Unthinkingly

NGO in a Box: FOSS Mixtapes for Change

The Tactical Technology Collective is a nonprofit based in Amsterdam that has been doing great work distributing Free/Open Source technology to the global NGO sector.

This morning I was reminded (via Worldchanging) that they are working on creating several different “best of” software compliations for NGOs– kind of like that lovely old mixtape you have in your car, except with encryption tools, spyware tools and Firefox, among many others. And better liner notes. The first to be released was the “Security Edition” last October (which I suppose is, um, not to be confused with the ubiquitous AOL Security Edition discs at the grocery store).

The security version of NGO-in-a-box … is aimed predominantly at human rights, anti-corruption, and womens groups, independent media and journalists. Its purpose is to help these groups, and those who work as trainers and technical support with these groups, to orient themselves with the kinds of security and protection tools they could use and the ability to easily access and try them out. This boxset is made of three CDs and printed manual.

One of the most important parts of the CDs is the documentation, which somes in English, Spanish, French, Russian and Arabic. (Unfortunately a lot of the software only comes in English.)

It came as some surprise to me that the Security edition comes with a collection of FOSS applications that are designed to run on Windows (TM)(!). I think the decison to run on a closed platform (instead of Linux) was rather unfortunate … and unfortunately necessary for now. This CD provides a lot of great tools for NGOs at zero cost — and very few of the Tacitcal Tech’s audience is up and running with an Open platform on all of their machines. I hope, of course, that this won’t be the rule for future releases, but for now it seems pragmatic.

I’m looking forward to their future releases of a “Base Edition” “Advocacy Edition,” and especially the “Open Publishing Edition” (they’re only a few months behind schedule …)

Also worth noting: the Tactical Technology Collective is also a great proponent of the E-Riders philosophy + practice. They have a great page about eriding, and will be releasing a new white paper on the subject sometime soon. There is also a good website about E-Riding at http://www.eriders.net/ … it’s really too bad their blog has been dead all year!

“eRiders” Are Taking Off, I Hope

The concept of eRiders is deceptively simple: people with lots of tech skills don’t need to be on the staff of every NGO or nonprofit, they can “ride” a circut of folks that they help. This idea is being presented at WSIS this week, and I think it is an incredibly powerful idea that will be used increasingly around the world.

TUNIS, Tunisia — One of the focuses of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process has been on the cross-cutting nature of technology, and how it can act as an enabler of other development objectives.

Civil society has always had a significant part to play in development objectives and achieving the . Except for a few notable examples though, civil society has not fully embraced technology in its development work.

In a workshop session on eRiders at WSIS, Toni Eliasz from Ungana-Afrika today presented a “replicable and low cost ICT capacity building and support model” uniquely suited to enabling technology within this under-resourced sector.

He presented eRiders as an ICT consultancy solution for small, mission-focused NGOs which can’t afford a full-time technology support person.

eRiders are consultants that work with a group of development organisations concurrently. They are motivated by the development objectives of the organisations they work with, but their focus is on helping these organisations employ technology to achieve their missions.

Although eRiders perform a number of technical functions, one of their key functions is demystifying technology and making the concepts accessible.

Initially, an eRider\’s focus will be on smoothening normal operational activities within an organisation. As the relationship develops, the eRider will encourage a more strategic approach to technology, and new program delivery innovations may become available through technology.

Internet & ICTs for Social Justice and Development News - APC