Today we officially launched the second phase of the Technology for Transparency Network, a Rising Voices project that documents and maps projects around the world that use online technology to promote transparency and accountability.

Technology for Transparency Network

During the first phase, which ran from January to May of this year, we mapped 37 case studies from Central & Eastern Europe, China, Latin America, South Asia, Southeast Asia and anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa. Between now and September, we’ll be nearly doubling that number and expanding our focus to include projects from the Middle East & North Africa, the former Soviet Union and francophone Africa.

Researchers from the Technology for Transparency Network present at the 2010 Global Voices Summit in Santiago, Chile. Photo courtesy of FabsY_ on Flickr.

I am psyched to be co-heading the project along with the formidable and talented Renata Avila. We’re thrilled to be working with an amazing team of researchers and advisors, including our new editorial advisor Hzel Feigenblatt. Hazel is the Media Projects Director at Global Integrity and will be working with us to make sure we interview the most innovative and exciting projects in this space.

If you have an idea for a case study, let us know! We’re currently taking suggestions in English, Spanish and Portuguese. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed to get updates when we publish new case studies, follow us on Twitter (@techtransparent) and become a fan on Facebook.

Posted in ICT, digital activism, global voices, technology | Leave a comment

On Jer’s recommendation, I’m reading Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, which you can and should download for free from his site.

The book is a fictional account of a high school kid — a smart, technologically skilled high school kid — who ends up on the wrong side of the Department of Homeland Security after a terrorist attack in San Francisco. As I sat in Dulles airport last night waiting for my flight back to Boston, I realized just how much information I put online and how little effort it would take the DHS to throw me in a holding cell were the American government so inclined.

I came to work this morning to news that the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has approved the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, which among other things gives the president the power to force ISPs and search engines to limit or shut down connections at his whim. Oh, and by the way, the ACLU has announced that “Americans have been put under surveillance or harassed by the police just for deciding to organize, march, protest, espouse unusual viewpoints and engage in normal, innocuous behaviors such as writing notes or taking photographs in public” in at least 33 states.

I’m trying not be alarmist about this, but maybe I should be?

Posted in crazy, technology, terrorism | 1 Comment

One of my fellow Berkterns is teaching some of us Ruby this summer. Our first lesson included an example in which we define an array, set a variable equal to that array, and then added that variable into the array, effectively defining an infinite array (one that, in our case, repeated “dog, pony, show” over and over again).

“This is recursion,” our wise teacher announced. “If you don’t know what recursion is, Google it.”

We all dutifully followed his instructions and found this:

Oh, Google.

Posted in technology | 4 Comments

My next post is up at Global Voices Online:

On the eve of Sudan's 2010 presidential elections, I interviewed Fareed Zein, who heads the citizen election monitoring project Sudan Vote Monitor, for the Technology for Transparency Project. Zein was hopeful that the project would bring greater transparency to the country's first democratic elections in more than two decades. “There was basically no idea what was going on on the ground” during previous political events, Zein said at the time. “What we're hoping to do is shine a light and give people access to events that are occurring at remote election centers.” On Wednesday I checked in with Zein to get his thoughts on the project now that the elections have ended.

Read the interview »

Posted in digital activism, global voices, sudan, technology | 1 Comment

I woke up early last Monday morning to interview Philip Thigo of the Kenyan Budget Tracking Tool for the Technology for Transparency Network. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun asking someone questions.

If you listen to the podcast, you’ll hear faint sounds of Nairobi in the background: horns honking, people walking around. As Philip chatted candidly with me about the successes and struggles of encouraging greater transparency in Kenya’s national budget, I imagined him in his office, the door propped open, curtains blowing in the breeze.

Can you tell that living in New York has made me a bit desperate for sunshine and perhaps a return trip to Kampala?

Anyway, the noise makes for an interview that sounds less than studio-produced, but it also makes me happy. The sounds of life in east Africa, Philip’s laughter and his enthusiasm for his work all combined to create an awesome interview experience, and I highly recommend that you read the full case study and listen to the podcast.

Posted in ICT for development, africa, aid and development, digital activism, economics, global voices, kenya, poverty, technology | Leave a comment