Tag Archives: activism

How Technology Can Help Activists Nagivate nder Pressure

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This past week I participated in a great event at USIP organized by the PeaceTech initiative and Dr. Maria Stephan, a senior policy fellow at USIP’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding. The event looked at the role that technology can play to aid nonviolent activists around the world. I had the opportunity as a result of this event to interview some amazing activists and technologists about their work addressing this challenge.

This post below originally appeared on the United States Institute of Peace’s Olive Branch blog and was written by Noel Dickover, Senior Program Officer at USIP.

How can technology support activists using nonviolent conflict approaches in difficult places?  A two-day workshop at the United States of Peace (USIP) that gathered 70 civic activists, policymakers, technologists, NGO leaders, and education professionals sparked eight distinct, innovative projects that will aim to overcome limits to mobilizing citizens in repressive places.

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2013 Democracy Matters Summit

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From February 1-3, 50 students from around the country gathered in Albany, NY for the Democracy Matters Summit – an intensive and inspiring 2.5 days of learning about and strategizing around how to get big money out of politics and put people back in. This was my seventh Democracy Matters Summit. It is such a honor and privilege to be a part of this amazing organization and movement.  Click the link below to see the curation of key tweets, photos, and audio recordings from the weekend.

[View the story “2013 Democracy Matters Summit” on Storify]

11th Annual Democracy Matters Summit

This past weekend I was in Albany, NY attending my sixth Democracy Matters summit.  This year the summit brought together over 90 students from across the country to learn more about the role of money in politics, grassroots organizing, and to strategize about ways to engage other students and community member in the campaign to get big money out of politic and put people back in.  Continue reading to learn more…

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Global Day of Action on Military Spending

Today I participated in the Global Day of Action on Military Spending –  a global effort to draw attention to the amount of money countries spend on defense, war, and their military vs. other issues and human needs like clean water, basic sanitation, primary schooling for all, eradication of HIV/AIDS and other major diseases, etc – all of which can be accomplished by spending just a small fraction of what the world spends on war-making.  My good friend, mentor, and fellow peace educator, Barbara Wien, invited me to facilitate a session on peace education and nonviolence during a teach-in event that was held during the day of action on American University’s campus.  The goal for our session was for attendees to not just be aware about how much money is spent on war-making and the nefarious interests that profit from it, but to actually start thinking about alternative approaches, specific actions, and examples of how people, communities, and government’s can create security, fight for human rights, and advance social justice, without violence and war.  Continue reading to learn more about the day and the issue.

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AU Social Learning Summit

In the spirit of this summit, I decided to blog about the different panels I attended by copying what I thought were some of the key tweets that other participants had been sharing during our #sls11 “communal note taking.”  I was a panelist for the Peace through Tweets sessions and really enjoyed talking about the various ideas and debates within that field.

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