10 tactics for turning information into action

Don't want to see Ads? Register for your free dotSUB account here!

Duration: 55 minutes and 19 seconds

Year: 2009

Country: United Kingdom

Language: English

License: CC - Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike

Genre: None

Producer: Tactical Technology Collective (http://www.tacticaltech.org)

Director: Tactical Technology Collective (http://www.tacticaltech.org)

Views: 2,664 (1,254 embedded)

Posted by: tacticaltech on Apr 2, 2010

10 tactics features 25 info-activism stories told from the point of view of advocates in different countries including Lebanon, India, Tunisia, Egypt, Kenya, Indonesia, South Africa and the UK. For more information see http://www.informationactivism.org/.

Report this video as offensive

Translate and Transcribe

Embed Video
Embed normal player
Embed a smaller player
Advanced Embedding Options
Embedding Options

Size:

Language:

Embed Code
Embed transcript
Embed transcript in:
Invite a user to dotSUB

Your invitation to join dotSUB was successful

There was an error inviting that user to dotSUB

Video Transcription

Show in new window

We asked 50 rights advocates how they turn information into action
and we asked what info-activism means to them
Info-activism means having access to technology
and being able to use technology to create and disseminate information
in a very democratic and participatory way
Giving people information helps them make informed decisions
helps them mobilise and motivate their communities
and it also means helping to raise hope
in circumstances where that's the last thing that you actually feel you have
People who haven't had access to sophisticated tools
for communicating and advancing their agenda
now have pretty amazing access
We have these amazing tools with the internet and mobile phones
to spread messages very quickly
And the entertaining messages spread even more quickly
It has to be people centred. Has to be participatory
And it has to be the strategic use of different communication tools
It's about using new spaces that have opened up because of the internet
and even new media as well
even cheaper forms of digital technology
whether it's video or other platforms such as online publishing
And it's about making use of all these new spaces to do
you know, to do old fashioned activism
engagement
creativity
interaction
mobilisation
connecting people
participatory
accessible
inspired
sharing
co-operation
action
change
10 tactics
for turning information into action
a film by
Tactical Technology Collective
Information is power.
It can raise awareness, improve lives
uncover corruption and rights abuses
and when used effectively within a campaign
bring about equality and justice.
Info-activism is what happens when rights advocates use information
as their primary asset for driving change.
It is what happens when we turn information into action to address an issue.
Info-activism involves harnessing information and communication tools
for positive social change.
Here are ten tactics
explained through successful campaigns from around the world
that you can use to turn your information into action
10 tactics
for turning information into action.
Mobilising people around the issues that matter to them
Requires a strong message, clear goals and a good plan.
Video is a powerful tool that can be used to bring people together
to take action.
We train communities in making videos and
in one of the areas where we train communities
they made a film on land rights in a very feudal part of Gujurat
and all the videos actually end with a call to action.
So the call to action in this video was
to stand up for their rights and ask for the land.
Video is a good tool because I think a lot of communities do not have literacy
and access to other forms of technology, for instance the internet.
In that sense I think video is a very good medium
to reach out to such communities
because you see things happening right in front of your eyes and
it really creates a lot of impact.
As a result of this film which was screened in around 25 villages
around 700 people took a rally out
and went to their local administrative office and filed complaints
that they were not being distributed land
Although the application is still under process the fact that 700 people
got together and took a rally out was a great thing
and it was one of the biggest impacts that we've had.
Online platforms, such as social network websites
can be used as virtual meeting spaces
for people concerned about a particular need or issue
Rebecca Saabe Saade uses Facebook in her work
with lesbian, bisexual and transgender women in Lebanon.
Because facebook is so popular in Lebanon
it allows the organisations Rebecca works for
to connect with a large number of people struggling with discrimination
and social pressures.
But using popular social network sites like Facebook
has disadvantages as well.
When I was working with marginalised society it was different because
mainly the pressure is social so just by being out it's a problem.
So we had to find a way to use this very popular tool in Lebanon
without damaging their security or their anonymity.
So what we did is we started this very lonely profile
that doesn't have any friends, that just contains very basic information:
the logo, the name of the organisation, the country and what we work on
