DigiActive.org

Tactic: Haiti earthquake gets quick response online

Description: Haiti was rocked Tuesday night by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake. According to a report, Haiti’s First Lady Elisabeth Debrosse Delatour said that “most of Port-au-Prince is destroyed.”

While almost all phone lines have gone down on the impoverished island, Haitians have been able to communicate to friends and relatives around the world with the use of new media. Not only has there been a flurry of tweets and photos of the devastation posted online over night, but charitable individuals and organizations have responded quickly with their efforts to help victims.

Digital Tools Being Used: Twitter, Video, Photos, Text Message, etc

What Are They Doing: Victims of the earthquake immediately got on Twitter, uploaded photos and YouTube videos and text messaged to give eyewitness reports on the tragedy like this one:

RAMHaiti: It’s 8:44PM and we’re still getting aftershocks!!I can hear people gathered in the distance singing prayers…people in large numbers are singing prayers downtown

In the last few hours charitable organizations have been able to make initial assessments of victims’ needs and have asked for donations, mostly through the use of digital tools.

Red Cross: Help Haiti right now, text Haiti to 90999 to give just $10 to the Red Cross

UNICEF: Donate now for Haiti on their website

Rap artist and activist Wyclef Jean was among the first to organize online when he sent out these tweets:

@wyclef Help Haiti by donating to Yele on www.yele.org follow @YeleHaiti

@wyclef Another way you can help Haiti after their 7.0 earthquake: Donate $5 by texting YELE to 501501 and by visiting www.YELE.org

News organizations that cater to Haitian communities in the United States have also taken the initiative to give their readers updated information about the earthquake’s aftermath, such as the Boston Haitian Reporter, which has been live-blogging since Tuesday night.

What is the Impact: While a full assessment of the Haitian earthquake will be long term, this latest international incident shows the incredible value in digital activism for quick response and possibly saving lives.

15andCounting: Strategy Behind a Social Media Campaign

video introduction to the 15andcounting campaign

15andCounting is a campaign by the International Planned Parenthood Foundation demanding better access to sexual health services for youth.  They are using a mix of old and new social media tools, from an e-petition and Flickr to Twitter, the SMS platform Mxit, and the music platform Dopetracks.

In this interview I ask Paul Bell, a campaign representative, about the strategic thinking behind their tool choice and how their use of these  online and mobile tools will lead to offline change in government policies towards youth.

What is the 15andCounting campaign?

15andCounting is a global campaign to demand better access to sexual health services and education for everyone. We’re now 15 years into a 20 year commitment signed by 179 governments to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all young people. Only five years remain and many governments are seriously failing to make progress against their goals. 15andCounting is encouraging young people to call their governments to task on their grave failings

How have governments failed to make progress to promote, protect, and provide better access to sexual and reproductive health services?

There are 1.5 billion young people in the world today and the majority of them live without access to condoms or contraception. This is contributing to: the spread of HIV, millions of unwanted pregnancies, millions of women continuing to die from pregnancy related causes every year, and millions of young people having to drop out of education at an early age.

Any attachment to the choice of the name?

Fifteen years ago, at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, 179 governments signed up to a Programme of Action to improve the sexual and reproductive health of everyone. 2009 is the 15 year mark. People born in that year (1994) at the time of the ICPD, are now 15 years old and form part of the largest cohort of young people the world has ever seen – some 1.5 billion – who have a right to sexual and reproductive health services and information.

Why run the campaign now?

People born in 1994 at the time of the ICPD are now 15 years old and form part of the largest cohort of young people the world has ever seen – some 1.5 billion – who have a right to sexual and reproductive health services and information. Fifteen years after ICPD too many governments have failed to make good on their promises. Only five years remain for the vision of ICPD to become reality. Unless governments deliver on their promises young people will be denied services and information critical to their health and wellbeing.

What’s the motive for running the petition now?

The Count Me In petition will be delivered to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the 12^th of October, in an attempt to help persuade governments to promote, protect and fulfil their promise to provide better access to sexual and reproductive health services for all young people. October marks the 15^th anniversary of the ICPD conference in Cairo.

What are the network platforms you’re using to attain the goal of the campaign?

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/15-and-counting)

Twitter (http://twitter.com/15andcounting)

Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDGoFfvvIXY&feature=channel_page)

Dopetracks (http://www.dopetracks.com/forums/4/topics/13784)

Millions of young people across the world do not have access to a computer, but do have a mobile phone. Therefore we are also working with MXit, an instant message provider to reach young people primarily in Africa through their mobile phones via a WAP site (www.15andcounting.mobi).  We are also launching SMS campaigns in Kenya, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico.

