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cyberactivism_#bct09
Virtual event group/room for topics related to social media ethics, main group here: http://friendfeed.com/barcamp...
Please do feel free to use this stream to ask questions and continue feeding your opinions, ideas, links - we will be around!:) And keep an eye on #bct09, and if you post, do tag it too. THANK YOU for being here with us tonight!:D
Have fun on Sunday. Shame I can't make it.
- Chris Rimmer
What do you think about anonymous blogging? And what do you think about recent UK government tendency to restrict it? Do you remember how Zoe Margolis/The Girl with One Track Mind was exposed? She recently posted all documents on it: http://girlwithaonetrackmind.blogspot.com/
The current pushes towards removing blogger anonymity seem to centre around libel laws... which to a point is fair enough. Balancing freedoms... the freedom for me to write what I like, vs the freedom not to have my name unduly tarnished. Not strictly the same as the case you just highlighted, but...
- Marcus Povey
I am sorry, you are right - Zoe was disclosed by media, not government - but I guess the effects are similiar. I would like to -at least to have the option - to blog anonymously, if I want.
- Sylwia Presley
I saw no point in the court case to disclose the police inspector though. Court seemed to presume against anonymity as a matter of course, thus making (ensuring?) activism is more difficult
- Alison Wheeler
exactly - but I think this is the general UK gov tendency - the panic, fear of the unknown - and trying to restrict whatever possible.:/
- Sylwia Presley
Yep, it's the assumption that if you are hiding something then you must be up to no good.
- Chris Rimmer
I think if curtains were invented today the government would denounce them as a tool for crime.
- Chris Rimmer
never thought of it this way, but you are right...no one even considers the personal reasons - maybe I would simply be not happy for my mother to read my blog - that's all...(well, i wouldn't, but sitill)
- Sylwia Presley
Chris - so what does that say for heavyweight (blastproof0 curtains in gov't buildings then?
- Alison Wheeler
I think we will slowly wrap up for tonight, unless you have other questions?
Starting this off: What's the best way to conduct an online campaign? Everyone's doing facebook groups these days - and sometimes it can be effective - but that's old hat. How do your spread your message? How do you do it in an effective way?
Sylwia Presley liked this
If you start with the intention of <campaign> then you've immediately started off the intention of 'telling' people not interacting. fail?
- Alison Wheeler
you admit openly what you need?:)
- Sylwia Presley
No matter what you call it, it still boils down to effective marketing... creating a meme that spreads
- Marcus Povey
yes, but as meme is different than a campaign - which has a message, narrative, goals, no?
- Sylwia Presley
I just enjoyed reading Re:Imagining Change, by a bunch called smartMeme http://smartmeme.org/. Lots of ideas for 'meme campaiging'.
- dan
I like it, thx!
- Sylwia Presley
Yeah that smartMeme thing looks good. Thanks dan
- Chris Rimmer
And once your message starts to effect the status quo.. how do you sustain it against resistance or determined attempts at sabotage? (witness iran)
I think that's where old school solidarity comes in :) Then the interesting question is whether social media can amplify that e.g. how about a kiva-bail to rise money for getting people out of custody?
- dan
What bothers me - and do add your comments to what Marcus just said - what I am interested in is the conflict between being an activist blogger disclosing your name and location - and the fact people might use it against you. For instance - when Twitter accounts were hacked during Gaza conflict (Jan, Feb 2009) I felt uneasy about loosing mine...
Something to consider: "Never put on the internet what you wouldn't feel comfortable seeing on a billboard"... there's an expectation of privacy that just doesn't exist. Doesn't make it right tho.
- Marcus Povey
Most service providers have a stated policy of co-operating with the authorities, and hackers... well...
- Marcus Povey
oh, no, i am fine with my photos, very very personal information on the bilboards, what I do not want is to loose all my content (imagine someone hacking your blog!) because of my activist involvement. I mean ok, I can build up a presence on Twitter easily, as I recently did, but the fact my original feed is hacked due to let's say being located in Iran today - would not only piss me off, but also make me feel uneasy...
- Sylwia Presley
So your question is regarding how you would stop from becoming victim of a vigilante or state sponsored attack through your activist involvement?
- Marcus Povey
well, a hacker supported by a state policy really - but it's not about the fact of being taken off - my question is - what motivates activist bloggers, web users to actually risk it...when I was in Cairo this spring a blogger mentioned it's better to blog under real name, in case if you face arrest, you can prove relation to your blog - if you blog anonymously - it's hard to prove why you were detained...I never thought of it this way...
- Sylwia Presley
there are times I ponder a 'secure retweet' service ideal to protect the original poster and have the 'public' source someone not able to be got at by the 'bad people' in the conflict area
- Alison Wheeler
Interestingly enough many govts, including ours are considering blogger registration - under the guise of protecting against defamation...
