---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mia Newman <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 7:14 AM
Subject: USAID/Humanity United Tech Challenge for Atrocity Prevention
Hello -
I'm writing to you on behalf of USAID and Humanity United, who have
partnered together to launch the Tech Challenge for Atrocity
Prevention<http://www.thetechchallenge.org/>.
The Tech Challenge is a prize-based challenge that hopes to spark new
interdisciplinary partnerships and new thinking on the application of
technological solutions to daunting problems in conflict situations. I came
across your website, and this seems like something that might be of
interest you and your network at Nafundi. We do hope you decide to
participate.
Our second and final round formally launched in early March. Three
challenges are now open, soliciting excellent proposals to compete for
prizes of up to $10,000. The open challenges are:
*Model | *How can we better understand – and predict – which communities
are most at risk for mass atrocities? *The
challenge<http://www.thetechchallenge.org/#!model>
: *Create a predictive algorithmic model to help identify community-level
risk factors that make communities more or less likely to experience acts
of violence. This challenge will be launched on the TopCoder platform, a
community of almost 465,000 software developers, algorithmists and digital
designers from around the globe.
*Communicate | *During conflicts and crises, vulnerable populations are
often left completely isolated, unable to communicate with neighboring
communities, much less the outside world. *The
challenge<http://www.thetechchallenge.org/#!communicate>
:* Create technological innovations to enable better communication with and
among conflict-affected communities during a conflict. This challenge will
be launched on the InnoCentive platform, a global leader in crowd-sourcing
innovative solutions to important business, social, policy, scientific and
technical problems. InnoCentive has over 285,000 registered solvers
worldwide.
*Alert | *The worst atrocities often happen in remote areas, making it
incredibly difficult for human rights organizations to gather and verify
critical information about what has occurred. *The
challenge<http://www.thetechchallenge.org/#!alert>
:* Develop simple, affordable, trainable and scalable technologies to allow
human rights organizations and others to gather and/or verify
information from hard-to-access areas. This challenge will be hosted on
OpenIDEO, an open innovation platform for social good that uses a unique,
collaborative approach where a broad mix of people create new solutions
together – all concepts are openly available, shareable and reusable by
anyone.
* *
Submissions will be evaluated by a distinguished
panel<http://www.thetechchallenge.org/judges.html> of
technologists, human rights experts, and government policy-makers,
including Samantha Power, Ethan Zuckerman, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Alec Ross,
and Patrick Meier. The Challenges are open to participants from around the
world and from a breadth of disciplines, especially outside the traditional
human rights space.
It would be great if you could also pass along this email to anyone you
think might be interested in participating! We're hoping to spread the word
as much as possible. Feel free to contact me with questions or comments,
and you can also read our
FAQ<http://www.thetechchallenge.org/faqs/Tech_Challenge_for_Atrocity_Prevention_-_FAQ.pdf>
for
more information.
Thanks so much,
Mia
Mia Newman
John Gardner Fellow | Humanity United
1700 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Ste 520| Washington, DC 20006
[email protected] | 202.503.3212
_______________________________________________
change mailing list
[email protected]
http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change
