Updates - September 16, 2009

• Working with International Center For Journalists on a citizen-driven crime and corruption tracking platform for Panama City.
• Completed first-round of talks with Sudan Institute, a think-tank based in US, to help monitor Sudanese elections next year using the VoteReport platform.
• FixOurCity Hyderabad coding has been completed and currently under testing. Tentative launch before end of September.
• FixOurCity Delhi, which will be using Ushahidi framework, is under design.
• Design in progress for a uber-reporting platform in India that can auto-classify reports/SMS/tweets and generate reports to the appropriate government authorities/officials.
• Design in progress for a platform to ease creation and management of local complementary currencies using mobiles/cells in developing countries.

VoteReport Afghanistan Coverage Update

Yesterday saw VoteReport Afghanistan (a.k.a AliveInAfghanistan) featured in Top News Items on BBC Tech and covered by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show. The sudden spike in traffic brought down the site for a few minutes. Later, we were able to bring it back by doing the equivalent of an open-heart surgery on the production hosts to split the DB and the webserver. Thanks to Ian Pye from the VoteReport Lebanon (a.k.a Sharek961) team for his timely help.

Below are links to few more articles covering VoteReport Afghanistan.

• Great Afghan Election Resource : Alive in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan Presidential Election
• Historic elections continued, despite threats of violence
• Mapping the Afghan Elections
• Polls slightly extended in Afghan election
  
• Voter Fraud or Self-preservation step ?
  

VoteReport Afghanistan launched

Last weekend, eMoksha launched VoteReport Afghanistan in collaboration with Small World News. This is the 3rd country in which we have launched the VoteReport platform, which was originally built for the 2009 Indian Elections.

CIS Grant - July 29, 2009

Last week, the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) in India granted eMoksha Rs 300,000 (approximately $6200) to support our work in the areas of enabling transparency and good governance. Besides monetary support, CIS has also kindly offered us office space for interns and part-time employees at their Bangalore office.

On behalf of eMoksha's volunteers, I sincerely thank CIS and Sunil for their support and belief in our initiatives. The funds will help strengthen eMoksha's VoteReport and FixOurCity platforms, and hire a Social Entrepreneur Intern to spearhead the Open Data Initiative to digitize and share government data in public domain via standard webservices/APIs.

Update - July 15, 2009

Interesting updates since last post.

• FixOurCity Chennai resolved more than 25 issues in its first month after launch with a resolution rate greater than 50%. Midway through talks with one of the top radio channels in Chennai to spread awareness. Launched the FixOurCityChennai social network to get discuss/brainstorm ideas with committed citizens.
• Working with a regional partner to launch FixOurCity Hyderabad within next couple of months.
• VoteReport Maharashtra is getting off the ground a bit slower than expected and hoping to get it up and running before end of August. More update on this later.
• Working on an idea to help localities and communities that have the required resources and werewithal to make lives better, but waiting for government or private funding. Planning to launch first version by end of August.
  

Democracy Camp Update - June 23, 2009

The first democracy camp in Chennai was held on June 6th. The focus of the camp was discussing and analyzing the impact of technology on governance and other citizen-centered initiatives. Below are some key updates.

• Around 25 participants from Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai took part in the camp.
• I gave a brief presentation outlining the technology + governance landscape in India. This will be posted online at idemocracy.ning.com
  
• The camp was extended for 2 additional hours than planned, owing to participants enthusiasm. Overall, the camp was successful.
  
• To continue the conversations that were started at the camp, a micro-social network was formed at idemocracy.ning.com - feel free to join and contribute.
  

India Trip Update - June 3, 2009

• Met with the Election Commissioner and Deputy Election Commissioner of India to discuss VoteReport India's role in 2009 general elections. The feedback was positive and the EC was interested in adapting VRI for the upcoming Maharashtra state elections. This is fantastic, since despite being a relatively new NGO eMoksha has been able to garner the trust of one of the most progressive governmental organizations in India. More details on this to follow soon.
• In Delhi, met with several leaders from NNFI including Anant and Promod, Dr. Jagdeep Chhokar from ADR and Barun Mitra from Liberty Institute. It was an invaluable experience to discuss existing initiatives and brainstorming new ones with these leaders.
• In Bangalore, met with Srikanth and Aveejeet from eGovernments (Srikanth is an advisor to eMoksha), Indira and Rajesh from Janaagraha and Sunil Abraham from Center for Internet and Society. Laid the foundation for a collaborative effort between eGovernments and eMoksha as part of the Rural eGovernance initiative. More details on this to follow later.
• Shekhar Mittal joined as a new volunteer for eMoksha, to drive the Open Data Initiative (need to find a better name :) to help digitize and expose all government data using web standards like DCMI/XML/KML/etc.
• Uma Babu joined as a franchiser for FixOurCity Chennai, to help promote the platform and spread the word.
• 44 people have signed up for the iDemocracyCamp to be held at Cognizant's office on OMR in Chennai. At least couple of participants are flying from Hyderabad and Bangalore to attend the camp.
• Finally, VoteReport Lebanon (aka Sharek961.org) was successfully launched yesterday. This was made possible by a team that was spread between Seattle, New York, Beirut, Nairobi and Chennai. Welcome to the new age in global civic software development.