Posts by Deanna Zandt

Deanna Zandt is a contributing editor at AlterNet.

How Social Tech Fuels Iran's Election Revolution
Posted by Deanna Zandt, DeannaZandt.com on June 15, 2009 at 8:50 AM.

There's a ton of great material out there on the nuances of the Iranian election and protests, and I just want to quickly throw some thoughts into the ring.

First, from an American media perspective, here was another great moment for folks to demand what they wanted to see covered on national news media. What a moment of media dissonance: As protests erupted -- and in some cases, turned violent --  in the streets of Tehran and elsewhere in Iran, major broadcast media in the U.S. had little to no news on the events at all. By using the hashtag¹ #CNNfail to collect all of the dissatisfaction on Twitter, Americans were able to shift the focus of the conversation and eventually influence CNN's decision makers to start covering stories by Sunday.

It's reminiscent of #AmazonFAIL (when Amazon accidentally delisted 58,000 books, fueling a social media revolt), in the sense that within a pretty short time frame (less than 24 hours), major news organizations simply could not ignore the story unfolding -- via reportage and commentary -- on social media. I remind folks to think about how this sort of situation would have unfolded even five years ago: Bloggers would blog, perhaps media watchdog organizations would get a grassroots campaign together, and maybe within a week, if we were lucky, we'd see some influence. Now, with so many people participating in the conversation, we have immense power to quickly shift both focus and perception.

This is why, when it comes to politics and advocacy work, it's important to look at a bigger picture beyond just who's using Facebook to get votes, or which representatives of governments tweet with pizazz. It's less about celebrity and more about connection, humanity and the ability to inject our values into the wider culture in a fundamentally populist way.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Empowerment Through Technology: Do You Tech?
Posted by Deanna Zandt, AlterNet on May 8, 2009 at 9:24 AM.

Wait, lemme get this straight: in 1985, 38 percent of college graduates with computer science degrees were women; in 2003, that number had dropped to 28 percent.

The number of women getting into tech is actually falling? Seriously?

Thank god for conferences like Women Who Tech, then. Held yearly via phone and web, Women Who Tech gathers hundreds of women working in and interested in fields of technology to inspire change and transform the world. This year, it'll be on Tuesday, May 12th, running from 11am ET to 6pm ET. Panels will cover breaking through the digital ceiling, launching your own startup, diversity issues within social media, and much much more.

But what does it matter if women are involved in technology?

That kind of social Darwinism is not only a little nutty, but it's dangerous for us all, especially people seeking social change and social justice. Let's break it down.

Increasingly, we're reliant on technology systems to facilitate communication and connection, which in turn is the foundation for change. When you look at tech systems, it's helpful to think of them as little ecosystems that need lots of things to keep them going. One of the things ecosystems need most is a diverse set of members contributing to its overall health-- you can't have a planet with just rhinos running around, right? You need plants for the rhinos to eat, bugs to work with the plants, water to make things grow, maybe a few lions to eat the rhinos.

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Even More AmazonFAIL: 'It was the French! Seriously!' How Not to Handle a Social Media Rampage
Posted by Deanna Zandt, DeannaZandt.com on April 14, 2009 at 10:02 AM.

Amazon is blaming their PR nightmare on their French brethren. While this still sounds sort of suspicious to me — it reeks of, "I totally have a girlfriend; you just haven't met her because she lives in FRANCE" — I'll run with it for the sake of the teaching moment that we have. Let me sooth my own inner conspirist, though, by saying that I find it extremely bizarre that this swath of books were all taken down together, at the same time.

