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- The Martus Project - Secure Information Management
The Martus Project - Secure Information Management
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
The Martus Project – Greek for “witness” - is a free, open source software tool that helps non-technical users in the human rights field capture, backup and protect their most valuable asset: information.
Supporting organization:
Benetech
URL:
www.martus.org
City:
Palo Alto
State/Region:
CA
Country:
USA
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
Martus - Greek for 'witness' - is a free and open source technology tool designed by Benetech to securely record and organize human rights information, and support effective collaboration between social justice organizations.The human rights community gathers large amounts of sensitive data, yet often lacks the resources to do so systematically and securely. Data is often lost due to viruses, computer theft, fire, neglect or staff turnover. Timely, accurate data distribution is one of the most powerful weapons against human rights violations, and Martus helps ensure that such data can be preserved and utilized effectively.
Sustainability (financial) model:
Martus is a project of the Benetech Human Rights Program and is free for download online by anyone. In order to ensure that Martus is a resource to the human rights community and for Benetech to provide ongoing Martus support and development we rely on funding from donors and project-specific funding through our partners. Since Martus is based on open source technology, each improvement benefits all users, who are able to download the latest release for free.
Potential obstacles:
One of the key challenges with Martus is distribution. Delivering Martus to remote areas, often without Internet access and staff with limited technical skills, is an ongoing challenge. In order to overcome this Benetech consultants visit our partners to train project leaders on Martus and provide technical assistance. In addition, we work with nonprofit technology consultants who present Martus as a tool for data security when they train clients on IT solutions.
In addition, over the course of Martus' development we have experienced considerable challenges in achieving proper display of non-Latin based languages. This challenge is in large part due to the lack of support for these languages for many underlying software development tools and therefore, we are required to develop language-specific solutions within Martus.
Resource Needs:
- Volunteers to assist with translations as we update our product and documentation.
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IT consultants to teach Martus to NGOs and help convey the impact on their work, particularly in the human rights field
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Feedback from Martus users for new feature requests
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Increased funds would ensure that we are able to continue to support the feature requests for Martus, provide ongoing support to users and explore new ways in which Martus can benefit the NGO community worldwide.
Key Milestones:
Martus was launched in 2003, and since then the Martus Team has regularly released updated versions, with performance enhancements, new features and translations in response to feedback from our users in the human rights community. In the coming 90 days, we plan to
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Release Martus version 3.1, with performance enhancements and new features to enhance the user experience.
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Update Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Thai and French software translations.
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Develop a release plan for 3.2 and begin software development for a release in the second half of 2007.
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Continue outreach efforts, including trainings, in an effort to educate a wider community about Martus and how it can help them in their work.
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Continue to support our existing projects, such as the work being done currently by the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman's Office to preserve data in the National Police Archives
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Provide ongoing technical support to Martus users.
Project Summary:
The Martus Project – Greek for “witness” - helps non-technical users in the human rights field capture, backup and protect their most valuable asset: information. As a free, open source software program it allows users to control which information is kept securely (cryptographically) and which information is publicly and widely disseminated. By empowering grassroots non-governmental organizations to securely catalog and store their records on off-site servers with easy-to-use software, Martus helps to preserve crucial evidence. Once collected, international NGOs can use the information to focus media attention, raise awareness and political pressure to help deliver their message. Without the secure collection and use of such information, the impact of human rights advocates is weakened.
The challenge: Human rights and social justice groups throughout the world gather large amounts of data, yet these organizations often lack the resources to document human rights violations systematically and securely. Much of their information is stored in insecure formats that prevent it from being effectively shared and preserved – information is often lost due to viruses, computer theft, fire, neglect or staff turnover. Timely, accurate data distribution is one of the most powerful weapons against human rights violations, enabling organizations to draw attention to the circumstances of victims, pressure perpetrators and encourage judicial accountability.
Martus relies on existing infrastructure and the support of our partners. Benetech built the Martus information management system to run as client software that sits on your local computer. The Internet lets Martus users connect to off-site servers to back up data and download new releases.
The Martus Team works with grassroots NGOs around the world to offer outreach, training and support. Since Martus is based on open source technology, each improvement to the software benefits all users who can download the latest release for free. Our partners and programmers in the open source community are welcome to examine the Martus software code to ensure trust and transparency.
As records of human rights abuses are preserved and protected, social justice groups worldwide can bring greater attention to rights violations, assist in the prosecution of perpetrators and discourage further abuses.
Comments
Martus matters for US
From my experience working with Martus training and supporting community based organization and civil society organizations in Kenya has proved to be a reliable and effective advocacy, lobbying and sensitive information backup tool. It is user friendly. I am definitely giving Martus My Vote.
Martus matters for us. Developing technology for development and protecting the communities is definitely a good cause.
Martus works -- simply and collaboratively
I've trained NGOs in privacy and security technology -- including Martus -- in North and South America, in Africa and in Europe, and the best responses I've received are to Martus. It was built in collaboration with NGO workers, recognizing their needs, strengths and weaknesses. The result is a software that anyone can learn in minutes and put into effect immediately. It works for organizations with the oldest and most meager hardware, even for people who hardly know how to use a computer. However it is also a powerful organizational and broadcasting tool that can be appreciated by the most computer savvy NGOs. Combining strong encryption with an utterly simple user interface means Martus can be trusted to do its job while allowing NGO workers to do theirs -- they are there to defend human rights, not to learn tricky software.
'm proud to give Martus my top vote.
Caryn Mladen
Martus flexibility and security
I am helping facilitate a network of human rights groups from Burma, based on the country's borders. All of the network members collect data using various methods and in varying formats. After a review of possible formats that would allow the groups to maintain their autonomy and also have a way to share a common format, we chose Martus and have now posted over 1000 bulletins using this tool. One of the major obstacles to a united voice on Burma is that military rule has fostered a nearly insurmountable distrust among the various communities and organization promoting democracy. The strong security features, combined with the flexibility of Martus, have allowed these Burmese groups to bring their information together, to prepare the data for analysis for future joint advocacy. The confidence the network members have in Martus' security has opened a space for us, ironically, to build the trust that will have a long-term impact on the development of civil society in the future.
Patrick Pierce
Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB)
Transitional Justice Program Director
Top ten!
I'm proud to give this project one of my ten votes for the NetSquared Technology Innovation Fund.
--ivan (Anti-Genocide Community proposal)