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Innovative “Internet Suitcases” to Bypass Government Censorship

boy with binoculars and man with mac computer in afghanistan

Photo Credit: NYTimes

The State Department is financing the creation of external wireless networks that would enable dissidents to undermine repressive authoritarian governments trying to censor or disable telecommunication networks, according to a New York Times report.

According to the Times story released on Sunday, Internet and mobile phone networks are being created so they can be deployed in an area independent of government control.

The State Department-led project involves the building of a $2-million prototype “Internet in a suitcase”, and independent “shadow” phone networks by a group operating out of a building on L Street in Washington, D.C.

This comes to light after the U.N. and the U.S. proclaimed Internet access and Internet freedoms as central to free speech and human rights.

“We see more and more people around the globe using the Internet, mobile phones and other technologies to make their voices heard as they protest against injustice and seek to realize their aspirations,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote to the Times.

The new technologies made to circumvent oppressive regimes are currently in development by the New America Foundation under their nonpartisan think tank, Open Technology Initiative (OTI). The D.C. entrepreneurial engineers are cultivating both new technologies, and finding ways to utilize the tools from the previous uprisings.

The State Department, for example, is financing projects to create stealth wireless networks, including a $2 million grant to develop the “Internet in a suitcase.” The networking access points are designed to look like regular suitcases that communicate with each other to create mesh networks connected to the global Internet.

Diagram of a stealth network and wireless mesh network

Photo Credit: NYTimes

These suitcases, which contain all the necessary hardware, could be smuggled into a country and deployed over an area to create a service independent of government control in countries like Iran, Syria and Libya, according to participants in the projects.

The other project is even more ambitious, the article states, where the State Department and Pentagon have spent $50 million to create an independent cellphone network in Afghanistan to offset the Taliban’s ability to shut down the official Afghan services.

This all comes after the “Arab Spring” uprisings over the past several months, which have drawn attention to network shutdowns and censorship conducted by regimes under threat like the Syrian and Egyptian governments. They attempt to stifle citizens’ ability to communicate with each other and to inform the outside world of what’s going on in the protest zones.

“The implication is that this disempowers central authorities from infringing on people’s fundamental human right to communicate,” recounted Sascha Meinrath, project director of the OTI, who is leading the “Internet in a suitcase” project.

However, Meinrath cautions that the cultivation of these independent networks also have can have a negative aspect:

Repressive governments could use surveillance to locate and arrest activists who use the technology, or persecute them for simply bringing hardware across the border.

Others believe that the risks are outweighed by the potential impact. “We’re going to build a separate infrastructure where the technology is nearly impossible to shut down, to control, to surveil,” says Meinrath.

The Times specifically discusses the foreign policy implications of these U.S. financed projects. After a decade long struggle in fostering media to evade hostile regimes like Voice of America, these ambitions are grandiose in scale. Alternatively, the creation of these new tools could be the next step helping to empower civil society.

June 14, 2011/by actualize

Anti-corruption, Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Governances, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Make Aid Funds Transparent

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make aid transparent banner- one cartoon with money the other two with nothing

Last week, Publish What you Fund launched their Make Aid Transparent campaign, which calls on aid donors to publish information on what they are doing with their development aid.

Over forty civil society groups from twenty countries around the world, pledge to call on governments and other aid donors to publish more information on how, when, where and why their budgets are being spent.

At the center of the campaign, whose members include Oxfam International, Transparency International, ONE, and eighteen groups from developing countries, is a petition aimed at donor governments to make their aid more transparent.

The message after signing the petition clearly illustrates their overall mission:

Your action will remind donors to keep their promises to make aid more transparent. And this in turn will help citizens around the world to benefit from better aid and hold their governments to account.

All of these organizations have been working to improve the transparency on how aid money is distributed and should be mindfully spent, as any scope for corruption and inefficiency should be diminished and eliminated.

One of the best ways to do this rarely costs a thing: transparency.

Last December, the State Department and USAID launched a Foreign Assistance Dashboard that helps U.S. citizens know more about how their taxes are being spent on foreign assistance. It provides a visual presentation of, and access to, key foreign assistance budget and appropriation of data for the Department of State and USAID.

The Make Aid Transparent campaign has a similar aim, but targets the spending of civil society groups to enhance transparency and accessibility for their donors.

Making the information available can also help citizens of developing countries know how much their governments are receiving and can push for it to be spent it in ways that really meet their needs.

