DigiActive.org

Tool: push out your content with widgets

Tool: the widget

Tool Description: A widget is a piece of HTML code that can be embedded into a blog or web site to display content from another source. For example, the widget on the left, from the American site http://jobs.change.org, pulls content about recent social change job postings from the Change.org database and displays them on this page. Other widgets which work in the same way include event count-down clocks and DigiActive’s comment and Twitter feeds, which you’ll find on our left and right-hand toolbars.

Activist Application: As activists, we are often looking to bring useful content to our web sites in order to attract readers or to push out content we have created to other platforms so we can get as many “eyes” on that content as possible. According Danny Moldovan of Jobs for Change, “Our goal is to spark a nationwide movement toward careers in the common good.” Their methods for achieving this goal is to bring together lots of these jobs in a single place (their site) and then send job-seekers to that site.  If they can push out these job posting to other sites and blogs through their “featured jobs” widget, that means that  more people will find  those positions.

Ease of Use: Embedding a widget is quite easy.  If you have a blog, you just create a new box on one of your tool bars, copy and paste the HTML of whatever widget you want to add to your site into that box, and then save your changes.   The widget will appear on your toolbar next time you load your site.

Creating your own widget is also easier than it once was, thanks to free online services.  The  Free Kareem campaign, for example, created a Free Kareem widget of news update on Kareem’s imprisonment using the free application WidgetBox.com.

Hat-tip: Danny Moldovan

Tool: WordPress plug-in for Kareem

Tool Description: A plug-in is a small application that functions as part of a larger host application. They are very common in blogs. For example, Akismet, the spam filter on DigiActive, is a plug-in which works through our blog platform, WordPress. Plug-ins can also be used for activism as a way of disseminating information over a blog network via a widget that a blogger installs and which produces content for the blog’s readers.

Activist Application: In February of 2007, Egyptian blogger Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman was arrested for perceived anti-Muslim postings on his blog and sentenced to three years in prison. Even since that time, a dedicated group of activists has run the Free Kareem campaign (http://www.freekareem.org), which sought first to obtain Kareem’s release and now to support him in solidarity while he is in prison. They have released a WordPress plug-in (download here) in order to maintain awareness of Kareem and to connect people to their different online efforts.

The widget (above) includes text explaining Kareem’s situation, links to the campaign on social network (Facebook, MySpace), video (YouTube) and mobile micro-blogging (Twitter) sites, and a tell-a-friend button so bloggers can ask their friends to insert the plug-in into their blog as well.

Ease of Use: Moderately easy. You need to download the plug-in and then upload it to your WordPress blog. You can also personalize the plug-in according to the features you want to show.  Installation instructions are available here.

Action Alert: Join the Rallies to Support Egyptian Blogger Kareem Amer

What: The organization Free Kareem uses digital tools to organize on the street rallies in front of several Egyptian embassies. This is one means to keep their promise not to let Kareem be forgotten in jail, and also a useful tactic to attract interest in the case of the prisoner of mind.

When: The protests will be held on November 6, the second anniversary of the imprisonment of Kareem Amer. The exact time may differ from place to place and will be posted at the Free Kareem blog.

Where: Currently, rallies in front of the Egyptian embassies in the following cities are confirmed:

Paris, France;
London, UK;
Brussels, Belgium;
Stockholm, Sweden;
Bucharest, Romania;
Washington, DC, USA;
Rome, Italy.

Other places, including Prague, New York, Bern, Berlin and Moscow, are considered to host a rally. If your local Egyptian embassy is not yet listed, you can initiate a protest there.

How: On the one hand there is work to be done ahead of the events. Free Kareem uses several web 2.0 tools to advertise the protest, including Twitter and Facebook. The latest information can always be derived from their blog, e.g. updates on the participating cities.
On the other hand, coverage of the ongoing rallies is important. Participants can use Twitter to report live from the ground. For instance, Hash tags are a great tool to sync updates from several participators.
Another way to document the rallies is videoing them. Free Kareem has previously used Youtube to distribute videos covering the world wide rallies to inform their global community about the local events.

Why? The Egyptian Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, known under the blognym Kareem Amer, was one of the first bloggers to be arrested for what they wrote on their blogs and the first person jailed in Egypt for publishing online. Based solely on his blog posts, Soliman is charged with the alleged crimes of “defaming Egypt’s President, incitement to hate Islam, and highlighting inappropriate aspects that harm the reputation of Egypt.” But members of the Free Kareem Coalition argue that imprisoning Kareem has severely harmed Egypt’s international reputation, and has made millions of people around the world question the country’s supposed commitment to free speech and human rights.

