Posts tagged technology

WMC’s Women Under Siege is calling on women and men from Syria and those working with Syrian refugees to provide us with reports of Sexualized violence as the crisis unfolds. We are relying on you to help us discover whether rape and sexual assault are widespread - such evidence can be used to aid the international community in grasping the urgency of what is happening in Syria, and can provide the base for potential future prosecutions. Our goal is to make these atrocities visible, and to gather evidence so that one day justice may be served. We collaborate with epidemiologists at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, as well as multiple Syrian activists and journalists. 

WMC’s Women Under Siege is calling on women and men from Syria and those working with Syrian refugees to provide us with reports of Sexualized violence as the crisis unfolds. We are relying on you to help us discover whether rape and sexual assault are widespread - such evidence can be used to aid the international community in grasping the urgency of what is happening in Syria, and can provide the base for potential future prosecutions. Our goal is to make these atrocities visible, and to gather evidence so that one day justice may be served.

We collaborate with epidemiologists at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, as well as multiple Syrian activists and journalists. 

womenundersiegesyria.crowdmap.com

Crowdsourcing is the theme for EgyptNEGMA’s second annual conference to be held March 23rd-24th, 2013 at the MIT Media Lab, in Cambridge, MA. Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call. After all, the Egyptian revolution was a crowd-revolution.

Crowdsourcing is the theme for EgyptNEGMA’s second annual conference to be held March 23rd-24th, 2013 at the MIT Media Lab, in Cambridge, MA. Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call. After all, the Egyptian revolution was a crowd-revolution.

egyptnegma.org

fastcompany: How Skype Is Helping Topple A Dictator In Syria This article from Mashable gives us another reason to love technology. Skype is the go-to social network for communication between rebels, anti-government activists, journalists and officials inside and outside of Syria. Why? Skype uses wiretapping-resistant Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, making it safer for transmitting messages while under the watchful eyes and ears of government censors. It’s free to download and easy to use, both positives for cash-strapped rebels and activists. Its video-based chatting makes it easier to identify the person on the other line, important when verifying information as legit amidst the fog of war. And it provides an easy way for Syrians to gather electronically in areas where assembling in person poses too great a security risk. [Image:via Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images]

fastcompany:

How Skype Is Helping Topple A Dictator In Syria

This article from Mashable gives us another reason to love technology.

Skype is the go-to social network for communication between rebels, anti-government activists, journalists and officials inside and outside of Syria.

Why? Skype uses wiretapping-resistant Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, making it safer for transmitting messages while under the watchful eyes and ears of government censors. It’s free to download and easy to use, both positives for cash-strapped rebels and activists. Its video-based chatting makes it easier to identify the person on the other line, important when verifying information as legit amidst the fog of war. And it provides an easy way for Syrians to gather electronically in areas where assembling in person poses too great a security risk.

[Image:via Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images]

Meet AbdelRahman Mansour, Co-Admin of ‘We Are All Khaled Said’ Page from Jadaliyya on Vimeo. Interview by Linda Herrera and filmed by Mark Lotfy

All this may seem touching – yet the projects and the people behind them command respect. Instead of running away, more and more young Lebanese like Najwa, Hind and Ziad are fighting for futures in their own country. And showing greater enthusiasm and responsibility than the state has seen for decades. Who can say what they might yet achieve?

Inspiring, Lebanon’s Young Fight for the Country’s Future with Thought & Vision 

Business Innovation in Lebanon The Other Spring by Mona Sarkis

Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire

en.qantara.de

** UPDATE: BASSEL HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED FROM A CIVILIAN (ADRA) TO A MILITARY FIELD COURT, WHICH DENIES HIM A LAWYER AND WITNESSES. THIS IS BAD. PLEASE ACT NOW. ** From Al Jazeera: Friends and colleagues of Bassel Khartabil, a Palestinian-Syrian, say they fear he is in imminent danger of a quick military trial and possible execution. A coalition of his friends and supporters said on Monday that he was transferred from a civil prison to a military prison and denied a lawyer. Khartabil was named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of 2012’s top 100 thinkers for “fostering an open-source community in a country long on the margins of the internet’s youth culture”.

** UPDATE: BASSEL HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED FROM A CIVILIAN (ADRA) TO A MILITARY FIELD COURT, WHICH DENIES HIM A LAWYER AND WITNESSES. THIS IS BAD. PLEASE ACT NOW. **

From Al Jazeera:

Friends and colleagues of Bassel Khartabil, a Palestinian-Syrian, say they fear he is in imminent danger of a quick military trial and possible execution. A coalition of his friends and supporters said on Monday that he was transferred from a civil prison to a military prison and denied a lawyer.

Khartabil was named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of 2012’s top 100 thinkers for “fostering an open-source community in a country long on the margins of the internet’s youth culture”.

The Revolution will be Digitised At the centre sits the Establishment: governments, corporations and powerful individuals who have more knowledge about us, and more power, than ever before. Circling them is a new generation of hackers, pro-democracy campaigners and internet activists who no longer accept that the Establishment should run the show.

The Revolution will be Digitised

At the centre sits the Establishment: governments, corporations and powerful individuals who have more knowledge about us, and more power, than ever before. Circling them is a new generation of hackers, pro-democracy campaigners and internet activists who no longer accept that the Establishment should run the show.

therevolutionwillbedigitised.com

Wasla Wasla, the first Arabic citizen newspaper was an early indicator of the Arab Awakening; in March 2010, Gamal Eid, the executive director of Arabic Network for Human rights Information said, We issued this newspaper knowing that trouble is ahead. We expect some to adore it and others to bitterly challenge us on it. In fact , those are the Arab bloggers . They address topics in defiance to all traditions and stereotypes. They are determined to claim their full right to expression and opinion. These are thoughts of the youth , their loud voices, assert they exist and have their own opinions , worries and stances with which we should touch base first and then debate.

