DigiActive.org

German Activists Collaborating on Writing Draft Bill Online

Description: Germany’s “Telemediengesetz” is seen as inadequate by many critics. The law is meant to regulate so called information and communication services, mostly affecting the internet. Hence its name: “Telemedien” is a neologism which was made up combining the former descriptions “Teledienste” (meaning one-to-one communication services) and “Mediendienste” (meaning one-to-many communication services). Though it only became effective in March 2007 it has since been criticized by experts as inadequate. As the Bundestag discussed amendments brought in by the three oppositional parties, German bloggers have started an online project to lobby for significant and useful changes on the bill.

Tools Being Used: Blogs, Wiki, Listserv

What Are They Doing: Some bloggers proposed to write a draft for the new bill together. The draft is thought to include all the proposals which can be heard from experts since years but have always been ignored by the government. The project is open for participation.
The bloggers set up a provisional wiki where the draft will be developed jointly much in the way of a Wikipedia article. They then announced it on netzpolitik.org, an important blog which is known for having criticized the Telemediengesetz before, in order to find more people interested in participating in the project.

In their first step, the bloggers started discussing the foundations for their project, including the question whether a wiki is the best solution for their intention. They subsequently set up a mailing list as a means to discuss the project.

The next step after finishing the foundations of the project will be to work out a draft which can be proposed to the Bundestag.

Who is organizing the action? The wiki was set up by the niche bloggers of Telemedicus in cooperation with Germany’s most important blog on net politics, award-winning netzpolitik.org.

Theory: The Streisand Effect

The Streisand Effect refers to instances when Internet censorship has the opposite effect, actually increasing distribution and awareness of the censored material.

Origin of the Term: In 2003 singer Barbra Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman and Pictopia.com for $50 million dollars to force them to remove a picture of her home (see above) from a series of 12,000 pictures of the California coast taken to study the effects of beach erosion. As a result of this peculiar law suit, the picture of her home was disseminated on the Internet and many more people saw it than would have if she had not tried to censor the image.

Application for Activists: How can activists apply the Streisand Effect as a means of countering Internet censorship? The key to the Streisand Effect is distributing the censored material and publicizing the instance of censorship. Without these two elements – distribution and publicity – censored material will not be viewed by a wide enough audience to counteract the original effect of the censorship. The end goal is to show your government that censoring content has the reverse effect, and thus discourage your government from censoring

From a technical perspective, the best way to distribute censored content is by e-mail, though feeds can also be used, as in the case of Amnesty International’s Irrepressible campaign, which allows bloggers to publish a feed of censored blog content on their own blog.

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Campaign: “What would you like a free Zimbabwe to look like?”

Description of Campaign: The outcome of the recent presidential election has still not been announced and while President Robert Mugabe is campaigning in expectation of a run-off election, opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai is asking for international assistance in pressuring Mugabe to step down (source: AP). In this time of political uncertainty, civil society community site Kubatana.net is running a e-mail and SMS campaign to engage ordinary Zimbabweans in their country’s political future.

Digital Activism Tools: e-mail, blog, FrontlineSMS, mobile phones

How These Tools Are Being Used: Kubatana sent out a text message to their mobile contact list:

Kubatana! No senate results as at 5.20 pm. What changes do YOU want in a free Zim? Lets inspire each other. Want to know what others say? SMS us your email addr

They then collected responses via e-mail and FrontlineSMS, a text-messaging hub for grassroots NGOs. The collected responses which were then distributed via an electronic newsletter and on the Kubatana Community Blog. After the election, Kubatana hopes to produce a booklet with a page on some of these ideas and some editorial commentary on the campaign, as well as a cartoon or even a set of postcards carrying the most “unique, original and practical ideas”.

examples of the campaign’s SMS responses after the jump…

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Digitally Active Org: The Sex Workers Project

Web site: www.sexworkersproject.org
What was it?: The Sex Workers Project, based in New York, has used technology in its mission to defend the rights of sex workers around the world. One of their goals is to remove a rule prohibiting organizations that work with prostitutes from receiving money from the PEPFAR AIDS prevention fund and the federal development agency USAID.
Where is it?: New York, USA
Tools: podcasts, digital video, blog, listservs, SMS

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Tool: Google Groups

Name: Google Groups

Website: http://groups.google.com

What it is: Google Groups allows you to create group e-mail lists and send messages to large groups of people

Rating:

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