DigiActive.org

Campaign:Brits use Twitter in support of NHS

Description: Relations between Americans and the British have not always been the greatest. From the American Revolutionary War to the disagreement over the military campaign in Iraq, sometimes it might have seem like a good idea by Mother Nature that the Atlantic Ocean separates the two warring factions.

The latest battle has been taking place online. Currently, Americans are debating the future of its health care system. President Barack Obama has stated that he would like all Americans to have access to quality health care within the next decade. However, not only are Americans fighting each other over this issue in town hall meetings, Republican politicians have also accused Obama’s plan to be a reflection of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), which has been viewed by some as being “socialist” at best and similar to a “death panel” at worst.

Of course, the Brits are not taking this laying down.

Digital Tools Being Used: Twitter
What Are They Doing: Over the last couple of days British and some Canadian folks have gotten onto Twitter, using the hashtag #welovetheNHS to campaign in support of their health care system against verbal attacks from their American counterparts. Here are a just few of the millions of tweets that have come up on this topic:

lollaloves: NHS free? You gotta be kidding me. You’re all taxed through your nose for a health care with Third World standards. #welovethenhs

dontgetfooled: My grandmother had a major heart op on the NHS, for free, in her 80s. “Death panels” are a big fat lie… #welovethenhs

jetersfan: #welovethenhs NOT IF UR DEALING W/ A TERMINAL DISEASE AND NEVER SEE THE SAME DOCTOR TWICE!!!

editoriale: My son was premature, couldn’t swallow, underweight and yellow. He’d have died without the NHS. Didn’t cost me a f**king dime #WeLoveTheNHS

girlonasoapbox: #welovethenhs I wouldn’t be typing this if it wasn’t for free prescriptions and good care I have received from the NHS. Leave off you prats.

Pro-NHS campaigners are also adding “Twibbons” to their avatars to show their support. Last night, even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Sarah got into the debate with his own tweets.

@DowningStreet PM:NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there #welovetheNHS

@SarahBrown10 #welovetheNHS – more than words can say

The White House has put out generic rebuttals on their Twitter account about the attacks.

@whitehouse Don’t believe everything you see on the web about health insurance reform. Pls share: http://bit.ly/maVkF #healthreform #hc09

What is the Impact: U.S. Congress is expected to vote on health reform in the next few weeks, and many analysts say that Obama’s plan might have an uphill battle to face, despite having a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate. Nonetheless, this Twitter face-off might be the first of many examples where people with disagreeing views might engage each other in civil debate.

Topic: Black bloggers reflect on digital activism

Description: The second annual Blogging While Brown conference concluded yesterday in Chicago, presenting a recharged enthusiasm for the potentials social media tools can present for digital activism. In what was possibly the largest gathering of African American bloggers and web content users since the election of the “Internet President” Barack Obama, there is a call from many in the black community to use Web 2.0 to actively campaign more on behalf of issues of most concern.

What Was Discussed: The online organizing and fundraising around Jena 6, led by Web-based activist group Color of Change, to date is still considered the most successful Internet campaign among African Americans. However, the ongoing protests and digital activism in the aftermath of Iran’s presidential election last week have brought up some new thoughts on how the African Diaspora could handle social movements – past, present and in the near future. Some conference attendees wondered if the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the Rwandan Genocide and the start of violence in Darfur could have had different outcomes if today’s communications tools were around at the time of these events.

“What if black bloggers protested the Bush administration after [Hurricane] Katrina, like the Iranian protesters are doing now with their government,” said one attendee. “We can learn a lot from the Iranians.”

There was also discussion about how the black blogosphere will hold the first African American commander-in-chief and other politicians accountable on various domestic and international issues, such as health care, education, the war on terror, environmental justice, drug and criminal reform, unemployment and AFRICOM.

However, many agreed that possibly the next digital battle should be to make sure that the Internet is accessible to all. According to Megan Tady of the media reform group, Free Press, only 40 percent of Americans have access to broadband. When that number is broken down by ethnicity, Emarketer statistics show that African Americans make up 13.4 percent of the U.S. population, but only 48.7 percent are online. Mobile technology is a widely used tool in this demographic, and text messaging was used by Katrina survivors after the storm.

