By Lisa Robinson
We’ve entered the Knight Foundation News Challenge with the SecureSmartCam (SSC), our collaboration with The Guardian Project. Becoming a News Challenge winner would provide necessary funding to propel our idea to the next stage. It also puts us in a category of other notable winners, such as Global Voices, Ushahidi and MobileActive.
In order for us to move to the next round of voting – and only 100 projects will make it there – we need your help and we only have until March 29, 2012.
Here’s how to vote for the WITNESS proposal:
On Tumblr:
- Visit WITNESS’ proposal on Tumblr, where you can like and comment on it.
- If you have a Tumblr of your own, please re-blog it there.
On Twitter:
- You can share our proposal on Twitter using the hashtag #newschallenge, where discussions are being tracked.
- Suggested Tweet: Vote 4 @witnessorg & help us win @knightfdn #newschallenge to protect citizen witnesses using video http://bit.ly/FPSBrZ
On Other Social Networks:
- You can share the proposal via your own blog, Facebook, Google+, bookmarking sites, etc.
- If you get a conversation going on any of these locations, please let us know by dropping us an email or tweeting us @witnessorg and use the hastag #newschallenge
Getting SecureSmartCam Out to the World
The top five applicants with the most user engagement on Tumblr automatically become semi-finalists and move to the second round of competition. Those applicants with a lot of engagement on Tumblr and Twitter will also be considered to be among the top 100 ideas going to the final round of voting, which begins April 2nd.
If you’re hearing about the SecureSmartCam project for the first time, it is a series of apps that protect images, video, audio, data, and the identity of people creating and depicted in human rights video. Ultimately, SSC aims to protect the identity of those filming and those being filmed by creating better tools to empower and protect citizen witnesses through mobile technology.
There’s one week left where every vote and action you take counts. We’ve started a conversation online around SecureSmartCam and empowering activists with better tools to protect themselves, but we want to hear from you, too! Please join the conversation and help us get SSC out there.
Lisa Robinson is the External Relations Coordinator at WITNESS.