What is our goal?

Our primary goal is to highlight the means to strengthen freedom of expression and access to information through digital participation. The Internet opens up an interactive channel and provides the creative means for everyone to express themselves and connect with others. This is reflected by our definition of digital participation, which serves as the basis for the #speakup barometer project:People are able to communicate freely, independently and confidently in digital spheres.

The #speakup barometer is for media development practitioners as well as for journalists, bloggers and everybody who is interested in this topic. Using concrete examples, we will to show how participation can be improved. To this end, we talk to experts from a number of countries and tell stories about users from each – including what challenges they face vis-à-vis digital participation. We also want to look ahead, showing the potentials of the countries we surveyed and presenting ways that digital participation can be improved in each of them.