TECHNOLOGY FOR PEACE:
IDEAS FROM THE TRENCHES
Sanjana Hattotuwa
Sri Lanka
Conflict transformation
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A process of engaging with and transforming
relationships, interests, discourses and, if necessary, the
very constitution of society that supports the
continuation of violent conflict
CT cautions against too much of confidence in to
agreements
Conflict can never be resolved, but it can be
transformed negotiate differences non-violently
ICT and conflict transformation
“Satisficing”
Culturally
appropriate and
sustainable
Online + Offline
Conflict
Transformation
Mobiles as well
as PCs
Interoperable
Open Standars
ICT4Peace?
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“We value the potential of ICTs to promote peace and to
prevent conflict which, inter alia, negatively affects
achieving development goals. ICTs can be used for
identifying conflict situations through early-warning
systems preventing conflicts, promoting their peaceful
resolution, supporting humanitarian action, including
protection of civilians in armed conflicts, facilitating
peacekeeping missions, and assisting post conflict peacebuilding
and
reconstruction.”
Paragraph 36, WSIS Tunis Commitment, 2005
My work in Sri Lanka
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Writing from 2001, working actively from 2003
Set up InfoShare in 2003 – only one of its kind in
Sri Lanka
Applied research – technology that works, not just
promises
Real life scenarios
Imagining solutions and pushing the art of the
possible
Scenario
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Grassroots organisation with big staff turnover
Limited Human, Financial and Technical resources
Website launched but not updated
You need to communicate your work
You need to communicate your community’s ideas
and aspirations / possible engender them
Apathetic and unreliable traditional media
coverage
Violent context
The hardware
Connectivity – Wireless Broadband
Planning for content
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Think strategically – knowledge expands
exponentially
Text, photos, audio and video complement each
other
Who are your primary and secondary audiences?
Who are your content producers?
What media do the above use?
Web 2.0
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Wikipedia and Facebook are prime examples
User generated content
“In 2006, the World Wide Web became a tool for
bringing together the small contributions of millions
of people and making them matter.” – Time
Magazine
Interactive, community based, conversational spaces
Two way communications
Facebook – For personal use
http://www.facebook.com
Facebook – For campaigns
http://www.facebook.com
VOIP
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Voice over Internet Protocol / Voice over IP
Gives ulcers, migraines and reduces life expectancy
of traditional telecoms executives
Free PC to PC anywhere in the world anytime
Cheap international dialing rates for fixed and
mobile phones
Call conferencing
Easy recording for podcasts / Great for interviews
Skype
http://www.skype.com
Skypecasts – Community conversations
Call recorders for Skype
You can use any of these programme to easily create a recording
of your conversation, which you can upload to the web and create
a podcast with ease.
Podcasts
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Audio broadcast available on the Web to the public
for free downloading to a personal computer or a
digital audio player.
Podcast recording
Audacity for Windows XP /
Vista / Mac / Linux
Quicktime 8 for Mac
Publishing a podcast
http://ourmedia.org
YouTube
http://www.youtube.com
Flickr
Use the tools in your OS
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Microsoft
Office Picture
Manager
iPhoto on the
Mac
Basics the same
as high end
software
Easy to use
Use the tools in your OS
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Windows Movie Maker on the PC
iMovie on the Mac
Google Maps
http://www.ushahidi.com/
Blogs
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Can you send an email with an attachment? Then you can blog!
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Shortened form of the phrase “Web log”
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Like a diary or journal, but online. No coding knowledge necessary.
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Easily link to other blogs, create local and international campaigns,
by-pass traditional media and potential have greater reach, can
include multimedia
Well over 70 million – the new Guttenberg of the web.
Blogs
Writing a post
Blogs – Typical features
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Comments on posts
Trackbacks (a way through which you are alerted
when others link to your posts)
Categories / Sections
Archives
Blogroll (a list of other blogs you find interesting or
deal with similar issues)
RSS
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RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, which is a
great name because the concept is just that: Really
simple.
It allows you to subscribe to an information feed that
gets delivered directly to your RSS reader or Web
browser.
So instead of visiting several different Web pages each
day or performing the same Web searches over and
over, you can set up RSS feeds to do it for you.
Google Reader
http://reader.google.com
Instant Messaging
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Use MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Skype,
Google Chat to coordinate and collaborate
Saves on emails
Bounce off quick ideas
Quickly plan for action
Share small files quicker
Twitter
Twitter.com
Mobiles
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In everyone’s hands
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Persistent – Messages can be stored, forwarded
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Cheaper to buy than a PC
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Web integration (mobile > Twitter > RSS)
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Great for community campaigns. Can complement other
media strategies for national level campaigns.
Citizen journalism – Everyone is a witness!
FrontlineSMS.com
1. It has been conceived,
designed and written
with NGOs in mind
2. The system can be used
for internal staff-based
communications, or to
provide information to
local communities via a
sign-up process, or both.
3. Field-based NGOs can
keep in touch with their
fieldworkers from
anywhere in the field.
Mobileactive.org
1. Using Mobile Phones in Electoral and Voter Registration Campaigns
2. Using Mobile Phones in Advocacy Campaigns
3. Mobile Phones in Fundraising Campaigns
Google Apps
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Government can’t easily shut down or block
Robust, reliable, pervasive, platform agnostic
Group calendaring, instant messaging, document
creation and archives, wikis, webpages, email lists
and email services, online and offline access
This I believe
http://www.thisibelieve.org
Conversations with history
http://www.uctv.tv/cwh/
Insight on conflict
http://www.insightonconflict.org/
Groundviews
http://www.groundviews.org
Groundviews
http://www.groundviews.org
Oral histories – VOR Radio
My personal bias
Ideas
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Ask people to send in ideas for peace on pre-paid forms
(through post) printed inside toothpaste, shampoo, soap,
washing powder, milk power cartons and packages – which
target females in households who may not necessarily
otherwise engage in peace related dialogues. Scan or
capture feedback and post it on website.
A website that counts down to a million “voices” in support
of peace – people call in to a toll-free hotline from any
mobile or landline to answer a) what does peace mean to
you b) how will you work towards strengthen that which you
outlined in (a) – in three minutes or less.
Ideas
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Collaborate with projects such as www.witness.org that
use digital media to record human rights violations
Mobile phone based “swarming” –get your community
together quickly to a spot to stand up for something
Capture ideas for peace through mobiles (competitions
for best 5 word idea for peace via SMS)
Thank you!
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sanjana@info-share.org
http://ict4peace.wordpress.com
http://sanjanah.wordpress.com