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HRC Mobile
Voting Entry Dates:
February 2, 2009 - 12:00am - May 5, 2009 - 12:00am NetSquared and UC Berkeley's (UCB) Human Rights Center are pleased to announce the top three projects of the HRC Mobile Challenge. The winners, in order, are:
- Guardian: Secure, Private, Anonymous Telephone
Google Android's open-source mobile telephony platform provides the foundation for a new type of phone that cloaks its user and their data, both on the device itself and as it communicates around the world (1st Place Winner - $15,000) - Freedom Fone
Freedom Fone is a free, open-source software tool that can be used to build a dial-up information service in any language. Its easy interface lowers the barriers to using Interactive Voice Response for outreach. It empowers non-technical organizations to build automated information services that are available to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (2nd Place Winner - $10,000) - Digital Democracy's Handheld Human Rights
Handheld Human Rights empowers human rights groups based around Burma's borders to share critical infor¬mation and document violations on a map to spur international advocacy. HHR uses SMS gateways to connect people reporting abuses to a web-based hub, efficiently leveraging the work of existing projects through a cen¬tral communications point. (3rd Place Winner - $5,000) - Bug4Good: Open Source for Human Rights (Honorable Mention)
Congratulations to all of the winners and thanks to all of the Projects who participated! View and support all Projects in the UCB HRC Mobile Challenge here.
The Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley is pleased to announce the Human Rights Center Mobile Challenge.
Recent innovations in science and technology, especially mobile technologies, have provided human rights advocates, journalists, and scientists with new tools to expose war crimes and other serious violations of human rights and disseminate this information in real time throughout the world. Cell phones, combined with GPS, cameras, video, audio, and SMS are transforming the way the world understands and responds to emerging crises. Handheld data collection devices, such as PDAs, provide researchers with new ways of documenting mass violence and attitudes toward peace, justice, and social reconstruction in conflict zones.
How it Works
The Human Rights Center is sponsoring a challenge to encourage innovations for applying mobile technologies for human rights investigations and advocacy. Through a NetSquared Community vote, 10 finalists will be chosen. All 10 finalists will be invited to present their ideas at an international conference, "The Soul of the New Machine: Human Rights, Technology, and New Media", at UC Berkeley, May 4 and 5, 2009. A panel of judges, selected by the Human Rights Center, will choose three winners, to be announced at the conference. Winners will receive cash awards of $15,000 (first place), $10,000 (second place), and $5,000 (third place) to implement their ideas.
To learn more about speakers and program topics for "The Soul of the New Machine: Human Rights, Technology, and New Media" visit the conference Web page. To register for the conference visit the registration page.
How to Apply
Four Easy Steps to Participate:
- Register and/or Login
- Click on Username
- Click on "Submit a Project to the Project Gallery" under My Project Idea
- Select "HRC-UCB" from the Prize Tag menu located below Additional Cause Area Tags on the Submission Form
Rules and Guidelines
 Be sure to carefully review the Rules and Guidelines.Â
Key Dates
- February 2, 2009 - Submission Period Begins 11:00am PST
- March 20, 2009 - Submission Period Ends 3:00pm PDT
- March 23, 2009 - Community Voting Begins 11:00am PDT
- March 27, 2009 - Community Voting Closes 3:00pm PDT
- March 31, 2009 - Top Ten Finalists Announced 11:00am PDT
- May 4 - 5, 2009 - "The Soul of the New Machine: Human Rights, Technology, and New Media" conference at UC Berkeley
Project Gallery
To View Participants please check the HRC-UCB Project Gallery
FAQ
Be sure to read all FAQ
Judging Criteria
Be sure to read all Judging Criteria
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