Internews’ Global Technology Program team focuses on ensuring that our work is sustainable, transparent, and in the open — this means prioritizing open source tools, building content under Creative Commons licenses, and supporting the capacity of — and learning from — the people on the frontlines of protecting the right to information. 

We are currently working across multiple projects to ensure that tools are developed with not only current and emerging threats in mind, but also with the end-users and their needs. This means engaging digital safety trainers and SAFETAG auditors in identifying gaps faced by high-risk users, working with designers to improve the usability of critical tools, and also ensuring that the tools themselves have a path towards sustainability with privacy-preserving metrics and direct support to address their collaboratively-identified needs. 

Over the next few months, Internews will have openings for staff, consultants, and organizations through small grants programs. This post collects our tech-specific opportunities in one place. 

HAPPENING NOW! 

• Our third UXFund , now part of our “ADOPTABLE” program., is open! This funding pool provides funding to privacy and security tool teams, enabling them to work with UX and accessibility experts to implement human-centered, usability-focused tool improvements. These changes will ultimately strengthen the tools, making them more secure for the at-risk individuals and organizations who need them the most. We will be looking to work with tools in particular that are needed for community and organizational security challenges like document sharing/collaboration and group communication.
• We are working to advance the state of censorship circumvention technology through seed grants targeting four stages of development and deployment. We will be able to fund the development and implementation of Pluggable Transports from initial concept development through live deployment with existing anti-censorship tools. Read more and apply here: https://www.pluggabletransports.info/blog/small-grants-2020/
• BASICS is running a second round of support to under-resources privacy and security tools in the fall – nominate a tool or sign your tool up on our BASICS page. Once the BASICS team works with the tools and our Open Source Software Lightweight Needs Assessment, we will also be posting additional contract positions to match any newly identified needs!
• Are you a developer? Mobile app deployment wizard? Experience in building testing requirements, managing issue queues, or simply just making sure tools are well documented? Our BASICS program is seeking to hire consultants with these skills, to work with our open source privacy and security tool partners. In particular BASICS is working to connect tools with limited resources and/or no “organization” behind them with people who have diverse, lived experience in Internet environments facing challenges emerging from electricity and bandwidth limitations, censorship, surveillance, and other oppressive, anti-open-internet activities. Learn more about BASICS current opportunities 
• We’re hiring! In addition to the BASICS contractual positions, we are also hiring remote-friendly full-time staff positions. Check out this twitter thread by Kat and our job postings.