which is lesbians or trans in Lebanon.
The whole point of this profile is not specifically social networking.
It's just to help these women or whoever is looking for support for lesbians in Lebanon
to just get to our website. It's linked to our website.
I mean we have profiles in different places but this is the point. The point is to always
advertise in a very popular way to get them to our website.
Working with a very marginalised community that I work with
we were aware that Facebook is not private at all.
No matter what you try to do it can not be private.
So if we start a group, for example, and a lot of girls join that group, it will be very clear
that these girls are lesbians, most probably.
So what we had to do was find a very
inventive way of not connecting anyone to us.
The Pink Chaddi campaign in India also revealed
pros and cons of using Facebook.
'Chaddi' means 'underwear' in Hindi
The Pink Chaddi campaign was developed as a response to women being attacked
by a right wing political group called Sri Ram Sena simply because
they were seen drinking in pubs.
The Pink Chaddi group mobilised 16,000 people
to join the campaign within just three days
and it peaked a few months later with over 50,000 members.
"In a shocking incident of moral policing...
hoodlums viciously attacked girls who were at a pub..."
A lot of the images of this attack were broadcast on television across the country
and a lot women and other people got very angry at how women
were being treated by the Ram Sena.
There was a lot of momentum on the online group, a lot of anger and resentment
that had to be translated.
One of the ways it did get translated was the sending of the Pink Chaddis to Pramod Muthalik.
There was a lot of media coverage as well of this act
and in response what he has said first was that he would respond by giving pink saris
because he wants to cover up our perversion
with something decorous like a sari.
The Pink Chaddi campaign has definitely been successful in my opinion
because it has allowed for a space in which a conversation has happened
between ordinary people and the Hindu right
which is not always possible.
It's a non violent response and it's not about
beating up people who were involved in the campaign
which is very often what happens -- that there is a violent response.
There were various problems with the online activism which made it
difficult to translate into an offline mode and one of them was
the fact that it was on Facebook.
And Facebook stops you from messaging the people in your group
after you hit 5,000 members. So without realising
when we crossed that mark and became 16,000 and 40,000
we realised we could not communicate with anybody who was in the group anymore.
All that could be done was discussion boards and messages on the wall
which were not effective enough to communicate with everyone.
Later, the Pink Chaddi campaigners learnt
that using Facebook had other disadvantages as well.
The groups online presence was hacked into, defaced and
later deleted while offensive messages were sent to the group's creators.
Despite numerous requests on Facebook to re-establish the group
months later, no action had been taken.
These examples highlight the need to be alert to both
the opportunities and risks involved in using online platforms for activism.
As media recording devices have become smaller and cheaper
people have started to record rights abuses, as they happen.
Supporting witnesses to record rights abuses
and providing spaces where they can be broadcast
is a useful tactic that can be used to highlight rights abuses
and have them addressed.
For me the power of video lies in it's ability to convey
the visual evidence and the real first hand experience
of what it's like to experience, for example, a human rights abuse.
The exciting thing now is people have cell phones
which they can use to capture the first person reality
that they experienced. So it's no longer just a select few
who get to tell the stories. Everyone has the potential to be a witness.
Witness, record, broadcast and expose.
This was the tactic used by the Targuist Sniper --
an anonymous video activist in Morocco
who filmed police officers taking bribes from motorists.
So he filmed those police in different places in different days
of the week doing the same thing.
He filmed about 10 or 15 police agents doing the same abuses
in the streets of those villages.
He put that on YouTube: he published the first, second and third videos
The videos were seen by hundreds of thousands of users.
They pushed the government to arrest those agents
and they pushed the government actually to use the same technique
and hide cameras in the street and monitor police agents
by using the same technique as was used by the Targuist Sniper.
In a different context in Burma
citizens' documentation of state abuses does not appear to have
changed the behaviour of its military regime.
However, bloggers have recorded and broadcast what they have witnessed
putting a global spotlight on Burma
and this has raised awareness about the human rights abuses that are taking place.
Now, in Burma, everything is restricted
especially internet, email and online stuff.
But a lot of people in Burma are using blogs.
So they are posting stories, images, whatever they can get.
And then people around the world can see what is actually happening in Burma.
