruption, and abuse they have lived under for decades. This method of struggle is by no means [...]
Is Forcing Open the Internet a Next Frontier for Humanitarian Intervention?
The recent demonstrations in Belarus, Tunisia, Bahrain, and especially Egypt have all recently demonstrated the importance of the Internet and social media as an organizing tool for popular protest. Twitter and Facebook have been crucial tools for organization and mobilization. Governments have noticed this as well, and begun to target the internet.
Elections, Human Rights, Censorship, Twitter: A Special Time for Burma
This is the new way that excerpts will be displayed including links this is the way
MOSES Giving Voice to Victims & Survivors in Liberian Truth & Reconciliation Commission
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia was established in 2005 as part of the country’s transition of bloody civil war into an emerging democracy. Considering the mass destruction of basic services and infrastructure, however, lack of physical access to the capital of Monrovia for many Liberians has posed a serious obstacle to the objective [...]
Digital Communication and Afghanistan’s 2010 Wolesi Jirga Elections
For nearly two thousand years, Silk Road land and sea routs — which created an “intercontinental think tank of human ingenuity” in terms of trade and communication — connected the Mediterranean to Persia, Indian to Japan, and many more places within Eurasia. Media technologies, such as the printing press, even found their way across these [...]