The first petition handover is planned to present in Paris, at a meeting of Working Party on Aid Effectiveness (WP-EFF) in early July hosted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The organization has other activities and actions that will take place through the year, with the campaign culminating at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Korea from November 29 – December 1.

June 13, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Anti-corruption, Democracy & Governance, Governances, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Apps4Africa Finalist Uses Mobile to Fight Corruption

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Announced last week, an application won second place in the Apps4Africa competition allowing citizens to record and report real time information on government corruption.

Launched last July in Nairobi, the Apps4Africa competition funded by the U.S. State Department, united the brightest African developers with social problems that could benefit from innovative mobile technology.

The competition attracted 20 entrants – each offering a unique approach to improving life in the region.

The second place winners, Kleptocracy Fighters Inc., developed a mobile application empowering citizens for fighting kleptocratic government officials using mobile technology. They received $3,000 USD and a Nokia N900 for the innovation.

Kleptocracy is a term applied to government authorities taking advantage of power positions to extend their personal wealth by appropriating public funds and goods through corruption, impunity, and political power.

Government corruption runs rampant in Kenya amongst other Sub-Saharan African countries. According to the 2010 Corruption Perception Index, Kenya received a score of 2.1—on a scale from 10 being very clean, to 0 being highly corrupt.

Kleptocracy Fighters (K Fighters) seeks to offset this by lending the crowd souring potential of SMS service, mobile phone applications, and web-enabled applications to report and record real time incidences of corruption.

The citizen’s reports include audio, video, as well as text recordings, and are meant to report both positive and negative issues of public governance. The aggregated data reports are forwarded to legal and media partners to help publicize the cases of corruption, and lead to possible persecution.

This mobile application aims to help build trust, accountability, and transparency for those in developing nations lacking a trustworthy outlet.

K Fighters is an international organization headquartered in Delaware. The four founding members are from East Africa, the U.S., and Latin America, all choosing to remain anonymous for their personal integrity until the platform is finalized.

They have started pilot projects in Latin America and Africa to see if the platform is a scalable and sustainable model that can bring corrupt governments to justice.

June 10, 2011/by actualize

Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Governances, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Brazil Govcamp Continues Gov 2.0 Global Growth

”]”]Governments from across the world are using e-government to deliver timely, accessible information to citizens while increasing the transparency and efficiency of delivering public services.

Sao Paulo, Brazil is now adopting ope n source e-government software as an early adopter of open government 2.0.

On June 8, 2011 Microsoft will be sponsoring Govcamp Brazil to facilitate the collaborative discussion and create an open learning environment to foster understanding in this emerging field.

E-governance takes the input of many parties, within the governing body, civic society, and needs the participation of private sector to service them. As a result, there has been an the technology of Government 2.0 has been highlighted, rather than the results it enables.

As former U.S. deputy CTO Beth Noveck pointed out, though, there is more to these new tools: “Gov 2.0 is a popular term but puts the emphasis on technology when our goal was to focus on changing how government institutions work for the better.”

Microsoft’s involvement in Brazil’s initiative demonstrates the global company’s exclusive and evolving role in looking outwards, where Government 2.0 and e-government is increasingly more prominent around the world.

Rodrigo Becerra of Microsoft provided this insight on the purpose of the Gov 2.0 camps:

This is a space for creating connections to happen between citizens, organizations, groups and governments that may otherwise not exist. We have done them in Berlin, Mexico City, Colombia, Moscow, Toronto, London, Sydney, Wellington, Boston, India, and we’ll sponsor the Brazil event in the coming month. We specifically have local organization committees running each event, We conduct them in all local language and invite social media, competitors and partners to revel in the discourse to help drive the progress of the Gov 2.0 movement

The open source software represents how the Government of Brazil wants to create a solution where civic society has documentation and support online.

It also generates knowledge networks, shares information, and fosters the growth of domestic technology, as the systems design can be adapted to local Brazilian needs.

June 7, 2011/by actualize

Democracy & Governance, Governances, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Schedule for 2011 IGF Finalized in Geneva

Panel of the 2007 Internet governance forum in Brazil listening

2007 IGF in Brazil

Stakeholders from around the world met in Geneva last week to finalize the program for the sixth annual 2011 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) which will be held in Nairobi in September. The focus of this year’s event will be on how to govern mobile Internet.

The consultations this past week garnered consensus for the final program and agenda for September.

Participants from around the world met in Geneva with the aim of maximizing the opportunity for the IGF to enable open, inclusive dialogue and draw on their experience.