Impact: With all the above discussed topics, clearly there is a yearning to take advantage of the new digital era. Gina McCauley, BWB founder, said she will make efforts at future conferences to make sure attendees will have all the available training to stay on top of their social media skills.

“Now is the time for us to stay ahead of the curve on this technology so we can make a difference in our community,” she said.

Campaign: DreamActivist Making “Dream” Reality

Description: What happens when an immigrant child who comes to the United States as a minor without documents graduates high school, but doesn’t have the papers to go to college or get a job?

These students, many of whom graduate at the top of their class or as star athletes with promising futures as teachers, lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, and public servants, end up living in the shadows for no fault of their own. Getting a job or continuing on to higher education through legal channels becomes a mere fleeting dream. But the DREAM Act (S.729 / H.R. 1751) aims to make that dream a reality.

The federal act would provide undocumented immigrant students with conditional residency and a pathway to citizenship, provided that they came to the United States before the age of 16, maintained continuous residency for five years, graduate high school and have no criminal record.  The U.S. Senate rejected an attempt to discuss the DREAM Act in 2007, however, it is on the docket again, and this time with the help of web-based technology.  That’s where groups like DreamActivist step in.

Digital Tools Being Used: Blog, Video, Facebook

What Are They Doing: The aim of DreamActivist is to garner the support Congress needs to see in order to pass the DREAM Act. “DreamActivist is like the Watchtower of United We DREAM,” says Prerna, Co-administrator and Co-founder of the organization. “Through our online work we try to make sure the right hand knows what the left hand is doing, disseminate information, our students and allies are ‘in the loop’ through various channels, and we work to change the discourse of the immigration debate.”

Mo, another DreanActivist administrator and founder, says that his work online “never ends.”  With the all of the outlets on which DreamActivist has a presence, it’s easy to see how that’s the case. But the small group of community organizers is doing a good job staying on top of it all and making a difference.

Just what are they doing? Here are some highlights from their campaign so far:

“Facebook – Change.org campaign for ‘Ideas for Change in America’ – Students effectively spammed their various networks; used free facebook ads. It is fascinating to see your own message being forwarded to you within minutes by someone you do not even know! The DREAM Act came in #8 with 12,008 votes and mobilized a lot of students. The campaign also helped us rise as a network.”

The 24,000 (and growing) supporters for the DREAM Act cause can also receive and act on 3 action alerts per week.

Chip-in – Raised about $US 1,800 in a month. Widgetizing is a major help. We also found out that people want to help and contribute.

The Sanctuary group and undocumented bloggers (our blogroll) have been an immense help in getting the word out online through various channels.

Private Google Groups (UWD Coalition) – Particularly effective in breaking news stories, getting info on new co-sponsors and supporters.” -Prerna

Not only has DreamActivist organized an online petition to show the support for the DreamAct, but they have also used the mailing list from that petition to help organize for events on the ground—most notably the recent May Day March.

Other digital and social networking avenues that have been useful for internal organizing are Google Docs and Scribe for publications and target lists. In addition, reddit.com has been used for bookmarking and cataloging important immigration-related news.

DreamActivist has also been able to integrate their web-based campaign with more traditional media such as Spanish language TV and radio stations. Prerna describes one particular effort: “a month ago Matias from DC and Isabel from Virginia went on Spanish language radio in Sacramento and give out a toll-free number that rings at my home in the Bay Area, California, with a message that is automatically routed to New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, Massachusetts (and sometimes Guatemala), Texas, and Indiana. Now most of these calls were in Spanish so I had to scramble around and find someone in our network from Los Angeles to borrow a cellphone with unlimited minutes, and while being on webcam support with the ‘call-center’ in the Bay Area, and call back the people from Washington, Iowa, Illinois, Utah, Virginia and Arizona. It was quite a fun week. We now have a bi-lingual voice message on our toll-free line. Eventually, we have come to use a Google Doc to share our hotline call notes and know whether someone needs to call back and who needs to do it.”

Impact: From big campaign support on Facebook to little things like Google Docs to help coordinate the movement across a nation, DreamActivist has utilized technology to make the campaign efficient. The team at DreamActivist is nimble and adaptable. They are always on the lookout for new ways to help get the Dream Act passed.   In the meantime, they are hopeful about their efforts.