EchoDitto

Description:
Daniel Dickens of HelpArgentina stops to by discuss how technology, social networking, and (briefly) cows have contributed to his organization's success. HelpArgentina is a Buenos Aires-based bridge between the international community of social investors and transparent, effective Argentinian NGOs and charitable organizations.

Having developed a network of 53 NGOs and charitable organizations in its 4 years of operation, HelpArgetina has stepped up to the challenge of aiding a country recovering from a major economic crisis by engaging Argentinian communities throughout the world. Daniel tells us about how his organization applied several Web 2.0 tools to house parties in 24 cities, drawing in over 1200 supporters contributing to 26 Argentinian social causes.

"Bridge" diaspora philanthropy organizations have succeeded in other parts of the world as well, including Mumbai-based Give India and the Rio de Janeiro-based Brazil Foundation.

MP3:
HelpArgentina.mp3 (8.1MB)

Description:

The first episode of D.C. NetSquared's Podcast Series! Organized by EchoDitto's Michael Silberman, this Meetup convenes once a month to discuss how technology canbe used to propel social change.

At our June meetup last Tuesday (June 20), we were joined by Ian Schuler, the ICT
Project Manager at the National Democratic Institute (or NDI) who kicked off a conversation about how mobile technologies can be used in the political realm. Specifically, he covered NDI's operation in Montenegro last month, during which SMS technologies were successfully employed to monitor the May 21 referendum on withdrawal from the Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

Check out Dillon M.'s Frogloop post for more details on the gathering!

MP3:
D.C. NetSquared Podcast Series (June 20, 2006).mp3 (8.6MB)

Description:

It borders both Sudan and the DRC -- two of Africa's greatest hotspots -- and is in the middle of its own civil war. But that's where our guest will be leading two groups of college students and student ambassadors this summer.

In just a few days, Josh Goldstein, leaves the country for Uganda, where he'll be for the next 8 months. Josh is the Associate Director of Global Youth Partnership for Africa, an organization based in both in Washington DC and Kampala Uganda. In this episode, we talk about life in Uganda, cross-cultural awareness, and the ways in which GYP is using technology to cultivate youth as global citizens and partners in development and advocacy for Africa.

Links from the show:

• Global Youth Partnership for Africa
• Invisible Children
• Global Night Commute
• Gulu Walk
• Uganda Conflict Action Network

Music: Band of Bees

Description:

This weekend, tens of thousands of Americans will rally in front of the U.S. Capitol--and in dozens of other cities across the country--to send the message to Congress that it's time for America to step up and help end the systematic slaughter of more than 400,000 civilians in Darfur.

Yesterday, we caught up with two dynamic leaders at the forefront of this movement -- Mark Hanis and Ivan Boothe of the Genocide Intervention Network (GI-Net). Hear how GI-Net is using technology to rapidly mobilize hundreds of campus leaders and thousands of college and university students across the country.

And find out why celebs like Nick Kristof, Angelina Jolie, and Oprah are all asking their their audiences to head over to GI-Net to take action.

Join a rally in your city this weekend, or sign up for the virtual march

Links from the show:

• What you can do to help end genocide: Genocide Intervention Network
• Samantha Power's book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
• Aid worker blogging from Sudan (no longer active): Sleepless in Sudan

Photo credit: Darfur Eyewitness by Brian Steidle

Intro/Outro music from Earth 'n' Bass:
Intro: Zomaye (Bill Laswell Remix) - Gigi
Outro: Yo Afro - Temple Of Sound

Description:

Michael Silberman and Nathan Qazi speak with Japhet Els about the Rainforest Action Network, online organizing, and environmentalism today.

Sign RAN's Freedom From Oil Declaration.

Music: Band of Bees

Photo: 00rini hartman on Flickr

Description:

Michael Silberman talks with David Merrill, executive director of the National Global Warming Coalition about his—and his coalition members'—work battling one of the greatest threats to our civilization.

Billions of us around the world understand that global warming represents a crisis, but David and his team are among a minority of people in the United States working towards a solution. Listen to the podcast to hear about the 3 R's of a global warming solution.

Soundtrack: Afu-Ra, Bjork

Photo via hasensaft on flickr

Description:

EchoRadio personnel spent Monday podcasting from the Personal Democracy Forum conference in New York City. There are some fantastic conversations here with the new masters of internet and politics. Click on over and give them a listen.

Description:

On February 14, the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri triggered a wave of grassroots demonstrations demanding an end to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. These became known as The Cedar Revolution.

In April, EchoDitto COO Harish Rao spent twelve days equipping demonstrators in Beirut with a weblog and photofeed to chrionicle the Cedar Revolution at PulseOfFreedom05.org. He talks with EchoRadio about it all.

Soundtrack: Cheb Mami and Nancy Ajram-- gloriously cheesey music imported directly from Beirut.

Photo via PulseOfFreedom on Flickr

Description:

Last year at the IPDI conference, I met Oliver Zeisberger, CEO of Barracuda, a German internet firm focused on politics -- a lot like EchoDitto. This year, we invited him back to our office for a podcast -- and it was a blast.

Soundtrack: Kraftwerk, Heart, Mouse on Mars

Description:

Arlene Mitchell, Director of School Feeding at the U.N. World Food Programme, joined us to launch the first in a series of discussions on the state of world hunger. In this episode, we explore the scope of the problem and talk about how we can end child hunger within the next 25 years.

• Sign-up for updates from the World Food Programme
• School Feeding
• Walk-the-World on June 12
• UN Millennium Development Goals
• It costs only 19 cents to feed a child for a day

Soundtrack: cassetteboy, DAT Politics