How the Crowd Can Help End Modern Slavery

November 19, 2012 By IdeaConnection
Former child soldiers
Former child soldiers

According to the International Labor Organization there are between 10-30 million slaves worldwide. Modern slavery is a cruel blight on humanity and it takes a number of forms including human trafficking, child soldiers, forced marriage, and forced labor.

Crowdsourcing intelligence company Chaordix will soon launch a new initiative to engage human rights activists, students, and scholars on college and university campuses in every country in the global ChallengeSlavery.org contest.

This approach will build on work already taking place at ChallengeSlavery.org where community members discuss, vote, collaborate, and co-create solutions to try and put an end to modern slavery.

According to Chaordix Founder & CEO, Shelley Kuipers this new open innovation initiative will bring President Barack Obama’s speech at the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative to life.

In the speech, the President declared: “We’re turning the tables on the [human] traffickers. Just as they are now using technology and the Internet to exploit their victims, we’re going to harness technology to stop them. We’re encouraging tech companies and advocates and law enforcement — and we’re also challenging college students — to develop tools that our young people can use to stay safe online and on their smart phones.”

Crowdsourcing Solutions

The contest will launch on November 28, 2012 and invite people to submit their technological solutions.

The top entries will be selected by a combination of crowd rating and adjudication by an expert panel. The winners will receive a prize and an invite to Washington where they will be able to discuss their ideas at a conference with a range of relevant parties including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).


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Reader Comments


These types of initiatives are what make me proud to be living in this generation. Now if we can only teach our young students to harness these tools to progress our society. This article talks about how to find your innovative strengths.
Posted by Andrew Sieg on November 20, 2012

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