Transcript of yesterday's Q&A with DADI Foundation CEO, Jennifer Martin-Nye.
Written By
Bolaji Oyewole
• 1 min read
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Question 1
Can you explain the focus on democratic causes? What would be an example of the kind of work you'll look to do in this space?
Jennifer Martin:
We are experiencing a continued decline in the number of countries where free and fair democracy is the norm - and technology has been used to undermine our fundamental democratic rights. There is growing evidence of the need to reframe tech's role in a world with an increasingly unequal distribution of wealth and power.
I firmly believe that technology can and should act as a catalyst for greater equality - helping to address the root causes of injustice and increasing people’s freedom rather than eviscerating their privacy. The blockchain offers a unique opportunity to increase government transparency and accountability enabling democracy to flourish. So, we're working to support charities to use technology to protect the rights of minorities, increase access to justice, promote participation in civil society and ensure freedom of expression.
Example projects will include blockchain based citizen journalism (enabling stories to be verified and safely shared); increasing access to the internet for civil society in repressive regimes; and big data analysis of effective strategies to increase women’s political participation.
Question 2
Will the work in support of fair access to internet include projects using DADI technology?
Jennifer Martin:
DADI is providing free access to all of its services to charities through the Foundation. We are also looking to support infrastructure projects to enable communities, including displaced people, to access the internet.
Joseph Denne:
Worth noting that we are exploring the application of our custom devices in this context. More on that in the coming few months.
Question 3
What does it mean when you say the Foundation is 'independent of DADI'?
Jennifer Martin:
Our activities will always be consistent with achieving the Foundation's mission - not promoting the commercial interests of our founder and principal funder, DADI. Any benefit that may accrue to DADI from our activities will be incidental and outweighed by the contribution to our charitable objectives.
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Last Updated:
September 2019
It's important to understand that we are a separate legal entity with our own Board of Trustees who have ultimate authority and responsibility for the Foundation. We operate an assurance system to identify, measure and validate this, which means we decide what we want to do, where we operate and who our partners will be.
Question 4
Are there ways for DADI community members to get involved with or help the DADI Foundation?
Jennifer Martin:
It would be fantastic to have members of the community involved in the Foundation. We are also recruiting two additional Trustees to our Board. We are currently recruiting volunteers with a range of technical skills to support charities and future coders. If you are interested then get in touch with me directly on info@dadi.foundation. If you would like to know more or think you know someone who could be a good fit, again, please reach out to me. And of course, we love donations. 😃Details on our site, https://dadi.foundation
Question 5
Your website says: 'The architects of our digital lives are predominately young, white men. Diversifying the industry will help address this bias – can you give some examples of how this might be achieved?
Jennifer Martin:
We will be working with organisations in the Global South running conferences and workshops for technologists connecting them with tech companies in the Global North and supporting marginalised people to develop tech skills. It is my hope that working with young people and linking them to real life opportunities to use tech to tackle inequality in their communities, we will encourage non-traditional technologists to become future coders.
Joseph Denne:
...and then come work for us 😉
Question 6
Can you tell us a bit more about the CHALLENGE AWARD please?
Jennifer Martin:
Less than 50% of people live in fully functioning democracies. Following more than a decade of declining global freedom, the rights of minorities, the rule of law, freedom of the press and free and fair elections are all under threat.
Through the blockchain we have the opportunity to help shape a paradigm shift enabling truly transparent and accountable governance in an era where we are at risk of more elections but ever decreasing democracy.
Our first award will focus on how technology can be used to counter this threat. In addition to an initial £10,000 grant, the successful applicant will be able to access extensive technical support (drawn from the core DADI team, as well as other partners). Applicants will submit a short video outlining their idea by the 31st of July. You can see more on http://dadi.foundation
Question 7
Tell us about yourself - what is your experience and what makes you the right person to lead the foundation?
Jennifer Martin:
I have a background in Higher Education and the Charity Sector, and most recently worked as the Human Rights Advisor for People’s Postcode Lottery/Novamedia, which is the third largest private charity donor in the world. I'm an experienced and passionate advocate for global equality and have undertaken both national and international roles in the pursuit of social justice - including working with over 30 NGOs and UN Agencies in the occupied Palestinian territories.
I also hate talking about myself! 😊
Question 8
Who designed the map on your homepage? Love it!
Joseph Denne:
The design work is all Dave (Longworth) and his team. Their time is contributed pro bono.
Question 9
Part of your work involves research – can you expand on this?
