Introducing…
June 30th, 2008 — idteamYou might have noticed that over the weekend, we’ve made a new addition to the Internet and Democracy blog’s normally static header. We’ve been hard at work behind the scenes and we’re happy to officially announce today that we’re launching the very first edition of the I&D Tools Database!
The Database is designed as an ongoing aggregation of the many established and emerging digital tools that we encounter in our research. In addition to cataloging the functions particular tool serves, it provides information on a tool’s user base and a brief description of its development history. Notably, it will also act as a log of the political uses (if any) that we’ve seen these tools used for in the wild. It’s hoped that that the database will be a useful resource for researchers, activists, and anyone else interested in the intersection of tech and politics.
Looking through it now, you’ll see that its a basic start, but we’re already working on some plans to expand the effort in the future iterations of the project with more entries and richer data. At some point, the I&D project is also considering relaunching the database as a wiki-based initiative to allow interested parties and some of the individuals who use these tools in practice to contribute new entries or enrich the descriptions that we have. If you’d be interested in getting involved with this effort, drop Tim Hwang a line at thwang@cyber.law.harvard.edu!
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