Stories from Technology for Transparency Network from October, 2012
What Exactly is a Hackathon? And What is Open Data?
We previously announced the next hackathon for Latin America: Developing Latin America 2012. But it's likely that some readers are not sure what a hackathon is or above all, what it's for. Here we try to answer those questions with definitions, examples, and two video interviews with Argentinian hacker Mariano Crowe.
Ukraine: Technology for Transparent Elections
Amidst mounting allegations of the ruling party's use of administrative resource during election campaign, the government has pledged to keep the Oct. 28 free and fair. Local election monitoring groups, however, have been utilizing new technology to ensure electoral transparency and to check governmental pledges for themselves.
Chile: #LosQueSobran Campaign to Pull Youth to Polls
A group of Chilean NGOs have come together in a fun campaign to encourage young people to vote in the Municipal elections this Sunday, October 28. For the first time in Chile, voter registration is automatic and the vote is voluntary.
Portugal: Citizen Digital Activism
The atmosphere of growing indignation lived in Portugal in face of austerity measures, imposed by government at the command of the troika, has served as the trigger for more and more initiatives that bring new takes on the potential of digital media in the service of citizens.
Indonesia: Anti-Corruption Agency Gets Online Support
The power of social media was once again affirmed in Indonesia when internet users collectively expressed their support to corruption investigators who are being harassed by the police and some politicians.
Zambian Watchdog Website in Jeopardy
The government of Zambia has threatened to de-register the online investigative site, Zambian Watchdog. In May 2012, the Watchdog reported that its website was a target of a sustained attack allegedly by the government after visitors to the site were met with “page not available.”
Developing Latin America 2012
The regional hackathon Developing Latin America, organised by Foundation Ciudadano Inteligente (Intelligent Citizen) in six Latin American countries, brings together multidisciplinary teams of designers, developers, entrepreneurs, journalists and citizens that want to find solutions to problems such as poverty, healthcare and education, using technological tools.
Venezuela: Election Day Tweets and Hashtags
Twitter has been the most popular citizen media platform to discuss the presidential election of Sunday, October 7, 2012. Under different hashtags occupying the Trending Topic list in the country, Venezuelans comment, discuss, debate, report and share.
Russia: Crowdmapping Corruption with Bribr Mobile App
Bribr is a newly-launched iPhone/iPad app that allows anonymous users in Russia to submit the locations and the amounts of the bribes they pay. Later, it will be possible to report on the bribes taken as well.
Collaboration on Crowdsourced Mapping in Venezuela
A lot of people will be Tweeting, Facebook updating and texting about the presidential election in Venezuela this weekend -and many will be using social media to share reports of violence or misconduct. A few enterprising citizens have set up systems to catch and save these reports.
