Category: Non-Governmental

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Peace-Building Thru Spotlights on Local Insights

01 Poverty, 04 Education, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Family, 06 Genocide, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Immigration, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Corruption, Government, Military, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence
www.peacedirect.org

Stop Conflict. Save lives. 40 per cent of conflicts will restart within 10 years of a peace treaty being signed. 90 per cent of the people who die in those conflicts are not armed forces, but civilians, many of them children. We need to stop these conflicts from restarting, to stop people from dying. Peace Direct funds local peace-builders to build lasting peace.
Our vision is a world where the work and knowledge of local peace-builders is central to all strategies for managing conflict. Our mission is to fund local people who are working for peace in their communities. It makes sense to act before a conflict leads to a full blown humanitarian crisis, and to do that we need to listen to the local people who are there on the ground and can see the warning signs.

http://www.insightonconflict.org

Insight on Conflict is Peace Direct’s resource on local peace-builders in conflict areas.
You’ll find information on how local people are working to resolve some of the longest and bloodiest conflicts around the world.
Insight on Conflict provides information on local peace-building organisations in areas of conflict. Local peace-builders already make a real impact in conflict areas. They work to prevent violent conflicts before they start, to reduce the impact of violence, and to bring divided communities together in the aftermath of violence. However, their work is often ignored – either because people aren’t aware of the existence and importance of local peace-builders in general, or because they simply haven’t had access to information and contacts for local peace-builders. We hope that Insight on Conflict can help redress the balance by drawing attention to important work of local peace-builders. On this site, you’ll be able to find out who the local peace-builders are, what they do, and how you might get in touch with them. Over half the organisations featured on Insight on Conflict do not have their own website.

Thanks to the Global Peace Index Twitter feed for this resource. Also see the Inst for War & Peace Reporting.

Link to conflict areas they highlight: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Colombia, DR Congo, Kashmir, Kosovo, Israel & The Occupied Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Liberia, Nepal, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand

Related (yet not):
Food4Peace – Conflict Kitchen
(only serves cuisine from countries that the United States is in conflict with)

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ICT4Peace Kyrgyzstan Crisis Wiki

07 Other Atrocities, Civil Society, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Non-Governmental, Technologies
Link to Wiki

Snapshot of the crisis

The 2010 south Kyrgyzstan riots are ongoing clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan, primarily in the cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad, in the aftermath of the ouster of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. It is part of the larger 2010 Kyrgyzstan crisis. Violence broke out on 9 June in Osh. By 12 June the violence had spread to Jalal-Abad, requiring the Russian-endorsed interim government led by Roza Otunbayeva to declare a state of emergency in an attempt to take control of the situation. As of 18 June 2010 it is reported that 2,000 ethnic Uzbeks have been killed, and 400,000–550,000 displaced, of which at least 85,000 have fled into the neighboring Uzbekistan.The eyewitnesses recount horryfying stories of atrocities commited by Kyrgyzs against Uzbeks. Amnesty International, HRW and other human rights and civil society groups have urged for independent investigation. (Excerpt from Wikipedia)

Background information & context (UN, World Bank etc)

Background information & context (media)

UN Inter-agency site in support of humanitarian response

  • http://www.ocha.kz (The website of the OCHA Regional Disaster Response Advisor for Central Asia)

UN OCHA Crisis Briefing Kit, courtesy Reliefweb and generated 21 June 2010

  • Download complete PDF here (~13Mb).

Kyrgyzstan Government sites

Continue reading “ICT4Peace Kyrgyzstan Crisis Wiki”

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Open Data Developments from Seattle, Portland, San Fran & New York City

Academia, Civil Society, Government, Mobile, Non-Governmental, Open Government
data.seattle.gov homepage

+ The purpose of data.seattle.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by various departments of Seattle City government.

NYC Council Committee on Technology in Government Blog

+ The New York City Council Committee on Technology will hold an important hearing on open data standards for all city agencies at 10:00am on June 21, 2010 at 250 Broadway, New York, NY (Across the from City Hall). This bill, Introduction 029-2010 (formerly Intro. 991-2009), is an effort to increase government transparency and facilitate easier access to public data. Beyond the ‘good government’ benefits of this legislation, the bill will also unlock City data to enable web developers and entrepreneurs to interact with City government in new and unforeseen ways. Data published under this legislation will be readable by any computer device, whether that is a laptop or a phone, for innovative developments. This Gov 2.0 inspired transparency legislation, targets application developers, startups, small businesses, and academics with the ultimate goal of strengthening the connection between government and the public, while re-energizing the small business-tech sectors. Visit http://nycctechcomm.wordpress.com/opengov/ for information on Introduction bill 029-2010.

Comment: Another aspect needed is an “open process” so that we know how the data was collected and how to verify that the data is accurate.

