Herdict Announces Investment from Omidyar Network
We are thrilled to announce that Herdict has received a $1.5M grant from the Omidyar Network. Omidyar is a philanthropic foundation created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam to improve people’s lives through “harnessing the power of markets”. Stacy Donohue, Omidyar Network Director of Investments for Government Transparency, made the announcement during a presentation at the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington D.C.:
“Herdict is a powerful tool for exposing regimes intent on preventing their citizens from accessing certain Internet sites. Government transparency requires accessible information, which depends on an open, free Internet. Herdict is a strategic fit with Omidyar Network’s Technology for Government Transparency investment area as it enables the monitoring of open information and communication, both essential ingredients for healthy democratic governments in the 21st Century.”
The Omidyar Network supports many incredible organizations, including Global Voices Online — and we’re thrilled to see how they will help us grow. What does this mean for Herdict? More reports, more analysis, and more to learn. We will use this investment to scale Herdict up to be the foremost clearinghouse of data on website inaccessibility.
You can check out the official announcement from Omidyar here and the Berkman Center’s announcement here. You can watch the Omidyar announcement from the Gov 2.0 conference here (select gov 2.0 summit from the menu on the right, scroll to “Omidyar’s Stacy Donohue”, announcement at minute ~6).
About the Author: lmiyakawa
Laura Miyakawa is the Project Manager for Herdict. In this role, she directs the tactics and the long term strategy for the site. Prior to joining the Berkman Center, Laura worked with the Boston Consulting Group, developing strategies for high tech clients up and down the East coast. While at BCG, she had the opportunity to work in outback Australia on a Welfare Reform pilot. Recently, she worked as a commercialization associate at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, where she handled all patenting and licensing decisions for the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. Laura holds bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and MIT, respectively.
