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7/30/2019 Press Release: Digital Democracy a winner of the Knight News Mobile Challenge
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Digital Democracy | 109 W. 27th St 6th Fl, New York NY 10001 |www.digital-democracy.org | @digidem
Digital Democracy
For immediate release:
Emily Jacobi, Executive Director
ejacobi(@)digital-democracy.org
Digital Democracy program Remote Access selected as winner of the
Knight News Challenge
Award will support creation of a toolkit to help remote communities document
environmental and human rights threats in the Peruvian Amazon
Jan 17, 2013, New York, NY Digital Democracy, a nonprofit that builds community
technology capacity in marginalized communities, will begin work on a new initiative called
Remote Access, thanks to support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The
focus of Remote Access is to develop a toolkit to support remote & indigenous communities
documenting environmental and human rights issues, beginning with indigenous communitiesmonitoring oil spills and other extractive industries in the Peruvian Amazon.
Knight Foundation is the leading funder of journalism and media innovation. Through the News
Challenge, Knight supports the next generation of innovations that will inform and engage
communities. Support for Digital Democracys initiative underscores a commitment to ensuringthat remote, vulnerable populations are able to take advantage of such innovations.
In isolated areas of the Peruvian Amazon, where mining and oil drilling are impacting the
environment, health, and economies of indigenous communities, residents lack the tools to
collect and report these events to the outside world. Remote Access will adapt and combine
existing hardware & open-source software to produce a toolkit for communities that enables
them to better share their stories and make informed choices. Digital Democracy will work
closely with local partners to deploy and test this mobile reporting Swiss Army Knife and trainresidents in its use.
Many of the worst environmental and human rights abuses happen precisely because they are
in areas which are remote and difficult to report from. With Remote Access we are focusing on
how to bridge the gap between tools that allow for communities to report on these issues, and
the communities who are most vulnerable to such threats, said Emily Jacobi, DigitalDemocracys Executive Director.
Remote Access will make it easier for our partners to engage in evidence-based advocacy:
telling stories and visualizing data in order to influence decision-makers, policy and development
plans, said Gregor MacLennan, who is leading the Remote Access initiative for Digital
Democracy. Our priority is empowering communities to report this information. They are theprimary witnesses on the ground and long-term change will only happen with their
empowerment and increased agency over their lives.
Remote Access is a collaboration between Digital Democracy and a network of local and
international partner organizations and open-source tool developers. Dd will share the toolkit
with a global network of community organizations.
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Digital Democracy | 109 W. 27th St 6th Fl, New York NY 10001 |www.digital-democracy.org | @digidem
Digital Democracy (Dd) is a New York-based non-profit working globally to empower
marginalized communities to use technology to fight for their human rights. Founded in 2008 on
the idea that technology should be used to help all voices securely engage in democratic action,
Dd has brought its adaptive, agile approach and expertise in technology and human rights to 25
countries. Dd collaborates with local partners to build technology solutions which empower their
efforts as leaders in their communities. For more information visit www.digital-democracy.org orfollow @digidem on Twitter.
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance
media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that
democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit
KnightFoundation.org.
For more information, contact
Emily Jacobi, [email protected] skype/twitter: emjacobi Gregor MacLennan, [email protected]