- Marcus Povey
I think what you say, Alison, depends on a governance too - in the UK, you would probably be allowed to write whatever you want - in Syria not so - and there, I would be for a tool you are suggesting - it actually is the only way to encourage people to share their thoughts safely. They risk their lives...
- Sylwia Presley
I'm not sure it's true that you can write whatever you want in the UK
- Marcus Povey
what do you mean?
- Sylwia Presley
I believe recent UK anti-terrorism legislation made it a crime to 'glorify terrorism'. Animal rights activists have been prosecuted for opinions that were interpreted as incitement and/or conspiracy. In France the state narrative around the Tarnac 9 seems to have centered on the notion of 'pre-terrorism' as evidenced by written opinions.
- dan
Chris, you say you use FB groups and mailing lists - so it must work to an extend - does it prove useful? in what sense?
It helps to get the message out to supporters when we are having an event and it helps us actually organise things. In fact I can't imagine what it would have been like trying to run a campaign without at least email.
- Chris Rimmer
so you are saying it's 'just' a more effective channel of communication?
- Sylwia Presley
Yes, that's pretty much it.
- Chris Rimmer
very important, so you must know the best ways to reach your target audience, no? and do you face the fact that others help you too? Is it a committed audience?
- Sylwia Presley
What I didn't mention is that NO2ID nationally also has a mailing list for group coordinators. This I find very useful because we can share our experiences and ideas. Plus it means that the campaign as a whole keeps broadly "on message" and we can coordinate actions. When there is some big announcement from the Home Office we've got folks all over the country writing to their local paper to put the other side of the story.
- Chris Rimmer
that is very impressive! do you have a historical data as well? something you can refer to in the future?
- Sylwia Presley
Well the mailing list archives are available (to subscribers). When I had to give a talk to a student group I remembered that the Cambridge coordinator had posted the text of a talk he'd given to his local Labour party. So I trawled through the archives to find it and shamelessly used big chunks for mine.
- Chris Rimmer
good, it's good to use past experience, I think. how do oyu incorporate new channels then?
- Sylwia Presley
statement for discussion: Does <cyber> activism only preach to the converted? Does it always/only sometimes/never open new doors? #bct09
it very often does - remember what happened with http://www.ccjacquismith.co.uk/ ? It actually worked:)
- Sylwia Presley
IMO younger activists would not separate cyber- and offline- activism. The interesting thing is the interplay c.f. the way young hispanics used myspace to organise school walkouts in the USA in 2007 against an anti-immigrant bill.
- dan
I think it is possible to open new doors, but it can be hard. I guess you need to have a compelling message that can go viral in some way, so the message gets passed on outside the echo chamber. The ccjacquismith thing certainly raised the profile of that issue, although it did skate close to the line legally.
- Chris Rimmer
Chris just said - or rather agreed with me (I so like when people agree with me, which does not happen too often;)) that social media is a new, more effective way of communicating while actually organizing or conducting activist work offline. Dan, do you agree?
- Sylwia Presley
That's a big part of it. Maybe social media has a role in coordination as well. Certainly it can change the dynamic of accountability c.f. G20 / Ian Tomlinson. And i think that the online habits of loose organisation and spontaneity can spill in to offline activity as well.
- dan
Surveillance works both ways eh ;) Social technology just makes it easier for people to communicate, and as others have said this evening, its people who make things happen. Having multiple channels makes that communication much harder to block...
- Marcus Povey
Hello! I run the Oxford NO2ID group. We do stuff online like facebook groups, website and mailing lists, but we get most traction from actually getting out on the street and speaking to people. Does cyber activism have its limits? Does it depend on the topic? or am I doing it wrong? ;-)
Hi Chris, welcome!
- Marcus Povey
Hi Chris:) I think it does:) Iranian Revolution is a classic - English speaking media is talking about Twitter, but it's actually Iranian people - there, dying on the streets - who bring the change. Social media is only supporting the communication with global community...
- Sylwia Presley
Greetings, I will be one of your moderators for this evening! Don't forget all the other channels can be found at: http://friendfeed.com/ff-bct0... http://friendfeed.com/ff-bct0... http://friendfeed.com/ff-bct0...
I won't be there on the 26, sadly; but want to know how to find true believers that are also competent programmers and intuit digital organizing.
Please let us know now what are the topics you want to talk about. I would like to raise awareness about projects like Global Voices, Avaaz, DigiActive and look at transparency issues related to their work. Leave your question, suggestions on whom to invite, any other ideas here;) thx!
Welcome in the space dedicated to Barcamp Transparency virtual event - this site is focusing mainly on cyberactivism and I will be moderating the discussion here. I hope you grabbed your ticket, if not, do it here: http://barcamptransparencyuk.eventbrite.com/
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