Alice Munyua, Project Director for Catalyzing Access to ICTS for the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), chaired the second preparatory consultations of the IGF.

The finalized program is developed through and open process that began earlier this year and is overseen by a “Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group” of experts appointed by the UN Secretary General.

This year’s theme for the 2011 IGF is, “The Internet as a Catalyst for Change: Access, Development, Freedoms and Innovation”.

The stakeholders had an extensive discussion about what workshops would be important to include on the role of mobile, Internet, technology and their contribution to development.

A question to be highlighted in the forum was posed by a representative of the International Code Council (ICC): how will governance for the mobile Internet be differentiated from the wired world?

She divulged that governing this divide must be addressed as mobile has become a crucial part of how developing regions can tap into the marketplace:

On the area of mobile services and in particular for the region, it’s really an entry point to the Internet for many points of the world. There’s a leapfrogging, in essence, into this space. And I think examples of the mobile banking have been really exemplary in that.

With more than 4 million Kenyans accessing Internet through their mobile phones, this year’s IGF will prove to be an important forum for discussing and considering these issues, how they affect people in developing regions, and how it should be governed.

“…As you know, the lack of experts in capacity in relevant Internet governance issues is hampering participation of developing countries, especially Africa, on the policies, standards and also critical issues,” a representative for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) stated in the consultations.

During the four days of the IGF in Nairobi, the main workshops will focus on issues such as broadband and mobile access; the resources critical to the stabilization and secure operation of the Internet; cybersecurity, privacy and Internet rights; along with innovative entrepreneurship and digitalizing local content.

Additionally, the multi-stakeholder team of experts have organized over 90 workshops to cover a broad range of Internet policy and technology issues.

June 2, 2011/by actualize

Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Governances, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Rule of Law

Uganda Blames Food Price Protests on Media

Ugandan man throwing a brick into a fire

Photo credit: Reuters/Edward Echwalu

Protests over rising fuel and food prices continue despite Ugandan government attempts to slow them down by blocking Facebook, Twitter, and censoring media content.

Last week, President Yoweri Museveni cited social media and negative media coverage as primary proponents of fueling social unrest amid state led violence.

Protestors boycotted fuel purchases by “walking to work” for the past two months in an effort to demonstrate against the government spending at a time of heightened government expenditures.

In Uganda, the price of staples such as wheat have increased up to 40%, according to the World Bank.

UCC wrote to all ISPs last month asking them to block access to the two social media websites for 48 hours, but their request was denied.

“If someone is telling people to go and cause mass violence and kill people and uses these media to spread such messages, I can assure you we’ll not hesitate to intervene and shut down these platforms,” Godfrey Mutabazi, executive director of the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) stated last month.

The Uganda’s communications regulator relies on Internet service providers to enforce their demands, as they cannot block access to the sites themselves.

Separately, last week Museveni described both local and international media, like the BBC, as “enemies of the state” at a time when journalists are reporting brutal assaults and harassment by security forces.

Journalists have imposed a news blackout on the Ugandan government in protest against what they described as rising brutality against covering demonstrations over the high prices. The media blackout includes official police and army functions.

Following Museveni’s warning this week, the outgoing Minister for Information, Kabakumba Masiko, told BBC’s Network Africa program that Ugandan laws would be amended to deal with any journalist who behaves as an “enemy of the state”.

She state on the program:

If you look at the way these media houses have been reporting what has been going on in our country, you realise they were inciting people and trying to show that Uganda is now ungovernable, is under fire as if the state is about to collapse.

Early last year the minister took a proposed Press and Journalist Amendment Bill to the Cabinet, where it creates a new publication offense of “economic sabotage”.

Ugandan president Museveni with paper accusing media of sabotage

Museveni accused media of sabotage in 2008 address Photo credit: Monitor

If passed, the law would give absolute dominance to Media Council, the statutory regulator, the authority to revoke the license of any media outlet that publishes “material that amounts to economic sabotage”.

The officials’ efforts are part of a recent trend by autocratic governments to block social media sites and having media blackouts to control social movements.

The US State Department spokesman issued a statement of concern in how blocking communication mediums adversely affects civil society.

“We are also concerned by reports that the Ugandan government has attempted to restrict media coverage of these protests and, on at least one occasion, block certain social networking websites,” the statement said.

The ongoing role of social media and the concurrent suppression of media freedom in anti-government protests make governments’ actions against civil society measurable and accountable.

