NetActivism Projects

This is a draft briefing prepared by Terry Grunwald terry@makingthenetwork.org as part of a project for DirectSupport http://www.directsupport.org.uk. Please don't link here without asking - this page is likely to move. However, more project ideas here >.

NetActivism uses information and communication technolgies (ICTs) for organising, coalition-building, and lobbying around social, environmental, and political issues. NetActivism allows local people to have an opportunity to communicate directly to policymakers without intermediaries to 'interpret', censor, and edit their comments. NetActivism provides access to relevant, timely information and offers an alternative voice to the mainstream media - whether its the BBC, the Daily Mail, or your local radio station.

It offers a complement to e-democracy projects which are likely to be linked to more 'official' channels and institutions.

Why might centres get involved in NetActivism Projects?

• In many communities, centres are often the only link between ordinary citizens and the Internet (as well as other technologies. Today, citizens rarely use ICTs to participate in the democratic process. Centres can help citizens establish channels for participation, gauge what type of issues they would want to be involved in, and the extent to which they would want to participate.

• Small organisations are still struggling to go online - or to use the potential of the Internet for their work. Many of these groups work at the local level on issues that are the subject of online advocacy campaigns but do not have the connectivity, the tech skills, or the strategic thinking which enables them to participate fully - if at all.

• The Internet is a global network of networks. Campaigns depend on getting messages out to interested people who can multiply their impact by spreading the word to their own networks. The Internet allows ideas and pleas for support to be disseminated more broadly than ever before. But most local citizens and grassroots organisations face significant barriers to involvement in the work of those online networks.

• Centres can help surmount thse barriers because these are the same barriers that centres deal with on a daily basis: lack of confidence, unfamiliarity with and fear of technology, perceived lack of relevancy to their own lives, a lack of basic tech skills, etc.

• Digital communication is an effective tool for advocacy campaigns; it is efficient, quick, immediate, and relatively low cost. Centres are positioned to understand these benefits and to communicate them to their constituencies.

• Campaigns need to reach out beyond their limited group of Internet-connected activists to mobilise local communities where the majority of people are neither connected to the Net nor have the motivation or skills to search out advocacy-focused web sites. These people also need to understand the stake they have in these issues. So far, NetActivism has been the preserve of very committed advocates, highly literate and educated elites. These practitioners need feedback from the centres on the ground about the barriers to participation and lessons learned about ways to make their web sites and other ICT tools more user-friendly and accessible.

What do NetActivism Projects Do?

• Help people find who to contact in government, the community, or the voluntary sector to answer questions, solve problems, or have a voice in the policies that affect their lives.
  
• Connect people and organisations with online communities of practice or campaigns that would be of interest to them.
  
• Support low-literacy, bi-lingual, or disabled residents who require assistance such as translation, web sites read aloud, or other accessibility tools in order to engage in NetActivism activities.
  
• Support and work with local activists and community groups. Suggest ways to integrate and enhance existing NetActivism efforts with effective online strategies. Assess their technology capacity and make recommendations for what they will need to launch a campaign.
  
• Offer information brokering and web searching to help activists research online information sources to support their work.
  
• Provide outreach, community education, and incentives to encourage centre users and organisations to become NetActive. Demonstrate online tools.
  
• Plan, design and and manage online NetActivism projects. Use NetActivism as a way to enhance and extend exisitng centre activities through project-based learning.

Resources

OneWorld.Net is a community of 1,250 organisations and 7 OneWorld centres worldwide (including one in London) working for social justice. It hosts a web portal (read the UK edition here) with news, views, background information, and an opportunity to get involved in a variety of campaigns from Save to Rhino to a fairer deal for asylum-seekers.

Campaign Strategy.Org is a terrific resource provided by Amnesty International whose own site is one of the most effective non governmental organisation (NGO) sites anywhere. Campaign strategy.org is no-nonsense, hard-headed, and tells you when to campaign .. and when not to. Their 12 Basic Guidelines are priceless - and not what you might expect. Campaign not working? Then, you're ready for the advanced set of tips.

