Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 10, 2011

Here’s a sample of our accomplishments: Martus , our secure, open-source information management software for human rights defenders continued to empower many human rights groups worldwide to secure thousands of stories of human rights violations and to use this information strategically to advance their causes.

International 150

International Guatemala Colombia Analysis 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

Although I began reading academic papers that described the social and political climate in Colombia, as I dove into the data, I never saw the names of victims-- only counts of those who had died. And then we went to Colombia. Tags: NNs Rionegro HRDAG human rights Casanare Colombia.

Colombia 122

Colombia Statistics Analysis Data 122

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 17, 2010

As the worldwide debate continues about the release of government information by Wikileaks, history has shown that the uncovering of government data can be an important factor in human rights investigations. HRDAG analysis of formerly hidden data has promoted respect for human rights and raised the cost of crimes against humanity.

Chad 124

Chad Guatemala Data Liberia 124

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 8, 2005

Patrick Ball is in Colombia for most of the next three months teaching the techniques of human rights statistics and information processing at the National University there. Our human rights group is active all over the place right now. Africa is definitely getting more attention from us.

Colombia 100

Colombia Nigeria Uganda Africa 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 21, 2008

Human Rights Patrick Ball recently spent a month at the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he held office hours and helped prosecutors use quantitative data and statistical analysis to pursue war crimes cases. You can visit our Colombia Project Page to read more about this work.

Darfur 100

Darfur Sri Lanka Liberia Colombia 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 11, 2009

A Guest Beneblog by Tamy Guberek (Benetech HRDAG team member from Colombia) There is important news this month from our partners at the Guatemalan National Police Archive, which has worked since 2006 with Benetech’s Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG). Garcia disappeared after being placed in police detention in Guatemala City.

Montenegro 100

Montenegro Guatemala Colombia National 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

Both SIGACTS and IBC are well-run, careful projects, but even very good direct observations that collect information on violence systematically will tend to accumulate data that is unrepresentative of the actual conflict patterns they are attempting to uncover. The true number of deaths is thus likely to be larger than 112,000 cases.

Iraq 134

Iraq Data Timor Press 134