NGO-in-a-box project
From TTC: Mobile Advocacy Toolkit Working Meeting wiki
Contents |
Aims, Objectives and Methodology
The main objective of the NGO-in-a-box project is to put the tools of production and distribution, and the means of collaboration and mobilisation, in to the hands-of the non-profit community.
The way we do this is to help non-profits make choices about what tools and services they should use and supply them with the tools, how-to's, case studies and hands-on guides that will help them implement it.
As these toolkits are given away for free or at low-cost and need to be legally licensed we predominantly use Free and Open Source Software. Free and Open Source Software has the potential to be enormously useful to the non-profit community, however the fact remains that the world of Free and Open Source Software is often confusing and extremely overwhelming for non-technical people. Much of it is littered with badly documented or half completed projects. and finding the right tool to use can be a daunting task. This problem is heightened in developing countries where internet access can be extremely limited and unreliable. In such a situation just downloading the tools can be burdensome, to find they don't do the job you hoped or are poorly documented only compounds the problem.
The NGO-in-a-box toolkits project has been designed to synthesise solutions to several problems non-profits face, these can be summarised as follows;
- By having teams of practitioners with expertise in each thematic area select the most relevant and mature tools, we solve the problem of finding the right software.
- By accompanying all the tools with guides and documentation and where possible training material, we help solve the problem of implementation.
- By distributing the software in a CD and USB format, so the tools are immediately available and easier to share, we help solve the problem of access.
- Through the use of free and open source software and creative commons licensed materials, we insure that non-profits have access to legal tools, ones that can be freely shared and in some cases improved upon or localised by their users.
- By making toolkits which can be easily localised and translated, we diversify access to these tools.
From a more philosophical stand-point. This project hopes not only seeks to help the non-profit community to find ways of working with new technologies that are a more natural fit with their ideologies. But also to give non-profits and their constituencies tools that have the potential to change the dynamics of who speaks and who listens. Tools that have the potential to open up new channels for widespread participation and many-to-many forms of collaboration and information exchange.
How are these toolkits made?
Each edition is produced in collaboration with a pool of international practitioners experienced in implementing solutions in that specific area. This team is normally a mix of technical and non-technical expertise.
Each toolkit is made in partnership with a key organisation in that thematic area and with the on-going participation of a guest editor. For example to produce the Open Publishing edition we partnered with iCommons (www.icommons.org), the international network of Creative Commons, the Audio/Video edition was produced in collaboration with EngageMedia (www.engagemedia.org), a video sharing site focussed on social justice and environmental issues, for the Security edition we have partnered with the human rights defender organisation (www.frontlinedefenders.org), for the Base-box edition, currently in production, we have partnered with Women'sNet (http://www.womensnet.org.za/) of South Africa, for the Citizen journalism edition currently under development we have partnered with the journalism training organisation Internews (www.internews.fr). For the Mobile Advocacy edition to be developed during this meeting we have partnered with the African Human Rights technology/information organisation Fahamu (www.fahamu.org).
As mentioned above the editorial team is also instrumental in realising each edition. The editions have a minimum of six and a maximum of 12 editorial team members from a variety of organisations and countries.
How are they distributed?
Overall more than 4000 hard-copies (boxes with CDs and booklets) of NGO-in-a-box have been distributed worldwide since 2003, however many more have copied and passed around and downloaded from the Tactical Tech website.
The toolkits are aimed at Tactical Tech's primary target audience, that is rights advocates and marginalised communities. Each of them is also distributed to the networks of our project partners and the editorial team members constituencies.
Many of the toolkits have also been translated in to local languages, efforts are currently under way to localise the some of the toolkits in their entirity, including the tools. For example, the Security tooklit aimed at advocates, human rights defenders and independent journalists is currently being localised in to Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian.
More recently a pilot project has began in India to explore the idea of having regional hubs to develop and adapt localised versions of the boxes. A workshop took place in February 2007 to begin this process.
The toolkits are released under Creative Commons license.
Editions currently available and under development
Available
- a Digital Security and Privacy Toolkit for human rights defenders and independent journalists
- an Audio Video toolkit for producing and distributing AV content
- an Open Publishing Toolkit for producing and disseminating text and image content
Under Development
- a Base edition of everyday tools for small to medium sized non-profits
- a Mobile Advocacy Toolkit edition
- a Citizen Journalism Toolkit
Please see individual published boxes at:
- http://audiovideo.ngoinabox.org/
- http://openpublishing.ngoinabox.org/
- http://security.ngoinabox.org/
