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.

Twitter list of top digital activism resources

We’ve begun a TweepML list of some of the influential Twitter users in the digital activism space, primarily individuals, groups and organizations who are focusing their time on following the digital activism space from a research/analytic/reporting standpoint.

The list can be found here.

We want to be as inclusive as possible and would love to expand this list.  Our goal is to get a Top 100 for the field (we need 75 more).

But we need your help! Please Twitter Kate, send her an email (kate @ katebrodock (dot) com) or leave a comment with additions to the list.

DigiActive: our work so far

I recently had the opportunity to make a list of DigiActive’s accomplishments to date and I thought I’d share them. I’m really quite amazed by us sometimes:

DigiActive launched in February 2008 and since then we have:

• built an international team of 43 participants from 17 countries and 6 continents
• published 2 guides on Facebook and Twitter activism
• released 5 academic papers through our R@D program
• written 299 blog posts detailing successful cases of digital activism around the world
• trained over 70 activists in 3 countries (Morocco, India, and the Philippines)
• are currently working on 1 book of essays on critical issues in digital activism (the first of its kind) to be published in spring 2010 by an education imprint of the Open Society Institute.

DigiActive trains in the Philippines

Last week  DigiActive members Mary Joyce and Lynn Casper took part in a 3-day training in Cebu City, Philippines called AOM 2.0: Intregrating Info-Activism in People’s Campaigns.  (AOM is an old Filipino activism slogan standing for arouse, organize, mobilize).  The training was put together by the Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU), a local Filipino tech empowerment NGO based in metro Manila.

DigiActive was only one of the partner organizations brought in by CPU to lead modules, which also included video empowerment group Kodao Productions and advocacy research group IBON.   It was an excellent event.  We met kind, funny, and talented activists and even got to see some tarsiers on neighboring island Bohol.  All and all a wonderful opportunity.

Participants work on a group activity during a DigiActive module on data visualization

More photos after the jump… Read more »

Livestream presentation on digital activism

Tune in today at 10:30 am EST to see  a livestreamed presentation by DigiActive co-founder Mary Joyce and correspondent Gaurav Mishra from Participation Camp in New York City.    Mary will be giving an introduction to the field of digital activism and Gaurav will focus on digital activism in India.  (Slides for Mary’s introduction to digital activism are available here.)

Click here for livestream

UPDATE: It appears that part of the presentation is still available on Livestream.  If you click the link above or the image you will see the end of the Q&A session and then the video cycles back to the beginning of Gaurav’s talk. 

DigiActive’s Introduction to Digital Activism

It’s been a long time in coming, but here is DigiActive’s official introduction to digital activism.  This short presentation (19 slides) includes the following content:

• definition of digital activism
• examples from 3 countries (Colombia, Pakistan, China) including 3 different tools (social networks, mobile SMS, blogs)
• qualities of good digital activism: sustainability, effectiveness, reproducibility
• challenges to digital activism: the need for online-offline coordination, elitism and inequality of access, hype and tool transience, and persecution of digital activists
• what DigiActive does in this space and ways to get involved

Like all DigiActive content, the presentation is created under a Creative Commons Attribution License, so we encourage you to download it, use it, and remix it with your own content.  You can download the presentation here.

DigiActive Meet-up: Washington DC

What? Ever wondered what digital activism is?  Interested in learning what DigiActive is doing to better understand and promote this field?  This meet-up is designed for people who are new to digital activism.  DigiActive co-founder Mary Joyce will make a short presentation introducing DigiActive and explaining how digital tools are being used for social change campaigns around the world, followed by a Q&A and an optional meet-and-greet for those who don’t have to rush back to work.

When? 12:30pm – 1:30pm on Friday, May 29th.
This event is a brown-bag lunch so please bring something to munch on.

Where? Pact headquarters at 1828 L St, NW on the 3d floor (map and directions). We are really happy to be partnering with Pact on this event.  Pact is an international non-profit organization which seeks to build empowered communities, effective governments and responsible private institutions by strengthening the capacity of local organizations and institutions.  You can learn more about their programs here.

Why? Get your lunch to go on Friday, learn about digital activism, and meet some cool people.

How? If you’d like to come, please RSVP on the event’s Facebook page.

DigiActive will be @ NetSquared

Thanks to a generous scholarship from the organizers, DigiActive co-founder Mary Joyce will be traveling to San Jose next week on behalf of DigiActive to attend the NetSquared Conference, an event which brings together people who support the “distribution and use of social technologies for progressive change.” If you see her, stop by and say “hi”. As always, she’ll have a bunch of DigiActive laptop stickers and you might even get a hug.

The DigiActive Guide to Twitter for Activism

We are very excited to announce the release of The DigiActive Guide to Twitter for Activism.  Following the recent protests in Moldova, the value of Twitter as a tool for digital activism is more prominent than ever.  Yet in addition to bringing greater awareness to that tool, the hype surrounding Moldova revealed misunderstanding of the value of of Twitter for activism and, even though the realists responded strongly, there was not a stand-alone resource which clearly defined how Twitter could be used by activists.  We hope this guide will fill that void.

Click the cover image to download the guide (PDF format)

The guide provides a wealth of information on Twitter activism.  It  begins with an introduction to the platform (p. 5) and its terminology (p. 6) and then lays out five uses of Twitter for activists, each illustrated by a case study (p. 6-11).  The guide then presents a step-by-step strategy for using Twitter for political and social change (p. 12) along with a list of do’s and don’ts (p. 14) for campaigners.  The guide ends with additional resources for Twitterers, such as applications that help you use Twitter (p. 16), further reading (p. 20), and even alternatives to Twitter (p. 18).

The guide was written by Andreas Jungherr, a master’s candidate in political science at the University of Mainz in Germany, and was reviewed and improved by scholars, activists, and the DigiActive team, all for your reading enjoyment.  Please respond with your feedback in the comments section below.

A Note for Translators:  The guide is published under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution license and we welcome translation by individuals and organizations who will release their version under the same conditions. To receive a copy of the guide in an editable format, please e-mail Contact AT DigiActive DOT org.

Video: What is DigiActive?

Here is a short video of DigiActive co-founder Mary explaining what DigiActive is all about. It was made at the Info-Activism Camp last month by Frederick Noronha, co-founder of Bytes for All. You can see the rest of Frederick’s videos here.