With a lot of social network sites, why did you choose these particular networks over the other network platforms?

Twitter has been used as a way to get buy-in form professional stakeholders in the charity/care sector and to connect with bloggers and influential voices in the conversation: we feel that Twitter is the ideal for this purpose, but as a secondary function it also works to extend the outreach direct to people for petition signatures.

Youtube was purely there to host the video, which is easily embedded into other sites.

Dopetracks is a unique online proposition: a community of beat-makers, singers, poets, rappers, all collaborating online via their online music player/recorder (so that people don’t need any proprietary kit). We felt that the target market will be able to express themselves effectively – and engage with – the campaign though music. These people are very active promoters of their music and it encourages brand advocates to raise awareness with their peers.

How is each of the networks used?

http://twitter.com/15andcounting – we’ve built up a following or stakeholders and interested parties, which has stimulated wider distribution through blog posts and ‘retweeting’ of the 15&Counting messages. We have used Twitter as a distribution channel, not as a content channel.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/15-and-counting/56924592285?_fb_noscript=1 – a Facebook group has been set up and is used to flag up news and drive discussion amongst members and an ‘Are you a Sexpert?’ application was developed to further engage our audience. This is designed to pull together a community of supporters and drove people to complete the survey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDGoFfvvIXY A video on what the campaign is all about was put together and uploaded onto Youtube – this is video is embedded into the 15andCounting homepage, and is used as an background information piece for the blog outreach.

http://www.dopetracks.com – We’re setting up a competition on Dopetracks – a large online music collaboration network so that young people can create and distribute tracks with a 15andCounting theme within the network and in other networks: These people are very active promoters of their music and it encourages brand advocates to raise awareness with their peers. They frequently use twitter, myspace and other networks to increase the distribution of their music. We’ll also be encouraging people to collaborate with other people in different countries, using our blog/ partner network.

We’ll also be using the collateral created to promote into local radio and with a ‘mixtape’ of the featured tracks.

How effective will these platforms be for your cause?

The web is essential for IPPF to reach the target audience. These social platforms allow the campaign to engage directly with young people and allow them to get connected to groups in their country or region who are working towards improving sexual and reproductive health and rights. More than anything, we’re looking at how to facilitate people to become advocates for the campaign and motivate others. We have created an instruction/ training blog to show our partners around the world to engage with social media http://15andcountinglearn.wordpress.com/

We’ve been effective in activating community support for our campaigns, including driving support for ‘buzz marketing’ initiatives. We have had two Digg.com front pages: http://digg.com/health/Best_Condom_Adverts_Ever (this drove 22,000 people to the site in 24 hours) and http://digg.com/educational/Teach_5_to_8_year_olds_masturbation_says_UN_agency (this encouraged 6000 people to bookmark the site and broke traffic figures for the site).

You realize that their many online petitions, most of which unfortunately have failed to make impact, what have you done not to suffer similar fate?

We have done everything we can to ensure that the petition makes an impact by supplementing it with a number of elements – we have created a dedicated website for the campaign, used social networking sites (as detailed above) to target a wide variety of youth, and used mobile phones to reach the population who have less access to the internet. In this way we hope that we have ‘randomized’ our petition as much as possible, making it available to the widest possible net, without targeting specific communities. As such we believe we have compiled a very robust study, for example in Africa we have had 94,000 people sign the petition through the .mobi site. Furthermore we know that the activists involved in this campaign will continue to work hard on the ground in their countries to ensure the message stays alive.

How will you reach the larger population, which is not much involved in using digital tools?

A combination of the below:

Advocacy programmes are being undertaken by IPPF member associations – IPPF works in 176 countries worldwide and a global leader in providing and advocating for the right to improved sexual and reproductive health. Here we

Mobile phones – as mentioned above, we are targeting millions of young people across the world who do not have access to a computer, but do have a mobile phone – both through SMS and instant messaging.

Postcards – postcards which allow people to sign the petition have been distributed in key communities across the globe

Critics say online polls are highly non-representative of the population, and the respondents are self-selected.  Isn’t this also a pseudo-petition?