So, you're a global corporate giant, and you've got a PR nightmare on your hands. You learn quickly that the storming of your castle is happening on social networks and media like Twitter and Facebook. If you're looking to make the situation exponentially worse, here's what you should do:

• Stay silent. You know that you have a corporate blog, and a Twitter feed, and pages on Facebook, but you should ignore them. People aren't there to talk to you, they're there to wait patiently for your pearls of wisdom when you deem it time to do so. Preferably wait at least 36 hours before making any kind of statement.
• Go old-school. When you've finally got something to say, choose old PR strategies and apply them to new media. Get your entire communications team to talk to "authoritative" voices that the masses will clearly listen to, and be quieted by.
• Make it up. Don't know have any control over your inner situation, or have any idea what's happening? Come up with a really flimsy excuse, like, I don't know, a "glitch." Your consumer base, especially the sector that's raving luny, is clearly not savvy enough to understand the complicated nature of your big business. Don't admit, ever, that you are not 100% in control of the situation.

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More on AmazonFAIL: Hackers, Misogyny, Homophobia and You
Posted by Deanna Zandt, DeannaZandt.com on April 13, 2009 at 2:41 PM.

[Click here to read Deanna Zandt's first post about Amazon's LGBT firestorm.]

As the day has worn on, more parts of the story are unfolding, and all these little tidbits at the intersection of tech, culture, media and commerce are more than fascinating. This is the kind of story that sends me down the rabbit hole of musing for days.

Let's start with the tech side of things

According to Jessica Valenti (and her publisher, Seal Press), Amazon reps are claiming that this is a purely internal issue caused by the mysterious "glitch" spoken of last night. I don't think the reps know what they're talking about, frankly. What I think is going on: there is a severe vulnerability in the Amazon flagging-for-inappropriate system, and it's been found and exploited by one or more nerds with too much time on their hands. Amazon's mistake, vis a vis the brave new world of social media, is two-fold:

• Refusing to acknowledge a vulnerability. People are reaching the point not just that they like transparency in dealing with people who hold lots of important info on their behalf, but they are coming to demand it. Amazon's "nothing more to see here" approach is damaging to the relationship they have with those outraged by the exploit.
• Refusing to acknowledge the pain of affected people. If you have an entire relationship built on trust (with personal info, with commitments to move products, with referrals and wishlists, etc), you have the obligation to have that uncomfortable sit-down when a betrayal is introduced to the relationship. Amazon hasn't done that yet. Yikes.

There's a livejournal blogger out there now claiming responsibility for the exploit. I won't link over, because I actually think he's full of crap, as do those who've attempted to reproduce his exploitative code. It's a well known practice for those with no skillz to take responsibility for things they have no part of to build up their hacker cred. Please. You know what tipped me off, for the record? The references to wanting to have anonymous sex with women and heroin from Craigslist. Fetishy-objectifying of women is common in the hacker community, for sure, but this guy is just… silly.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Amazon.com Provokes Online Firestorm Over "Banned" Books
Posted by Deanna Zandt, The Women's Media Center on April 13, 2009 at 12:00 PM.

Over the holiday weekend, a firestorm let loose on the Internet: For no apparent reason, books on Amazon.com with feminist, LGBT and sexual-empowerment themes were removed from the sales rankings, numbers that show how well a product is performing on the website.

Angry authors and readers responded by launching a full-on social media assault, using blogs, Facebook and Twitter to raise awareness and to collect signatures on a petition.

Rapid response campaigns not affiliated with any one organization are increasingly becoming the norm in the age of free communication tools.  The Amazon incident (dubbed “AmazonFAIL,” drawing on usage of “fail” as an indicator of strong disapproval in online cultures) is a fascinating example in part because of the cultural motivation behind and the mechanics of the removal and the implications for sales of “banned” books.

 For those just waking up to the scandal, here’s what happened: Amazon has a policy of removing books labeled as “adult” from its sales rankings (which by itself could discourage sales). This, in turn, has a ripple effect of removing books from elsewhere on the site, such as in search results and “related books” listings. The Amazon system is proprietary, so it’s hard for outsiders to determine the full implications of such a removal. Anecdotal evidence from authors searching for their banned books returned wildly different results at different points over the weekend, but it was clear that if allowed to go unchecked, the “adult” label would have a severe impact on sales—if the readers can’t find it, the readers can't buy it.

