RAGE AGAINST THE REGIME’S CON-ASS THROUGH TWITTER AND NEW MEDIA

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RAGE AGAINST THE REGIME’S CON-ASS THROUGH TWITTER AND NEW MEDIA

Contact: Rick Bahague
Tel. No.: 02.413.4196
Mobile: +63917.884.0096
Email: secre...@cp-union.com
Url: http://www.cp-union.com

“We call on the online community to voice their solidarity with the thousands who will march tomorrow at the Ayala protest mobilization through twitter and other new media tools”, said Mr. Rick Bahague, national coordinator of the Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU) in light of the major rally organized by various multi-sectoral organizations tomorrow to protest the railroading of HB 1109 calling for a constituent assembly. “We encourage everyone to join twitter if not yet a member, and tweet your messages with the #no2conass hashtag affixed.”

Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that allows users to post 140-character messages called “tweets” to keep fellow users updated on any topic of conversation virtually under the sun. “Hashtags” are keywords with the “#” symbol affixed that are included in a tweet used to indicate what topic the message is about.

“People can type no2conass in twitter’s search engine to see all messages related to the June 10 protest mobilization,” explained Mr. Bahague. “People from around the world will be able to see the words unheeded by the government when they pursued their agenda of greed in convening a constituent assembly that doesn’t have the people’s interests at heart.”

As part of its new media campaign, the twitter account of Pio, CPU’s mascot, was launched last night to tweet on-the-ground updates and comments from the Ayala rally by linking it to a mobile phone. CPU has developed a tool that posts tweets from SMS messages sent to +639071134503. “We invite everyone to send sms messages to this number and Pio will repost them as tweets,” said Mr. Bahague. SMS messages should have <no2conass><space><message> format.

CPU will also broadcast a live video stream of the rally for supporters who can’t come, such as OFWs. Pio’s tweeter, http://twitter.com/Si_Pio, will stream updates of the activity. CPU's social change page at http://cp-union.com/socialchange will consolidate these new media efforts of Pio and other organizations.

“Activists around the world have utilized these new media tools as a means of effectively reaching out to the people, as was demonstrated in the successful Obama presidential campaign”, added Mr. Bahague. “Twitter in particular would jive with the texting culture of Filipinos. If utilized in coordination with real grassroots mobilization, it can be instrumental to achieve the change we need.”

The Computer Professionals’ Union is a convenor of TXTPower, an organization of cellphone users that aims to empower Filipinos both as consumers and as citizens. It has provided technical expertise to the group on issues related to mobile technologies. # # #