Category Archives: Digital Activism

The 2008 Global Summit in Budapest was one of the most extraordinary conferences I’ve been to … and I’ve been to almost 40 conferences in the past four years alone. What’s the big deal (and it is a Big Deal)?  This community embodies the values they speak about: the members of this community are open, inclusive, transparent, engaging, respectful, mindful, diverse, committed, innovative, energetic, proactive, creative, responsible, serious, humble, fun and humorous. Is that all? Not even close, read on, if you will.

When I first walked into the conference room on Wednesday, I couldn’t help but notice that I was definitely not one of the younger conference participants but I was definitely (and embarrassingly) the most overdressed. The average age of participants over the past three days couldn’t have been more than 30.  One participant was a high school student from Germany; another was from Colombia. This was inspiring (I for one was not attending international conferences as a high school student, let alone as an undergraduate student!). There were no suits, no ties and no dull gray colors. Instead, there were shorts, flip flops, t-shirts and the occasional pair of slacks. Needless to say, the informality was highly refreshing. Just like not all heroes wear capes, not all amazing people wear suites–in fact, 99.9% don’t!

Unlike the majority of conference circles I’ve frequented, participants at Global Voices were open, welcoming and humble. While introducing myself over the past three days, I must have repeated at least a dozen times that I am new to the field. At no point was I made to feel that I had less to contribute. There was no arrogance, no ego, no power trips. This was also the most international conference I’ve been to, the diversity was simply astounding: Belarus, Japan, Egypt, Pakistan, Kenya, Morocco, Hong Kong, Burma, Singapore, Iran, Tunisia, Syria, Bangladesh, China, Bolivia, Madagascar, Colombia, Venezuela, Canada, France, Brazil, India, US, UK, Australia, Thailand, Germany and several more!

A few points that I wanted to make sure I captured from the final day:

• We need a code of ethics for bloggers (me: and a code of conduct). What’s stopping us from doing so?! Lets do it!
• Blog, blog, blog, about anything of interest to you, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Blog away. You define the crisis. You determine what’s important. Blogging changes definitions.
• The Internet does not erode social links, does not make us individuals, does not undermine communities. Quite the opposite!
• You don’t need hardware or software to engage in an SMS campaign, just forward your texts to your immediate social circle.
• The space that Global Voices operates in overlaps with a number of other fields, like peacebuilding, conflict prevention, conflict management, nonviolent action and conflict early warning/response. See my blogs on Global Voices and Conflict Early Warning, as well as Global Voice and Humanitarian Action, for more information.

I conclusion, I wanted to add a point on complex systems. The Internet, and the information society, the global network of social nodes and connections, is becoming more complex. This complexity adds to diversity and balance. Most people, most of the time, in most places are nonviolent. Social extremes are by definition minorities. Global Voices are more informed and moderate. Giving a voice to these Global Voices online is likely to diminish the impact of extremists. How do we find these voices in the symphony of the superhighway? We need to make quanta of information more indexable and more searchable. Tag, tag, tag away. Only then will locality, diversity, opportunity be made more visible. See my blog on complex systems and conflict resolution for more information on the added value of a bottom-up approach.

So why is this one of the most important efforts one could possible engage in? Because “Seeing Like a State” has led to some of the greatest catastrophes we have witnessed in human history. Some excerpts from one of my favorite books:

• Some level of abstraction is necessary for virtually all forms or analysis, and it is not at all surprising that the abstractions of state officials should have reflected the paramount fiscal interests of their employer.
• Just as a merchant who, not knowing what conditions her ships will face at sea, send out scores of vessels with different designs, weights, sails, and navigational aids stands a better chance of having much of her fleet make it to port, while a merchant who stakes everything on a single ship design and size runs a higher risk of losing everything, forest biodiversity acts like an insurance policy.
• If the natural world, however shaped by human use, it is too unwieldy in its, “raw” form for administrative manipulation, so to are the actual social patterns of human interaction with natural bureaucratically indigestible in their raw forms.

Patrick Philippe Meier

The final panel of the summit included presentations on several phenomenal projects including the following two:

• Blank Noise Project: A blog put together by women in India to blog about “eve-teasing” or rather sexual harassment in the street. The women created a movement offline that impacted the mainstream media.
• Ushahidi Project: Many are already familiar with this project and we’re all looking forward to upcoming innovations. For example, Ushahidi 2.0 will be downloadable.