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Binghamton Is My Home Town: Reflections on the Shooting
Posted by Deanna Zandt, DeannaZandt.com on April 3, 2009 at 4:24 PM.

"what is it about birmingham? / what is it about buffalo? / that the hate-filled wanna build bunkers / in your beautiful red earth / they wanna build them / in our shiny white snow" — ani difranco, "hello birmingham"

There is the obvious tragedy of the dead and wounded in Binghamton, NY. The anger and despair, the terror of knowing that a gunman can walk into a building in a relatively small city in rural, industrial upstate New York and massacre people at will.

Then the other layers start piling on top of the fear and the rage: the layers that make the story just a little cloudier and darker. Yeah, there's an inside joke in there– I grew up there, and Binghamton is the seventh cloudiest city in the country. The cloudiest east of the Rockies. No doubt that the lack of direct sun contributes to a sense of malaise in town, but it's likely the overall economic decline over the last 20-25 years that makes Binghamton just a very sad city in many ways.

We all have our grownup sensibilities about the towns we come from, especially those of us that moved to Big Cities– all our bravado about how glad we are that we "got out," our vows to never look back (maybe), or quietly and smugly looking back at those quaint li'l places. But there is something special about Binghamton. It was never a thriving metropolis, but it got by alright, and that's what most of the folks that live there seem to live by.

I once wrote that the people from my hometown were never the stars of the production. We were always happy to be in the background, providing the scenery. Maybe once in a while, we were the people that got a line, fingering the suspect. "That's the guy," we'd say. It would be straightforward, without fanfare. That's how people from Binghamton operate.

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Dear World: America Is Sorry for Its 8 Year Service Outage
Posted by Deanna Zandt, DeannaZandt.com on January 28, 2009 at 12:31 PM.

Editor's Note: This is hilarious chain email was brought to our attention by Deanna Zandt.

Dear World:

The United States of America, your quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for its 2001-2008 service outage.

The technical fault that led to this eight-year service interruption has been located. Replacement components were ordered Tuesday, November 4th, 2008, and have begun arriving. Early tests of the new equipment indicate that it is functioning correctly and we expect it to be fully operational by the end of January.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage and we look forward to resuming full service -- and hopefully even improving it in the years to come. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Very Truly Yours,

the USA

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My meeting with Bill Clinton: Wall Street vs Main Street
Posted by Deanna Zandt on September 23, 2008 at 8:49 AM.

If you had an hour to spend with Bill Clinton, what would you say?

That's the question I spent most of the weekend pondering, as I prepared to take part in a small meeting of bloggers in advance of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting here in New York that begins on Wednesday. Turns out that Bill is keen on bloggers, and I was thrilled to have made the cut to take part. Others in the room were Jack Aponte from Feministe, Kim Pearson from Professor Kim's News Notes, Josh Levy from Change.org, Nancy Scola from TechPresident, Dana Goldstein from The American Prospect, Emily Douglas from RH Reality Check, Josh Orton from MyDD, Matthew Cordell from the UN Foundation, Solana Larsen of Global Voices and about 4 or 5 other folks.

Going into a meeting with a President does carry an air of, how to put it, "I'm clearly in another world which I have never before seen." We assembled in the lobby of the hotel in Midtown, and were soon whisked up to the "holding room" while Clinton finished his meeting with the newly elected president of Paraguay. Just hearing, "The president will be with you right after he's finished with the president of Paraguay" reinforces the aforementioned air. Aides and Secret Service buzzing in the hallways, we waited about 15 minutes for our turn.

We were guided swiftly into the meeting room, which had chairs and couches arranged in a large circle, as if this was the Other World's version of a dorm hall group meeting. As we arranged ourselves, Bill came over and started greeting each one of us. When a former president of the US shakes your hand and looks you directly in the eye while you tell him your name, your transition through this portal is complete. Then it's all just shootin' the breeze from there on out.

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Movie Review: "Body of War" by Phil Donahue
Posted by Deanna Zandt on April 10, 2008 at 7:25 AM.

