Technology and Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace)

Slide 1: Technology for Peacebuilding Sanjana Hattotuwa

Slide 2: Sri Lanka

Slide 3: Dispute Resolution / Conflict Transformation • A process of engaging with and transforming relationships, interests, discourses and, if necessary, the very constitution of society that supports the continuation of violent conflict • CT argues against giving primacy to settlements • Conflict is never resolved, but transformed to the non-violent negotiation of differences

Slide 5: Challenges One can identify four key challenges in the use of ICT for Conflict Transformation.

Slide 6: Appropriation The appropriate use of ICT, where organisations use ICT Appropriation Access interventions to seamlessly dovetail with and strengthen existing (and planned) interventions, is pivotal to the success of online technology in the theatres of peacebuilding and conflict transformation. Adoption

Slide 7: Uses • ICT in peacebuilding needs to be self-effacing. • ICT must build social capital, and invest in societal frameworks that empower local communities to grapple with conflict in non-violent ways. • Technology itself should not be the cynosure, but what is achieved through it.

Slide 8: Trust • As ICT in Conflict Transformation develops, there is a need to develop more effective cultures of collaboration based on mutually accepted and independently verifiable virtual determinants of trust. • The ability to conduct critical discussions in virtual spaces whilst being assured of the confidentiality of shared content.

Slide 9: Structural Problems • Inadequate vernacular content / interface • Lack of Internet connectivity / infrastructure / bandwidth • Lack of human resources • A pervasive and incipient culture of secrecy, with the abysmal levels of mutual trust • Intricacies of ethno-political conflict

Slide 10: Info Share A basic introduction

Slide 11: The Problem

Slide 12: Key parties to the conflict Bridges External actors / Internal divisions Donors / INGOs Info Share Civil Society / Grassroots Business

Slide 13: Partnerships Top level experts / Diaspora Donors, International Aid Organisations Nurture cohesive, holistic and sustainable system Moderates and Civil Society of knowledge transfer between and within these Key stakeholders tiers Grassroots

Slide 14: Sri Lanka today • Deteriorating peace process • Increase of human rights violations, culture of impunity • Over 3,000 dead over the past year • 215,000+ displaced • Active war in the North - East • Attacks against NGOs, activists, journalists • A beautiful country, but hell for peace and rights activists

Slide 15: The world today

Slide 16: Can technology help? • Is technology a guarantee of a better process? • Is technology neutral? • How does one determine trust online? • How do you create inter-cultural dispute resolution systems? • What are the problems of access and publishing content (the Great Wall of China, the Middle East)? • How can technology help peace processes?

Slide 17: ICT4Peace “We value the potential of ICTs to promote peace and to prevent conflict which, inter alia, negatively affects achieving development goals. ICTs can be used for identifying conflict situations through early- warning systems preventing conflicts, promoting their peaceful resolution, supporting humanitarian action, including protection of civilians in armed conflicts, facilitating peacekeeping missions, and assisting post conflict peace-building and reconstruction.” Paragraph 36, WSIS Tunis Commitment, 2005 (two years after InfoShare began work)

Slide 18: Web and social media

Slide 20: www.groundviews.lk www.youtube.org/vikalpasl radio.voicesofpeace.lk www.vikalpa.org

Slide 21: Civil society accountability

Slide 22: Citizen Journalism

Slide 23: Human rights monitoring and reporting

Slide 24: HURIDOCS initial feedback “Wow, Sanjana, I am really impressed! I think this platform is going to take the human rights world by storm” “Fabulous news! Something we have talked about for years!” “Wonderful, stunning and creative!!!” “I am utterly amazed! I'm dying to see the actual product!”

Slide 25: Elections Monitoring "It's a good way to empower people," Jayomi Dhushiyanthan, marketing director for monitor People's Action for a Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL)." "In 2004, we had over 9,000 messages from all over the island. We can alert the election commission, the police or even the ambulance."