Kareem has stated countless times throughout his writing that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right. The Internet has made possible the dissemination of these ideals to a global audience. For that reason, Egyptian officials evidently feel threatened by Kareem and others who, like him, are not afraid to speak their minds.

Several Middle Eastern human rights organizations have expressed concern for his life. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, English PEN and Reporters Without Borders have all strongly condemned his arrest. The roster of government officials who have written the Egyptian government on behalf of justice for Kareem continues to grow.

Theory: Poverty & Digital Activism

As our contribution to Blog Action Day, I’d like to offer a response to a common question I receive: “How can you promote digital activism in resource-constrained societies if poor people don’t have access to digital tools?”

In answering this question, it isn’t sufficient to respond with the multiple examples of activists without substantial resources mounting brilliantly creative and successful campaigns for social an internet center supported by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture and political change like the strikers in Egypt using Facebook, the Help Fouad campaign in Morocco, and anti-FARC activists in Colombia.

Answering this question in a persuasive way requires a more thorough analysis of how access to digital tools is changing and what this means for political activism.  The key trends here are sky-rocketing increases in mobile phone subscriptions in developing countries and more shared mobile phones and computers.  The digital divide is no longer defined by computer ownership.  There are simply too many other ways to get on the network.

Let’s take Brazil as an example.  To quote an article from World Politics Review from earlier this year: “In Brazil, the spread of communications technology is proceeding at breakneck speed. Internet usage statistics are breaking records every month.  As a result, Brazilian society is changing in ways that have hardly begun to be understood.”
Read more »

Action Alert: Write for imprisoned Egyptian blogger

What? Blog posts and letters dedicated to the imprisoned Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer.

When? On June 28, the 600. day for Kareem to spend in prison.

Where? On your blog / website.

How? You can do this in two ways:

Option 1: Write a post/letter directly to or about Kareem. Make people aware of what Kareem is going through. Express your opinions or concerns over the fact that he is still in prison just for sharing his personal views on radical Islam, extremism within Al Azhar, and the president of Egypt.

Option 2: Write about something controversial, fearlessly, the same way as Kareem did (whether be it about free speech, human rights, religious freedom, political rights, et al) and then dedicate this post to him.

You may also choose to directly write to Kareem. Instructions can be found here.

Why? On June 28, Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer is due to spend his 600. day in jail. To increase awareness for Kareem in prison, and get in touch with him, the watchblog Free Kareem calls for blog posts and letters dedicated to the imprisoned.

Who is organizing the action? The campaign is organized by Free Kareem. Read more »

Tool: Egypt activists rely on Facebook - what if it’s blocked?

Although this site is about how technology empowers activists on a global scale, we must not be blind optimists or think of digital activism as a panacea. For this reason we include thoughtful criticism of digital activism. If we want to make truly meaningful change we must address the Pros & Cons of digital activism.

As we wrote in a previous post, Facebook has been immensely important in young Egyptian’s efforts to achieve more accountable government. Now the Egyptian government is threatening to block Facebook in Egypt in order to cut off this powerful organizing and mobilizing tool. Was relying on this single tool a strategic misstep for Egyptians digital activists?

Sherif Mansour of Freedom House explains both the importance of Facebook to Egyptian activists and the reality of the threat of blockage in this recent op-ed for the LA Times:

Right now, the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is considering blocking Facebook, the social networking website that has become a popular hangout for twentysomethings worldwide and a favorite venue for Egypt’s disaffected youth. The reason: In April, one group of young citizens mobilized 80,000 supporters to protest rising food prices. Facebook networking played a crucial role in broadening support and turnout for an April 6 textile workers’ strike and protest.

Read more »

Tactic: Student “twitters” out of Egyptian jail

photos of Mohammed Maree on James’ Twitter page

Description: James Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in Mahalla, Egypt, covering an anti-government protest when he and his translator Mohammed Maree were arrested April 10. On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the blogging site Twitter.

Tools Used for the Action: Twitter

Outcome: Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt many of whom had taught him the tool only a week earlier — were alerted of the arrests. (Twitter is a social-networking blog site that allows users to send status updates, or “tweets,” from cell phones, instant messaging services and Facebook.)

Buck sent only one message with his cell phone “Arrested”. Buck’s friends started to write regular updates on their blogs about his arrest, as they weren’t sure how long he was going to be able to communicate with them. Fortunately, he was able to continue to send updates, and his entries set off a chain of events that led to his college hiring a lawyer on his behalf.

