Our Story
In February 2011, Mohammed Nabbous started live-streaming events on the Al Hurra channel from Benghazi, Libya. Immediately, an online community of trusted networks sprung up around his Libyan channel. These communications hubs harnessed online activism, vetted newcomers, responded to grass roots demands, fact-checked open source intelligence and mutually reinforced their own actions. Danaides co-founder, Stephanie Lamy, helped to create and coordinate vital connections between these hubs. Acting as an ‘information broker’ in order to foster and create networks, her work was featured and cited by MIT Tech Review, the IFRI and the French Ministry of Defence. The methodology developed by her information brokering and approach to network building is at the heart of Danaides mission.
Stephanie Lamy met co-founder Dr. Félix Blanc in 2013 at Internet Without Borders. Dr. Blanc’s previous research in French citizen engagement and military operations led him to represent Internet Without Borders on a four-year project sponsored by the U. S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Headed by Pr. Richard Brooks of Clemson University, the joint project successfully promoted online freedom of expression for West African activists through training sessions on counter Internet censorship and surveillance and the implementation of a ‘distributed proxy network’.
After the project’s completion, Dr. Blanc and Stephanie founded Danaides, in 2017, with the intention of using their expertise (in information warfare and civilian mobilisation during modern conflicts) to create a new methodological and technological framework to deliver resources to civil society in conflict zones.
In the summer of 2017, Danaides presented the blueprint for their ‘P2PR2P’ tool at a conference held by the European chapter of the International Society for Military Ethics (ISME) in Brussels. The renowned organisation, composed of scientists, academics and military professionals engaged in research, education and training in the field of professional military ethics, credited the concept for fulfilling a current and urgent need in the sector. As a result of praise from both humanitarians and key CIMIC actors, Danaides onboarded Prof. Richard Brooks as their chief of technology and Dr. Cynthia Salloum as an adviser on Institutional relations in 2018. Forming a partnership with Clemson University, Danaides’s P2PR2P tool became operational in late 2019 and planning is underway to deploy in Chad and Sudan.
At its core, Danaides is a relationship and information broker provider. We use our methodology and technology to create connections, form secure networks and scale the influence of civil society initiatives by bridging the gaps between international/state organisations, and civil society.