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The Mozilla Festival and the Importance of a Free and Open Internet
Last month, WITNESS was invited to participate in the Mozilla Festival held at Ravensbourne University in London. The festival brought together some of the Mozilla community’s best developers and put them in the same room as some of its most innovative online content creators to collaborate hands on to create new features and build actual working demos. The cry of "Less Yack, More Hack!" served as reminder to keep things concrete and tangible and not to veer off into the theoretical as so often happens at conferences.
WITNESS
December 1, 2011
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Linking Women’s Personal Stories of Abuse to Policy Education in Nepal
In commemoration of the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign, we are highlighting activists and organizations who are using the power of video in their campaigns to address gender-based violence through a series of guest posts. Read previous posts in this series.
WITNESS
November 30, 2011
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A Hidden Truth: Gender-Based Violence in Zambia
In commemoration of the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign, we are highlighting activists and organizations who are using the power of video in their campaigns to address gender-based violence through a series of guest posts. Read previous posts in this series.
WITNESS
November 29, 2011
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Elections in Egypt and the DRC: Hope for A Better Future
Today is very special to the African continent with two major election days taking place in Egypt and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In these two big African countries, WITNESS has two very active campaigns.
WITNESS
November 28, 2011
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Raising Our Voices to End Violence Against Women: The 16 Days Campaign
In commemoration of the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign, we are highlighting activists and organizations who are using the power of video in their campaigns to address gender-based violence through a series of guest posts. To kick it off and introduce the 16 Days Campaign, our first post is by Julie Ann Salthouse.
WITNESS
November 25, 2011
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Video Advocacy Example: Using Video Games to Educate
The international response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti is often remembered as being chaotic and ineffective, hampered by the massive devastation, poor coordination and communication, and the preexisting economic and political situation in the nation.
Yvonne Ng
November 19, 2011
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Top 10 Tips for Filming #Occupy Protests, Arrests & Police Conduct
We have seen some great videos coming out from the Occupy movement around the country - from documenting mass actions to capturing police misconduct and abuse. Many courageous filmmakers, first timers and experienced professionals, are using best practices to record what is happening, and it is paying off. See this most recent example of video being used to help hold a Dallas officer accountable for shoving a protester off a ledge:
WITNESS
November 14, 2011
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Leading By Example: Video Advocacy Storytelling and the Story of Broke
We at witness are always excited to come across advocacy videos that educate and inspire audiences on human rights issues. When Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff was released in December of 2007, probably no one imagined a 20-minute video would make front page of The New York Times and receive over 15 million views-- but it did.
WITNESS
November 9, 2011
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U.S. Needs Strong Privacy Protections for Digital Communications
One of the most cherished rights in the United States is the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable government searches, which has long protected the privacy of Americans’ homes and communications. But as technology has rapidly advanced, this right—long a crown jewel of U.S. civil liberties—has not been fully applied to protect digital communications.
WITNESS
November 7, 2011
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Video Advocacy Example: Bullying, Social Media & Suicide
Teen suicide in the United States has been on the rise. One cause is that teenagers have been increasingly bullied in school and through the use of social media. There are so many ways kids can post what is going in in their lives, whether it is via Twitter, Facebook, Google +, or a YouTube video.
WITNESS
November 2, 2011
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The Rise in Tibetan Video Activism
By Dechen Pemba. Dechen, a UK born Tibetan, is spokesperson for Filming for Tibet, a non-profit organization supporting Tibetan filmmakers, and has been closely involved with “Leaving Fear Behind” since 2007. She is also is the editor of the website High Peaks Pure Earth that monitors the Tibetan blogosphere and translates Tibetan blogs into English. Leaving […]
WITNESS
October 28, 2011
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Promoting Cameras Everywhere Recommendations at RightsCon and Stanford University
This week, WITNESS is busy in the Bay Area of California where we'll be at multiple public meetings discussing ideas in our Cameras Everywhere leadership initiative. We're speaking on a panel at the first Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference, attending the first advisory board meeting of the exciting new EngineRoom initiative, and we're presenting at Stanford University's Liberation Technology Seminar on the "Cameras Everywhere" report and the tools we're developing in WITNESS Labs.
Sam Gregory
October 24, 2011
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What do the World Cup and Olympics Have to do with Human Rights Violations?
Sometimes, quite a bit. Did you know that in Beijing alone, over 1.25 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes to make way for Olympics-related development in the lead-up to the 2008 Games?
Priscila Néri
October 20, 2011
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What Do You Want to Learn from Video Activists in the Middle East and North Africa?
For most of us, the epicenter of video for change work that we’ve seen throughout 2011 has been in the Middle East and North African region (MENA). The Arab Spring has illuminated the reality of what “Cameras Everywhere” looks like, and what the power of instant video capturing and sharing can yield to inform and mobilize for truly incredible social change.
WITNESS
October 19, 2011
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Setting a Global Standard for Human Rights and Technology Companies
In a world with more than five billion mobile phone subscribers and where 48 hours of video footage is being uploaded to YouTube every minute, the challenges navigating the nexus of human rights and technology are too complicated for any single company or human rights activist to manage on their own.
WITNESS
October 18, 2011