Patrick Philippe Meier

This panel focuses specifically on China (and the issue of Tibet) to explore what can be done to encourage dialogue in times of heated disagreement. The reason there was so much dispute in what went on in Tibet is because the international media could not report what was going on. There was widespread misinformation and accusations based on distorted information. What we saw in the Blogosphere was a polarization between bloggers in the West and in China. There was little compassion on either side for people’s views on either side of the issue, as depicted by the difference in connectivity between communication during the  run up to the Chinese Olympics and the 2004 Athens Olympics in the maps below created by Dave.

Dave says “I’ve argued, citing the words of the Dalai Lama himself, that if you

1) Believe in democratic principles and free speech
2) You believe the Internet is a tool for unfettered global communication
3) There’s something in China (or any other country) that bothers you

Then you ought to put some energy into communicating directly with Chinese netizens about the problem. For years now I’ve seen alot of Chinese netizens discussions be completely ignored or simply missed by English-speaking netizens, who too often think that Chinese netizens are all completely brainwashed. Well, guess what? Some of them think you are too. Instead of dismissing each other as fools, how about we try to talk? So I say, Tweet Back! Tweet in English, alot of Chinese people know some. If you know Chinese… what are you waiting for? I’ve been translating alot of Chinese tweets on Tibet this weekend, and alot of them break the stereotype of the frothing nationalist Chinese blogger. These are Chinese people who adopt alot of Web 2.0 applications alot of the time, they aren’t just blowhards in chat rooms. Some are journalists, professionals and students.”

CNN and Western media wrongly described Nepalese policemen beating Tibetans as Chinese, which was not the only mistake made in Western media coverage. This prompted Jin Rao, a 23-year-old Chinese student, to launch an Anti-CNN website, which documented all of CNN’s numerous reporting errors on the coverage using screen shots and on-line videos. Grassroots media has developed very quickly over the past 6-years in China, largely in response to the absence of a professional media in the country.

Ethan Zuckerman made a particularly interesting point (as he always does). Referring to the Obama campaign and the Reverend Wright issue. Wright is obviously a traditional civil rights activist who regularly reminds his audience that African Americans in the US remain marginalized and discriminated. This upset a large number of white communities in the US. But the point is that Wright was not speaking to this audience. In the past, the audience was more easily defined and captures. These days there are multiple audiences, including intendend and unintended audiences. This shift will continue to provoke controversies and “disproportional” reactions from unintended readers.

At the same time, we need to be able to continue talking differently about certain topics to different  groups of people. This allows for different perspectives and variety of views. There will be friction, but the question is how we can channel this tension in a productive manner. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t have a history of inconsistencies. Rebecca MacKinnon, the other co-founder of Global Voices, also noted the importance of politics and history. Some communities and societies are more steeped in past (even distant) history. Others less so, and still others simply unaware of the context and where people are coming from. The question is what bloggers can do to correct for this?

Patrick Philippe Meier

This panel included activists from Kenya, Armenia, Iran and Venezuela to discuss the following question: is citizen media having an actual impact on democracies in transitions?

• Yarane Baran is a pro reformist association of bloggers in Iran. They update their blogs twice a week but only have about 50 visitors per week.

• In Armenia, the Blogosphere became polarized around the recent elections. While the elections were pronounced fair on the day of the elections, YouTube videos appeared later that day revealing serious irregularities in the voting. The government proceeded in banning all print media but left blogs completely untouched. The government took note but didn’t move to block the blogs. Instead, the President had his own blog set up to address issues and respond to questions. Another video subsequently posted on YouTube showed policemen shooting at a crowd. This forced the police to respond publically on national television. 3G mobile technology is definitely going to play an important role in future elections in Armenia. The President (or rather his spokesperson) has recently asked bloggers for a meeting. For more information, see Onnik Krikorian’s blog here.

• In Venezuela the problem is not about freedom of speech but rather freedom of communication. People at home do not talk about politics, they do not have confidence to discuss the issues, and therefore you do not have a sense of community. People are also tired of talking politics since nothing changes, much. Only 20% of the population have acess to the Internet. When elections happen, it’s like a national sport. Elections3D is a website set up to centralize blog posts, photos and videos about the elections. They also used SMS an Twitter for fast discourse. They used SMS to send text messages to more than 2,000 people in less than a minute. Luis Diaz concluded his presentation on Venezuela with some lessons learned: tagging is effecient, and needs exhaustive and universal keywords to be found by the greater public; blogs are the nerve center, but the richest platform is the diversity; the blogosphere is subjective and this is important since it contains the political rainbow in a nation withou diaologue. Luis showed a picture of an indigenous Colombian, in the middle of the rainforest, using his mobile phone. “This is important, this the future,” he said with an applause from the participants.

