Open Technology Fund’s (OTF) 2013 annual report provides an overview of its program, goals, and existing and future commitments to the larger Internet freedom community. It highlights important facets of OTF’s work and the accomplishments and ongoing efforts of projects OTF supports around the world. This report allows the public a deep look inside OTF’s internal processes. It concludes with a vision of OTF’s future work in 2014 and beyond.
Key Results from Fiscal Year 2013
• Supported the growth of censorship-resistant secure online chat and text messaging from 200,000 regular users to over 10 million globally;
• Funded the creation of the first open-source Mobile Human Rights Reporting tool capable of circumventing repressive firewalls;
• Partnered with leading Internet security experts to conduct 30 technology audits resulting in the identification of 185 privacy and security vulnerabilities in both OTF and non-OTF-funded Internet freedom technologies;
• Supported detailed security and privacy assessments of more than 100 mobile networks worldwide;
• Established and grew a localization platform of more than 1,400 people working to translate 30 tools and 1.7 million words into 180 languages and dialects including Arabic, Farsi, Korean, Tibetan, Mandarin, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese;
• Publicly released four reports including Collateral Freedom in China, an exploration of Chinese circumvention technology; How to Evaluate Technical Audits as a Funder, a methodology for funders looking to conduct security audits; Access and Openness: Myanmar 2012 an assessment of the telecommunication, censorship, and online safety landscape in Burma; and Tools for Communication Security;
• Increased circumvention capacity in the Middle East and Asia by activating the first high- capacity Tor exit-node in South East Asia and establishing a Secure Cloud node in Istanbul, Turkey;
• Supported the creation of a Tunisian civil-society “hackerspace” defending Internet freedom;
• Conducted eight informational training sessions for NGOs, journalists and human rights activists on anti-circumvention tools for use in regions where freedom of expression is continuously threatened;
• Pioneered increased transparency through full disclosure of OTF’s financial expenditures and programmatic operations in the 2012 Annual Report and at www.opentechfund.org;
• Diversified the OTF Advisory Council to expand the scope and breadth of expertise guiding OTF project decisions by tripling the Council from 6 to 18 members;
• Convened a summit of OTF project teams, OTF’s Advisory Council, NGOs, and partnering funders, for in-depth discussion and strategic planning for the coming year;
• Received unprecedented interest from potential projects, vetting 68 concept note submissions requesting over $17 million, a fivefold increase from 2012;
• Significantly expanded OTF’s proposal and project evaluation system, making it easier to compare and monitor current and potential projects; and
• Maintained lean and agile operations, with over 90% of OTF’s budget – approximately $3.8 million – going directly to programmatic work.