It is clear that the future of reporting will be increasingly difficult for authoritarian countries to really control what their people see and hear.

June 1, 2011/by actualize

Anti-corruption, Democracy & Governance, Governances, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

WB Launches “Accountability Through Public Opinion”

From CommGap

“Accountability” has become a buzzword in international development. Development actors appear to delight in announcing their intention to “promote accountability”—but it is often unclear what accountability is and how it can be promoted. This book addresses some questions that are crucial to understanding accountability and for understanding why accountability is important to improve the effectiveness of development aid. We ask: What does it mean to make governments accountable to their citizens? How do you do that? How do you create genuine demand for accountability among citizens, how do you move citizens from inertia to public action?

The main argument of this book is that accountability is a matter of public opinion. Governments will only be accountable if there are incentives for them to do so—and only an active and critical public will change the incentives of government officials to make them responsive to citizens’ demands. Accountability without public opinion is a technocratic, but not an effective solution.

In this book, more than 30 accountability practitioners and thinkers discuss the concept and its structural conditions; the relationship between accountability, information, and the media; the role of deliberation to promote accountability; and mechanisms and tools to mobilize public opinion. A number of case studies from around the world illustrate the main argument of the book: Public opinion matters and an active and critical public is the surest means to achieve accountability that will benefit the citizens in developing countries.

This book is designed for policy-makers and governance specialists working within the international development community, national governments, grassroots organizations, activists, and scholars engaged in understanding the interaction between accountability and public opinion and their role for increasing the impact of international development interventions.

May 16, 2011/by actualize

Democracy & Governance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Freedom of Information and Women’s Rights

Group of people gathered for the book launch

Photo credit: FEMNET

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) with support from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has launched a book titled: Freedom of Information and Women’s Rights in Africa. The book is compilation of five case studies from five African countries namely; Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia, will help women’s organisations as they organise around freedom of information in their respective countries.

African Union Special Rapporteuer on the rights of women in Africa, Her Excellency Commissioner Soyata Maiga officially launched the book and commended FEMNET and UNESCO for the great initiative of linking freedom of information to women’s rights. She appealed to women’s civil society organizations and progressive governments in the continent to make Freedom of Information as part of the discourse in consolidation of democracy and promotion of socio-economic justice.

“African women have for sometime now been lobbying for women’s rights to be recognized and upheld. Without freedom of information, it has been difficult to do so. Having freedom of information legislation and policies is very important for any democratic state as it is fundamentally related to good governance and sustainable development.” Commissioner Soyata Maiga.

UNESCO Director for Addis Ababa Office Mr. Luc Rukingama said UNESCO is proud to be associated with the launch of the Freedom of information and women’s rights in Africa book and pleased to support gender equality issues and hoped that the book will be used to mainstream through use of ICTs.

FEMNET Chairperson Mama Koite Doumbia said the launch of the book could not have come at better time than now when the Africa Union Summit theme is “Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Development” “ The book relates well with this years’ theme however ICTs can only enhance development if African government enact and implement Freedom of Information laws and urgently repeal restrictive media and other laws on freedom of expression” said Mrs. Doumbia.

“This years’ theme carries a lot of weight in determining the future of the African woman and the continent with regards to use of ICTs in advancing gender equality. African governments need to promote use of ICTs to increase awareness among women on their rights and facilitate informed decision-making. This could include initiatives that enable citizens to use SMS helplines to report human rights violations and also support the use of ICTs in education (formal and informal) and literacy programmes so as to build ICT skills among young and adult women” added Mrs. Doumbia.

March 8, 2011/by actualize

Democracy & Governance, Humanitarian Assistance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Competition: New Approaches to Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction

There are 22 days left to submit proposals for innovative ways to address disaster recovery for the World Reconstruction Conference (May 10-13 2011 in Geneva). Winners will be invited to the conference. All qualified entries will be invited to submit a poster presentation of their idea.

From the website:

“The focus of the competition is on innovation in services, products and approaches that have been implemented at the local level in disaster recovery and reconstruction. The aim is to:

showcase innovative and new solutions developed in the wake of disasters;
develop awareness for their use in other and future recovery operations;
provide a space to build partnerships to address key challenges in scaling up and replicating.

“Sectors of interest include but are not limited to: housing, water and sanitation, education, health, energy, transportation, information and communication technology (ICT), monitoring and evaluation, environment, governance and institutional strengthening.”

Let’s get some ICT proposals out there.

February 8, 2011/by actualize

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