In social justice work, we often face threats that weigh heavily on us, from online harassment to physical risks, to the emotional strain of working within systems designed to harm us. In such contexts, caring for ourselves and our communities isn’t a luxury. It’s a strategy for resilience and resistance.
How do we achieve digital inclusivity that goes beyond just basic access? Explore The Engine Room’s newly-launched Digital Resilience Hub.
Data storytelling can help you advocate for your beneficiaries, secure funds for additional projects, and measure impact on the community.
How to identify when it’s time for a change, how to choose tools that align with your evolving needs, and strategies for smooth transitions.
Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to gather, manage, analyse and visualise spatial and geographic data
A list of initiatives fighting online violence against women in politics in Latin America
Tips for better calls in low-connectivity situations
Tips for creating documentation that supports your team as you adopt tech tools.
As part of our efforts around mapping digital resilience trends, challenges and opportunities, we’ve seen the impact that digital rights threats can have on civil society.
In the second quarter of this year (April, May, June), we worked with 29 partners from 13 different countries. This post looks at some of the challenges organisations came to us with during this period, and what resources, tips and recommendations we offered them.
Last year we kicked off a project examining chatbot use in humanitarian work, with support from the IFRC and UNHCR. In this post, we share some of the key learnings for humanitarian organisations that emerged from our research.
The Engine Room held a “digital decluttering fest” to practice the responsible data standards of retention, archival and deletion.
A few months ago, we published the findings of our research on civil society advocacy on digital ID systems across the globe. For this project, we spent a year working with a team of researchers in four countries (Indonesia, Jamaica, Pakistan, and Uganda), looking at how organised civil society actors seek to shape the design, […]
Earlier this year we started a new project to examine and strengthen our digital resilience. In this blog post, we’re sharing some reflections about the new tools our team is testing out!
Ethical considerations for conducting open source investigations for human rights advocacy or legal accountability.
In late June, as a part of our work with Ugandan organisation Albinism Umbrella, we hosted a Community Call about Responsible Data. Here are some of the insights that surfaced in the call.
Rsearch findings and practical advice for human rights documenters.
Our team has supported hundreds of social justice organisations to use tech and data. One clear trend we’ve seen over the years is a consistent interest in building online communities.
Introducing new platforms and tools is a challenging process for many organisations, but there are steps you can take to make it smoother.
Rethinking an organisation’s use of tech and data does take quite a bit of time (and resources!). But, there are low(ish) hanging fruits that you can start tackling.
What to consider before building a tool from scratch.
Developing RAD processes allows organisations to have a responsible and streamlined process for retaining, archiving and deleting data.
A resource for human rights documenters, tool developers and funders.
How focusing on equity in our research methods played a huge part in making the process so rich and fruitful.
Tips and tools for weathering the work-from-home part of this storm.
A guide for building attack archetypes & case studies.
Tools for orgsec practitioners, security researchers and others.
Explore our research and digital security toolkiit
Options for organisations creating public interest technology that want to ensure the software they develop undergoes a rigorous security audit.
For organisations interested in deploying an existing open contracting tool.
We made these decision trees & case studies with the American Association for the Advancement of Science to help organisations use geo-located data responsibly.
This tool is meant for civil society, activists and journalists aiming to build their understanding of digital ID systems or to educate or advocate around them.
we’re launching a guide to help funders think about how to have better conversations about responsible data
Together with open government peers we developed Opentactics.info.
As the implementation of the GDPR comes closer, here are some fo the things we’ve done to prepare.
We worked with Robin Pierro to create an introduction on using satellite imagery for human rights monitoring.
We’ve just finished working with a partner to create an introductory guide to investigative web research. As part of our aim to encourage shared, open documentation about the use of technology in social change, we’re publishing it so that other people can use it too. The guide is designed for researchers, activists and journalists who […]
Today, participatory budgeting amplified and supported with technology could play an important role in increasing citizen participation – and to help explore this issue, we’re excited to share our latest Library Entry, on Participatory Budgeting.
We are celebrating International Women’s Day with a compilation of resources, guides and organisations that help women and trans* persons use digital technologies in a safer way.
We created Alidade – an interactive guide that helps social change organisations ask the questions that can help them decide what kind of technology tool would fit with their project.
As the year draws to an end, we’d like to take a moment to celebrate the Responsible Data community, and to take a closer look at all the amazing things that its members have accomplished together this year.
Launching our new scoping study on the use of technology tools for human rights documentation
LevelUp features resources, advice, and insight for becoming a better digital safety trainer and better prepare for, manage, and evaluate events. The customizable LevelUp Trainers’ Curriculum has been field-tested to create the open and participatory dynamic found best fit for a digital security training environment.
Do you work at an organisation that focuses on rainforest issues, land rights and indigenous rights?
How can social change organisations influence companies to do the right thing for the environment? One way is to influence the people and organisations who invest in them. For example, Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) has successfully made the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), adopt tropical deforestation as a priority issue in reducing […]
How can social change organisations influence companies to do the right thing for the environment? One way is to influence the people and organisations who invest in them.
Following my last post about the ‘Innovative Uses of Technology in HIV Clinical Trials’ event, I wanted to share three tactics for managing responsible data complexity in program design. With a room full of PhDs, Mds, MPHs, MBAs and MScs (and sometimes a combination of several of each), what could the responsible data perspective offer? […]