Global Activism, WWW-style

By Katherine Reilly and Mark Surman, YES! Magazine. Posted March 4, 2004.

In the quest for global peace and social justice, the Internet and other emerging network technologies provide powerful tools to support our work. But most organizations have not moved beyond e-mail and basic websites -- they haven't yet learned truly strategic uses of these technologies. Put simply, the tools are in our hands, but most of us have not yet decided what to build. Below, we present a glimpse of what the future might hold based on our research on organizations that are out front in their innovative use of these emerging technologies.

OneWorld: A Voice for Civil Society

At first glance, OneWorld.net looks like a straightforward news website focused on civil society issues. It contains compelling and professionally presented articles on HIV/AIDS, sustainable development, human rights, peace, and the digital divide.

Under the hood, however, the London-based OneWorld is a very different kind of site. It is a network of civil society content producers from around the world all working to paint a collective picture of a better world. Almost 100 percent of the content is drawn from the websites of OneWorld's 1,500 partner sites. In creating "the news" for a particular day, OneWorld editors pull the best material from this pool of partner sites, write new headlines and précis, and publish the material to the front page. At a global level, the coverage is in English. Regional coverage in five additional languages is provided by more than 10 regional and country sites.

While most civil society websites tell stories from a single organization's perspective, OneWorld presents the perspective of multiple organizations according to theme. The result is a diversity of opinion and content driven directly by the work and interests of civil society organizations.

Indymedia: Grassroots Open Publishing

Since starting as a single Web site and media production storefront set up for the Seattle WTO protests in 1999, Indymedia has grown to more than 100 sites covering all continents. A single international site collects the best content from all of the locals.

Indymedia is among the best-known examples of open publishing. A typical local Indymedia site consists of a "wire" section that automatically presents open publishing material as it is posted to the site. In addition, the site contains a "news" column consisting of stories chosen or written by the local editorial team. Whether news or wire, all of these stories come from grassroots media activists.

"While other online alternative news sources often fill their Web pages with editorials, commentaries, and news analysis," writes Gene Hyde, in an article published at www.firstmonday.org. "Indymedia's primary emphasis is in providing a Web outlet for filing original, first-hand coverage online through print, photos, audio, and video."

Biwater Censorship Case: Online Activism

Online tactics can reverse corporate decisions in a few short days, as business interests scramble to avoid negative press. A good civil society example is the Biwater censorship case.

In the late 1990s, Biwater, a privately owned British corporation specializing in water privatization, tried to take control of a number of water concessions in South Africa. This led to public criticisms from the South African Municipal Workers Union, South Africa's Mail and Guardian newspaper, the LabourNet.org website, and others.

In April 1998, Biwater threatened legal action against the nonprofit Internet service providers (ISPs) that hosted the LabourNet and Mail and Guardian websites. Unable to afford an expensive legal battle, both ISPs removed the material critical of Biwater.

The removal of the pages turned out to be the beginning, not the end, of the fight against Biwater. LabourNet webmaster Chris Baily called on activists to use the Internet to fight back against BiWater's use of restrictive libel laws to throttle democratic debate. Two European ISPs dedicated to working with civil society -- Antenna in the Netherlands and Inform in Denmark -- responded.

Antenna and Inform, both member of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), mirrored the removed pages on their own servers. This meant that the pages were still accessible to the public but they were no longer housed within the British or South African jurisdictions where the "cease and desist" orders had been served.

Another eight APC members agreed to mirror the Biwater material, spreading the articles across servers in Europe and the Americas. With so many groups involved that were located in so many different countries, Biwater's legal challenge became almost impossible. Biwater sent no more letters on the issue.

Sarai/Waag: North/South Collaboration

The Sarai/Waag Exchange provides a good example of how two civil society organizations -- one from the North, the other from the South -- use the Internet to collaborate on an equal level. The Exchange is an open-ended research partnership and series of fellowships aimed at getting to know one another by being immersed in each others' experiences, practices, and locality.

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