Category Archives: society

Activism 2.0

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When we change the way we communicate, we change society – Clay Shirky

Amongst the things that’ve changed since the advent of social software/social media is Activism. The ease with which new groups can be formed and action coordinated among its members, has changed the face of Activism completely to Activism 2.0 as we call it. Except for starting and end points everything has changed and changed drastically. Here’s a really old news item about online protest. Consider these examples of Activism 2.0

Second Life Strike Against IBM: One month after a virtual protest staged in Second Life with almost 2’000 avatars demonstrating on IBM islands, a new contract with IBM Italy has been signed.The new agreement, which still needs to be approved by the IBM Italy workforce, reinstates the performance bonus that was cut unilaterally by IBM Italy management.

Facebook Group Spawns Protests in 185 Cities: A Facebook group mobilizes millions in anti-FARC march.

Mass Virtual Suicide in China to Protest Game Limitations: A group of World of Warcraft players in China committed mass suicide. They wanted to draw attention to the latest restriction on their liberty: The same government agency that censors newspapers and bans books had just mandated a system of disincentives to limit the number of hours per day they spent playing online games. In the aftermath of the public outcry (and virtual die-ins), the Chinese government announced that adults could play MMORPGs for as long as they like.

These are some of the cases of Activism 2.0 but they give you a sense of the scope of this sort of activism and the possibilities that it has. A few years who would have thought a virtual mass suicide would have got even noticed, let alone letting a goverment to change it’s policy ? or who would have thought you could arrange a real protest involving millions of people withouth ever meeting them in real life before ?

The activism isn’t just limited to serious/political stuff, a quick search of facebook or social network of your choice will lead you to lots of things like petition to get McDonalds to do deliveries, or petition to get K.F.C to do door deliveries.
The possibilities with social software are immense and the pace at which their usage is spreading, further increases their scope, but what is it about the tools that really puts Activism 2.0 way ahead of its predecessor ?

Ease of group formation: Getting people together hasn’t been easier. Thanks to social software people can get together a lot easily and faster. Unlike in real life where a lot of effort, time and resources are needed to spread the word and get people together, with web the cost(time, effort and resources) is minimal.

Critical Mass: Due to the popularity of social software(Flickr,Wikipedia,Blogs etc) the available audience is hugh. You just have to start doing the right things and in no time you can reach out to people who can relate to your cause.

Sans Frontiers: Not limited by geography is another positive aspect of Activism 2.0 which makes it highly likely to spread to other areas where it would haven’t reached or took long to reach had it being an offline initiave.

Ease of coordination and collaboration: Because of really low transaction costs and real time updates it’s a lot easier to coordinate a large group of people. Since most of the popular tools are free and have inbuilt feature that support group activites, it’s really easy to share real time updates and collaborate.

Visibility: Unlike in it’s early days the disconnect between online and offline worlds is a lot less so a purely web phenomenon isn’t restricted to web only and starts spreading in offline world. The huge possibility of transition to real life is also an incentive to start with virtual protest.

Here are some the commonly used tools for Activism 2.0

1.) PetitionOnline
2.) Ning
3.) GoPetition
4.) Facebook
5.) Twitter
6.) SecondLife
7.) MySpace
8.) Blogs

List of online activism(of sorts)

1. Support The Monks’ Protest In Burma
2. Facebook layout protest
3. GasPriceProtest
4. Online Protest over 2012 logo
5. Candle4Tibet
6. AmazonFail
7. G20 summit protesters use Twitter, Facebook and Social Media tools to organise demonstrations
8. SF Activists use Twitter to coordinate war protest
9. Inside Moldova’s Revolution
10. StopThePikeHike
11. Cyber Demos Protest Online Censorship
12. The New Zealand Internet Blackout
13. Facebook protest forces interest rate climbdown
14. Nude art clothed in protest against China’s Internet crackdown
15. Petition to LinkedIn

So what do feel Activism 2.0, how do you see it changing in times to come ?

I CAN HAZ VOTE !!

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Today Delhi went for assembly polls. The turnout for polls should apparently a bit higher because of recent attacks on Mumbai and high voter turnout in Kashmir and even far off US(I think it’ll effect some people). This was the second time since I turned 18(voting age) that I went to caste my vote considering it my responsibility and having faith in democracy though being skeptical about the election candidates.