Blogs and cheap digital recording devices were seen as integral
to the so-called Saffron Revolution that took place in Burma.
As the Burmese protests about economic hardship and military brutality
grew in size and frequency, reports of military violence also increased.
Images of protesting nuns and monks wearing saffron coloured robes
were broadcast on the internet and were then picked up by
mainstream media across the globe, leading the military regime
to temporarily cut all internet and most cellphone services
during the peak of activities.
Despite this, as Aung explains, the deployment of simple, cheap cameras
was critical for recording what happened
while blogs were an invaluable tool for getting news and images
distributed to the outside world.
What happened was people saw this thing happening in front of their eyes
and they just took a camera and they just shot it.
All the photos, audio, videos that they got they just posted them up on blogs.
That did automatically become a very good success.
But under repressive regimes successful online info-activism
does not always easily translate into offline impacts.
In Burma, many bloggers are now paying a high price
for their online activism during the Saffron Revolution.
Many have been jailed with sentences sometimes stretching beyond 50 years.
This shows why the consequences of online activities
need to be thought through carefully in advance
by those involved in uncovering and broadcasting rights abuses.
Victims and survivors of human rights abuses are already vulnerable.
So it's really important when we film them to make sure we don't doubly victimise them.
For us that means making sure that people understand the worst case scenario for who will see the footage.
In a digital era you can't assume that once a piece of footage is out there
it won't be copied, placed on YouTube and seen by the perpetrator
or the person who is responsible for whatever happened.
We think you should explain the worst case scenario and help people make their own judgement
about whether they want to speak out or be seen
and then take measures to protect them.
So disguising their identity or voice and taking those steps.
I think one of the biggest challenges now for info-activism is
how we encourage thousands of people who are
now participating in movements for human rights using video
to think about how they understand the importance of consent
and how do they understand these issues
so they don't doubly victimise people who have experienced human rights abuses.
Mobile recording devices, blogs, videos and online broadcasting channels
Are just some of the ways that info-activists can record and expose rights abuses
and support actions that will address them.
But as these examples have highlighted, it is essential to carefully consider
people's need for anonymity, to protect those who may be vulnerable to further abuses.
To really engage an audience, you need to be creative.
Rather than overwhelm people with words or text
there are many ways to visualise an issue.
Animation is one way and it is a medium that also provides a creative license
to explore sensitive issues.
I think animation would be particularly good
as a info-activism tool in advocacy
in a situation where there's an explosive or
sensitive political context where you don't
necessarily want to handle things in a literal way or in a head-on way
when you're dealing with, for example, race or gender sensitivities
because you can use animals or objects, for example, in animation
rather than real people. That gives you a license to deal with
a lot of things that you can't deal with
in conventional film making.
I think the magic of animation appeals to everyone.
Moving inanimate objects or objects you don't expect to move
is quite amazing and it's something that excites most people.
I'm currently working on a project in Cairo
with a group called The Women and Memory Forum
who are re-writing Arabic mythology or folk tales from a feminist perspective
We're producing a three minute animation
based on one of those re-writes in order to
have different cultural representations of women in the Middle East.
Maps are another way to visualise information.
There is something timeless about maps and this may be why they are
a medium that people seem to trust.
During the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon
human rights NGO, Samidoun
used maps to help people understand what was happening.
We did a couple of maps during the summer of 2006
at the time of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
The two main maps, one detailed the daily bombings on Lebanon every day
and it was updated daily.
And the second map detailed damages in infrastructure and vital sites.
During that period when we started
we didn't really know what we wanted out of collecting that information
but we wanted to understand what we were going through.
As we started working and publishing the stuff we had
we discovered different uses for it
in activism, in organising relief work and in facilitating reconstruction later on.
You don't need to create new maps to embed your messages.
Anyone who tries to look at the Tunisian Presidential Palace
using Google maps, is likely to find some unexpected information
thanks to the work of Tunisian activists involved with
the independent collective blog site, Nawaat.org
