DigiActive.org

Guide: Introduction to Facebook Activism

We at DigiActive are very proud to announce our first guide: A DigiActive Introduction to Facebook Activism. The guide was written by our Lead Researcher, Dan Schultz. It’s a quick introduction on how to use Facebook in your activism campaign and includes real-life examples of Facebook activism campaigns from Egypt, Burma, and Morocco. You can download the guide by clicking on the image below:

You can see the table of contents after the jump: Read more »

Resource: What should YouTube do for activists?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking with Ramya Raghavan, the new Nonprofits and Activism Manager at YouTube (see her intro video below). She is the head of the new Agent Change project for non-profits and activists.

Ramya is very dynamic and committed to making YouTube a better tool for activists. So, what do you think, how should YouTube being doing for activists? Let us know in the comments or e-mail her your thoughts at agentchange@youtube.com.

Guide: How to Access Banned Blogs

Title: How to Access Banned WordPress.com Blogs

Author: Lorelle VanFossen

Published by: Lorelle on WordPress (2008)

What is it?: A detailed post reviewing how to access blocked blogs (and other sites). Unlike other guides to circumvention, Lorelle gives links to specific proxy site and downloads. The guide is a quick and easy read and a great reference. Topics covered include:

• Client Side Proxy Software
• Online Web Proxy Bypass Sites
• Using a Peer-to-Peer Content Distribution Network
• Browser Extensions

Read more »

Resource: Digital Activism for the Environment

Title: Green Global Voices: Web 2.0 Environmental Activism

Author: Juliana Rotich, editor of Green Global Voices

Published by: Reuters Blog (2008)

What is it?: A detailed post reviewing how activists are using digital tools to protect the environment. Featured tools include blogs and video, Flickr, data mashups, and mobile phones.

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Guide: Designing an Advocacy Video

All the cool digital tools in the world aren’t much help without an effective strategy. Posts in the new “Strategy” topic will present ideas for how to fit digital tools into your overarching strategy for change.

In this first post, we will present a strategy for designing a YouTube-style video to promote your cause. A good advocacy video should contain the following elements:

1. Start With Background Info

Assume the person viewing the video knows nothing about your cause. You need to tell the viewer who, what, when, why, and where of the cause you are fighting for. The goal of presenting this information is for the person to understand the injustice that has occurred and why action is needed.

There are two options for presenting this information: slides and voice-over. If you are using slides, just type the information (white text on a back background looks nice). Then animate the slides. For voice-over, you need to write a script of the information and then record it and layer the audio over the video. The slides option is easier as you do not need to edit the audio track.

• EXAMPLE: Video Denouncing Homophobia

This video denounces the homophobic statements of Sally Kern, an elected representative from the state of Oklahoma in the USA. The first 33 seconds show the use of black-and-white slides to give background information about the issue. Specifically: Who? a State Legislator. What? a speech delivered at a gathering in her district. When? (doesn’t say) Why? she thought only 50 people were listening to her speech. Where? the state of Oklahoma. Read more »

Guide: Blog for a Cause! - The Global Voices Guide to Blog Advocacy

Title: Blog for a Cause!: The Global Voices Guide to Blog Advocacy

Author: Mary Joyce

Published by: Global Voices Advocacy (2008)

What is it?: A strategic step-by-step guide to using a blog as the center of a campaign for social or political change

Download it!

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Guide: How to Find A Volunteer Developer For Your Activism Project

Title: How to Find A Volunteer Web Developer For Your Social Change Website or Web Application

Author: Joe Solomon

Published by: NetSquared (2008)

What is it?: A short online guide of 10 steps to recruiting a volunteer web developer to help you build a social change web application.

URL: www.netsquared.org/blog/joesolomon/part-2-how-find-volunteer-web-developer

My friend Joe Solomon, with whom I created Rayt, has written a great little guide on how to find a web developer to help you create an online project for social change. The guide is available at.

Finding volunteer developers is a really serious challenge for digital activists. Although a lot of current software, like Facebook and Blogger, is fairly easy to use, some more complex projects, like Ushahidi.com necessitate the help of a skilled developer. The process of finding developers to help you is not obvious and Joe’s guide provides the necessary guidance to help you get the help you need to make your project a reality.

The guide, which is available on the NetSquared blog, is available in two parts. In Part One, Joe breaks down the task of finding a developer into 5 parts. Part Two contains continues with tasks 5 through 10. Here is a summary of the tasks he covers: Read more »

Guide: Handbook for Bloggers & Cyber-Dissidents

Title: Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents

Published by: Reporters Without Border (2005)

What is it?: A general guide to blogging with special content for people interested in publishing politically sensitive content

Rating: 4.5 stars

Download it!
If the above link does not work, you can also download it here or click on the image below.

Read more »