The Right Click

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Amnesty takes a somewhat different approach in "Eyes on Darfur." Like the Holocaust Museum's initiative, Amnesty's project has an extensive multimedia chronicle viewable using satellite imagery—which includes statistics, photographs, and video testimony. But "Eyes on Darfur" also presents a curated, simplified array of information in a stand-alone Flash site that runs on a regular browser. The project features satellite evidence that documents violence with before and after images of 13 villages; it also highlights 11 areas that, according to Amnesty, are facing imminent threat of attack, and encourages viewers to keep watch over these communities.

The elegant, minimal Flash interface of Amnesty's site was designed by Citizen, a San Francisco firm that works on projects with an altruistic purpose. Amnesty wanted the site to be useful for legislators and foreign policy officials, and Robin Raj, Citizen's founder and executive creative director, says that the firm created a design that would make the visual and written information accessible while conveying credibility and objectivity. "We wanted just a simple, clean environment," says Raj. "There should be no gratuitous content from the design and content standpoint."

In addition to presenting a more manageable set of information, the Amnesty site's interactive design is also much more efficient in the way that its "Take Action Now" links send users directly to a ready-to-mail letter. The equivalent "How Can I Help?" link in the Google version contains only contact information, not a ready-made letter. Autonomy in this context could dilute the will to act.

Despite its limitations, Google Earth is quickly becoming the medium of choice for many activist organizations; these groups are drawn to the platform's wiki-esque template that, like other web 2.0 apps, can be customized and adapted. Since launching in June 2005, the browser has amassed more than 250 million users, and Google is continually refining the software: Flash and video capabilities were added last September, with more features on the way.

While Google Earth and its satellite capabilities provided the springboard for the Amnesty and Holocaust Museum projects, YouTube is the touchstone for another newly launched activist site, the Hub, which allows individuals and advocacy organizations to post video and build campaigns about human rights violations. Shepherded by Witness, a Brooklyn-based organization that develops media strategies to counter injustice, the site emerged from a survey of activist groups that said they lacked a central forum built around video footage. "The idea behind the Hub is to have that element, to make it more specific, and to link it to human rights and to the mass mobilization of the internet," says Sameer Padania, Hub manager at Witness.

The Hub enables users from anywhere in the world to upload video footage—recorded on devices ranging from professional video cameras to cell phones—onto the site. After posting, organizations and individual users can provide links to background information and news articles, start an e-petition, or take other online and offline actions. Users can also create their own customizable home pages on the portal, much like YouTube "channels" or Facebook profiles.

Crafting the architecture of the Hub was perhaps the most elaborate aspect of the design process, because the site needs to be usable with both high- and low-bandwidth connections. Civic­Actions, an Internet consultancy, developed scenarios of how media producers, NGO staffers, activists on the ground, and newbies would all interact with the site. "It's really meant for utility," says Henri Poole, CivicActions' managing partner.

Determining how to most effectively deploy the interactive design vocabulary for activist purposes is an ongoing process. Rebecca Moore, manager of Google Earth Outreach, notes that the scope and language of Google Earth—rules for effective communication, standard principles for best practices, situations that can benefit most—are still being refined.

"We need [our own] Strunk and White," she says.

Amnesty, too, is figuring out ways to expand the grammar of the new technology. Jeremy Nelson, crisis prevention and response associate at Amnesty International, says that future projects might include a site that would bring a public eye to secret detention facilities and another that would show the environmental damage caused by extracting natural resources.

Digital media enables people to witness and participate, whether commenting on a blog, curating video clips, or sharing stories and conversation with distant correspondents. Chris Michael, Hub coordinator at Witness, is optimistic that these tools can be applied to progressive causes as well. "We're at a technological frontier that can take us much further," he says.

Provided by Print—America's Graphic Design Magazine