Also see Portland's CivicApps and San Francisco's open data

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Event: 10 Jun-07 Aug 2010, NYC, Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus @EyeBeam (free)

Academia, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Media, Non-Governmental, Technologies
event (free) link

Jun 10, 2010 – Aug 07, 2010
Eyebeam Atelier
540 W 21st St. New York, NY 10011

From the Eyebeam Press Release: “With participation now a dominant paradigm, structuring business models, creative and activist practice, the architecture of the city, and the economy, we are all integrated into structures of participation whether we want to be or not. The exhibition will examine models of participation and participation as a model, presenting work that encourages subversive participation, intervenes into existing systems, or envisions new alternatives.”

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Mobile + Micro-Volunteering

11 Society, Civil Society, Gift Intelligence, microfinancing, Mobile, Non-Governmental

It seems as though we've also entered a phase of “micro”. From micro-phones and micro-processors to micro-loans, micro-giving, micro-blogging, and  micro-volunteering. (How will “nano” fit into this?)

Problem:
73% of Americans do not volunteer (2007 US Dept Labor).
Root Cause:
Most volunteer opportunities require vetting, many hours, and a long-term commitment. It’s akin to a second job. For most people, the process is inconvenient, takes too much time, and doesn’t easily fit into hectic lives.Our Theory of Change: Americans have spare time – billions of hours – but in small windows of idle moments: sitting in an airport, waiting in a doctor’s office, riding the bus to work, and more. If we can reach people during these spare moments we harness a huge pool of untapped human energy.To harness micro spare time we must reach people via mobile, but until recently, mobile phones were limited.

The arrival of smartphones like iPhone (with Internet, graphics, camera, GPS, video, audio, and more) created enormous possibilities. 115 million smartphones were sold in 2007 with projections of 700 million by 2012 (WashPost, Aug 2008).The Extraordinaries is smartphone software that allows millions of volunteers to perform tasks on their smartphones in just a few minutes. We make volunteering feel like a video game to encourage repetition and competition. People login to our system from any place on Earth within cell reception, and constructively use small windows of spare time for science, medicine, nonprofits, government, and more. Nearly anything you do on a regular computer you can do on a smartphone.

You can help:
-Translate micro-finance loan applications (Kiva).
-Transcribe subtitles for human rights videos (Witness).
-Immigrants improve their English (Phone ESL).

(I'm sure you can think of many more possibilities)

Also see this list from Time Magazine

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Search: nato knowledge development handbook

08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Mapping, IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Non-Governmental, Threats, Threats/Topical

What an interesting search, thank you.  Here are some links that came up in a broader search that we import to Phi Beta Iota with a tip of the hat to the anonymous searcher.

Cross-Domain Collaboration Takes Center Stage at NATO Network-Enabled Capability (NNEC) Conference (Intelligence and Knowledge Development, March 12, 2010)

IMPLEMENTATION OF NATO EBAO DOCTRINE AND ITS EFFECTS ON OPERATIONAL STAFFS’ STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS by Cristophe MIDAN  Strategic Impact (Impact Strategic), issue: 4 / 2009, pages: 3954, on www.ceeol.com.

MCC Northwood Effects Based Approach to the Operational Planning Process, CDR J.L. Geiger, USN    N521 (Bottom line: Knowledge Development is OSINT outside of the IC combined with rotten and thin secret intelligence from Member states).

Model NATO 2009/2010 Handbook

Cody Burke, Freeing knowledge, telling secrets: Open source intelligence and development (Centre for East-West Cultural and Economic Studies, CEWCES Research Papers, Bond University, 2007)

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Journal: Three United Nations (UN) Memes Emergent

01 Agriculture, 04 Education, 07 Health, 12 Water, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence

Meme 1:  Separate Agency Budget Intelligence (SABI). The  United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)  may be within a year of a huge management advance, understanding, with decision-support, the relative return on investment (ROI) of its investments in relation to the ten high-level threats, many of which it is uniquely positioned to address.  Understanding that clean water and sanitation is the most important medical advancement since 1840, UNESCO is poised to call into question its excessive investments in vaccinations that yield little return and often create broader health issues, as opposed to focusing on micro-education (see meme 3) and micro-financiing of clean water initiatives.

Meme 2: integrated missions’ assessment and planning. This is the United Nations (UN) equivalent of Whole of Government planning, programming. and budgeting.  While non-existent within most governments, the UN appears to be realizing that with its back to the fall and the fate of over 175 “failed states” on the table, it might be time to add intelligence (decision-support)  to how it does business.  This means understanding that all threats and all policies have to be evaluated together and in relation (the Eastern way), and that all budgets and behaviors must be planned–harmonized–so as to achieve integrated outcomes, not outcomes in isolation that undermine “rest of system” stability.

Meme 3:  micro-education. This is a brand new meme but it defines practices that already exist and could be brought together.  With the vast majority of subsistence farmers still using ancient methods such as furrow irrigation, and many not recognizing the value of rain harvesting, there is a route opening for UNESCO by which it can leverage Alvin Toffler's insight and substitute information for capital, labor, time, and space.  Put bluntly, some micro-education is vastly more important than a complete (albeit mediocre) elementary education.  Micro-education on water and health appears to be the center of gravity for jump-starting the entrepreneurial possibilities among the extreme poor.  What no one has done is create a stacked list of “Essential Elements of Information” (EEI) that should be taught to the poor in priority order as part of “any and all” encounters.