[kictanet] Forming digital democracy team

Tue Feb 5 15:12:50 EAT 2013

Dear Kictanet members

I’m associate prof. at the Department of Communication, Business and IT, Roskilde University, Denmark. I’m presently participating in the Danida-funded collective research project People Speaking Back? Media, Democracy and Empowerment in Eastern Africa (MEDIeA), which runs from Jan. 2009 – Dec. 2013 (http://mediea.ruc.dk/) and participate in the Danish-Swedish Ørecomm Centre for Communication and Glocal Change (http://orecomm.net/). Grace Githaiga is one of our two MEDIeA PhD students (besides Rose Reuben from Tanzania).

In recent years I have worked specifically on crowd-sourced social accountability and transparency platforms, with good contacts to NTA and Sodnet/Infonet. This work has resulted in two forthcoming publications (see reference below).

I will visit Kenya from 27 of February (three weeks) to do an empirical study on mass and civic media coverage of the elections, and civic-led lection monitoring initiatives. In this context I have read with great interest followed your threat here on Kictanet.

I would very much appreciate to get in contact with those amongst you who have plans to play an active role and would appreciate if can you share knowledge about ICT-facilitated election monitoring activities.

I have already communicated with Muchiri and Grace, but I can see that there are other involved.

Wildermuth, Norbert. 2013a (in print). “Information and communication technology-facilitated e-citizenship, e-democracy and digital empowerment in Kenya: the opportunities and constraints of community-based initiatives.“ In Speaking Up and Talking Back? Media, Empowerment and Civic Engagement among East and Southern African Youth. Yearbook 2012 of The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media. NORDICOM and UNESCO. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg.

Wildermuth, Norbert. 2013b (forthcoming). “Communication for Transparency and Social Accountability: The affordances of ICT.” In Handbook on Development Communication & Social Change, edited by Karin Gwinn Wilkins, Thomas Tufte, & Rafael Obregon. John Wiley & Sons.

Thanks in advance and looking forward to your reply. Please feel free to contact me directly by mail (Norbert at ruc.dk)

Norbert Wildermuth
Associate Professor, Department of Communication Roskilde University, Building 43.3 Universitetsvej 1, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark

off.:(+45) 46 74 38 71; cel.:(+45) 29 86 91 01
res.:(+45) 35 55 21 36; Email: norbert at ruc.dk

For our present (2009-13) research project "People Speaking Back? Media, Empowerment and Democracy in East Africa (MEDIeA)": http://mediea.ruc.dk/

From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+norbert=ruc.dk at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of ICT Researcher
Sent: 5. februar 2013 09:32
To: Norbert Wildermuth
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Forming digital democracy team

hmmmm! “ask not what your country can do for you, but do it yourself“ - localised?

________________________________
From: Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke>;
To: <ict.researcher at yahoo.com>;
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>;
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Forming digital democracy team
Sent: Tue, Feb 5, 2013 6:49:44 AM
Wariga

Good idea. We can also immediately monitor all social media and the blogosphere report on hate speech etc.

I'm in.
Ali Hussein
CEO | 3mice interactive media Ltd
Principal | Telemedia Africa Ltd

+254 773/713 601113

"The future belongs to him who knows how to wait." - Russian Proverb

Sent from my iPad

On Feb 5, 2013, at 7:43 AM, Solomon Mbũrũ Kamau <solo.mburu at gmail.com<javascript:return>> wrote:
Count me in, too.
I also advocate for peace and smooth elections.

On 5 February 2013 08:24, Muchiri Nyaggah <muchiri at semacraft.com<javascript:return>> wrote:
Hi.

Great idea. Maybe we can plug into the Uchaguzi initiative which is providing an online platform to do this. The simulation for the platform is up at http://simulation.uchaguzi.co.ke The local chapter of the the StandBy TaskForce is providing training support for volunteers as well.

Kind regards,
Muchiri Nyaggah | LEAD FELLOW, CODE4KENYA
@muchiri
Cell: +254 722 506400
Skype: mrmuchiri
WWW.CODE4KENYA.ORG<http://WWW.CODE4KENYA.ORG>

On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 1:04 AM, Warigia Bowman <warigia at gmail.com<javascript:return>> wrote:
Kivuva, so stoked you are in

Folks, if we could get about 10 or 20 of us, this could be very powerful. First of all, folks can report on how elections are going at their polling station. Second, we can keep track of hate speech from all sides. Further, we can discuss and monitor television shutdowns, twitter shutdowns, etc. Also, we can comment on how technology is used to transmit votes, and verify them.

The ideal situation is to have multiple people of different ethnicities.

Yours, Warigia

On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 4:00 PM, Kivuva <Kivuva at transworldafrica.com<javascript:return>> wrote:
Dr. Warigia,

This is a brilliant idea. Count me in.

We pray to have peaceful elections. We hope the new IG will coordinate
with all security agents to maintain law and order. From the recent
nominations, its clear that we still have people not keen on
maintaining the peace.
Regards

On 05/02/2013, Warigia Bowman <warigia at gmail.com<javascript:return>> wrote:
> Dear Kictanet colleagues
>
> I am proposing we form a digital democracy team for the upcoming Kenyan
> elections.
>
> The 2013 elections are likely to be contentious. Of course we all pray that
> they will be safe and peaceful. Further however, these elections are going
> to use ICTs such as phones, computers, cell phones, SMS, radio, TV and
> other technologies at an unprecedented scale.
>
> It would be fascinating to find out what impact, positive and negative
> these technologies have. The kind of study I am envisioning will also
> increase accountability of polling officials.
>
> Who wants to work with me to develop a survey and collect data at their
> polling station?
>
> Perhaps we can use the kictanet secretariat, or a room in Jacaranda to
> coordinate our activities. Or perhaps google or some other company on this
> list will volunteer a room?
>
> Sincerely, Warigia
>
> --
> Dr. Warigia Bowman
> Assistant Professor
> Clinton School of Public Service
> University of Arkansas
> wbowman at clintonschool.uasys.edu<javascript:return>
> http://democratizingegypt.blogspot.com
> -------------------------------------------------
> View my research on my SSRN Author page:
> http://ssrn.com/author=1479660
> --------------------------------------------------
>

--
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Mwendwa Kivuva
For
Business Development
Transworld Computer Channels
Cel: 0722402248
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transworldAfrica.com<http://transworldAfrica.com> | Fluent in computing
kenya.or.ke<http://kenya.or.ke> | The Kenya we know

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KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.

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