DigiActive.org

Campaign: Save the Ottawa Arts

Description: The Canadian city of Ottawa is planning to close a gap in their 2009 budget by cutting funding for the arts by as much as 100%. To protect funding for Ottawa festivals and galleries, the Council for the Arts in Ottawa has launched a campaign opposing the cuts.

Digital Activism Tools: web site, Youtube videos, social bookmarking and sharing platforms like Digg, StumbleUpon, and del.icio.us

How These Tools Are Being Used: The campaign’s centerpieces are two humorous YouTube videos, Artsy Clean (above) and Crazy Larry, both simulating over-the-top commercials. The first video is a fake info-mercial for the product “artsy clean,” which magically removes culture from a city. The second video simulates a commercial for a blow-out sale at a car dealership – all art must go!

As mentioned in the DigiActive video guide, humor can be an effective way to attract interest and stimulate viral effects (people emailing the video to their friends). The videos end with a call to action – write your City Councillor and tell them not to cut the arts budget.

The videos are hosted on their own web page, http://www.crazylarry.ca, with links to content-sharing platforms, like Digg, StumbleUpon, and del.icio.us. The goal in linking directly to these platforms is to encourage the viral sharing of the campaign to a large number of citizens who will hopefully take action.

Outcome: The Ottawa budget has still not been decided upon.

Hat-tip: Beth Kanter

Tactic: US Hispanic Community Organizes Online

Description: The Hispanic community is the fastest growing population in the United States, which, according to the U.S. Census, is projected to nearly triple, from 46.7 million to 132.8 million during the 2008-2050 period. Because of the rapidly changing racial makeup in the American landscape, activists are using this opportunity to reach out to this demographic on key issues.

Digital Tools Being Used: Facebook, YouTube

What Are They Doing: The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest U.S. based civil rights nonprofit advocating on behalf of Hispanics, recently launched two campaigns online to organize its base, which are both featured in its Facebook group. “We Can Stop The Hate” is an initiative to bring attention for a more balanced discussion on the controversial issue of immigration. “Yo Votare ‘08” is another online campaign designed to mobilize the estimated 17 million Hispanics voters in the 2008 U.S. presidential election next month.  Watch their YouTube video.

Campaign: A Protest Movement Against Scientology

Description of Campaign: An online community called Anonymous draws other online users into a global campaign against the controversial religion Scientology. (Note: This post is not a criticism of Scientology, merely a study of the digital means used by its critics,)

Digital Activism Tools: Youtube, Digg (social bookmarking), wikis, online forums

How These Tools are Being Used: After announcing their campaign against Scientology via an ominous YouTube video on January 21st (see below), a group of nameless hackers used open forums like the alternative news site Digg to spread their message of protest against what they see as the exploitive and untruthful practices of Scientology. Their movement is very interactive. As it is based on a wiki, new members were able to leave feedback for the original founders and the founders listened. (In particular, they cut back on the illegal harassment of Scientologists, which many would-be supporters felt was illegitimate “cyber-terrorism.”) Anonymous, whose leaders and members are unknown, experienced a great success on February 10, when 6,000 supporters participated in anti-Scientology rallies in more than 70 cities around the world.

After the break I’ll quote a long passage of excellent background and analysis from Carnegie Mellon student Dan Schultz, originally published on MediaShift Idea Lab under the title “Anonymous vs. Scientology: A Case of Digital Media.”
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