Author
Guides
Blog for a Cause!
This guide, written in 2007 for Global Voices Advocacy, explains how activists can use blogs in advocacy campaigns. Blogging is a quick and inexpensive way to create a presence on the Internet, to disseminate information about a cause, and to organize actions to lobby decision-makers. The goal of Blog for a Cause is twofold: to inform and to inspire. The guide is designed to be accessible and practical, giving activists a number of easy-to-follow tips on how to use a blog to further their particular cause. It also includes examples of successful advocacy blogs from such countries as Egypt, Guyana, Thailand, and the UK. Please click the image at left to download the guide.
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The Election Blogging Guide
This guide, written as an independent project in 2006, explains how blogs can be used to encourage public discourse around elections. The guide includes chapters on blogging strategies, election blog features, blogging anonymously, promoting your blog, and some case studies of recent election blogs from around the world. This guide was written with co-authors Solana Larsen, then editor at openDemocracy and now Managing Editor at Global Voices Online, and Zephyr Teachout, Director of Online Organizing for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign and later on the staff of the Sunlight Foundation. Please click the image at left to download the guide.
Research
The Citizen Journalism Web Site OhmyNews
and the 2002 South Korean Presidential Election
This report, written in 2007 for the Internet & Democracy Project at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, details the role of the citizen journalism web site OhMyNews on the 2002 presidential election in South Korea. In this historic election, online activists, aided by platforms like OhMyNews, were instrumental in bringing the progressive outsider Roh Moo-Hyun to office. The report, which is a result of secondary research and primary interviews, analyzes the social, economic, and political context of OhMyNews, as well as the site’s business model. Please click the image at left to download the report.
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Prospects for e-Advocacy in the Global South
This report, written in 2006 for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, explores how NGOs in the global south are using ICTs for advocacy and suggests interventions for the Gates Foundation. The report includes an overview of the challenges for digital activists in the global south, followed by different digital advocacy models, and recent innovations in the field. The report also includes several short “snapshots” of how activists in such countries as Kenya, Argentina, Malaysia, Zimbabwe, and India are using technologies like mobile phones, web sites, and video in advocacy campaigns. Please click the image at left to download the report.
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Morocco Raises its Voice:
A Brief Analysis of Political NGO’s in Morocco
This report, written in 2005 under the auspices of a Fulbright grant, analyzes the young field of political non-profits made possible through liberalization under the new King Mohammed VI. The report, which is the result of a year’s worth of interviews with Moroccan civil society activists, describes the activities of these organizations and segments them into four types: training, intellectual endeavors, advocacy and lobbying, and grassroots activism. The report conclude by suggesting ways that foreign NGOs can support these new Moroccan organizations and includes a glossary of the organizations interviewed. Please click the image at left to download the report.