Earlier this month I sat down with Dr. Craig Zelizer, Associate Director of the Conflict Resolution MA Program at Georgetown University and TechChange Advisor, to talk about the online professional network that he created in 2008 called the Peace and Collaborative Development Network (PCDN). PCDN has grown to over 16,000 members, 250,000 hits a month and is one of the most well respected and utilized sites in the field of peace and conflict studies. The aim of the site is “to foster dialogue and sharing of resources in international development, conflict resolution, gender mainstreaming, human rights, social entrepreneurship and related fields.” I was eager to learn about the network’s origins, successes, challenges and future plans. Highlights from our conversation are featured below.
Author: Nick Martin
Nick Martin is an educator, technologist, and social entrepreneur with over ten years of international development and peacebuilding experience. He is the founder and CEO of TechChange, a Washington DC-based social enterprise that provides tech training for social change. The TechChange model for technology training has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Economist, Fast Company, PBS NewsHour and more. Nick is a PopTech Social Innovation Fellow (2013), an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow (2014), and an International Youth Foundation Global Fellow (2009). He was also the runner-up for the Society for International Development’s prestigious Rice Award which honors an outstanding young innovator in the field international development under the age of 32 (2014). Nick is an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown and George Washington Universities where he teaches graduate courses on Technology for Social Change, Technology for Crisis Response, and Mobile Phones for International Development. Nick received his BA with honors from Swarthmore College and holds an MA in Peace Education from the United Nations mandated University for Peace (UPEACE).
Last month I taught the first ever course on “Technology and Peace” at the UN-mandated University for Peace (UPEACE) in Costa Rica. The course drew 16 participants from 11 countries, representing a number of distinguished organizations including Ashoka, the Council on Foreign Relations and George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR).
Anyone can submit work for this project. All you need is a camera and access to an email account. Refer to the following guidelines for submissions:
Submission Guidelines
Images must be taken in public spaces with consent where possible. Images of children and those of illegal or compromising behavior will not be accepted.
Submissions need to include the following:
Name of the photographer
Location of the image(s)
Time/Date of the image(s)
Brief description
Submit through:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/techchange
Email: Images may be sent to keith@techchange.org
Submission deadline: August 15, 2010.
Last week, TechChange Co-Founder and President Nick Martin taught a one-week course on Technology and Peace at the United Nations-mandated University for Peace (UPEACE). It was the first course of its kind taught at the university. Participants engaged in a variety of discussions, case studies, and practical exercises involving how technology can be used for building peace. The course also made use of a number of new technology-focused teaching techniques to ease the learning process.
It’s clear that technology is beginning to play a key role in social change. Look at the role crisis mapping software has played in coordinating earthquake response in Haiti, or the effect that social media such as Twitter have had on demanding government accountability in Iran. These examples and many more leave no doubt about the ever-increasing importance of technological innovation in a conflict-ridden world.
But how do we in the prepare ourselves to effectively embrace this reality? How do we critically examine new solutions and keep up with the rapid pace of technological development?
We believe a new kind of education is needed to address the challenges that exist in the world today. Introducing TechChange: the Institute for Technology and Social Change. TechChange will act as that critical and much-needed space for training leaders to leverage these emerging technologies for sustainable social change.
We’re planning a number of innovative online courses – courses that will be practical, flexible, and affordable, taught by leaders in the field, and unlike anything you’ve seen online to-date, but you’ll hear more about these later.