ict4peace: facets of work during and post-war

Sanjana Hattotuwa

TED Fellow 2010Founding Editor, Groundviews, www.groundviews.org

sri lanka

systemic problems

• Post-war violence and repression still present

• Violence against independent media and limited space for critical dissent

• Legacy of 30 years of war: Communal distrust, no reconciliation, no political settlement, continued militarisation, national security mindset, repressive government, on-going self-censorship, poor rule of law, unconstitutional governance

ict4peace | key challenges

The appropriate use of ICTs, in line with culture and context, aids adoption, adaptation, buy-in and sustainability.

ICT in peacebuilding needs to be self-effacing.

ICT must build social capital, and invest in societal frameworks that empower local communities to grapple with conflict in non-violent ways.

Technology itself should not be the cynosure, but what is achieved through it.

As ICT4Peace develops, there is a need to develop more effective cultures of collaboration based on mutually accepted and independently verifiable virtual markers of trust.

The ability to conduct critical discussions in virtual spaces whilst being assured of the confidentiality of shared content.

Inadequate vernacular content / UI design

Lack of Internet connectivity / infrastructure / bandwidth / latency

Lack of or transient human resources

A pervasive and incipient culture of secrecy, with the abysmal levels of mutual trust

Intricacies of ethno-political conflict

my work from sri lanka

one text peace negotiations platformhttp://ict4peace.wordpress.com/2007/09/03/one-text-negotiations-and-collaboration-platform-in-sri-lanka

monitoring election violencehttp://cmev.wordpress.com/maps

monitoring disastershttp://groundviews.org/2011/02/05/google-map-on-flood-affected-areas-in-sri-lanka-february-2011

monitoring human rights violationshttp://www.slideshare.net/yajitha/infoshare-sri-lanka-technology-for-social-transformation

monitoring mainstream mediahttp://www.cpalanka.org/mediamonitoring

helping CSOs and NGOs use social mediahttp://www.vimeo.com/cpa

helping CSOs and NGOs use social mediahttp://www.twitter.com/cpasl

helping CSOs and NGOs use blogging platformshttp://www.llrcarchive.org

helping rural communities leverage new mediahttp://ict4peace.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/from-community-radio-to-internet-radio-mobiles-and-narrow-casting-new-models-for-enduring-needs

archiving sri lanka’s historyhttp://sitesatrisksl.wordpress.com/about

new ways of story-tellinghttp://www.movingimages.asia

groundviews: civic media that bears witnesshttp://www.groundviews.org

groundviews: civic media innovation, 1st iBookhttp://groundviews.org/2012/02/07/the-end-of-war-in-sri-lanka-reflections-and-challenges-released-as-ibook

groundviews: civic media innovation, 1st iPhone apphttp://groundviews.org/iphone-app/

groundviews: civic media innovation, Long Readshttp://groundviews.org/category/issues/long-reads

groundviews: civic media innovation, Archivinghttp://groundviews.org/category/issues/long-reads

groundviews: civility guidelines onlinehttp://groundviews.org/submission-guidelines

the future is anchored to and underpinned by

• Geo-location, geo-fencing and geo-referencing

• New media and Web 2.0 technologies, including social networking

• Mobiles, and especially smart(er) phones

• Broadband, especially wireless

• Interoperable ODR systems / data-portability initiatives

the enduring challenges will be

• New media savvy repressive governments

• Privacy controls, in the age of Facebook

• Contest between culture and context, actors and process, physical vs. virtual

• Engendering the political will to transform complex conflict

• The emphasis on the process, as opposed to the technology - people as opposed to the platform

• Bearing witness during violence

thank you