VOZ is designed to allow individuals and organisations to quickly and easily post live reports of human rights and environmental issues occurring in their local area using a phone or a PC. These posts are uploaded to a website, showing the report and its location on a map as it is happening. VOZ will become a database of geographically located reports submitted by grassroots and SMOs around the globe. With the aim of helping movements connect and share experiences and knowledge, and providing up to the minute and locally produced information for local, national and international NGOs.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Ibague – This is a test case, the project aims for much wider participation
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
Voz is being developed with input from Social Movement Organisations from Colombia, Netherlands, Paraguay and the UK. Our target audience are organisations that promote one or more of the following: human rights, social justice, gender equality, environmental justice, racial equality, or indigenous rights. That are locally invested and made up of members of, and representatives of, the local community. That have limited access to ways of publicising their cause. And which do not reduce local communities’ ability to exercise control over their lives. This policy is designed to ensure that those who require a platform to voice their concerns are able to be heard.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
We presently have a two person team, Myself as Managing Director of the project
Doug Specht: http://doug.specht.co.uk
And the Lead developer:
Todd Specht: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=59797800&locale=en_US&trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarId%3A1396941305548%2Ctas%3ATodd%2Cidx%3A2-1-2
We also have a range of other persons who help carry out work on translations, proof reading and out-reach projects, but these are on an as needed basis.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Reports will be posted about local human rights and environmental abuses. All reports will be posted by people who are right there at the scene using their PC or smartphone, providing first hand local information. This will help bring together dispersed populations to work together on similar problems, such as a multinational mining companies polluting water supplies in many different countries. Furthermore as we enable people to quickly report on and review local issues, a greater community response can be given to problems.
With the information also being available internationally, the international aid agencies and news agencies can more easily tap into stories on the ground. And finally, this app will offer users a level of security not possible with Facebook or even Twitter.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
The VOZ team has already developed working relationships with communities in Colombia, via the Universidad del Valle in Cali. These communities and Social Movement Organisations are prepared and ready to undertake the use of VOZ as soon as the project is ready for general release. The Movements include, Semillas de Agua, CORTOLIMA, APACRO.
We have also worked with National NGOs in Colombia, including WWF Colombia, and ILSA who are also lending both their support and networks to the project to help has reach the maximum number of people.
Finally, we have partnered with Friends of the Earth UK, and Friends of the Earth Paraguay to enable us to roll out a simulations project in Paraguay, looking specifically at land rights.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
Initially we will be working with 5 SMOs in Colombia, and through FoE 8 communities in Paraguay. This would mean that we reach between 800 – 1000 persons. This number we hope to expand rapidly, as we place a strong emphasis on snowballing out connections, and encourage SMOs and NGOs to invite further participation in the project, eventually enabling our team to take a more back seat position, and placing the project and its benefits firmly in the hands of the SMOs themselves.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
In order to reach the full potential, we will be working to develop participants ICT skills, particularly surround the use of smartphones and other GPS enabled mobile technologies that will allow for on the spot mapping of events and crisis.
General computer literacy will also be addressed, as well as workshops (in collaboration with FoE) on the nature of Human Rights and Environmental abuses.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
As we have already visited our communities in Colombia, training on the final app will take place in a vurtial context, with Semillas de Agua taking the lead in the country and the information being passed on through instructional videos and video conferencing.
In Paraguay, the communities will be supplied with GPS enabled tablets (paid for by FoE), a two day training session will then take place, with key members of each community present. These workshops will take place at the offices of FoE Paraguay, where sufficient wifi and other ICT equipment is available
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
We spent 3 months working and researching with the community in Colombia, and have a strong working relationship, both with the community directly and the Universidad del Valle who supported our research time in country, alongside the University of Amsterdam. The community were heavily involved in the design and thought process behind the VOZ project.
In Paraguay FoE UK have had a long standing relationship with the communities, and continue to run other projects in the area. We are presently the only organisation able to provide the kind of mapping technologies that are of use to both FoE UK and FoE Paraguay.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
Infrastructure can be an issue when planning and implementing web based learning and reporting tools. In Colombia an infrastructure assessment was undertaken during the summer of 2013, and the region was deemed to have adequate infrastructure, although ICT skills were lacking in some areas.
Paraguay has more significant infrastructure issues, however, these issues are in the hands of FoE to resolve, with the support of our team.
One of our biggest issues then becomes our own infrastructure, overheads can be high if storing large quantities of photos and videos, and this is an area we need to seek funding and support to mitigate against possible service outages.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
Due to the structures we have established within the VOZ web application, we are able to assess with ease the reach of reports and information posted to the site. This will enable us to quickly assess as to whether these reports are being seen by their target audiences both within the local community, and globally.
Furthermore, user surveys and a number of interviews will be carried out with our partners in Colombia, helping us to develop the next stages of the project. interviews and surveys will also be carried out by FoE UK in Paraguay, and these data will be shared across the organisations.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
We propose to begin our activities with communities in Colombia at the beginning of May, and conduct an assessment of the project at the beginning of June. The Paraguay element of the project is likely to start in June, with a team of FoE staff visiting the country, and assessment by VOZ will take place 3 weeks after the workshops are given in Paraguay, the time scale for FoE's own impact study is not clear.
Provided all is seen to go well, we will also begin a full roll out of the project, with communities across Latin America in late June. We are also in negotiations with the Environmental Justice Foundation about rolling out the project across South East Asia in the summer should results show a high impact.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Required to begin the project:
$750.00 for server and hosting costs of the VOZ web application
$500.00 for the production of instructional videos, in Spanish and English
Additional desired amount:
$1000.00 towards the running of workshops in Paraguay. This will enable us to have a member of the VOZ team join FoE for the training workshops, enabling us to have a greater input with communities that we have not yet met in person.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Help in connecting to more communities is very important to this project. As we seek to help build global networks of Social Movement Organisations, the more movements that are involved the stronger the project becomes. The wealth of information that can be provided by these movements will help us build a more detailed picture of Human Rights and Environmental issues across the globe.
Contact name
Doug Spechtc
