[liberationtech] Tech Challenge for Atrocity Prevention

[Yosem Companys]

From: Patrick Meier (iRevolution) <patrick at irevolution.net>

Dear friends and partners,

We are excited to announce today that Humanity United and USAID are launching the next round of our Tech Challenge for Atrocity Prevention.  Final three challenges now live at http://www.thetechchallenge.org.  Learn more during a Google+ Hangout on Friday, March 8th.

As many of you know, the Tech Challenge opened last October in search of the most innovative applications of new and existing technologies to help prevent mass atrocities. We announced the seven winning innovations of our first round a few weeks ago.

The second round tackles the vital issues of (1) modeling conflict situations to determine community-level risk of violence; (2) facilitating on-the-ground communication among communities affected by conflict; and (3) developing improved methods of gathering and verifying information from hard-to-access conflict areas. To access these challenges, please go to the Tech Challenge website.

We are also diversifying our approach in this next round to use as many creative processes as possible.  Based on the success of the first two challenges, we will continue to use an “ideation” contest via InnoCentive; a more collaborative, crowd-sourced process via OpenIDEO; as well as a multi-phased call for data and algorithm contest via TopCoder.

Participate in our Google+ Hangout on Friday, March 8 @ 2:00 pm EST. The Hangout features first round winners speaking with leading technologists and human rights experts about the future of technology in the field of human rights. We will be taking questions via the hashtag #genprevtech on Twitter and you can watch the live Hangout here: http://bit.ly/VOSPJR

Spread the word! Please encourage your networks to submit their innovations for the second round for a chance to win up to $10,000 and, potentially, the opportunity to develop and scale their ideas with Humanity United and USAID. Forward this e-mail, forward our video, or tweet (#genprevtech) to help us spread the word! For more information, please see our press release and our Frequently Asked Questions.

Tweet this!

2nd round of @HumanityUnited @USAID Tech Challenge now open! Submit innovations to help prevent atrocities http://bit.ly/RYAjsv #genprevtech

What is the future of #tech in #humanrights? Join @USAID @HumanityUnited Google Hangout on March 8 @ 2pm EST bit.ly/VOSPJR #genprevtech

Thank you so much for your continued interest in the USAID and Humanity United Tech Challenge for Atrocity Prevention.

We’re grateful for your support as we continue with the next round.

Sincerely,

Sarah Mendelson
Deputy Assistant Administrator
Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA)
USAID

Michael Kleinman
Director, Investments
Humanity United

Our mailing address is:

Humanity United
One Letterman Drive
Building D, Suite D3100
San Francisco, CA 94129