Buck was released from prison the next day, and sent another update saying “Free.” However, his translator, Maree, was transferred to another police station, and has not been heard from since. There are conflicting reports from the Egyptian government about whether Maree was freed and his whereabouts. Buck has now started another campaign on his Twitter page as a way to find Maree.

“James’ case is particularly compelling to us because of the simplicity of his message — one word, ‘arrested’ — and the speed with which the whole scene played out,” said Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. “It highlights the simplicity and value of a real-time communication network that follows you wherever you go.”

Action Alert: Free Esraa and her Companions

What? Join one of the Facebook groups pushing for the freedom of the 3 digital activists jailed in Egypt: Esraa Abdel-Fattah Ahmed, Mahamed El Sharkawi,and Kareem El Beheiri

When? Now!

Where? The Facebook groups to join are divided linguistically. Join the one in the language you are most comfortable with, as you will likely be receiving messages in that language from the group.

Arabic: Free Esraa افرجوا عن إسراء ورفاقها

English: Free Esraa and her Companions! أفرجوا عن إسراء ورفاقها

French: Libérez Esraa et ses Camarades. Free Esraa.

Norsk: Free Esraa and her Companions!

How? Click one of the links above to visit the group you would and then click the “Join” button on that page.

Why? On April 6th we covered the story of Egyptian activists using a Facebook group, 6 April - اضراب عام لشعب مصر (April 6 - General Strike for the People of Egypt), to drum up participation in a general strike on Sunday, April 6. The group’s founder Esraa Abdel-Fattah Ahmed, and bloggers Mahamed El Sharkawi and Kareem El Beheiri were arrested by Egyptian police in connection with the Facebook group and the call of the strike.

Who is organizing the action? There are slightly different officers and admins for the 4 groups, but Egyptians Hany Elkhayat, Samy Harak, Wael Nawara, Manal Fahmy, and Mohamed Zaki Elsheemi seem to be involved with most of them. Dina Ibrahim is the sole admin of the French group.

Campaign: Overview of the Egyptian General Strike

Description of Campaign: As mentioned in our previous post, Egyptian activists organized a massive nation-wide strike on April 6. In our last post we talked about their use of Facebook. Now Global Voices correspondent Amira Al Hussaini gives a complete run-down of the other technologies used by the activists. This is definitely one of the most sophisticated digital activism campaigns to date.

Digital Activism Tools: blogs (both individual and collaborative), Twitter, Facebook, phone banking

How These Tools Are Being Used: From Amira’s excellent post:

Egyptian bloggers worked round the clock telling the world about a workers’ revolt that shook their country, as thousands rioted at a textile mill in Al Mahalla, demanding better pay and protesting against increasing prices. They were also among the first casualties of the unrest, which left two people killed, scores injured and an undetermined number of activists, organisers and mere spectators behind bars. Their coverage came in the form of blog posts, YouTube videos, Twitter feeds, Flickr shots, Facebook messages and all other online tools they could get their hands on. Read more…

Tactic: Egyptians Use Facebook to Organize Strike

See UPDATE after the jump….

Description: Egyptian activists used a Facebook group, 6 April - اضراب عام لشعب مصر (April 6 - General Strike for the People of Egypt), to drum up participation in a general strike on Sunday, April 6. The group currently has over 66,000 members. The page also features several original graphics promoting the strike.

Organizer: It is unclear who first called for the strike, which was originally limited to the the Mahalla al-Kobra state-owned textile factory in northern Egypt. From this strike, a general solidarity strike was devised and several organization became involved in promoting it, including bloggers, members of the progressive group Kefaya (Enough!), the Muslim Brotherhood, and the opposition El Ghad (Tomorrow) Party.

Purpose of Action: The purpose of the strike was to protest low wages and rising food prices in Egypt, as well as to make a more general show of disapproval of the Egyptian government, led by Hosni Mubarak

Organizing Tools: Facebook, digital images

Outcome: On Sunday, thousands of people participated in the strike in Mahall al-Kobra, clashing violently with police. In other parts of the country, thousands of Egyptians skipped work and school in solidarity with the factory workers, in spite of harsh threats from the government. (source: IHT) It is not clear what role the Facebook group had on participation.

Ease of Replication: Starting a Facebook group is very easy, but coordinating with offline groups is also extremely helpful in getting people to attend a protest.

Here is one of the images posted to the Facebook group. View more original graphics after the jump…

Read more »