[HacktionLab] funding for ICTS for freedom of expression - call for proposals

[Tom Lord]

On 12/09/12 17:21, penguin wrote:
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> Ola
>
> I'm not aware of any HacktionLab project that involves international
> development or projects in the Global South / Third World / Majority
> World / Cheap places to go on holiday *

I was thinking of applying for a project we're working on at the moment 
and ignoring the fact that it's universally applicable rather than aimed 
at any one country, and seeing if it got funded... maybe a long shot tho.

> And what would people think about taking government money? Let alone
> from a government that hounded pirate bay and has ongoing issues with
> that guy ... what's his name? You know, the one that did (or didn't)
> do that thing. Blond Australian chappie.

Yeah, maybe Wikileaks should apply :-)

Personally I'd be happy to take public funds for pushing forward 
independent systems to strengthen civil society and challenge 
governments, as long as funders didn't get any lasting control. But then 
I'm biased because my org works in international development stuff and 
we get paid :-)

We have an intern here, who we might not be able to afford to keep after 
this month, who is doing good work on an open source system we're 
writing to support consensus decision making ( 
http://www.aptivate.org/econsensus - demoed it last barncamp and it's 
come on since!)

I'd love a pot of cash to help him out and keep the project lively for 
the next couple of months.

I think governments are basically evil yet a bit contradictory; in that 
some small bits of them want to be nice while the other hand isn't 
looking, and better that public money goes to support nice things and 
people working on nice things, rather than being saved for missiles or 
something. I mean, while I was joking, this pot of money could have been 
aimed at Wikileaks; this part of the government is probably not at all 
aligned in its doings with the part that wants to grab Assange.

Totally understand if someone didn't want to do that, tho. Hard to find 
an untainted source of chunks of money in this world. I bet even Lush do 
something naughty!

cheers,
Tom.