Jennifer Martin:
We're going to be undertaking and publishing research which identifies the barriers to more wide-scale adoption of technology as a key tool in the pursuit of human rights. What I've found is that the charity sector is often reluctant to publicise its failures, which makes it almost impossible for organisations to learn from each other’s mistakes. By actively working to find and share both success and failures we hope to enable conversations that result not just in iterative improvements to our own projects but also improved opportunities for innovation across the sector.
Question 10
To what extent do you think blockchain is well placed to achieve social good? Any examples?
Jennifer Martin:
Blockchain is already being used to bring financial services to displaced communities, to verify supply chains for sustainable food consumption, to clamp down on human trafficking and to work in direct support of women’s rights in countries where unthinkable repression remains a feature of daily life. As a technology often described as ‘trustless’, it can deliver a new type of trust.
Blockchain offers a real opportunity for a paradigm shift enabling truly transparent and accountable governance in an era where we are seeing ever more elections but ever decreasing democracy.
Question 11
Can I volunteer my time?
Jennifer Martin:
Yes please! We are currently recruiting volunteers with tech skills, if you are interested please get in touch info@dadi.foundation
Question 12
Which countries are you active in?
Jennifer Martin:
Our first projects have not yet launched and to some extent where we are active will depend on which grant applications we feel are most likely to achieve impact. Our challenge award is open to applicants from any country. We're also aiming to be global in reach with our education resources being promoted internationally and our conferences for activists and technologists taking place worldwide.
Question 13
How are the foundation and DADI working together?
Joseph Denne:
In addition to the founding donation and ongoing donations through the central Payout contract in the network, DADI is providing pro bono support, including marketing and PR, introductions, tech build services and hands on time commitment from the core team.
Question 14
Are you working with other companies in crypto?
Jennifer Martin:
We already have a number of crypto companies pledging support through donations. Donation of crypto is still extremely rare in the charity sector with few charities accepting tokens.
We are actively working to build opportunities for partnerships both through donation of tokens to develop bespoke grant programmes aligned with the values of both the Foundation and the company and the use of expert volunteers to help the charity sector capitalise on the vast opportunities offered by blockchain technology.
Question 15
How are we going to know how the funds generated to the foundation is going to be used and is there a way for the community to decide which projects the Foundation supports?
Jennifer Martin:
The Foundation will actively share our progress with the DADI community. This will include the publishing of an annual report outlining how funds were used and the impact of supported projects. We will be sharing videos of all shortlisted grant applicants. And we're also exploring ways in which community members can get involved in selecting which projects receive funding. To this end I intend to trial a DADI community award later in the year. Watch this space!
Question 16
Do node voting rights extend in any way to foundation activity?
Jennifer Martin:
As the Foundation is a separate legal entity, node voting rights will not directly influence Foundation activity. We are however keen to find opportunities to connect the community with the work of the Foundation through volunteering and feeding into the selection of funded projects.
Question 17
Is there or will there be a PR/advertising firm to promote the foundation’s goals and solicit contributions?
Joseph Denne:
We've allocated a block of our retained PR agency’s time to the foundation, with a brief to help it reach the broadest audience possible, both to generate donations and to help ensure high quality applications for grants.
Question 18
Are you in some way related to Bill Nye the science guy?
Jennifer Martin:
No, sadly not. But we are both keen on promoting truth.
Question 19
What's the first project of the foundation?
Jennifer Martin:
We are really excited to have announced our first project grant providing £10,000 and expert technical support to an organisation harnessing technology to improve democracy.
Over the next few months we will be developing education resources and an online portal enabling future coders to tackle inequality in their communities and across the world, running conferences for human rights activities and technologists to empower them to promote and protect democracy and undertaking initial research into tech including blockchain as a catalyst for social change.
Question 20
The provision of education services to refugee children in the middle east is deteriorating. School overcrowding, accessibility issues and more are key obstacles. Have you seen examples elsewhere in the world of a community cloud used to deliver education that avoids these issues? Are there ways one could "crowdfund a cloud" as a form of donations? (from the general public or larger donors)
Jennifer Martin:
There are a number of innovative projects using cloud based education particularly trying to meet the needs of displaced children. Tech and other innovative approaches including double shift schooling is being used to address education gaps in Lebanon. We are keen to collaborate with other charities to address the impacts of a democratic deficit including creative fundraising e.g. 'Crowdfunding a cloud'.
Question 21
How much funding do you have to begin right now?
Jennifer Martin:
The initial donation from the DADI founders was £200,000. And we already have contributions coming in through the use of the DADI network. It's early days, but the scope for us to deliver at scale is huge.
Question 22
Will the DADI foundation be publishing how the donations are spent? Such as an accounts overview?
Jennifer Martin:
We will be sharing updates with the DADI community and publishing accounts and an impact report on an annual basis.