Keen to caste my vote I went to vote the first thing in the morning. I was told that cell phones are not allowed inside the premises so I left them at home and picked my Voter ID and a voter slip which had details like voter number, voting center etc. I was joined with a friend and we walked down towards our polling center( a school nearby). The police constable at the gate told that phones are not allowed and we replied that we were not carrying any, which he believed easily and let us in without frisking. Apparently frisking people which is common place in metro trains, shopping malls etc is not really necessary at a polling center.

Upon reaching the room in which we were supposed to caste our votes I was surprised to see two gentlemen from our apartment seated with the voter list from our society and marking who all are turning up to vote. I certainly did not expect to see them or any familiar faces in there(on asking a friend I was told that they are supporters of two main parties and are on some sort of duty to ensure fairness). Next step was to mark my attendance their and getting marked by ink to certify that I’ve voted and to ensure that I can’t vote again. Here also, the lady on duty was marking ink on people’s middle fingers only to be told by a gentleman(who apparently came from the adjoining room) that she is supposed to mark ink on the index finger.

The last step was to caste vote on an electronic machine, which I did eventually but couldn’t help feeling really bad about the whole set up and their unprofessional approach. If we can do our duties responsibly why can’t they ?

Shame, they did it again.

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Absence of statements blaming the other party from any political leader on the first day of Mumbai attacks was conspicuous but if you thought Indian politicians have finally learned not to politicize the terrorist attacks you are mistaken. The second day of seize saw leaders from the opposition starting the blame game again. What’s worst is that the ministers from leading party for whatever reasons invariably end up doing “tit for tat”.

Just when I was thinking if and how “Mumbai Attacks” would reflect on the Delhi assembly elections my phone beeped. It was a sms, that read “Atankvad ke virudh apna sangharsh jari rakhen, jinhone atankvad ke liye naram niti apnayee unke virudh bhari sankhya main matdan karen. Mehengi Padi Congress” which roughly translates into “continue your fight against terror and vote out people who took a lenient approach against terrorism”

A couple of hours later my phone beeped again for another sms and this one read “har terrorist attack chunav se pehle hi kyun hota hai ? isme faayda kiska ? Aatank par vote maangne ki sasti raajniti desh ko mehengi padegi” which roughly translates into “why does every terrorist attack happen just before elections, who stands to gain out of this?  the lowly act of asking for votes under the name of terrorism will cost the nation”

It’s a pity that this is the state of Indian politics, they won’t even spare terrorist attacks and shamelessly try to use them to garner votes.

A visit by our local MLA

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Yesterday evening saw our local MLA “Jai Bhagwan Agarwal” paying a visit to our apartment/society. It was the first time ever that I was present while someone contesting elections came for a visit as a part of his campaign. It was a different and funny experience. Till now i had seen more campaigning for elections on film and tv then in real life. The cavalcade of the minister was proceeded by various people playing drums, holding banners of BJP and shouting slogans for their leader. Want to know their slogan for this time ?

” Rohini ka Obama kaun ? Jai bhagwan Jai bhagwan ” –
Yes, you had to be there to believe it 🙂 Apparently they’ve been using this slogan all around the place.

After the MLA met his supporters who had come to greet him there took place a ritual (which as expected I had no clue about). Its one of those things that are apparently a regular affair around election time. The MLA weighed on a weighing balance and his biggest supporter and friend (a resident of our apartment) donated bags of 1 Rs coins that equaled his weight. I am told its a way to show one’s respect and trust.

Noise and people settled a bit after this and Mr agarwal spoke a few cliched words about how the residents of our apartments are important, how supportive they have always been and we’ll continue doing good things etc etc. The speech(if it can be called) lasted for five minutes before the procession moved to the next apartments leaving behind a few delicious sweet dishes to be circulated among those who had gathered

The YouTube Culture

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A great video presentation by Prof Wesch on YouTube from an anthropological point of view. I particularly liked the parts of talk about YouTube’s community and the website’s culture. As written previously, websites have cultures too , the fact that a good 5% of videos on YouTube are personal vlogs addressed to the YouTube community means something and common trends like remixing people’s videos and replying a video by another video demonstrate how cultures are built and grow. What do you think about the culture  and community on your favorite site ?

Let the change begin.

