Open Cambodia 2011 was an un-conference style workshop, convened in Phnom Penh on September 16 and 17, 2011, that brought together leading Cambodian bloggers, coders, designers, human rights activists, and international experts to build connections, generate ideas, and lay the foundation for future collaboration around openness.
Beyond raising awareness about specific projects, such as Sithi.org, the event aimed to expand human rights work beyond the human rights community, targeting technology “maker/doers”, who tend to be engaged and influential members of society. Participants explored the links between open technology, open government, and open development, with discussions and knowledge-sharing sessions on censorship, security tools for encryption, improving data collection techniques, and localizing open source applications.
Open Cambodia was funded by USAID and implemented under the East-West Management Institute’s Project on Rights & Justice (PRAJ). Other partners included Aspiration Technology, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) at the University of Washington’s Information School.