• Kenya’s Daudi Were gave a presentation on the Kenya elections. Before the elections there were SMS campaigns mainly used to intimidate people to switch sides. There was an “Obama effect”; Kenyans looked to the US and drew on the same tactics by using social media websites, Facebook, etc. During the election day, bloggers were out in force, blogging all day, taking pictures of the process, it was a formidable turnout. “The Kenyan bloggers really blogged the election,” Daudi proudly recounted. Some bloggers were embedded with officials from various embassies in Nairobi.Some challenges included limited bandwidth. There is only 10% Internet penetration in Kenya, but radio

“But then things changed and the situation turned. We could tell immediately that something was not right. Bloggers started reporting strange things going on. When the violence started and spread, people started to use different tools to keep up with the fast changing situation. Twitter started being used. We thought some of these tools were just for teenagers but we quickly came to appreciate their importance.”

“Some challenges: Bloggers in the blogosphere began raising funds online to purchase machetes. This is a problem: who guards the guards? Also, only 10% of Kenyans have access to the Internet but 95% of the population have access to radios. So many radio broadcasters had access to the Internet and therefore began to read out blog entries.

“Some lessons learned: The importance of having a global network is imperative; gives you support, lets you know you are not alone, and helps you keep a perspective on the local events. Citizen media was able to operate in almost real time. As bloggers, we need to protect our reputation, it’s all we have and we must do everything to keep our integrity. We need to admit our mistakes when we are wrong and stay away from non-constructive arguments. You do not have to be ‘on the inside’ to be significant. Finally, bloggers are not aliens. If society is divided, bloggers will be divided. We are part of society.”

Patrick Philippe Meier

Activists from Colombia, Kenya, Bolivia and Madagascar kicked off the first panel of the day. The panelists described the organizations and/or projects they are working on or recently created. For a video trailer on  the projects, please click here.

Repacted is a youth that uses community theatre to educate other youths in Nakuru, Kenya. Skits are performed in prisons and IDP camps. The group trains youths to perform their own skits. Collins Odor, who is behind the initiative now has a blog, which you can visit here. When we asked him how we could help, he said having someone come to Nakuru to volunteer and train them on IT for a week or two would be very useful. Also, sponsoring performances would be very helpful. So please contact him!

“The ability to speak out is directly related to happiness,” says Catalina Restrepo, who is closely engaged in the HiperBarrio’ project. Catalina may be young, but she is an absolutely formidable woman.

The project began as two separate proposals both from Medellín, Colombia. Juliana Rincón and Jorge Montoya proposed to organize a series of new media training workshops in collaboration with an outreach initiative of Medellín’s public library system. Álvaro Ramírez wanted to host a blogging workshop in the working class neighborhood of La Loma de San Javier. In the end, both project decided to work together and form the HiperBarrio outreach collective.

Mialy Andriamanjara of FOKO Madagascar presented her project.

FOKO wants to help Madagascar by bringing the world’s attention to Malagasy people. When often biodiversity and lemurs are in the spotlight, FOKO wants to focus on the Malagasy people and make them a crucial factor in their unique and threatened environment. FOKO’s goal is to help the Malagasy people improve their quality of life without destroying the Forest while taking into account biodiversity.

FOKO has opened 150 blogs in just 10 months. A small stipend is offered to bloggers who have their stories published in the country’s national newspapers. They’ve held the first reading of the ‘Vagina Monologues’ in Malagasy, with the help of Malagasy female bloggers. Kids in Madagascar have realized they have something interesting to say and now they know how. The group is hoping to set up their own Internet cafe to facilitate their work and promote the crafts of Malagasy woman.

The final speaker, Cristina Quisbert, presented her project Voces Bolivianas in Bolivia.

Bolivia is a deeply divided country, where the differences are accentuated. But well known Bolivian bloggers Mario Duran, Hugo Miranda, and Eduardo Ávila believe that improved communication can lead to greater understanding. The pilot program of Voces Bolivianas took place at a cyber-cafe in the city of El Alto between September 22 and November 10. They are now continuing their citizen media workshops in Santa Cruz, El Alto, and other locations throughout the country.

Cristina launched her blog in English to write about indigenous peoples and to write about events in El Alto. There are few people blogging about indigenous topics and few indigenous women are blogging. She is also uploading her own videos and her own pictures. In this way, she seeks to make people and people visible. Some of the more challenging moments occur when Cristina faces technical difficulties. She also gets

Patrick Philippe Meier