after eight years that felt devoted to silencing those who sought justice and truth, this project fits seamlessly in with the new era that began with the election of barack obama. giving people a voice and a platform and the ability for real dialogue on justice and peace is an immeasurable power. i look forward to following this project and hearing the voices that emerge as a result.

Things are reaching a tipping point in the international justice arena. Today, the New York Times is reporting on people dying in Darfur as a result of President al-Bashir ejecting humanitarian groups from the country, denying much needed aid to refugees from the conflict. But there are also reports that the Darfuri refugees in the Kalma camp are striking and not allowing any Sudan government people into the camp until the NGO humanitarin groups are allowed back in.   We need IJCentral.org now more than ever to help communication within Darfur via mobile phones and to the international community. Lives are at stake.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/world/africa/23darfur.html

The international justice movement already exists. The Coalition for the International Criminal Court is made up of more than 2,500 NGOs."The Reckoning" is a primer for a general audience to learn about and become engaged with the concept of global rule of law. So the idea of the "The Reckoning" film is to bring new audiences to the international justice movement via IJCentral.org.  

IJCentral brings together all the elements needed for a campaign of this nature. By linking a really powerful documentary like "the Reckoning" to a platform where information can be easily shared by constituents on the ground, IJCentral taps into the best of both worlds. It's both a platform to present, and collect, critical information. Creating a platform with wide visibility and reach like this has the potential to serve as a real deterrent to perpetrators of crimes against humanity. And providing a scalable, accessible, system to collect the "facts on the ground" can help generate a movement that would give the ICC the teeth it needs to do its job. It's an ambitious agenda, but with a pragmatic, smart, strategy like this, there is real potential.

IJ Central has created an important portal for the international justice movement - access to information is immediate and participatory, technology supports and enables global collaboration and education. Crimes against humanity are framed against a robust backdrop of healing and civic engagement - this project is a model for change in both art practice, innovation, and global mobilization for human rights.

One of the most powerful aspects of the internet is its ability to show us worlds about which we know very little, to hear the voices of those we normally cannot. I think this project represents an ambitious and important effort to do just that. Crimes of such a large magnitude are often faceless, and though we have no doubt of their injustice, it is not always obvious who the real victims are, and what the costs have been. I think this project is important because it will give us all a direct link to those affected by these crimes as well as avenues to help and prevent similar situations.

I think this project has great potential because it utilizes the inherent strength of the internet--providing a clarity of the world through macro presentation (maps, news feeds, interconnectedness, a simplicity in presentation that allows for contextualization) with engagement on a microlevel (human-to-human interactions, opportunity for localized action, and so forth). I think all the best websites have perfected this balance. Intriguing.

I just saw a Ken Banks interview on his FrontlineSMS Alert project in this gallery, and was excited to hear he is planning to develop a non-profit version of Clickatell for projects that require mass use of SMS messages, as ours does.   I also like his idea of providing a way for citizens to donate money toward a fund that will pay for SMS messages, one of the big costs of these SMS based projects.   It promises a formula for sustainability and we'll incorporate it into our project.   Does anyone out there have any thoughts/ideas about sustainability of mass SMSprojects?

Paco de Onis

Producer

Skylight Pictures

http://www.skylightpictures.com

The project is very ambitious and very necessary.   The battle for rule of law as opposed to rule of force or terror must be waged at all levels of society.   Traditionally, the people we most need to hear from in the discussion, the victims, are not heard, and to the extent that ijcentral can become a platform for people from the affected countries to participate in the justice debate and discussion, it is incredible.   Go for it.

I had the great joy of seeing this project mature during the producer's institute at BAVC, and I know that it's growth will mean the reduction of human rights violations and increased US participation in the human rights institutions of the world.  

I like the way that many technologies are brought together here, however I think that there are ways it could be added to.

SMS's has some fundamental advantages (any phone) , however I think that this type of project needs to also embrace MMS and the Mobile Internet. MMS gives the power of vision and sound to communications whereas the Mobile Internet could allow for a greater amount of shared information, links, pictures, other media, group chat and full-blown social networking. Of course both MMS and Mobile Internet require higher end phones but the price is rapidly coming down and the coverage is improving throughout the world.  

SMS is inherently only 2 way so IMHO a social network would be hard to maintain unless it links in as a component of a web social network rather than being the core. The idea of using FrontlineSMS also has advantages but I haven't heard of various Frontline installations 'federating together' so it could be difficult to pull off a joined up system. I would try the centralised model first even if it does have international cost issues. Also shortcodes in some places may be appropriate but managing shortcodes in a large number of countries may be tricky/costly.

Hope this is useful

Rob Allen (see my entry here)