Digital Democracy
Empowering Civic Engagement Through Digital Technologies
Burma/Myanmar Research 2009
Digital Democracy
What We Did
Empowering Civic Engagement Through Digital Technologies
Resource Mapping
!
A key portion of our research was
data mining
in internet cafes. These points of internet accesswere widely accessible in each city, though mainly laid out as panopticons, where anyone standing in themiddle of the room could monitor the activities of all users. This made it difficult to browse freely and toreview background processes. Nonetheless, we were able to document types of programs, speed, andinformation accessed.
!
Using
GPS mapping
devices
, we documented our travels toverify the reliability of maps throughout the country. These maps werethen contributed to Open Street Maps, an increasingly popular toolsince the response to Cyclone Nargis in 2008 proved a need for freeinformation to aid development and disaster response.
!
Our
survey
of alternative media and censorship informationgave us insights into the extent of technical restrictions as well asaccess to training materials.
Secure documentation
was pivotal toconduct our research safely. We used digital paper and, for calls andinformation storage, beta-tested
Guardian
, a secure mobile phonebuilt on an open source operating system.
Curricula Development
!
In downtown Yangon/Rangoon Dd
held an informational discussion
titled"Open Journalism" for a group of 10 journalists and bloggers. This wasmodeled after the Dd new media literacytraining with a specific focus on security-specific questions posed by participants.
!
At this training and around thecountry, we
disseminated new medialiteracy materials
in English & Burmese.These included e-books, short films,public service announcements,documentary films, human rights-orientedfeature films, security & circumventiontechnology programs and manuals forcivic engagement.
New Media Profiles
!
Digital Democracy
conducted interviews
andfilmed videos documenting the stories of former politicalprisoners, activists,musicians, andcomedians for anintimate look intothe currentsituation. Certaininterviews havebeen distributed forair inside thecountry to theestimated millionplus viewers of
Democratic Voice of Burma
.
Young people at the Galaxy Cyber Cafe inSittwe, Arakhan/Rakhine State.A page from
Internet Weekly
with aprofile of cyber attacks
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Digital Democracy Burma/Myanmar Report
Allegedly a country with less than 1% Internet & mobile penetration,
Digital Democracy traveled to Burma/Myanmar in August 2009 to conduct research on ICT in the country to uncover the realities of how people are communicating.… (More)
Digital Democracy traveled to Burma/Myanmar in August 2009 to conduct research on ICT in the country to uncover the realities of how people are communicating.… (More)
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