Slide 26: Strengthening media

Slide 27: Voices of Reconciliation Radio

Slide 28: Anti-Corruption & Civil Society

Slide 30: Peace Library

Slide 31: Human Trafficking System – Mumbai, India

Slide 32: 2 ideas • Web 2.0 • Mobile telephones

Slide 34: Voice over IP Streaming media WiMax / WiFi / 3G AJAX - User friendly interfaces

Slide 35: Web 2.0 for ODR? • Interactive / Multimedia / Intuitive • Piggyback on new consumer devices and existing programming • Social networking as communities for ODR • New technologies that enhance storage, retrieval, comparison, review and reuse of existing information. • Create greater awareness of ODR

Slide 36: XO Laptop • $100 dollar laptop • 100 million per country • Is there a potential to use this for peacebuilding – peace education / reconciliation / multi-lingual chats / shared workspaces / collaboration?

Slide 37: Mobile growth

Slide 38: Mobile ODR • Data gathering – GIS co-ordinates / location, salient issues, disputant details – Video / pictures – Audio testimonies – Mediator notes – audio / text / video • Analysis – Quantitative and qualitative analysis based on location, issue, disputants, identity group, gender, age, income etc delivered through SMS and available through mobile web

Slide 39: Mobile ODR • Dissemination – SMS decision notification (in vernacular) – Voice mail notification (in vernacular) – Voice driven systems that work with illiterate communities (using simple voice recognition) • Final outcome – ODR outside of air-conditioning, using existing technology, to resolve local disputes – Content and market demand to fuel the growth of technology

Slide 40: National, regional, international District, provincial Village / Local community Grassroots communities

Slide 41: Hybridity

Slide 43: New Communities

Slide 44: Characteristics • Neutral Ground – Individuals are free to come and go as they please. In online games, players are not obligated to play; joins and quits are not significant events. • Leveller – An individual’s real world identity (individual or group based) are not always as significant as they are in the real world. Players on online games use a separate avatar often unrelated to their real life person, and social status is rarely invoked. • Conversations – Depending on the nature of the sim, conversations play a crucial

Slide 45: Characteristics • Accessibility & Accommodation – Second Life allows avatars to log on and off at will. There is always somebody online, though the hours of commerce are sometimes determined by the time- zone of the person • A Home Away from Home – Rootedness, feelings of possession, spiritual regeneration, feelings of being at ease, and warmth.

Slide 46: Community characteristics • Social bonding: – Bridging - when individuals connect with those from different backgrounds. The advantage if bridging social capital include gaining access to new information and resources. – Bonding - when individuals that are already close provide support for each other, making the relationship stronger. – In a sense, bridging provides breadth while bonding provides depth.

Slide 47: Question • What if violence in the real world spills over into virtual communities in Second Life, or more disturbingly, vice-versa? • Privacy, identity, location, ODR

Slide 48: Qiu Chengwei stabbed Zhu Caoyuan in the chest when he found out he had sold his virtual sword for 7,200 Yuan (£473). June 2005

Slide 49: Other challenges • The copybot challenge to copyright • The “grey-goo” attack - criminal incarceration? • Sex with children (well adults as children) and the imposition of real world morality • What is the framework for the imagination? How deviant can we be?

Slide 50: Recap • ODR will function from mobile devices – from cell-phones to Microsoft Origami • Standards based information / data exchange for open systems • Artificial Intelligence and expert systems • Voice, video, pictures, animation – interactivity ! • Virtual / real-world ODR hybrid processes • Redefinitions of trust, confidentiality, participation, identity, culture

Slide 51: Can technology help? • Is technology a guarantee of a better process? • Is technology neutral? • How does one determine trust online? • How do you create inter-cultural dispute resolution systems? • What are the problems of access and publishing content (the Great Wall of China, the Middle East)? • How can technology help peace processes?

Slide 52: Thank You www.info-share.org sanjana@info-share.org