Tomas Young called up an Army recruiter on September 13, 2001, wanting to chase down the evildoers that W trumpeted about from the burning rubble in downtown Manhattan. Instead, he wound up in Iraq less than two years later, and five days after setting foot on the soil of that country, he was shot and paralyzed from the chest down. "Body of War," a new documentary from Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, tells his story.

Shot over the course of nearly five years, the film follows Tomas, his wife, and his mother as they struggle with his injuries and look for a new life together after Iraq. This is not a nuanced film: it is a blunt instrument, intentionally so, that shows the daily and inescapable moments of post-war anguish that only a family can intimately experience. Tomas develops not only into an unsilenced soldier, but an unsilenced recovering person with disabilities -- sex, bodily functions, and much more are out there in a way that often is wondered about but never shown or discussed in excruciating detail.

Where the film stumbles is its use of C-SPAN coverage of Congress debating the war in its leadup to the vote to authorize it. Using a computerized voice to count the "aye" votes along with the names throughout the entire movie is distracting and unnecessary; most of the people who will see this film already know how it went down. The rousing chorus of music (and, at my screening, audience cheering) for those lonely 23 senators that voted no is infuriating. Why celebrate this failure? What, as long as we're principled, we can feel better about ourselves?

The only exception is the footage of Sen. Robert Byrd's moving speeches, which should go on the books as some of the best modern oration. Clearly, the film was moving for the New York City audience I sat with, which included Alan Alda. Alda said after the screening, "Everyone in the theater was moved to tears, at least several times. You can't watch this movie and not be moved. What an achievment."

Tomas -- and especially his mother, with her unwitting insights and clarity -- has a story worth seeing and retelling. Visit BodyOfWar.com for more information and showtimes.

Iraqi Journalist Killed In Raid
Posted by Deanna Zandt, AlterNet on December 15, 2007 at 5:36 PM.

Via Nathan Freitas, I learned that last night that Iraqi journailist Ali Shafeya Al-Moussawi was killed during an Iraqi raid on his neighborhood in Sadr City:

On Friday the 14th at 11:30pm Baghdad time, Iraqi National Guard forces raided the street where Ali’s house is, one of the neighbors heard a gun firing after 15 minutes from the arrival of the Iraqi National Guard convoy to the street, the force left at 3:00am. His neighbors kept calling Ali’s phone and it was switched off all the time, so they called his cousin Amar because he lives one block away from where Ali lives.

Amar arrived in Ali’s house and found Ali shoot dead in the living room, Amar called the Iraqi Police and told them the story as he heard it from Ali’s neighbors. At 8:30 am Baghdad time the Iraqi Police took Ali’s body to the morgue, his two uncles received the body at 10:00am and they headed to Najaf to bury him.

Al-Moussawi was a journalist for the very poignant and generally excellent Iraqi video blog/show, Alive in Baghdad. They are collecting donations for his family via Paypal, but they themselves are also in desperate need of funding to continue the important work that they're creating. Please help if you can.

Take Back America Next Week in DC
Posted by Deanna Zandt on June 11, 2007 at 8:33 AM.

Next week, thousands of progressive activists are descending on Washington, DC for the yearly conference put on by Campaign for America's Future: that's right, everyone, it's time to Take Back America!

From June 18 -20, you'll have a chance to hear Edwards, Barack, Hillary and Dennis all within the few days of the conference. Not to mention Michael Moore talking about Sicko, plus loads of progressive and liberal elected officials laying out their plans. Add in the labor leaders, immigration reformers and other grassroots activists, and you've got a conference of folks coming together to hammer out their visions for the future of the country.

Register here for the conference, and if you're coming -- AlterNet will be there in the Progressive Media Row, so be sure to stop by our table and say hello!

Jessica Valenti takes on Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
Posted by Deanna Zandt on June 5, 2007 at 10:33 PM.

She founded a sassy feminist blog, she wrote a book for young women on feminism, and now she's been on The Colbert Report. Check out PEEK contributor Jessica Valenti as she takes on Mr. Colbert himself.

