Can the word "slacktivism" be reclaimed? @sortable says "yes" (http://t.co/voiTczBl) via @metaactivism
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1. "Ruby" by Kaiser Chiefs
2. "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens
3. "Not Ready to Make Nice" by Dixie Chicks
4. "Crystal Ball" by Keane
5. "Live Your Life" by Rihanna
6. "New Slang" by The Shins
7. "The Timber Colony" by Joy Electric
8. "Transatlanticism" by Death Cab for Cutie
9. "Speeding Cars" by Imogen Heap
10. "If You See Her Say Hello" by Bob Dylan
11. "Samson" by Regina Spektor
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I had great time in Oxford last month at the e-Campaigning Forum, where I presented a paper on behalf of the Open Society Foundation. In addition to be surrounded by a real-life Harry Potter set, I was also surrounded by some of Europe’s (and the world’s) best digital campaigners, like Karina Brusby of Oxfam [...] [...more]
I had great time in Oxford last month at the e-Campaigning Forum, where I presented a paper on behalf of the Open Society Foundation. In addition to be surrounded by a real-life Harry Potter set, I was also surrounded by some of Europe’s (and the world’s) best digital campaigners, like Karina Brusby of Oxfam and Michael Siberman of GreenPeace.
The paper was a case-study of the Stop Stock-Outs campaign in southern Africa. Co-written with Brett Davidson and Michael Ballard, the paper looks at how the Open Society Foundation and its grantees selected a mix of online and offline communication and information gathering tools for a Pill Check Week campaign to bring attention to essential medicine shortages in Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, and Zambia.
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Last week I attended SXSW, a mammoth festival of music, film, and social media that takes place in Austin, Texas, each spring. At SXSW Interactive (”south-by” to those in the know) I spoke on the panel Internet Power: After Cyber-Optimism and Pessimism with Patrick Meier of Ushahidi, Richard Boly of the Department of State’s eDiplomacy [...] [...more]
Last week I attended SXSW, a mammoth festival of music, film, and social media that takes place in Austin, Texas, each spring. At SXSW Interactive (”south-by” to those in the know) I spoke on the panel Internet Power: After Cyber-Optimism and Pessimism with Patrick Meier of Ushahidi, Richard Boly of the Department of State’s eDiplomacy office, and Chris Bronk of Rice University. Here are some of my comments:
Slacktivism is an inaccurate term. Even actions that are uniquely online in which people merely share content or express an opinion can shape public opinion and identify sympathizers for future mobilization. Also, it seems that the people who take these actions are not politically active people getting lazy, but previously politically inactive people taking their first small step toward political engagement.
We are seeing the beginning to a “pop-up civil society” where loosely networked groups arise out of latent connections on social networks to take meaningful coordinated action (examples: SOPA/PIPA campaign, Kony 2012 sharers)
The narrative of the Kony 2012 video (protagonist, antagonist, crisis, call to action) was created in a way that any cause could have been dropped into that formula and had a similar result. The power was in the framing, not the particular cause.
We did the event in a very conversational way because of our excellent audience, including Zeynep Tufekci of UNC Chapel Hill, Andy Carvin of NPR, Jennifer Preston of The New York Times, and Dave Parry of UT Dallas.
Training Material Links
Slide Presentations
What is Digital Activism? (online, PDF, PPT)
Digital Activism Strategy (online, PDF, PPT)
Training Digital Activism (online, PDF)
Hand-outs
Participants’ Workshop Agenda (PDF, DOC)
Annotated Workshop Agenda (DOC)
Worksheet: Guide to the Best Digital Activism Tools (PDF, DOC)
Worksheet: Basic Digital Activism Strategic Planning Guide (PDF, DOC)
Evaluation Sheet (PDF)
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Today I gave a full-day digital activism workshop to a group of activists from immigrant groups around Norway.
It began with a basic introduction to digital activism and tools:
and then moved on to strategic principles:
The final activity had participants create basic digital activism strategies related to causes they care about:
My materials are below and free for [...] [...more]
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Last summer Norway suffered a terror attack that struck at the heart of multiculturalism. Today I gave a keynote address at the annual conference of the Contact Committee for Immigrants and the Authorities (KIM) and decided to use that opportunity to discuss ways in which social media can be used to fight back against [...] [...more]
Last summer Norway suffered a terror attack that struck at the heart of multiculturalism. Today I gave a keynote address at the annual conference of the Contact Committee for Immigrants and the Authorities (KIM) and decided to use that opportunity to discuss ways in which social media can be used to fight back against extremism and intolerance (slides below). Social media can be used to create both narrow tribes living in echo chambers and inclusive communities that embrace difference. It’s up to citizens to define the character of social media by challenging and exposing hateful ideologies.
