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cellphone
applications digital product design video scenario planning >> interactive pastimes participatory media physical computing writing web graphic thoughts |
Technology
and social activism |
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| Keywords: technology, social activism, smart mobs References: 'SmartMobs' by Howard Rheingold, Wired News, The Feature, Corante Acknowledgements:
Date: April 2004
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SCENARIO PLANNINGThe Internet and Cell Phones as Platforms for the Development of Grassroots Movements and Democracy Online
“We are now in a situation similar to that of late 15th and 16th Century Europe. Then, the spread of knowledge triggered by Gutenberg’s printing press both helped to drive and was supported by, a continent-wide rivalry of religious ideas. Now, the Internet has become both the fuel and the vehicle for a dramatic spread in democracy, intensifying demand for and supporting the spread of genuinely transparent and participatory and more efficient systems of government at both the national and global levels”, Mark Malloch Brown, United Nations Development Programme In 2004, the expansion of the internet and the development of social networks through technology has allowed the civil society to organize in ways that were not possible before. Thanks to technology, the citizenship has the power to make its opinion be heard louder and clearer, and new grassroots movements are beginning to influence the way that politics is made. During the last years social awareness of political issues has materialized
in a series of ways. Since the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle
in 1999 we have attended the development of a global justice movement,
that is represented by organizations such as United
For Peace and Justice, ActForChange,
Global Exchange,
Human Rights Watch, GlobalizeThis
or Electronic Frontier Foundation,
but also we have seen the birth of new activist media such as Indymedia.org,
DemocracyNow.org or Witness.org
that provide an alternative point of view to corporate media and have
been boosted by the conglomeration of the mainstream media. But let’s explore some facts. USA, Spring 2002. The Institute
for Politics, Democracy & the Internet is created at the
George Washington University with the mission to promote the development
of U.S. online politics in a manner that increases citizen participation
and upholds democratic values. These are just a bunch of collective actions that
took place favoured by technology, in which the internet helped
people organize and get together in order to achieve a common goal.
All of them were mostly grassroots movements, but the importance
of online actions is transcending. The BBC understood it in 2003
when they decided to launch the website iCan
to fight against political apathy of the Britons. And there are
more initiatives to come. So far, people have mostly mobilized when faced
to crisis, but in 2012, with the natural development and extension
of information and communication technologies, the future may have
unfolded in different ways. Independent media disseminate contributions of spontaneous journalists and make public the information corporate media ignore to denounce abuses and misbehavior of political and economic actors mainly. Civilians become politically aware and democratically responsible and exercise control over their rulers through online platforms. Wireless technologies extend the internet to regions with difficult access and cell phones bring grassroots organization to countries with a low rate of computers. Governments and industry listen to the voice of the streets and truly represent their countries. 2. Super-Police scenario. Citizen activism increases and becomes annoying to governments, that try to control the organization of the civil society by increasing the monitoring and control of electronic communications. Carnivore and Echelon initiatives become usual claiming for the need to control terrorist and ultra revolutionary groups. Police forces are deployed in the streets to prevent smart mobs. Freedom of speech is censored. Encryption protocols multiply. In this scenario, some groups express their frustration through violent actions. The streets become a battle field between security forces and civilians. When groups demonstrate pacifically police reacts violently to dissolve the concentrations. 3. Democracy goes online. Attending to the success of the electronic organization of civil society, the online scene transcends grassroots movements and there’s a development of online political parties. Electronic vote spreads out and governments carry out specific online consultations. 4. Urged political involvement. Politically apathetic scenario. People continue to use the internet to communicate with their peers but the majority of the population stays away from political groups. The civil society only engages in politics when faced to crisis situations, and then using mostly portable devices to organize mobilizations on the fly. Smart mobs become actions to expect. Governments try to control them and pay attention to their claims according to the success of the mobilization. 5. Trivial mobs. Smart mobs organized by electronic means become popular. People get together with many different aims, not only political, so that grassroots meetings end up being common and don't have any major impact.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Rheingold, Howard, ‘Smart
Mobs. The Next Social Revolution’, Basic Books, Sept. 2002 Kahney, Leander, ‘Internet Stokes Anti-War
Movement, Wired News, Jan. 21, 2003 Scheeres, Julia, ‘Pics Worth a Thousand
Protests’, Wired News, Oct. 17, 2003 |
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| © Laura Garcia-Barrio, all rights reserved | |||||||
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