Ways to Spread your Message by the Citizens Connections Net provides the pros and cons of different tools from email lists to e-petitions.

The Civil Society Internet Rights Project (CSIR) is a GreenNet sponsored initiative to provide knowledge, resources and tools for civil society organisations to use the Internet safely and productively as a means of increasing democracy and to campaign on social justice issues. They have recently received funding from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust to continue work in the UK. Read their section on 'Campaigning on the Internet' . They also include a number of articles on civil liberties issues on the Net.

NetAction is a US website with tools and guidelines galore for online activists. Download their Virtual Activist training course.

Idealist, a project of Action without Borders, allows you to search a database of over 29,000 organisations in 153 countries (including over 800 in the UK). Search for social action jobs, volunteer opportunities, campaigns, events, resources, and tools for nonprofits.

A Promising Tool: Community Mapping (GIS tool used in community planning)

GIS is a tool that maps and analyzes demographic information or land use data relative to geography or location. GIS is much more than maps. It allows users to see data in new ways - spatially. It has the power to combine and analyze data from a variety of sources making new relationships more apparent. For example, GIS can combine data on issues like:

• income and property values

• crime rates and regeneration activity

• children's health problems and vaccination records

• home loans and ethnic composition of a neighborhood

It can also display this data on a CD or on the Net in ways that are easy to understand

For more on community mapping in the UK, see Common Ground's People Places and Parish Maps, or elsewhere - the Community Mapping Program supported by the Orton Foundation in the US and the Canadian Community Mapping Network.

Books and Articles

The Internet As A Tool For Global Campaigns by Neal Buxtin, Jubilee 2000

Net Activism has the Power to Change the World by Mark Flannagan, Advocacy Online

Designing Effective Action Alerts for the Internet by Phil Agre, Red Rock Eater News Service (another oldie, but goodie)

Community Activism and the Internet - The Butterfly and the Hammer by Ted Coopman

High Tech at the Grassroots by Dirk Slater, a circuit rider for the New York based Welfare Law Center describes the combination of using new media with traditional organising for real power,

Especially for Young People

Yourturn.net is aimed at 14 to 18 year-olds and is packed with real-life stories of teenagers who have made a difference, opinions, factsheets, multimedia games and video-clips.

ActionZone, is the youth network of ActionAid. This site is all about DOING something in the fight against poverty. 'Find out what we're up to and take action now! ' It uses contemporary graphics, hip-hop symbols, and celebrities to stimulate young peopleâs activism and offers games, auctions, and an opportunity to 'shout up. Issues: Peopleâs Right to Food and AIDS/ HIV.

Campaign Models

Note: Thanks to Alex Lockwood of OneWorld Net for many of these links.

Trade is currently the big issue for NGOs. Oxfam's site on making world trade work for the world's poor - Make Trade Fair - includes 'The Big Noise', a community of people from all over the world who have united in the call to make trade fair. It It also includes 'action' sections on how to help the millions of coffee farmers and their families who, the site says, are facing ruin from the coffee corporates. Check out the Big Noise registration section to see a neat way of gathering demographic data on participants.

The Friends of the Earth site now includes a new campaign to 'Dump Nuclear'. Their online innovation is Factory Watch, a site that lets users type in their postcode to find out who is polluting the atmosphere in their local community (in list or map format) and what they can do stop the polluters. An older (and a bit more ambitious) project in the US called the the Environmental Scorecard sponsored by Environmental Defense has had great success.

'McDonald's spends over $2 billion a year broadcasting their glossy image to the world. This is a small space for alternatives to be heard'. A volunteer created McSpotlight, a site that started in February 1996 with the McLibel trial. Their campaigning section includes information on worldwide protests and events against McDonald's and other multinationals from over 20 countries around the world as well as comprehensive resources for activists (including the 'What's Wrong With McDonald's' leaflets which started the legal battle in the UK and the internet-assisted campaign globally).

