PROMETHEUS BOUND: There's No Substitute for the Real Thing

[rick]

HI Guys,

A member of our group has written a column on new media and its relation to real world campaigns which will appear on a local daily tomorrow.

It is a good refresher for us information activists.


Rick

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PROMETHEUS BOUND
There's No Substitute for the Real Thing
Jose Leon A. Dulce
Source: www.manilatimes.net

During the Ayala rally last week against the House of Representatives'
Con-ass resolution, the Computer Professionals Union (CPU) organized a
cellphone-to-Twitter link for texters to be able to update and
participate in the protest event. 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 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.

As part of its campaign to engage more people in the issue, the
Twitter account of Pio, CPU’s mascot, was linked to a mobile phone to
tweet on-the-ground updates and comments from the Ayala rally. By
inviting people to send SMS messages to a number, CPU developed a tool
that will repost these messages as tweets. As long as the SMS messages
were sent using the “ no2conass message” format, the cellphone was
programmed to directly update Twitter via a computer linked to the
internet. People can type no2conass in Twitter’s search engine to see
all messages related to the June 10 protest mobilization.

The overwhelming response on Twitter, Facebook, online blogs and
petitions against the Con-ass simply shows the extent of the
opposition to the issue at hand. However, some groups were content to
limit their opposition to cyberspace and even claim that this is
superior to mobilizing people by their numbers.

The idea that online activism alone can replace activism in real life
is questionable. There simply is no substitute for the real thing.
While web tools and other new media are useful in being able to
efficiently communicate information all over the country and the
globe, using it for protest is nothing but a toothless proxy that
lacks the physical presence that a huge protest mobilization provides.

CPU has used information and communication technologies (ICT) and new
media in all its campaigns and advocacies. It has likewise utilized
these tools in coordination with the June 10 anti Charter Change
protests, where it launched its Mobile-to-Twitter campaign against
Charter Change and provided a live video-stream of the rally in the
internet, where over 300 simultaneous viewers from different parts of
the globe tuned in.

The use of the internet and the like is in fact complementary to
people's actions. Applications in the internet make networking,
coordination and information dissemination a cinch for cause-oriented
organizations, however it does not have the same nature and impact as
what on-the-ground protest actions have.

Without the numbers on the ground, what effect would a virtual
campaign do? If not geared towards mobilizing people into action,
virtual campaigns produce virtual gains. At most, the cyberworld
becomes another outlet for opinions and discussions. Clicking a button
to join a cause is easy and would actually contribute to the high
numbers in virtual causes like that in Facebook. Yet translating these
mouse-clicks into attendance in rallies and action should be the real
target.

The perceived inconvenience of having physical rallies is belied by
the fact that all over the country, people have mobilized against the
Con-Ass. Farmers and ordinary workers took time out to march from
nearby provinces and their factories to air out their grievances. The
religious were also in force. Even with the the suspension of classes,
students together with other youth groups mobilized their friends and
families.

Let us recall People Power 2, a landmark event in the history of
Philippine social change that was popular for having SMS or texting as
integral to its success. It wasn’t the mobile phone users themselves
who ousted then President Erap Estrada, but the multitudes who marched
to call for his ouster. ICT and new media are mere tools: in the final
analysis, it is the people that matter.

True, a single physical rally is a transient event. Yet we should not
look at it as an end-all and be-all of our activities. To effect
real change, a series of rallies, educational discussions, forums,
cyber-activities, and the such should be continued until the desired
outcome is reached. An example of such movement that goes beyond
cyberactivism and transient events is the Pagbabago! People's Movement
for Change (www.pagbabago.org).

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. 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.###

Jose Leon A. Dulce is a Fine Arts student at UP Diliman and Head of
the Data Visualization Team of the Computer Professionals' Union. He
is also a volunteer of AGHAM. You can still tweet Pio by sending
“no2conass <space> your message” to +639071134503.
prom....@gmail.com