To get truly representative engagement with the target audience, we would have to spend a huge amount of valuable resources engaging people on the ground in each country: that money would better be spent campaigning. Online is the most cost effective way to run the petition, and we’ve addressed the differing ways that people engage with the net in different countries (e.g. via mobile phone) and sought to facilitate signatures in non digital formats (eg. postcards).

How will it be delivered to government heads, especially those who signed the memorandum? And what is your expected outcome thereafter?

The Count Me In petition will be delivered to high-level United Nations officials on the 12^th of October, in an attempt to help persuade governments to promote, protect and fulfil their promise to provide better access to sexual and reproductive health services for all young people.

Through the 15andCounting campaign we will have engaged with a whole new generation and cohort of committed young advocates around the globe and we hope that these advocates will remain engaged with the issues 15andCounting addresses. We will continue to empower our youth advocates to become highly effective network builders and advocacy experts into the future.

Tactic: Youth fight for food justice online

Photo by Umoja Community Builders

Background: Last month the US Department of Agriculture released a report on food deserts – areas in the United States where communities lack access to supermarkets and other outlets selling foods necessary for a healthy diet. According to the report, 2.3 million Americans live more than a mile from a supermarket and do not have access to a vehicle. The report goes on to say that the “urban core areas with limited food access are characterized by higher levels of racial segregation and greater income inequality.” In short, this problem largely affects low income communities and people of color. In recent years, there have been efforts by food justice activists around the country to bridge the food gap. One group in Chicago is taking back the food system online.

Digital Tools Being Used: Blog, Video, Camera
What Are They Doing: The Umoja Student Development Corporation is a Chicago-based, youth development organization which runs a six-week summer program in partnership with youth media group Free Spirit to film a short documentary about food deserts in the predominately African American community of North Lawndale.

“In my neighborhood, there are no grocery stores,” said Porsha Treadwell, a student intern in Umoja’s community builders program. “It is unfair that my community doesn’t have the same access to healthy foods as other communities. It’s just not right.”

In addition to learning how to grow organic foods in community gardens and polling residents about their food shopping habits, the student interns have also kept a blog for the duration of the program about their own eating habits and the various social and environmental injustices that block access to food equity.

Also on the blog, the youth have created a slide show, displaying photos of themselves learning how to use cameras for their documentary.

What is the Impact: Treadwell said this program has been a rewarding experience. She noted that she has had informative conversations with other residents and student interns about the food problem in the community, and how they now feel empowered to do something about it.

“When a community comes together, we can do powerful things,” she said.

Citizen Media & the Iranian Protests: Exhibit A

One the big stories with regard to digital activism in Iran has been the use of citizen media to disseminate information about the protests (see references here, here, and here).  The picture above, from the front page of today’s New York Times is putatively an image of the daughter of reformist cleric Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, but could just as easily be an illustration of the new media environment: no less than eight cell phones and digital cameras (red circles) are recording the event the New York Times reporter was photographing.  (For a large version of the photo, click here.) It’s old print media and new digital citizen media juxtaposed in a single image.

image source: New York Times

Images for Advocacy: Green Dam Girl

Green Dam Girl: “That unhealthy information is so gross; I’m a girl worth 40 million”
Mud Grass Horse: “I’m just an alpaca.”  (source: Danwei)

Background: Using pop culture references in an advocacy campaign is an effective way to get non-activists involved.  It’s also a way to subtly push a political agenda in a country where overt political messages are censored or where posting or passing on political messages can endanger the activist.

Because of the Chinese government’s limitations on freedom of speech and persecution of dissidents, Chinese activists have become masters of satire and symbolism.  The image above is a prime example of their techniques.  Originally published by Chinese blogger Hecaitou, this drawing uses on the visual language of Japanese anime while bringing together some of the greatest hits in Chinese political satire: behold…Green Dam Girl.

Tool:  satiric images spread online

How it’s being used: Green Dam Girl is a cartoon avatar for Green Dam, a piece of self-censoring software which will be mandatory on all computers sold in China starting July 1.  She’s also holding a rabbit, which is the software’s logo.  (Read a review of the software from the OpenNet Initiative.)  On her cap is an image of the river crab, a homonym for the word “harmony” in Chinese and a dig at the Chinese government which calls censorship harmonization.  (Read more on river crab from China expert Rebecca MacKinnon.)   Green Dam Girl is carrying a bucket of paint (or maybe soy sauce) to cover up all the filth on the Internet.