Last Friday I was at the United States Institute of Peace on a panel with Andy Carvin and Sultan Al Qassemi to talk about social media and conflict. Of course, I used it as an opportunity to promote the Global Digital Activism Data Set, showing our current visualization slides (see below).
View more [...] [...more]
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This past week I went to Mexico City to give a keynote address at Ciudadano 3.0 (Citizen 3.0), a summit on online political marketing organized by the Mexican Internet Association. I went a little off topic, talking about the growing trend in mass movements around the world (see below). The summit was in anticipation of [...] [...more]
This past week I went to Mexico City to give a keynote address at Ciudadano 3.0 (Citizen 3.0), a summit on online political marketing organized by the Mexican Internet Association. I went a little off topic, talking about the growing trend in mass movements around the world (see below). The summit was in anticipation of Mexico’s presidential elections in 2012 so, despite my more global topic, most of the questions were about the Obama campaign’s use of digital and how to apply it to Mexico.
This past weekend I was a panelist at the sixth annual Rising Tide blogger conference here in my home town of New Orleans. Video of the panel, on social media and social justice, is below. I went to the conference as a spectator and ended up as a panelist because one of the scheduled panelists [...] [...more]
This past weekend I was a panelist at the sixth annual Rising Tide blogger conference here in my home town of New Orleans. Video of the panel, on social media and social justice, is below. I went to the conference as a spectator and ended up as a panelist because one of the scheduled panelists was waylaid by Hurricane Irene and I was asked to fill in. Hopefully I did a good job on the fly. My opening remarks begin at 00:09:00.
Last week I had the privilege to work with the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition on internal communications for their global organization of grassroots AIDS activists. I started by asking the staff to create an org chart of ITPC on the wall of the meeting room, which we could refer to throughout the day.
Then they added [...] [...more]
Last week I had the privilege to work with the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition on internal communications for their global organization of grassroots AIDS activists. I started by asking the staff to create an org chart of ITPC on the wall of the meeting room, which we could refer to throughout the day.
Creating an org chart, adding communication pathways
Then they added in the different communication pathways the organization needed to succeed. Colored yarn represented different types of communication, like “informing,” “consulting,” and “directing.”
Pathways that were not up to snuff got a GAP marker.
After the pathways were drawn, all the gaps were recorded on note cards so staff could vote on which they wanted to focus on. We didn’t have time to address all the gaps, but we wanted to make sure we addressed the most important.
Staff vote for the gaps they think should be addressed during the workshop
Then I facilitated a group discussion of solutions. We developed several practical processes to improve internal communication, such as Watering Hole Wednesdays, when staff around the world would be on Skype at the same time twice a month for casual conversation.
Staff discuss practical solutions and create a plan for implementation,
These are slides and an evaluation matrix that I prepared for the Open Society Foundations’ Public Health Program to help them think about evaluating the media use of their grantees.
Click the image below to download a PDF of the evaluation matrix, which was used as a hand-out. The crawl-walk-run framework is borrowed from Beth [...] [...more]
These are slides and an evaluation matrix that I prepared for the Open Society Foundations’ Public Health Program to help them think about evaluating the media use of their grantees.
Click the image below to download a PDF of the evaluation matrix, which was used as a hand-out. The crawl-walk-run framework is borrowed from Beth Kanter.
I had great time in Oxford last month at the e-Campaigning Forum, where I presented a paper on behalf of the Open Society Foundation. In addition to be surrounded by a real-life Harry Potter set, I was also surrounded by some of Europe’s (and the world’s) best digital campaigners, like Karina Brusby of Oxfam and Michael Siberman of GreenPeace.
Last summer Norway suffered a terror attack that struck at the heart of multiculturalism. Today I gave a keynote address at the annual conference of the 
This past week I went to Mexico City to give a keynote address at Ciudadano 3.0 (Citizen 3.0), a summit on online political marketing organized by the Mexican Internet Association. I went a little off topic, talking about the growing trend in mass movements around the world (see below). The summit was in anticipation of Mexico’s presidential elections in 2012 so, despite my more global topic, most of the questions were about the Obama campaign’s use of digital and how to apply it to Mexico.
