People have a lot of questions about what we’re doing, and we’ll keep adding to the FAQ to keep it current. In order to help you better navigate, we’ve made FAQ sections:

1. Questions about Sharek961
2. Questions about Reporting
3. How to Get Involved

Questions about Sharek961

What is Sharek961 ?

Sharek961 empowers Lebanese citizens to participate in society by reporting on the political process. Sharek961 is launching in time for the June 7th parliamentary elections so that people across Lebanon can report fairly on the elections and related events through SMS, email, and the web. The outcome of Sharek961 is intended to be improved transparency and accountability through civic participation.

Who is behind Sharek961?

Sharek961 is an independent, unaffiliated, non-partisan, all-volunteer project, and the result of the hard work and collaboration of many partners and individuals. Please see our Partnership and Sharek961 Team pages to learn more.

Who funds Sharek961?

Sharek961 is funded out of our own pockets. The project is all volunteer and all in-kind. We’ve pooled personal funds for purchases for things like URLs and promotional materials. Server space has been donated by our partner eMoksha. We’ve gotten support with wifi, office space, and free coffee from RootSpace, and translation and outreach from Social Media Exchange and Meedan, as well as other organizations. You can find more information about these partners on our Partnership page.

Do you have a relationship with any accredited monitoring associations?

Sharek961 is not affiliated with any of the accredited domestic or international monitoring organizations working in Lebanon this 2009 election season. We merely admire their work and have tried to follow their good examples as we’ve grappled with questions about how to best build this site. We have had conversations with the largest domestic Lebanese monitoring organization, the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE), but we receive no support from and are in no way affiliated  with LADE. We do plan to feature content from these official monitors as it becomes available to the public.

What is the technology behind the Sharek961 platform?

Sharek961 offers a platform for crowd-sourced information gathering, based on the open-source technologies Ushahidi and SwiftRiver, and the non-profit FrontlineSMS application. Sharik961 is technically managed by eMoksha, manages translation in partnership with Meedan, and uses the RSS filtering technology behind NewsRack.in.

What does the name Sharek961 mean?

For all you non-Arabic speakers out there, Sharek is the imperative of “Participate!” in Arabic, roughly transliterated. The numbers 961 are the country code for dialing Lebanon from abroad. We chose the name because we felt as though the most important part of this project was the fact that all people in Lebanon could participate in reporting on the elections - not only the news media and parties. We chose 961 because we liked the fact it identifies us as a Lebansese project - and is a reminder that the Lebanese community is very global!

What happens after the elections?

Sharek961 was never intended to close shop on June 8th. We see many opportunities to expand the mission of transparency and accountability in Lebanon beyond the election season. In addition to being a resource for the municipal elections in a year’s time, the Sharek961 team would like to work with local groups to identify good governance priorities, and help hold local government and the ministries, accountable through your participation. There’s a reason we named the platform Sharek961, not Elections961!

How do you make money?

We don’t.

Questions about Reporting

Why should I report?

• Because you can. It’s easy and anyone with a mobile phone or internet connection can do it.
• Because you can share your experience with the world.
• Because you can help improve accountability and transparency.
• What’s your reason?

How do I report?

You can report in any one of the following four ways:

1. Send an SMS to 7118 9118. The SMS is normal price on Alfa and MTC.
2. Report directly on the web at Sharek961.org
3. Send an email to report@sharek961.org
4. Send a tweet with to @sharek961 or with the hashtag #sharek961

For more details, check our our page on How to Report.

I just sent my report. What happens now?

Once you’ve reported an issue it will go live on Sharek961 in our unedited feed. A Sharek961 team member will map your report alongside official reports from election monitoring groups, news media reports, and reports from civil society groups.

All reports will be displayed on the website and made available to various news media and citizens’ networks. We are counting on our partners and individual citizens to utilize this information for further investigation or (appropriate) action.

Can I get feedback on the issue I’ve reported?

Unfortunately not at this point. Ideally we would report back to you about resolutions on issues you’ve reported, but we’re not set up to do that. Right now, we are focusing on the first step of collecting your feedback and building awareness about issues. Of course, if we do get a report of resolution from an organization or partner, we will report it on our website.

Someone has already reported what I wanted to report. Should I report it again?

Yes! Please do. More reports about an event give it more credibility and encourages people to take action.

How do you verify the credibility of the reports? How do you deal with abuse?

Sharek961 does not attempt to verify reports and makes no claims as to their accuracy; as a neutral platform it publishes all material reports without editorial or censorship. The project merely seeks to contextualize reports against various sources of information, such as reports from other citizens and the news media, official observation groups, and images and videos, in order to provide users with tools for understanding. As with any public reporting system we rely on the honor code. For more information, please see our page on the issues of reporting, abuse, and our policies.

I’m concerned about my privacy and safety. Can the report be traced back to me?

No. We take your privacy concerns very seriously and your personal information (name, phone number, etc.) will never be published with your report.

How to Get Involved

How can I help?

So you like what we’re doing here? Think you could do it better? Sharek961 is a group project and we would love to have your input and participation!

Step 1: Use It.
The first thing we need is your participation. Send us a report. Tell us what is happening in your village, on your street, in your neighborhood. You can SMS, go online, send an email, or use Twitter to tell us. Send pictures, audio, and video. Don’t know how? Read our guide on How to Report.

Step 2: Recruit other Users.
Tell everyone you know. Get 10 people to save the Sharek961 number in their phones. Get them to tell everyone they know. Join the Sharek961 community on Facebook, at Twitter (@sharek961), and subscribe to our blog. If you have a blog, website, or Twitter account, we’d love you to write or tweet about Sharek961, and display our banners (200X200 and 150X150) to help get the word out.

Step 3: Volunteer
If you have a skill that you think would help us - from public relations to PHP - we’d love your help. Send us an email at info@sharek961.org and we’ll write back right away.