Finally, the animal she has chained up is an infamous mud grass horse.  Another great Chinese homonym, mud grass horse sounds just like “f— your mother” in Chinese and is another dig at censors.  A few months ago there was a group of very funny and popular videos with children singing ever so innocently about the exploits of mud grass horse… and sounding completely filthy!  (Read more about mud grass horse here.)   Of course, mud grass horse has been chained up because he’s part of the Internet filth that Green Dam Girl has been sent to destroy, but he says he’s been falsely accused – he’s just an alpaca!

Lessons:  1) Funny travels further than Angry, especially to engage an audience of non-activists.  (The Free Kareem campaign also uses cartoons to get their message across.)

2) Symbols and language tricks are a great way to get around censors and mock them at the same time.

3) Digital activism campaigns need the skills of people who do not have digital skills.  Someone who is good at drawing can help a campaign create great a poster, graphic, or logo and then all you need is a scanner to get it online.

Tactic: Homelessness highlighted in video

Description: The current economic downturn continues to take its toll in both industrialized and developing countries. According to a report from UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Miloon Kothari, nearly one billion people around the world lack adequate housing, and approximately 100 million people have no housing of any kind. Recently, there have been efforts to spotlight the plight of society’s most vulnerable members.

Digital Tools Being Used: Video, Blog, Twitter, Text Messaging

What Are They Doing: TakePart.com is a cause-related site designed to help explore today’s pressing issues using video, images and audio, and added actions to make a difference such as signing a petition or educating the community. Their latest video is called Beth’s Story, which looks at homelessness.

“Beth’s Story, was created to shine a light on the millions of people living on the street who are often times overlooked, said TakePart.com organizer KC Webster. “She is a composite of their many complicated, often heartbreaking realities and of the issues and challenges lead to homelessness.”

Impact: It is too early to tell the ultimate impact of the campaign, but so far, success has been made. Beth’s Story has also been promoted on TakePart’s blog, Twitter feed, text messaging and YouTube account, each tool has a few hundred followers supporting the cause.

“We are trying to get the word out about Beth’s Story, to get as many eyeballs to recognize the homeless issue as possible (On You Tube it is already 21,555 views strong!) and to realize that even though most of us are only exposed to numbing statistics, each individual number has a story,” Webster said.

Campaign: MTV No Exit in Cambodia

Update: The campaign now has its own YouTube Channel. Check out their first video here.

Description: MTV Exit is a joint project between MTV networks and USAID to raise awareness of human trafficking. While its motives are good – “MTV EXIT aims to increase awareness and prevention of human trafficking through television programs, online content, live events, and partnerships with anti-trafficking organizations” – its methods have riled some NGOs that work in the field.

MTV No EXIT is a campaign by sex workers and garment workers in Cambodia and around Asia against MTV Exit. According to the campaign’s Facebook page, MTV Exit is currently in Cambodia doing a series of concerts but didn’t consult with sex workers about the impact of this in the current situation with the new anti-trafficking law. Allegedly, MTV Exit is also threatening to sue sex workers and garment workers who are campaigning against them.

Digital Activism Tools: Facebook page, YouTube, photos

How These Tools Are Being Used: The campaign is using a Facebook page as their principle web presence. The page links to the official YouTube channel of MTV Exit, though there are no videos for the No Exit campaign. The Facebook page also features photos of Cambodian rehabilitation centers for sex workers (see above), which the campaigners allege are abusive, and of sex workers campaigning for the legalization of their work.

Outcome: Update (Dec. 17, 2008) - MTV Exit Manager met with WNU and APNSW in Phnom Penh. Sex workers put their case to them about lack of consultation and flow on effects to sex workers about anti-trafficking campaigns.  MTV Exit agreed to consult with sex worker organisations in future when they are going into a country to do their campaign and also to work with them to ensure TV broadcasts don’t contain messages that can make the situation on the ground worse for sex workers.

Hat-tip: Dirk Slater
photo credit: the MTV No Exit campaign

Action Alert: 4 Ways You Can Help Free Moroccan Blogger Mohammed Erraji

As you may have been following through the DigiActive Twitter Feed, Moroccan blogger Mohammed Erraji was arrested last Friday, September 5th following the publication on the online news site Hespress.com of an article entitled “The King Encourages His Subject’s Dependency” (English) He was sentenced 72 hours later, in an expedited trial without assitance from a lawyer, to two years in jail and a fine of 5000MAD for “failure to uphold the respect due to the king”.

