DigiActive.org

Tactic: Keeping demonstrators up to date using Twitter

Description: A German group used the microblogging service Twitter to inform protesters during the traditional May 1 demonstrations in Hamburg, Germany.

Organizer: The Freie Sender Kombinat (FSK), “Free Channels Conglomerate”, a Hamburg-based independent radio station.

Purpose of Action: To inform leftist protesters about the progress of both their own and a neo-nazi counter-demonstration.

Organizing Tools: Twitter, cell phones.

Outcome: About 360 people followed the FSK’s Twitter account and were subsequently informed about the ongoing of both demonstrations, but the organizers failed to study whether their broadcasting had any effect on the protesters’ behavior. Using Twitter instead of regular SMS broadcasting saved the FSK about 650 € (~1000 $) of SMS costs.

Ease of Replication: Twitter is one of the new minimalist and easy-to-use web 2.0 technologies. Updates can be received via the service’s website, RSS feed, instant messenger (XMPP / Jabber) or specialized Twitter clients.
Reporting from a demonstration via Twitter is by far easier to handle than most alternatives, i.e. live radio broadcasting, and highly cost effective. Problems could arise through a lack of phone connection or data security.

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Tactic: Jamaicans blog for Prison Reform

 
view of the entrance area of Tower Street Adult Correctional Center in Jamaica

Description: Jamaica has one of the most controversial criminal justice systems in the world.   There have been reports of overcrowded prisons throughout the Caribbean island.  In recent months a Jamaican nonprofit has made strides to give prisoners training on how to use citizen media to document their grievances.

Tools Being Used: blogs, Flickr, podcast

What They Are Doing: The S.E.T Foundation, a grantee of Rising Voices, is a program that works with prisons to reduce recidivism, by helping prisoners become productive citizens after they are released.  As part of the Prison Diaries project, prisoners will be trained on how to use the group blog, as well as edit their own audio and video clips.   Prisoners are also using Flickr to post photos.  The goal of the project is to give the world a reality check about Jamaica’s prison system.

“Through blogging, inmates are able to tell their stories,” said SET Foundation leader Kevin Wallen.  ”They are able to paint a realistic picture of life behind bars and the consequences of crime. Currently, Jamaica’s music and media idolize the ‘badman’ or ’shotta’ and portray as role models those who have been incarcerated. Many of our youths now think that prison is a ‘cool’ place to be, until they themselves are faced with the harsh truth. The Diary of an Inmate blog will allow all Jamaicans to learn about the realities of Jamaica’s overcrowded prison system with the hope that this will counteract the false ideas implanted by the media.”

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Tactic: Facebook and blogs highlight cyclone relief in Burma

Burmese refugees made homeless by the cyclone

Description: International aid is beginning to arrive in Burma, following last week’s devastating Cyclone Nargis, which is believed to have killed at least 22,000 people. Another 41, 000 people are currently unaccounted for. Internet activists go online to blame Burma’s military regime for the slow response and use social media to get aid to victims.

Tools Used: Facebook, blogs

What They Are Doing: Burma Global Action Network (BGAN) created a facebook page to act as a clearing house for Internet users to find and make much needed donations to relief organizations working on the ground. Users are also being asked to upload and view photos, videos and personal stories about the damages Cyclone Nargis has created. Many bloggers have also started to circulate BGAN director Sophie Lwin’s call to action and her disgust with Burma’s government on their blogs.

“I am not going to be sleeping much at all over the next 48 hours, right now their (sic) are people in Burma struggling to save their homes and find food and the regime is in total disarray,” said Lwin. “They need us.”

photo credit: AFP

Tactic: using MSN Chat logo to show China pride

Description: Users of MSN chat in China are adding a red heart to their MSN names (see image left) to demonstrate their support for China and the Olympics.

Organizer: Unknown but has official support from Microsoft. Appeal asking “Chinese people worldwide to use the red heart to express their love for China and to support Beijing’s Olympic Games” appeared on the Chinese MSN homepage.

Purpose of Action: Many Chinese feel under attack from France and CNN because the West “supports” Tibetan independence and is “anti-China” and “anti-Olympics.”

Organizing tools used: instant messaging (MSN chat)

Outcome: 7,000,000 people have added the little red heart to their MSN names over the past week.

Ease of Replication: Adding a logo to your MSN chat is very easy. GChat also allows using to add their own image/logo.

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Tactic: Why Don’t Chilean Parties Use Web Tools?

Description: Last week El Mercurio (one of the oldest newspapers in Chile) published a report about the use of Web technologies by political parties in the country (original source in Spanish). The article stated that what the parties were using was very very basic and lacks the “social” element. Even though each one of these parties have a website (list here), they don’t apply the latest interactive Web 2.0 technologies.

Organizer: The political parties of Chile

Purpose of Action: To win elections and gain voter support

Organizing tools not used: YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, or blogging

Outcome: The impact of this new situation is uncertain, but if access to the Internet increases and the activities of young voters online continue to increase, we will see a very different electional process in 2009. The fewer the number of parties that understand this, the lower the probability that they will understand the phenomenon of “Politics 2.0″ that is consolidating around the world and may produce very deep changes in the way we understand “Government”.

Ease of Replication: If we look at the political campaigns in the US, and search a bit about the use of this tools, we can see that, for example, Obama has more than 800,000 followers in Facebook and Ms. Clinton has 150,000. In the past presidential elections in France, the Internet was not only important in the campaigns (in fact Nicolas Sarkozy opposed using it to debate with other candidates), but also it allowed to spread the news who was the winner, due to the bloggers who had fresh info that the media couldn’t get at the same time.

