Category Archives: Digital Strategy

Producing a Social Media Show

Its fairly common these days to walk into a university classroom and see students equipped with some amazing gizmos, gadgets and tech giving them the ability to take pictures, record HD video, browse the internet, record audio, and publish content to social media sites.  It is fairly uncommon, though, to see those powerful devices being put to use in the learning process.

I set out to integrate these devises into one of our Education for International Development classes this semester.  The goal of the class session was to explore (i) the impact violent conflict can have on development, particularly the MDGs, (ii) the role education can play in creating or causing violent conflict, (iii) the role education (formal, nonformal, and informal) can play in building peace, and (iv) the role of technologies, both old and new, and social media in building peace through informal education.

Check out the Storify board to see the final product and to see what was discussed and shared during the class.  Continue reading to see how the whole process unfolded.

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Presentation at Point Conference in Sarajevo

This past weekend I gave a presentation (via Skype) on the use of ICT for nonviolent action at the Point Conference in Sarajevo.  I was invited to participate by my friend, Darko Brkan, who had attended ICNC’s 2010 Fletcher Summer Institute.  You can learn more about Darko by checking out this On the Ground Interview I conducted with him a couple years ago.

My presentation looked at four main ways nonviolent movements have been leveraging ICT in their struggles – communication, mobilization, organizing/coordinating, and documentation.  Continue reading to watch and listen to a slidecast of the presentation…

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USIP/ICNC Online Course on Civil Resistance

From October 20th – December 8th, ICNC partnered with the United States Institute of Peace to deliver an online course, Civil Resistance and Dynamics of Nonviolent Conflict.  I was the primary designer of the course and, with the help of three of my colleagues, co-facilitated the eight-week course for 15 participants from all over the world and from a variety of professional backgrounds.  We had participants from Italy, Spain, Ghana, Egypt, West Papua, and the United States.  We had participants working for small NGOs, large international institutions, and graduate students.

This was the first fully online course that ICNC and USIP had ever facilitated and I can say with confidence that it was a success.  One of the participants, who is an educator herself, in their final evaluation shared that her experience taking this course was, “adult learning at it’s best.”  To highlight some of the ways the course was designed I reference a blog posting titled, 5 Ways to Enhance Your Social Presence in Online Courses.  I came across this article soon after the course ended and was pleased to see that we incorporated pretty much all of these suggestions.  Continue reading to learn more…

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Global Innovations for Digital Organizing

For the past three weeks I was moderator and guest expert for the Tech Change online course, Global Innovations for Digital Organizing.  The course explores how technological innovation has resulted in the development of new channels of communication which are democratizing access to and production of media. The impact on social dynamics is evident from the Obama campaign’s youth mobilization efforts to the ongoing uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa. The three-week online professional development certificate course evaluates case studies where new technologies have been used for activism and what factors and contexts are most influential on outcomes. It also provides participants with strategies for maximizing the impact of new media and train them in the effective use of analysis and message management tools.  This was a fascinating experience that put me right in the middle of an innovative organization that is truly advancing both content related to technology and peacebuilding and the creative ways to engage people in learning experiences online.  Continue reading to learn more…

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National Peace Academy’s Peacebuilding Peacelearning Intensive

From July 17th – 24th, I attended, along with approximately 45 other participants from around the world, the National Peace Academy’s Peacebuilding Peacelearning Intensive, held on the Champlain College campus in Burlington, VT.  The goal of the intensive was to “nurture your holistic development as a peacebuilder by engaging in deep reflection and critical inquiry into your own worldviews, values, principles, and assumptions…In supporting the development of peace systems we [NPA] will engage you in a reflective and integrative planning process that will culminate in the development of your own unique, ‘Peacebuilding Plan Proposal.'”

This was a truly transformative experience and one of the best workshops/community gatherings in which I have ever participated.  The diversity of people that were in attendance, the quality of presentations, the power of the reflective processes, and the community that was built around our visions for peace was something that furthered my commitment to the beloved community of peacebuilders and peacelearners across the globe.  Continue reading to learn about my experience over the five days.

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2011 Fletcher Summer Institute

From June 19-24, I attended, helped organize, and presented at the 2011 Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolence Conflict. This yearly institute is the only professional level course of its kind offered in the world that explores the strategic use of nonviolent civic action – strikes, boycotts, mass demonstrations, civil disobedience, etc. – as a method of fighting for and defending human rights, social justice, and democratic self-rule.

This year the institute brought together 45 participants from 26 countries and delved into topics such as forming a movement, the paradox of repression, citizen journalism and movement media, negotiations and transitions, and the role of third party actors in supporting civil resistance movements. My colleague, Nicola Barrach, and I co-presented a session on digital and social media in civil resistance, which looked at the uses and limitations of digital technology, social media, and the internet in waging nonviolent struggle.

In addition to presenting, I also helped coordinate various media elements of the institute by integrating the use of our FSI alumni network Facebook group page as a platform for continued discussion and resource sharing; organizing live, communal note-taking on Twitter with the #fsi11 hashtag; curating and sharing key tweets and resources mentioned during the different sessions using Bundlr; recording audio interviews with participants and presenters and sharing those recording on Twitter using Audioboo; and conducting longer video interviews with select participants and presenters for the ICNC website and our On the Ground Interview Series.  Needless to say, I did not get much sleep, but I did have a great time, learning a lot from some amazing organizers, activists, and educators!  Continue reading to learn more about the institute, the various sessions, and some of the key take-aways from each.

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Workshop on Citizen Journalism and Civil Resistance

For the last six days I was in Madrid, Spain to help facilitate a workshop that married the two fields of citizen journalism and civil resistance.  The goal of the workshop was to prepare journalists, bloggers, and communicators from around the world to better understand the strategic dynamics of nonviolent social movements so they can more effectively report on these struggles in ways that will help them to succeed.  26 citizen journalists participated in the workshop coming from the following countries: Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, UK, Phillipines, Mexico, Spain, Israel/Palestine, Brazil, Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt, Macedonia, Ukraine, India, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Serbia, France, and Finland.

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Spring 2011 Semester Begins at AU

The spring 2011 semester at American University has begin and my dad and I continue to teach EDU285 – Education for International Development.  This semester marks the fourth time we’ve taught this course and we are continuing to find new ways to make the class better – introducing appropriate amounts of content, incorporating a diverse set of activities and exercises, and utilizing new online tools to enhance student learning.  This semester there are three main changes from previous semesters: (1) a Twitter feed (@AUedu285) to follow stories related to education and international development, (2) a website redesign, and (3) more guest speakers.

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Civil Resistance and the Dynamics of Nonviolent Conflict

This week I finished facilitating ICNC’s  eight-week course, Civil Resistance and the Dynamics of Nonviolent, which is offered in partnership with the United States Institute of Peace.  This is the second iteration of this course – by far the most popular fall 2010 course offered through USIP’s academy – and we’ve made some significant improvements from last time.

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Interview with West Papuan Activist, Herman Wainggai

One of the best parts of my job is having the opportunity to meet amazing people who are on the front lines of nonviolent movements across the world.  Earlier this year, I started an online initiative interviewing nonviolent action takers in order to share the stories, experiences, and perspectives of these individuals and their movements so that the rest of the world may be made aware of their struggle.  In this interview I speak with Herman Wainggai, a leader in West Papua’s self-determination struggle.

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