After the Revolution: Egyptians fight crime online

Written by on October 20, 2011 in Entrepreneurship - No comments

The Egyptian online platform  “Zabatak” receives a World Summit Youth Award 2011. On the 12th of November, the founders of Zabatak (Arabic for “gotcha”) will be awarded in front of UN, government and business representatives in Graz, Austria. At Zabatak, citizens can notify incidents of crime and corruption. The platform was initiated as a response to the poor security situation during the January uprisings in Egypt. Zabatak warns citizens of dangerous areas and encourages them to contribute to a safe and corruption-free Egypt.

“The Egyptian popular movement motivated us to take responsibility for the democratic development in our country. People feel safer when they can report the daily incidents of crime and corruption they witness. Corrupt officials stand no chance when their misconduct is observed and announced”, says Co-founder Abbas Ibrahim (26). Since the site’s launch in February 2011 more than 60.000 users have visited the site. 600 incidents of theft and bribery have so far been reported and marked on an interactive map.

For their commitment the young Egyptians will be honoured with the international “World Summit Youth Award” (WSYA) on November 12th in Graz, Austria. This year’s WSYA selected 18 young developers who take action on the MDGs using Internet and Mobile. Among them is the youth journalism portal “The Viewspaper” from India and the platform “Write3” from Bangladesh. “Write3” turns simple users into citizen journalists who post news, videos and images online per mobile phone. It is an important channel for news on human rights violations and abuse of power in a country like Bangladesh, which is listed in the lower third of the 2010 “Press Freedom Index”.

With websites and mobile-apps over 700 young producers, designers and developers from all over the world have applied for the WSYA 2011. With four winning projects Egypt is frontrunner, followed by India (3) and Mexico (2). Projects from Portugal, France, Germany, Ghana, Nigeria, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Canada and Indonesia could each collect one award.

You can now check out all winning projects at  http://www.youthaward.org/winners-2011

Andrea

Andrea works in Communications for the International Center for New Media, an NPO in Salzburg organizing international Awards in the field of new media. The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) selects best-practice e-contents of young producers which take action on the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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