Wasla

Wasla, the first Arabic citizen newspaper was an early indicator of the Arab Awakening; in March 2010, Gamal Eid, the executive director of Arabic Network for Human rights Information said,

We issued this newspaper knowing that trouble is ahead. We expect some to adore it and others to bitterly challenge us on it. In fact , those are the Arab bloggers . They address topics in defiance to all traditions and stereotypes. They are determined to claim their full right to expression and opinion. These are thoughts of the youth , their loud voices, assert they exist and have their own opinions , worries and stances with which we should touch base first and then debate.

Syria’s Info Wars: Branch 225

The Arab Awakening is distinguished by how information and communication technologies have contributed to precipitating change in the Arab world, and how autocratic regimes have tried to use open technologies to crush the people.  

Branch 225, a unit within Syria’s intelligence services appears to coordinate the regime’s info war strategy by instructing the country’s mobile operators to block text messages, which contain terms pertaining to the Syrian Revolution.

The country’s mobile operators are using filtering technologies developed by Irish based companies, Cellusys and AdaptiveMobile to weaken the ability of the people to coordinate political activities. Bloomberg News reports:

Read more »

Mosireen is a non-profit media centre in Downtown Cairo born out of the explosion of citizen journalism and cultural activism in Egypt during the revolution. Armed with mobile phones and cameras, thousands upon thousands of citizens kept the balance of truth in their country by recording events as they happened in front of them, wrong-footing censorship and empowering the voice of a street-level perspective.

Mosireen, in just three months of production, has become the most viewed non-profit YouTube channel in Egypt of all time.

(Video: Our Revolution Continues by Mosireen)

One Year Later: Wael Ghonim at Stanford University Wael is promoting his book, ‘Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power’ across the US, and today he is speaking at Stanford University, at an event organised by TechWadi. In one of the many interviews Wael has conducted, we particularly liked this answer to a question in the Boston Globe: Q. Given the role social media played in the Arab Spring uprisings, and in Occupy Wall Street here, is this phenomenon likely to accelerate? A. I believe so. The power of the Internet and social media is threefold. One, it allows people of similar interests to connect - if you feel isolated, you’re less likely to take action. Two, people can work together in crowd-sourcing ideas and making decisions that way. And three, mainstream media have become decentralized. Twenty years ago, a few large TV networks were telling people what happened, in their own way. Now someone can upload a YouTube video and within a couple of days, it’s seen by 2 million people. The big challenge is how governments will deal with this.

One Year Later: Wael Ghonim at Stanford University

Wael is promoting his book, ‘Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power’ across the US, and today he is speaking at Stanford University, at an event organised by TechWadi. In one of the many interviews Wael has conducted, we particularly liked this answer to a question in the Boston Globe:

Q. Given the role social media played in the Arab Spring uprisings, and in Occupy Wall Street here, is this phenomenon likely to accelerate?

A. I believe so. The power of the Internet and social media is threefold. One, it allows people of similar interests to connect - if you feel isolated, you’re less likely to take action. Two, people can work together in crowd-sourcing ideas and making decisions that way. And three, mainstream media have become decentralized. Twenty years ago, a few large TV networks were telling people what happened, in their own way. Now someone can upload a YouTube video and within a couple of days, it’s seen by 2 million people. The big challenge is how governments will deal with this.

Google & the Arab Awakening: Interview With Jared Cohen in Tunisia - Director of Google Ideas

Digital Diplomacy & the Arab Revolution with Nicolas Princen, Khaled El-Mufti, Alec Ross, Katie Stanton and Rohan Silva, chaired by Felix Marquardt DLD Conference 12 > Live Stream

Digital Diplomacy & the Arab Revolution with Nicolas Princen, Khaled El-Mufti, Alec Ross, Katie Stanton and Rohan Silva, chaired by Felix Marquardt

DLD Conference 12 > Live Stream

Arab Social Media Report

by the Dubai School of Government

The societal and political transformations sweeping the Arab region have empowered large segments of the region’s population. Many stereotypes have been shattered, with Arab youth, “netizens” and women becoming the main drivers for regional change. Arab women in particular have become more engaged in political and civic actions, playing a critical leading role in the rapid and historic changes that have swept the region. Meanwhile, the debate about the role of social media in these transformations has reached policy making circles at the regional and global levels.

Throughout 2011, social media usage continued to grow significantly across the Arab world, coupled with major shifts in usage trends. From merely being used as a tool for social networking and entertainment, social media now infiltrates almost every aspect of the daily lives of millions of Arabs, affecting the way they interact socially, do business, interact with government, or engage in civil society movements. By the end of 2011, Arab users’ utilization of social media had evolved to encompass civic engagement, political participation, entrepreneurial efforts, and social change.

Read more »

dsg.ae

Constitution 3.0 - Freedom and Technological Change Technological changes are posing stark challenges to America’s core values. Basic constitutional principles find themselves under stress from stunning advances that were unimaginable even a few decades ago, much less during the Founders’ era. Policymakers and scholars must begin thinking about how constitutional principles are being tested by technological change and how to ensure that those principles can be preserved without hindering technological progress.

Constitution 3.0 - Freedom and Technological Change

Technological changes are posing stark challenges to America’s core values. Basic constitutional principles find themselves under stress from stunning advances that were unimaginable even a few decades ago, much less during the Founders’ era. Policymakers and scholars must begin thinking about how constitutional principles are being tested by technological change and how to ensure that those principles can be preserved without hindering technological progress.