InfoShare - Sri Lanka

InfoShare's ICT products are designed to be readily adoptable by all stakeholders in the peace process, to the end of engendering a culture of open information sharing. This culture would, it is hoped, support an approach to conflict transformation that is holistic, inclusive, and participatory. The idea is that civil society has unique online communications needs, but that many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) - even those with internet connections - need help connecting "the network" to their social change mission, which may involve lobbying/advocacy, fundraising, working with volunteers, and/or stressing democratic governance. To that end, InfoShare provides practical internet tools (products and services) that are adapted to the day-to-day work of civil society.

To cite several specific examples of this strategy in practice:

• InfoShare's Peace Tools aim to facilitate and enable the implementation of peace education in schools around the world, equipping students as well as citizens with collective "tools", access to peacebuilding resources, and knowledge/skills to reduce violence in their societies and jointly solve critical problems. (Please click here for further details.)
• InfoShare has designed and developed a multilingual citizen journalism website called Groundviews. In providing a space for concerned citizens to air their aspirations for conflict transformation, democracy, good governance, and peace in Sri Lanka, the idea of this website is to promote and strengthen voices that are not featured in mainstream media. Content (short articles, features, and blog entries) is welcome from all provinces in Sri Lanka and can be entered and viewed in Sinhala, Tamil, and English. InfoShare says, "We welcome submissions of a personal nature, pithy, provocative, bear witness to the denial of justice and human rights violations and essentially humanizes and critiques conflict & peace through alternative cultural, social, economic and political perspectives." No special training is required to enter posts to the websites, even in the vernacular. The content, which is archived and indexed, is geared toward policymakers, donors, NGOs, academics, media persons, researchers, peace activists, and the diaspora (who can access the website to get a better idea of actual conditions on the ground for those in conflict zones).
• InfoShare has worked to facilitate greater cohesion between donors through knowledge sharing systems such as CSSGD, an online database which helps to coordinate development programmes of several leading funder agencies in Sri Lanka.
• InfoShare hopes to support peace negotiations through decision modelling and support systems. The Sri Lanka One-Text Initiative was developed in an effort to facilitate dialogue and stimulate the exchange of ideas between the nation's political stakeholder groups in a constructive, inclusive forum, using the "One-Text" procedure, a multi-stakeholder information/communication tool developed and adapted from other peace building efforts around the world. Please click here to learn more.
• InfoShare has designed solutions that aim to stem the trafficking of women and children. The Mumbai Human Trafficking Victims Registry (MVR) is a case management system that assists in coordinating and monitoring service provision to the victims/survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation residing in shelter homes in Mumbai. In short, MVR works by collecting and organising disparate information generated by a number of organisations under a common framework.
• InfoShare's dedicated multilingual Peace Library is an online index of conflict transformation and peacebuilding information related to the Sri Lanka peace process. Apart from electronic documents and multimedia content, the Library will soon make available indexes of library resources from several key peacebuilding organisations in Sri Lanka. The Library uses the open source web application framework Ruby on Rails.

Other programme components include media and public participation support, as well as services to enable grassroots-level community-based organisations (CBOs) and NGOs to access sectoral funding information.

Technology, Peacebuilding, Conflict Transformation.

InfoShare explains that many NGOs have very small budgets for ICT support in terms of internet connectivity and software licensing. The organisation claims that, as a result, most NGOs in the developing world run pirated versions of Microsoft software - but note that this is not a viable, long-term option in light of the fact that intellectual property (IP) laws are already in place and might soon be enforced. Therefore, InfoShare believes that low-cost internet solutions are a clear need for most organisations in the future, and that its open source solutions have a significant part to play in this regard.