10.11.07 kulturnatib

Cyberactivism

A long time ago, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) had this really creative slogan: Let your fingers do the walking. No, let me correct myself. This wasn't PLDT's slogan but that of the Yellow Pages (GTE Directories Corporation) or what became, in 1989, the Directories Philippines Corporation. In fact, the logo for this company that works with PLDT to produce PLDT's phone directory is that of fingers walking over an open page.

What it meant or promoted was that with the telephone one no longer had to walk over to some business to conduct business. One could simply let one's fingers do the walking. First, finding the number on the phone book, second dialing the number, then, voila, business can be conducted.

With today's touch tone phones, fingers do even less walking than with the rotary dialing phones of that time when that slogan came out.

Since the infrastructure of the telephone is the same one used for the internet (telephony) was only a matter of time that fingers could do more just walking.

Now fingers are becoming full-fledged activists on a scale and with an impact that the activists of a generation ago could only dream or theorize about.

Recently, I have become an active participant in petition signing campaigns of Avaaz.org. Avaaz is the word for 'voice' or 'song' in several languages including Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, Turkish, Nepalese and others.

Avaaz.org was developed and established by a group of social entrepeneurs, identified formally with Res Publica, a global civic advocacy groupo, and MoveOn.org., who have worked at the intersection of global justice issues and new online organizing techniques.

As the introduction on their site says, '. . . Avaaz is a community of global citizens who take action on the major issues facing the world today. Our aim is to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people -- and not just political elites and unaccountable corporations -- shape global decisions. Avaaz.org members are taking action for a more just and peaceful world and a vision of globalization with a human face.'

'In our inter-connected world, the actions of political leaders and corporations are having a profound impact on all of us. To match the power and reach of global leaders and borderless corporations, Avaaz.org members are building a powerful movement of citizens without borders. As citizens without borders, we might not have the resources of governments, corporations or the media, but working together we can bring together millions of people around the world and make global public opinion really count on major global issues like poverty, climate change, human rights and global security'.

'Using the latest technology, Avaaz.org empowers ordinary people from every corner of the globe to directly contact key global decision-makers, corporations and the media. By signing up to receive updates from Avaaz.org, members receive emails and text messages alerting them to new campaigns and opportunities to act online and offline, and to make a real difference on pressing global issues.'

The most recent and still continuing campaign of Avaaz.org is petitioning to support the democracy movement in Myanmar (Burma) and to remind China, the staunchest supporter of the military dictatorship in there, that it is China's responsibility to urge the Myanmar government not to resort to repression and violence like they did with the massacre in 1998.

As with the other campaigns (on global warming/climate change, Darfur, Palestine and others) the target is to gather a million signatures and to present these signatures, or, actually, signatories, to those concerned or those who can bring about positive change or action. In this case, the UN ambassador of China.

In an example of how with intenet technologies one is able to view how a particular petition signing camping is progressing, there is, on the campaign page, a kind of signature-o-meter.

When I opened this page and added my name into the petitioners list the number of petitioners stood at 720,835. By the time I was finished and invited a few other friends to also add their names into the petition, the count had jumped to 720,917!

I don't see it yet, but I wouldn't be surprised that they would feature another way by which those signatories can be confirmed. This is with use of cluster maps where in a global map one is able to see where these numbers are coming from. Again in real-time. Meaning you can watch the numbers grow or emerge.

But, Avaaz.org also organizes offline action. And they encourage others to do so, and to post online a documentation of such action again to be shown globally, if possible, in real time.

Here is where old-style activism and cyberactivism meet. Hopefully, today, at UP we shall have the opportunity to do both. At noon, near the gate, we will again hold a Burma (Myanmar) Solidarity Performance Art Event. Join us!