Not An Alternative

Wednesday, 17 Dec: Web 2.0 Activism Case Studies

If you can’t attend, we will live stream this event at http://www.mogulus.com/notanalternative.

Date: 17 December 2008 @ 7.30 PM - 10.30 PM (Facebook Event Page)
Location: The Change You Want To See
Address: 84 Havemeyer Street, Storefront, Brooklyn, NY

Over the past two years, Web 2.0 technologies have matured and so have the methods activist use to employ them. In 2008, activists from around the world used Web 2.0 to take command of the digital airwaves pioneering new forms of political mobilization. From Student’s for a Free Tibet’s live streamed protests in Beijing, to RNC protesters coordinating actions and monitoring police movements on Twitter to mass digital mobilizations for humanitarian relief and election protection, Web 2.0 is no longer just for social networking and fundraising.

This Wednesday, practitioners involved in the above campaigns will present case studies and highlight how they leveraged these tools to have broader reach and greater effectiveness. We’ll also delve into issues governing internal organization and communication among political actors, including: transparency vs. security; command and control vs. autonomous affinity groups, and the power of organizing without organizations vs. the tyranny of structurelessness.

This report back and skills share is intended to leave you with concrete ideas for how these models and tools could impact your work.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Nathan Freitas is an entrepreneur and activist, with longtime love for all things mobile, miniaturized, virtual and open-source. His experience runs the gamut from founding a successful venture-funded for-profit business and speaking at JavaOne and Amazon developer events, to locking himself down to foreign consulates and managing satellite links for live streaming of protest video from very remote places. If Nathan were a cloud tag, these would be his tags: cloud computing, android, java, videoblogging, mogulus, wordpress as CMS, tibet, china, human rights, free speech, free thought, encryption, privacy, creative commons, ratatat, sufjan stephens.
http://nathan.freitas.net

Deanna Zandt is a media technologist and consultant to key progressive media organizations including AlterNet and the Hightower Lowdown, and hosts TechGrrl Tips on GRITtv with Laura Flanders. She works with groups to create and implement effective web strategies toward organizational goals of civic engagement and empowerment, and uses her background in linguistics, advertising, telecommunications and finance to complement her technical expertise. Deanna also works with New York-based independent artists such as John S. Hall/King Missile, Surf Reality and the Art Stars to promote radical performances in downtown Manhattan, and is a member of the Brooklyn-based Not An Alternative political art collective.
http://www.deannazandt.com

Nancy Scola is a Brooklyn-based writer, blogger, and editor whose work focuses on the intersection of technology and politics, both broadly defined. She serves as the associate editor of techPresident and Personal Democracy Forum, and has worked in the past on Capitol Hill, in presidential politics, and in progressive radio.
http://www.nancyscola.com