Visiting the Digital Democracy Offices in Mahattan with Keiko and Travis

On my last day in New York City, after squatting a loft with my good friend Travis, I had another chance to meet up with Keiko (from the previous Sunday’s SHARE event) and stop by the Digital Democracy offices to see where all of their action happens. It was like a meeting of 3 very separate world for me: my good friend Travis – who I’d grown up with getting into all sorts of trouble with; Keiko, who’d (remotely) helped me start SHARE.San Diego; and Liz Hodes, who along with the rest of the Digital Democracy team made pledges to my We Operate Best Together project. Visiting with them was great. Not only did I get to meet Liz in person, but visiting their offices in New York was fun and I got to talk to Liz a bit about some of the projects that D2 has in store for 2009.

One project which they are launching is D2TV, which documents and allows you to follow the D2 team as they travel throughout SouthEast Asia working on their Project Einstein. From their blog:

Project Einstein, our digital pen pal program, was born from a photo training Digital Democracy conducted in Bangladesh in January 2008 thanks to support from What Kids Can Do. Partnering with MITʼs Center for Future Civic Media and high schools in Indianapolis, Indiana, we are now creating a platform and curriculum for resettled refugees and their peers in the U.S. to connect with refugees overseas.

Keiko and Liz really hit it off when Liz mentioned the Project Einstein. Keiko has been working towards getting a SHARE for Kids going – also another project to connect youth with media (sound) making tools and each other to creatively collaborate and SHARE with each other. I was so happy to simply introduce friends old and new to each other. Definitely a high point for me on my brief trip to New York.

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