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Tactic: Facebook used in tracking war criminals

Description: Anti-genocide group Aegis Trust created a campaign using the social networking site Facebook to find alleged war criminals in Darfur.

Tools used: Facebook, Google Maps and e-petition

What Are They Doing: Aegis is asking Internet users to provide updates on their Facebook page about the whereabouts of suspects – Sudan’s Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Harum and Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb. The International Criminal Court has indicated both men for over 40 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

Aegis Trust is also using Google Maps to track the last-known movements of the suspects. Users can also go to Aegis’ “Wanted for War Crimes” webpage to sign a petition that will be automatically emailed to members of the United Nations Security Council.

“The men on the watch list are suspected of hundreds of thousands of murders,” said Dr James Smith, chief executive of the Aegis Trust in a recent statement. “Someone, somewhere, knows where they are. They shouldn’t be allowed to live out their last days in luxury. Their futures lies in a courtroom. That’s what their victims deserve.”

Tactic: Student ‘twitters’ out of Egyptian jail

photos of Mohammed Maree on James’ Twitter page

Description: James Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in Mahalla, Egypt, covering an anti-government protest when he and his translator Mohammed Maree were arrested April 10. On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the blogging site Twitter.

Tools Used for the Action: Twitter

Outcome: Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt – many of whom had taught him the tool only a week earlier — were alerted of the arrests. (Twitter is a social-networking blog site that allows users to send status updates, or “tweets,” from cell phones, instant messaging services and Facebook.)

Buck sent only one message with his cell phone – “Arrested.” Buck’s friends started to write regular updates on their blogs about his arrest, as they weren’t sure how long he was going to be able to communicate with them. Fortunately, he was able to continue to send updates, and his entries set off a chain of events that led to his college hiring a lawyer on his behalf.

Buck was released from prison the next day, and sent another update saying “Free.” However, his translator, Maree, was transferred to another police station, and has not been heard from since. There are conflicting reports from the Egyptian government about whether Maree was freed and his whereabouts. Buck has now started another campaign on his Twitter page as a way to find Maree.

“James’ case is particularly compelling to us because of the simplicity of his message — one word, ‘arrested’ — and the speed with which the whole scene played out,” said Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. “It highlights the simplicity and value of a real-time communication network that follows you wherever you go.”

Tactic: Saudi Activist Uses Youtube to Advocate for Womens’ Right to Drive…

Description: On International Women’s Rights day, a video of a woman in Saudi Arabia defying the country’s ban on female drivers in urban areas was posted on the video-sharing site YouTube. At the wheel of her car, rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider, describes the injustice and appeals to the Saudi Government to expand women’s rights in the country and lift the ban.

Organizer: Human Rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider. 125 other people signed an accompanying petition that was delivered to the Saudi Ministry of interior that same day.

Purpose of Action: To celebrate International Women’s Rights day and call for the lifting of the ban on female drivers in Saudi Arabia.

Organizing Tools: The video was uploaded to and posted on the video-sharing site Youtube.com

Outcome: The story was picked up by all major international news organizations which has helped to widely publicize the action. Bloggers around the world have also helped amplify the message by writing on the story and posting links to the video, which has so far been viewed more than 120,000 times.

Link to Video with English dubbing

Tactic: Organizing a Blogging Workshop

Description: On April 3 and 4, 2008, a blogging workshop was held in Kabul, Afghanistan. The participators were introduced to blogging and the blogosphere and learned how to use blog providers or to differentiate between a blog and a web site.

Organizer: The workshop was organized by the Afghan Association of Blog Writers, represented by the bloggers Nasim Fekrat and Masoumeh Ebrahimi.

Purpose of Action: The workshop’s goal was to introduce Afghan journalists and writers to the power of blogs. The organizers believe that blogs could help improve the quality of the Afghan print and online media, if being used as a publishing as well as an investigation tool. Another goal was to speed up the growth of the currently very small Afghan blogosphere.

Organizing Tools: Blogs

Outcome: Ten Afghan journalists, writers and academics were introduced to blogging. They learned how to use online media and subsequently founded their own blogs. The workshop was described as “may be the most important step for journalism in Afghanistan.” So far it cannot be told how many of the participants will continue their blogs.

Ease of Replication: Afghan PenLog, the Afghan Association of Blog Writers, plans to hold similar events in several other Afghan cities, but the funding will remain a serious difficulty. A workshop can be held by few (here: two) persons, but it causes relatively huge costs as for the location or technical equipment.

Tactic: Temporary Posting to Avoid Censorship

IMPORTANT NOTE: The security situation is each country is unique. Please consider the specific security environment in your own country when deciding whether to use the advice in this section.

Threat: Bloggers who publish content critical of the government risk having their blogs blocked by the government if they live in a country with limited freedom of expression.

Way to Protect Yourself: To make it more difficult for the censors to find sensitive content on your blog, only post the content for a few hours and then take it down. This temporary posting gives the censor a smaller window of time to find this content on your site and thus makes it less likely that you will be blocked, while also giving readers enough time to copy and paste the information from your blog onto bulletin board systems and chat rooms for wider discussion.

How Activists Are Using This Technique: When news of the Tibet protests broke, Bei Feng, editor of one of “China’s ten most influential” web portals, only posted information about the protests on his blog for a few hours, which gave his readers enough time to copy the information onto other sites but prevented his blog from being blocked. This is a strategy that “he commonly uses for sensitive issues, posting a story about it on his blog and then taking it off after only a few hours to avoid being shut down by censors.” (source: openDemocracy)