21 HUMAN CAPACITY Understanding the technical or data skills of the team + members involved can affect how implementation of a tool actually plays out. For example, for the team at the Migrant Forum in Asia, which coordinates an online database that its partners contribute to, their ideal scenario is that eventually their members would enter data directly into their online reporting database themselves; but in reality, not all of them have the time or the necessary technical expertise. Or, understanding that your community might use new technologies without being wholly aware of the consequences; one interviewee raised the example of people sharing videos on social media in solidarity, without realising that people in the video might not want their image to be so widely shared. Veronica Vidal highlighted the issue of staff turnover: if a database is built by one person and then they leave without completing good documentation on what they’ve done, it might then become very difficult to update the structure or add new features without a lot of time investment. Ahmad Gharbeia, who works with the Arab Digital Expression Foundation, mentioned that many of the human rights organisations that he works with “do not have a local ICT champion who can orchestrate their systems and processes and be at the same time wellversed with the field”. ONGOING TRAININGS Many of the people we spoke to were involved in some way in training human rights defenders to use technology tools. In some of these cases, this training included work-arounds to ensure the safety of people involved: for example, in Nicaragua, they actively train people on taking photos of situations without even including the faces of people involved to avoid any unwanted or accidental information disclosure. People who had experienced cases of “one-off” trainings unanimously said that they were an unsuccessful way to ensure uptake and use of technology tools, and many had anecdotes of organisations who had received a training on a tool, then realised just after that they still needed assistance, but didn’t know where to turn once the trainer had left. Moving away from that strategy, Rick Bahague mentioned that they stay in constant contact with people using the tool after any trainings, and maintained open communication channels in case anything is needed. Several intermediaries who work with human rights defenders said that from their experience, HRDs were more interested in understanding new methods, such as how to store and manage video, than in what specific tool options were available. Many mentioned a desire for training on documentation methodologies to also include more information digital technology tools within the training- for example, on ways to use a mobile phone for documentation. UPDATES Providing updates to technology tools - specifically, mobile applications and software -- can be a doubleedged sword. On one side, they’re necessary to respond to security changes, and to provide new features as per request. But on the other, pushing out updates to users with low bandwidth can be problematic; so, staggering the updates and/or making them as small in size as possible is preferable. LONG-TERM CONTROL Though a tool might initially seem to suit all of the identified needs, it’s worth thinking about long-term control over the platform, or the data that is made available through it; especially when it comes to commercial social network platforms. For example, as Natasha Msonza highlighted: using Whatsapp as a communication tool to share incidences of violations works well, but doesn’t allow any measure of control. Anybody in the group can see other people’s numbers, and can add a user groups without consent - and there’s no way to delete messages from someone else’s phone. In the case of sensitive information shared in Zimbabwe, this lack of control has had serious consequences for human rights defenders.