In a movement of solidarity reminiscent of the one which surrounded the campaign to help free Facebook prisonner Fouad Mourtada earlier this year,  the Moroccan blogosphere was quick to mobilize and condemn the arrest. Various international organizations such as Reporters without Borders, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and IFEX also issued statements calling for his immediate release. On Thursday September 11th, citing procedural misteps, a court in the southern city of Agadir granted him bail and he has been “provisionally released” pending his appeal trial next Tuesday.

Supporters who have set up www.HelpErraji.com , Moroccan bloggers and online activists are circulating messages calling all who support Mohammed Erraji to express their solidarity and contribute to the international mobilisation to free him. They have outlined a series of steps and actions including signing an online petition, joining a facebook group, sending photo messages and participating in a blog strike next monday:

1. Express Support by Sending Photo Messages:

You can display your solidarity by taking a picture of yourself with a message to Free Mohammed Erraji. Please also write where you are from in the message then send the photo to PhotoErraji@gmail.com, everyone who has a camera should participate! All the submitted photos can be viewed on this Flickr account.

2. Join the Facebook Group:

Express your support by joining the “Free Moroccan Blogger Mohammed Erraji” group and help amplify the message by changing your profile picture to the following. Don’t forget to also invite your friends!

3. Sign the Petition:

A petition calling for the immediate acquittal of Mohammed Erraji and the suspension of his sentence is available at www.helperraji.com

4. Participate in the Blogoma (Moroccan Blogsphere) Blog Strike :

Monday September 15th, on the eve of the appeal trial, several Moroccan bloggers and others around the world will start a blog strike that will last 24 hours. Those who wish to join to this movement will announce that their blog is on strike, indicate the reason they chose to participate in the strike, mention the details of the case and link back to the site put up in support for Mohammad Erraji. To introduce others to the strike several bloggers are ciculating a short descriptive text, and the english translation has been made available by blogger Jillian York.

Tactic: Anti-G8 protests go online

Description: World leaders from industrial nations concluded talks today at the 34th G8 Summit on key topics such as global poverty, rising food and oil prices, climate change and political stability in Africa and Asia. The gathering took place on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido with overwhelming police presence to prevent anti-globalization protests that have turned violent at past summits. Nonetheless, protesters took to the blogosphere instead to express their grievances with international policies.

Tools Being Used: Blogs

What Are They Doing: In past years anti-globalization activists have complained that the mainstream media doesn’t cover their protests about why they think the Group of Eight doesn’t work in the best interest of the rest of the world. As a result, there have been many examples of important citizen journalism over the last couple of days documenting the “Alternative G8 Summits.” Photojournalist Linus Guardian Escandor has posted his photos of Filipino protesters rallying in front of the Japanese embassy in Manila on Monday. Socialist Aotearoa and Oread Daily have posted videos, photos and testimonies of varies protests taking place in Tokyo on their blogs. The Socialist Party of Australia has been keeping readers up to date with blog reports of police violence against protesters.

“There are so many police officers, asking for your license, where you are going and what you are up to,” said Filipino activist Renato M. Reyes. “The G8 are very afraid of people criticizing them. They are afraid because they feel guilty about something.”

Campaign: S. Korean bloggers say no to FTA

Description: KORUS FTA, a newly drafted but yet to be signed free trade agreement, is considered the most important milestone in U.S.-South Korean relations since the 1953 military accord, and America’s second largest FTA behind NAFTA . While some, including South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, support the FTA for its economic prospects, many South Koreans are unhappy about potentially importing meat tainted with Mad Cow disease. In a unprecedented move, South Korean teens are taking their outrage to the blogosphere in what is being called the “digital” Gwangju Democratization Movement.

Tools Being Used: blogs

What are they doing: The teen cyber-activists are excited about being part of a new revolution by comparing the current protest with the democratization movement of nearly 30 years ago, while others are organizing candlelight vigils and demonstration meetings and posting photos of rallies on their blogs.

“Our society is so noisy due to mad cow disease,” said one blogger. “The government says it is an unscientific rumor, criticizes that there is an anti-American group at the rear, and blames the untrustworthy internet. Conservative newspapers complain that someone is spreading ghost stories utilizing emotional equipment, the Internet. But what we have to realize this time is not about fear from ghost stories. Why does the government try to cover our anger and sigh under the pretext of anti-American groups or unscientific rumor? The government should face the reasons why we’re mad and shouldn’t ignore our anger.”