Ralph Nader, An Unreasonable Man
Posted by Deanna Zandt on February 1, 2007 at 7:24 AM.

Mention Ralph's name in any variety of progressive circles and you'll often get an earful about the 2000 elections. You'll hear about how, sure, the person you're talking to voted for him, but somehow, Nader is effectively responsible for the war and every other sorry state the country is in, because he spoiled the election. Forty years of activism doesn't come up so much in that conversation, does it?

A new documentary aims to shed some light on a man who has managed to be vilified from just about every political angle: An Unreasonable Man premiered in New York City last night. Three sold-out showings on opening night must mean something... people must be curious to get a glimpse at the what's behind the curtains of the crusader.

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Demanding progressive infrastructure
Posted by Deanna Zandt on January 12, 2007 at 7:05 AM.

In more ways than one, progressives are sorely lacking in some basic infrastructure that the right has had in place for years-- media machines, intensive internship programs to rear the young activists, business associations, etc. But one area that neither side has addressed, and which is rapidly becoming a blinding necessity as online interactivity skyrockets, is the area of technology standards and interoperability.

Inter-wha'? It's just a geeky way of saying that all our tools can play well with others. Fundraising technology, social networking, email lists-- believe it or not, all these things should actually talk together. Yes! Really!

Fortunately, a new group, helmed by former AlterNet Managing Editor Tate Hausman, is tackling these issues head on with the Integration Proclamation. Here's the dream:

Ask organizers about their tech tools, and you'll hear the same story over and over: too many overlapping databases, systems that don't work together, hours wasted importing and exporting and de-duplicating lists. In a recent study about progressive technology, lack of data integration was cited as the #1 universal complaint.

It doesn't have to be this way. Recent advances in web development make data sharing much easier. Past attempts at solving the problem have taught us valuable lessons. Technology vendors have become very open to integration (though individually, the market hasn't given them enough incentive to solve the problem themselves). And now, with this Proclamation, a wide community of progressive organizers, campaigners, vendors, consultants and technologists is demanding change.

Do you believe? I do. Sign the Proclamation, and help get the momentum strong enough to build out some of these tools that the left so desperately needs in its corner for the coming waves of technological advancement... 'cause we ain't seen nothin' yet.

Action alert: Shut down Guantanamo and stop troop escalation
Posted by Deanna Zandt on January 10, 2007 at 2:00 PM.

January 11th is the five-year anniversary of the horror show otherwise known as Guantánamo Bay, and a thousands of people are taking action against the torture and human rights violations the prison perpetrates. Coalitions including CODEPINK, United for Peace and Justice, Center for Constitional Rights and more, the Witness Against Torture campaign has a lot in store:

• In Washington, DC, a full day of activities and protests including the provocative "Prisoners of Guantánamo March" performance, vigils and rallies, a teach-in and more, starting at 10am, More details available here.


• Other cities will have complementary actions, including a noon vigil at Foley Square in New York, and screenings of "The Road to Guantánamo" around the country. Here's a list.

Not content with another stateside vigil for herself, though, Cindy Sheehan has landed in Cuba to begin marching to the prison gates from the Cuban side, as part of a contingent of activists organized by CODEPINK:

The 12-person delegation ... also includes ... Adele Welty whose firefighter son was killed on 9/11; retired U.S. colonel and diplomat Ann Wright who resigned over the invasion of Iraq; and legal director of the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights Bill Goodman who has taken the cases of Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Finally, MoveOn will round out the evening with rallies and house parties supporting its call to end the escalation in Iraq, as called for by Bush and his band of cohorts:

After the voters, the generals, and the Iraq Study Group all told President Bush to lead us out of Iraq, he is planning an escalation and will send more troops as soon as this month. Congress can block an escalation but it is uncertain if they will. They need to hear from us immediately.

You can find a rally near you, or volunteer to host your own. Don't let this day go by without making your voice heard-- that this torture and violence won't be carried out in your name.