This year, Internews will be hosting two Cross-Regional Convenings to bring together digital security trainers, SAFETAG auditors, usability and accessibility experts, and tool developers to map privacy and security tools being used by at-risk organizations and to identify concrete ways that we can support improvements to those tools.
Over the past few years, we have worked with the Internet freedom community to develop a variety of activities for trainers to deploy during digital security trainings to collect tool-specific feedback and critical information about at-risk users. We have also compiled useful information on how to identify open source tools interested in feedback, connect with tool developers, and format and prioritize recommendations. All of these activities and resources can be found in the UX Feedback Collection Guidebook. Internews partner Okthanks also developed a set of activities to facilitate a participatory design and development process. Those activities can be found in the Exploratorium. These activities are for the community and any feedback or additions to the collection (or Exploratorium) are highly appreciated. The Cross-Regional Convenings will build on this work, expanding the number of individuals trained in feedback collection and increasing the number of tool teams implementing usability and accessibility improvements.
During the convenings, attendees will:
Review and provide feedback on the UX Feedback Collection Guidebook, the Exploratorium, and other existing activities and resources;
Develop new content and resources focused on capturing feedback at the organizational level;
Map the various tools that at-risk communities and organizations are using and their reasons for doing so;
Document the specific challenges that organizations face, such as sharing passwords or using tools for collaboratively editing documents; and
Make meaningful connections with individuals across sectors.
Following these convenings, Internews will open a small pool of funding to support digital security trainers and SAFETAG auditors wishing to collect feedback within their communities, with an emphasis on trainers or auditors working long-term with at-risk organizations and communities. With funding support through this mechanism, trainings and audits will incorporate creative and effective feedback collection methods to obtain actionable feedback about the privacy and security tools being used in the field.
Simultaneously, Internews will work with trainers and auditors to identify relevant open source privacy and security tools to receive funding to implement the specific usability and accessibility improvements requested by the at-risk communities.
At this time, we are planning to hold certain sessions of the Cross-Regional Convenings virtually over the summer (June-July 2020). If it is safe to do so, we hope to facilitate the remaining sessions at two in-person engagements, hosted between August-October 2020. Participants will only be expected to attend one of the in-person convenings and all associated costs will be covered by Internews. We will continue to provide updates and potential dates and locations for the convenings as we have them.
How to Apply
If you are interested in participating in these convenings, please apply here!
Any and all skill-levels and backgrounds are invited to apply. Whether you have previously participated in a UX event hosted by Internews or you are new to the human-centered design space, there will be relevant programming for everyone.
Please also note our Code of Conduct.
