I write a lot about activism, most recently with #iranelection and a sea of green on Twitter: at the forefront of social network activism. Here’s a quick list-in-progress of some of my faves.
Social network activism
- Cognitive diversity and the 2008 presidential election looks at the role of One Million Strong for Barack Facebook group and other social network activism in the primaries.
- The first thing to do: set up a wiki, from the early days of Get FISA Right, highlights the value of a wiki
- The intro to Towards a rebirth of freedom, on Pam’s House Blend, sets Get FISA Right in the context of other social network campaigns.
- Reflections: what I learned during summer vacation discusses Get FISA Right, 100,000 Strong against Evan Bayh, Sarah Palin is NOT Hillary Clinton, and (in a footnote) #dontgo
- Election Protection: Techville and Reality City discusses Twitter Vote Report, and in particular the challenges of involving those without consistent access to technology, broadband, and knowledge in internet-based democracy and activism
- Join the Impact: taking social network activism (and LGBTQ rights) to the next level discusses the role Wetpaint, Facebook, and Twitter played in getting 150,000+ people in streets for marriage equality. Petitions are sooooo 20th century highlights how the progressive blogosphere marginalizes JTI and other social network activism.
- Neocons’ worst nightmare: net movements intersecting in Ideas for Change in America discusses alliances in the change.org competition and beyond. “DREAM Activists and undocumented youth, the Stonewall 2.0 LGBTQ movement, Get FISA Right and civil libertarians, peace activists — together again for the first time, along with a demand for accountability for the last 8 years. Scary stuff. :-)”
- Facebook: all your content are belong to us. FOREVER! Protests ensue, Zuckerberg: “we wouldn’t share your information in a way you wouldn’t want.†Oh really?, and Facebook reverts to previous TOS. A win for social network activism! cover a successful anti-corporate activism campaign.
- Social network activism and the future of civil liberties, on Pam’s House Blend, highlights the opportunities and presents some experimental results from a campaign against the Patriot Act.
- Restore the Fourth: Grassroots civil liberties activism is back and better than ever!, from 2013, charts the rise of a campaign that crossed over from Reddit into the streets and creation of a non-profit.
My work in the first half of 2009 concentrated on Twitter, both because of the speed of communications and because it presents an opportunity to engage with communities marginalized by the progressive blogosphere. The theoretical grounding is described in Cognitive evolution and revolution, which presents a multi-dimensional view of Twitter hashtags, and illustrates how marginalized communities are using Twitter for collaboration; the Politics Online presentation has detailed links. The draft Twitter *is* a strategy sets usage of Twitter in a strategic context. Posts on Liminal States and The Seminal explore uses of Twitter from an activism perspective.
- Gender differences in response to Skittlemania and #women2follow: collaborative empowerment on Twitter analyze gender differences on Twitter in some detail. While Twitter’s population is 53% female, the executive staff and investors in Twitter are all male, and following behavior, recommendation schemes, and other power structures dramatically favor men.
- Building engaged communities that act, a presentation for #nim09 with Tracy Viselli, surveys a half-dozen Twitter activism campaigns including #dontgo, #motrinmoms, #tcot, and #taxcuts
- The #p2 hashtag and strategies for progressives on Twitter (with Tracy Viselli; originally on The Exception), Twitter activism, #p2, and Ask the President (with Julie Roth), and #p2 and prioritizing diversity are highlights from the #p2 “progressives 2.0” hashtag. In August 2009, #p2 was mentioned in Newsweek’s Which Political Party is Winning the Twitter Wars … although its creation was misattributed. Drat.
- Lessons from Skittles for poets and activists introduced a multi-part series on The Seminal. Followon articles include Mr. President, do you like Skittles?, Activism at the speed of Skittles, What rhymes with Skittles?, Skittles and infowar: #pman, disinformation, and trolls, and Do they sell #skittles at #Starbucks?
- #amazonfail and we’re not done yet links to multiple perspectives on #amazonfail and discusses why I don’t see it as “internet mob” behavior.
- #iranelection and a sea of green on Twitter: at the forefront of social network activism. The comments have snapshots of tweets and the Mousavi Facebook page from late December 2009, along with links out to some relevant stories I found via Twitter.