DigiActive.org

Transition for Co-Founder Mary Joyce

At the end of this week I will be stepping down from my current role at DigiActive to pursue a different interest in the field of digital activism. Over the past few months I’ve been reflecting a great deal on what drives my passion for digital activism. Amine and I began DigiActive in October of 2007 in a series of Facebook messages. We talked about creating “a forum to share projects, ideas and tools, identify allies, and above all, find inspiration”, “a loose network of digital democrats,” “a website… which deal[s] exclusively… with digital activism around the world”. The last message in the thread was from me to Amine: “This is very exciting. Let’s talk on the weekend.” And we did.

We launched DigiActive in February of 2008 and over the past two years we have built an international team of over 40 participants from 17 countries and 6 continents , published 2 guides on Facebook and Twitter activism (with one on eCampaigning strategy in the works). We released 5 academic papers through our Research@DIgiActive program, wrote over 300 blog posts detailing successful cases of digital activism around the world, and trained over 70 activists in the 3 countries of Morocco, India, and the Philippines. And all this on a budget of less than $1500 per year.

Over these two years I’ve found myself most engaged and excited by the foundational questions of the field: Why do some campaigns succeed while others fail? Where is the intellectual framework to structure our analysis of digital activism? Where is the common terminology to structure our discussions? How can we understand the mechanics of digital campaigns beyond the functionality of the latest hyped app? What is the future of digital activism beyond the implications of the latest digital victory or defeat? If digital activism can create a more egalitarian world by empowering ordinary citizens, what interventions will bring about that outcome?

For the most part, I found that these questions didn’t have answers yet, that the field lacks this type of foundational knowledge. My interests had shifted from the case-based identification of best practices that is the hallmark of DigiActive’s work, to building foundational knowledge in the field. Because I am so passionate about this challenge, I have decided to create a new organization to address it.

In order to fully devote myself to this new endeavor, I will be stepping down from my current role at DigiActive. This Friday the 22nd will be my last active day at DigiActive. I’ll stay on in an advisory capacity but will no longer have an operational role in managing the organization. I leave DigiActive not only in the capable hands of our co-founder, Amine, and editor, Talia Whyte, but also with the wonderful volunteers that have been behind our every success: guide editors like Dan Schultz, guide authors like Andreas Jungherr and Priscilla Brice Weller, trainers like Lynn Casper, who came with me to the Philippines, and writers like Simon Columbus, Tamara Palamakumbura, Hillary Kakooza, Gaurav Mishra, Hamid Tehrani, Frederick Noronha, Tiby Kantrowitz, Alex Frizzell, and, of course, or network catalyst Patrick Meier and outreach director Kate Brodock.

I am excited to see how DigiActive develops as its members constantly seeks new ways to help grassroots activists around the world use digital technology to increase their impact.