Tim Berners-Lee, the British engineer, computer scientist and MIT professor who is credited with inventing the World Wide Web, singled out for praise one of NDI's technology projects in a talk at the Technology Education Design (TED) conference in Long Beach, Calif. The conference brings speakers from around the world to talk about technology, creativity and ways their work can change the world.

As ethnic divisions ease in the Balkans, political parties across the spectrum are finding the need for new approaches that focus on thoughtful policy debate rather than personality and ethnicity. Young leaders in particular will play an important role in these changes.

At a unique gathering in Paris last week, key international parliamentary associations gathered to assess progress on reaching consensus on minimum benchmarks for democratic parliaments – one of the key pillars of representative democracy.  While there is broad international agreement, for example, on minimum characteristics of democratic elections, international benchmarks on other democratic processes and institutions are still emerging. 

In anticipation of national elections on March 7, Iraqi civil society activists held 16 candidate forums throughout the country to engage voters in the political process, improve the dialogue with candidates and focus attention on priority issues for voters, such as water, electricity and education.

Thirteen political parties in Georgia have signed an agreement setting the format for a nationwide public television channel, called the Second Channel, that will broadcast the activities of the Georgian parliament and opposition parties.

Responding to calls for electoral reform from civil society organizations in Jordan, a national grassroots coalition led by the National Center for Human Rights (NCHR) has launched a first-of-its-kind media and advocacy campaign to push for improvements in the country's election system.