Gatt.org looks just like the World Trade Organisation's official website.One of the best spoof sites on the web now run by the Yes Men, who like nothing better than to be invited to speak to business men about the WTO when unwitting corporates contact them through this site.

'Esso has done more than any other company to undermine international actionon climate change' according to Greenpeace. Thousands of people have already stopped buying Esso until it agrees to change its position on the Kyoto Protocol and the Stop Esso campaign site brings together all the info about Esso and the campaign. You can also buy your E$$O SUCKS T-Shirt online.

Reclaim the Streets is a direct action network for global and local social-ecological revolution(s) to transcend hierarchical and authoritarian society, (capitalism included), and still be home in time for tea... Welcome to the cyber-streets of RTSLondon. Includes guidelines (with great graphics) on 'how to sort a street party.' A fun site!

Council for the Protection of Rural England makes it clear how you can help them (donate, volunteer, contact your local branch).

Electronic Advocacy 'was created in 1998 to provide a variety of resources for those thinking about creating an on-line advocacy program, studying this new phenomenon or teaching others about it'.

Global Fund for Women, a grantmaking foundation that supports women's rights around the world, has an attractive site in 7 languages including Pashto and Dari - the 2 major languages of Afghanistan. Their Get Involved page is a good model. It shows where their money goes and provides multiple ways to donate, volunteer or engage with their issues.

NetActivism Tools

What are the key NetActivist tools ? Here are some you already know .. along with a few you may not have thought of:

• Email, groupmail, and listservs of course.

• Electronic petitions See E-petitioner (Scotland)

• Options to email, Fax, or mail your MP

• Sign on Support Letters

• Online discussion forums

• open forums that are open to the public and can serve as an e-democracy tool

• closed forums that can be used by activists for strategising

• Chat and Instant Messaging

• Content that can be downloaded, printed, and sent to policymakers or used in the development advocacy materials at the community level

• Postcards

• Posters and Banners

• Image and photo galleries

• E-Newsletters - the Killer App

• Campaign web sites. Hint: use a unique URL for each campaign

• Application Service Provider tools that integrate a variety of online functions such as Grassroots. Org

• Online fundraising tools (both web-based and email-based) for campaigns

• Video conferencing for groups in isolated areas with limited Net connections

• Community Mapping (GIS tool used in community planning)

Lessons Learned

The most basic Internet tools are the most useful - especially email - still the most widely used tool on the Internet.

Electronic newsletters ( a more jazzy version of email) are fast becoming the 'killer app' among advocacy tools.

*Online* advocacy (emails, sign-on petitions, etc.) needs to be used in tandem with the off-line strategies (letter writing, visits, town halls, newspaper editorials, etc.).

In the US, the Benton Foundation which collects best practices has an excellent section on What's Working: Advocacy on the Net. So, what is working? Here are are a few trends:

• Sites which allow visitors to customise their experience by choosing the issues which are of special interest to them.

• Sites which use online databases to connect activists with information specific to their locality.

• Sites which bring multiple communities of practice or organisations together around a common concern.

• Sites which build an online community to enhance their advocacy efforts.

A Reality Check: These web strategies are beginning to show results - but only for large national and international organisations with the resources to build and maintain these relatively sophisticated web sites. They are expensive -usually too expensive for small groups..

And here's the ultimate reality check from Campaignstrategy.org. If you don't have to campaign, then don't. They tell why 'it's often hard, dull, frustrating and unsuccessful'.

Fill the Gaps

Most NetActivism initiatives are conducted by large NGOs that focus on the environment, poverty and trade issues in developing countries, or large-scale political action. Their web sites offer strong models to follow. Though they are expensive to replicate in their entirety, community activists can select elements they especially like to incorporate into their own, more modest sites. In addition, since they are easy to use and attractively designed, they are good introductions to NetActivism for local citizens. Increasingly, community-based groups are building their capacity to customise NetActivism strategies to build local campaigns. Help collect examples you encounter in the course of your work and contribute them to the list of campaign models.

October 2002