RS Strategy is proud to announce our new partnership with the r0g_agency for Open Culture and Critical Transformation. We will be focusing on peacebuilding through open knowledge. Intrigued? Read on, then.

More on the r0g_ agency

Based in Berlin (Germany), r0g_ is a transnational agency for open culture and critical transformation:

r0g_ thus follows a philosophy of ‘open knowledge for open societies’, with a focus on creating sustainable open systems solutions for post-conflict development.

In doing so, the r0g_agency acts to put into practice the mechanisms of sustainable open culture methodologies using appropriate and community-based resources and technologies including Open Source (i.e. FOSS and Open Hardware), Open Educational Resources (OER), Open Data and related Open ICT4D, DIY and Up-Cycling methodologies.

Stephen Kovats, one of the r0g_agency co-founders, is a cultural and media researcher. He has also been the artistic director of the transmediale, Berlin’s festival for art and digital culture 2008 – 2011. Mr Kovats and the r0g_ agency have been instrumental in producing a wide range of resources among which an insightful report (PDF) for UNESCO in connection to the debates on the future of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

Our future collaboration

Through our partnership, RS Strategy will contribute our expertise in the field of development and conflict mitigation through open knowledge. We will contribute to forthcoming efforts and initiatives which will unfold in Kosovo, South Sudan and Mali.

Our collaboration will be kicking off with a focus on South Sudan. The youngest country has been marred in conflict and its population is struggling with poverty. In such an adversarial context, we aim to help to build essential infrastructure with open software and hardware. We ambition to enable the creation of an open knowledge hub in the capital city of Juba.

Also, we are closely following the evolution of political discourse online. Signs of polarisation that would most probably deepen the interethnic conflict are patent. Thus, we are setting our sights on training local youth, journalists and community leaders to #defyhatenow.

For further details on r0g_ agency’s outstanding work in South Sudan and a better grasp of efforts towards the introduction of open technologies in post-conflict scenarios, have a look at Stephen Kovats’s keynote during the Open Knowledge Conference in Geneva (2013) and explore the r0g website!