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In the guest post below by thepete from thepete.com shares what has changed in the political arena of US and how it should help to make things better.
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After living in America for 8 years under the rule of George W. Bush, it’s funny to find myself trying to be hopeful. I keep having to remind myself of the amazing thing we Americans did the other day. A great many of us were expecting a neck-and-neck battle to last for days or even weeks, but in the end, American voters really, reeeeally
wanted change right now. Perhaps, once Bush has abdicated the Oval Office and Obama takes his oath, I’ll have an easier time accepting that things have changed. But what does change really mean to the US and to world?

Personally, I think it boils down to one simple thing. Race. No, I don’t think racism is dead. No, I don’t think a black man can be a better leader than a white guy and I sure as hell don’t believe the other way around, either. For 232 years, the USA has been led by a white guy. In the great scheme of things, we’re all supposed to
believe skin color doesn’t matter, but after two centuries of American presidents, I think it matters a LOT.

In one of our Founding Documents here in the US, “We the People of the United States” agree that “All Men Are Created Equal.” Electing a man with dark skin finally makes this statement in our Declaration of Independence mean something. For over two hundred years it’s just been words on a page written by men who, themselves, owned blacks as slaves. Now, finally, America seems to mean what it says (at least in one way).

Barack Obama will bring a perspective to the country that no other white president could. Being raised in a white family while being black, he will know what both experiences are like. He’s gone from literal rags to riches. Now, we hope, he will apply these life lessons to the job of American President. But there will be obstacles. He still has pressures from big business and the special interests to deal with. He’s also inheriting an economy that by most standards is in dire straights. If that weren’t enough he’s got American troops scattered around the globe leaving the
American military fatigued and stretched thin. God forbid there should be another 911-style attack on American soil.

He’s in a position where he’ll have no choice but to work with the rest of the world to solve America’s problems. George W. Bush has left us in a situation that I don’t think we can fix on our own unless we withdraw completely from the rest of the planet and I seriously doubt we’d do that. Thankfully, Obama comes across as an entirely reasonable person, willing to talk, willing to understand and willing to work things out. To me, he doesn’t seem like a “with us or against us” kind of guy. Compared to the Republicans that are on their way out, his perspective will seem incredibly unique.

If the American people are right, that unique perspective will serve him well in dealing with the rest of the Earth, as well as the citizens of the United States. We can only hope.

Oh, hey! I did it! I hoped! 🙂

Disoriented

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Yes, that’s what I am right now, “DISORIENTED”. Things were fine till saturday evening, I enjoyed a lazy Saturday morning, met college friends after long and had sumptuous lunch. Everything was Normal and then a friend told me “three bombs went off in cp, karol bagh and gk”. I was then at a nearby Pizza Hut meeting my school friends. Within minutes everyone was on their phone’s calling family members and friends to know if they were fine. Ten minutes later everyone got settled and resumed talks about school, teachers et all. Another group of friends went for a late night show.

Indians are known to be adjusting and accommodating but who thought they could be this adjusting. People who were waiting on the bus stand where one of the blasts happened resumed the wait for their buses half an hour after the blast. Everything seems back to normalcy (assuming there was a disturbance), maybe for good but something doesn’t feel right. Had it been a weekday, with people busy with their 9-5’s maybe it would have been hard to notice any difference at all.

All sorts of questions are haunting me. Not only this I can feel lots of processes running in the background making me feel kinda lost, being there but without really being there. Was discussing with another friend who was equally shaken “What can we do about the whole thing”,  we’ve always been cursing the administration/government for not doing enough but that just doesn’t seem to help and my mind refuses to believe there is nothing we can do about the situation.

“A Wednesday” a film about bomb blasts and how a common citizen tries to avenge for it, comes to mind.

*spoiler alert start*
The story is about a 50+ year old man, a common citizen who is overwhelmed by the sense of insecurity that prevails that he takes law into his own hands and tries to take revenge from those who were behind recent bomb blasts
*spoiler alert end*

The film shows a way in which a common man raises above his existential needs and tries to make a change ,but that cannot be the only way. There have to be more ways in which we can do something about the situation rather than taking a backseat, doing nothing and only to be reminded of it few months/years from now. Its not one of those numerous problems that our country faces, unlike them it doesn’t have an obvious solution(at least not to me). Not sure if  I am the only one facing this but we need to start doing something to make things better and trust me if you think somebody else might do it for you, you couldn’t be more wrong.