Program Coordinator(WITNESS)-Career opportunity in USA

Job title: Program Coordinator: Technology Advocacy and Video As Evidence (Systems Change Initiative)
Organization: WITNESS
Country: United States of America
Deadline: 24 Jan 2014
Are you a talented advocate with a passion for how technology is used for justice and a strong sense of how major players in technology, human rights, news and the Internet could better enable that? Join a team of talented and committed activists, media-makers and technologists promoting the most effective uses of video for human rights. WITNESS envisions a world where the millions of people turning to video for human rights can do so effectively and safely. WITNESS helps human rights activists and citizen witnesses around the world use video to achieve social change. For 20 years, video has changed the course of history, and WITNESS has been there. Today, technology and social media are again revolutionizing our world, and video still has huge untapped potential as a human rights tool.

OVERVIEW:
An advocate, facilitator and techie, in the Program Coordinator role you will join WITNESS’ Systems Change initiative team. What’s WITNESS’ Systems Change initiative, you may ask? Its purpose is to push for and leverage changes in platforms, norms, policies and approaches at a systems level that will enable millions of people to better create and use video for human rights. You will have a subsidiary role as a point-person on our ongoing activities in North America.

As the Program Coordinator, you will focus on:
i) Advocacy to Technology Companies: specifically the integration of functionalities and policies that support human rights principles and improve use of their platforms and products for human rights activism.
ii) Video As Evidence/Citizen Media as a Human Rights Tool: with a focus on improving citizen media as a human rights tool by advocating for ways to better authenticate and utilize citizen media in the human rights, international criminal justice and news-gathering spheres; including work on the Knight News Challenge award-winning InformaCam app.
iii) Acting as point-person within the WITNESS team for WITNESS engagement, training, and peer community-building activities in the US and Canada.

Primary Responsibilities:
Engagement with Technology Companies and ICT for Human Rights (40%)
• Support WITNESS’ advocacy towards technology companies oriented towards incorporating changes in policy or product that support human rights principles and human rights usages. WITNESS’ focus priorities in this area are articulated in our ‘Cameras Everywhere’ report, and include focuses on privacy, visual anonymity, supporting scaled-up guidance on skills and ethics, and providing better modes to share and present authenticated information.
• Work with Program Director to plan and implement research; to develop public advocacy including blogs, presentations and short videos; to build relationships with technology influencers; and to support private advocacy and closed-door meetings with stakeholders.
• Track and provide support in articulating positions and supporting WITNESS’ actions on relevant issues in Internet freedom, surveillance, and corporate responsibility in the ICT area.

Video As Evidence (35%)
• Support other team members on engagement to international human rights and criminal justice community on video as evidence/citizen media documentation including support to specific “demonstration projects”, coordination of work-shopping of key problem-sets, and innovative idea-generation around video as evidence dilemmas.
• Work with primary technology and technical feedback liaison within WITNESS to our partners at the Guardian Project on our tools collaborations – the Knight News Challenge award-winning InformaCam, an innovative mobile app for making more easily verifiable mobile media and the J3M metadata standard, a new way to structure metadata for easier corroboration and use as evidence.
• Support engagement with technology companies around InformaCam/J3M/related functionalities including the incorporation of a ‘witnessing functionality’ into commercial platforms.
• Support implementation of J3M standards outreach and of commercialization discussions/approaches.
• Depending on experience, lead and/or support targeted outreach to news organizations on integration of InformaCam and J3M into newsroom and citizen journalism processes and tools.
• Support development of outreach materials around J3M/InformaCam.
• In collaboration with the Guardian Project, conduct outreach to networks of journalists and news organizations around incorporation of InformaCam into their workflows.
• Support related technology exploration projects – e.g. Google Glass demonstration projects.

North America Point-person (25%)
•Act as point-person for work in North America (U.S. and Canada) by WITNESS including work in the Video Advocacy Critical Response Strand focused on reaching more people with skills and tools and on strengthening networks of video-for-change trainers and facilitators in order to share relevant learning and materials/learn from these groups, and broaden the ‘Video for Change’ network in the region.

POSITION REQUIREMENTS
The ideal Program Coordinator will be a self-starter with a balance of experience in technology, new forms of journalism, and human rights advocacy.
• Work Experience & Education: You have a minimum of 3-5 years’ experience working in technology and/or human rights, and with a demonstrated capacity to think creatively and effectively about engagement and advocacy. You have at minimum a Bachelor’s degree, Masters preferred.
• Understanding of technology, mobile and Internet industry and policy landscape and of how tech is built and used: You understand the current debates around the role of technology, mobile devices and the Internet in human rights; the broader technology environment, and have exposure to start-up and technology innovation environments. You have a high level of technology literacy with a good understanding of different technology operating systems, products and platforms and the
appropriate situational use of each as well as the basics of software development.
• Human Rights/Advocacy: Knowledge and understanding of human rights issues, video advocacy, and current events and key players in both a domestic and international context; commitment to the mission and vision of WITNESS.
• News Junkie: You are familiar with the current news environment and current trends in citizen journalism.
• Communications: You’re comfortable and excited about writing and giving presentations in both online and offline environments including blogs, slideshows and research reports. You are a natural when it comes to persuasion, facilitation and/ or advocacy.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
• Experience with coding, and work experience in a technology company.
• Professional experience of human rights advocacy internationally.
• Familiarity with the national and international criminal justice system.
• Experience engaging with media, justice, human rights or video activism in North America.

LOCATION: Brooklyn, New York 11217

TITLE: Program Coordinator: Systems Change Initiative

START DATE: ASAP

How to apply:
TO APPLY: Applicants should email a resume, three references and a cover letter describing interest and qualifications for the position to: Programcoordinator@witness.org with the subject line Program Coordinator: Systems Change Initiative.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Applications accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled; early applications encouraged. Please note that due to the volume anticipated, we will not be able to respond individually to each applicant. We kindly ask that you do not send duplicate applications via mail or email, and no phone calls. Thank you for your understanding.

WITNESS IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER. WE VALUE AND ENCOURAGE DIVERSITY AND CAREFULLY CONSIDER QUALIFIED APPLICANTS FOR ALL POSITIONS WITHOUT REGARD TO RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, CREED, GENDER, SEX, NATIONAL ORIGIN, AGE, DISABILITY, MARITAL OR VETERAN STATUS, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER IDENTITY, OR ANY OTHER LEGALLY PROTECTED STATUS. http://www.witness.org