Promoting Communities of Engagement

ZeroDivide has a commitment in its funding strategy to support and promote uses of technology for what we term “e-democracy."  For us, this means integrating everything from basic email, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube videos, to help mostly disenfranchised individuals from vulnerable communities to fully engage with the civic environment around them.  Among the efforts we’ve funded, Map4Change, mybloc.net, Death Penalty Focus, California Pan Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN), and Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) represent the breadth of interests and issues we’ve covered.

While the number, availability and cost of tools for e-democracy have begun to change, there is still a lot of work to be done.  Assuring that technology is widely integrated for activities such as volunteerism, accessing government services, and participating in policy debates by low-income, minority, disabled and other disadvantaged Americans requires many players to be more intentional about making it happen.

Many of the most important economic, social and security issues of this generation are being decided by a disproportionate few who are in ignorance of how these issues affect constituencies with limited voice.  Funders of citizen engagement and policy advocacy, developers of technology applications, service providers, community organizers and government officials all have a role to play in changing inequities in representation . ZeroDivide is working to develop a community of practice and sustainable models so that as technology advances, our communites do as well.