There is a very creative experience
that we've seen on the Tunisian internet when activists from Nawaat
geo-tagged their videos on YouTube.
By geo-tagging I mean giving geographical information or
the name of the place of the video you are publishing on YouTube.
By doing that you are making your information, your video
available and watchable on the mapping tools of Google.
So what the Tunisian activists did is
they geo-tagged all the videos about human rights abuses in Tunisia
by putting them around the Tunisian Presidential Palace in Carthage
So when you go to Google Earth and you go to the Presidential Palace
you will find it surrounded by videos talking about human rights abuses in Tunisia
So you will find two sides of Tunisia.
The touristic side of Tunisia about the big history
and on the right side information about the recent Tunisia
the modern Tunisia of human rights abuse.
Maps and animation are two of many tools
that can be used to help people navigate and interpret information
in a visual way, that will engage them
and embed pictures in their minds that are likely to resonate over time.
It is easy to get lost in the big picture of human rights abuses.
Bringing people's personal stories to the front of your info-activism
is one way to make sure people's experiences are not ignored.
We use personal stories in our information activism
because as a feminist organisation the personal is political
and for us they really demonstrate the real life application
of human rights and women's rights.
An example of where we've used digital stories in our work
is in a training with two groups of women.
One group of women were survivors of sexual assault
because of their sexual orientation.
And another group of women who had survived domestic violence.
We put these stories together on a DVD and
we distributed the DVD with a book that gave instructions
on how to integrate the stories in a human rights education programme.
So the stories were really meant to provide alternative training materials
to people who are trying to do change-making training.
We hope that will also contribute to the information that's out there
but assist in understanding and also reduce violence
against the groups that we are speaking about
and help inform policy that is really addressing
the needs of people as they identify them.
This a particular example of how a silenced community can
take control over their own words and images and make something
not necessarily revealing their identities as well.
They get to choose the voice, the images and also have control over the
actual equipment and the computers themselves.
Personal stories can be compiled and distributed in many different ways.
Grassroots video-making can capture people's experiences
in a way that will bring about change.
We were working with a group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
where about 5 million people have died as a consequence of the conflict.
One of the biggest problems is the use of child soldiers.
This group was trying to find a way to engage communities
to think about why they let their children become child soldiers.
So they thought to produce a video that
would open a debate in their community.
They showed it in communities
all around the Eastern Congo to start a discussion.
I think that's really important because they thought not only about
what the issue was, but they also thought about who their audience was
what their goal was and what story they had to tell.
They were successful in starting to get people thinking about that
and then they realised their campaign had moved on.
And so they needed a new tactic.
At that time the International Criminal Court was starting to think about its first prosecutions.
So they said, 'well how can we influence the criminal court to think about that'
A completely different audience.
So they made a different video which really brought the voices
directly of those children who had been forced into the military
to show to senior officials at the criminal court.
And they chose a different story.
It wasn't an open story, it was much more of a directed story
saying to that audience
'You need to act on this because this is a crime of war...
...a crime against humanity'
For me that's really an illustration about how the power of personal experience
at a local level captured by people who are closest to it
can be used as a tactic to influence different audiences
at different times to really achieve change.
Blogs are renowned for their ability to blur the lines
between personal and public dialogue
which makes them an effective storytelling tool.
The collaborative blog project, Blank Noise
allows people to support an ongoing discussion
about sexual harassment in India.
They invite bloggers to talk about their experiences
of urban sexual harassment.
But they do in a way where, well in the year that I participated
they asked us to talk about it as if we were superheroes.
So it's a very interesting take on urban sexual harassment.
It's not a report, it's not like a sob story, it's kind of wittily put.
So it's a great way of making things readable as well for a different audience.
I think blogs are good tools for info-activism
because they lend themselves to storytelling.
Blogs are very personal so it becomes quite easy for
individuals to put their perspectives out there.
And it's very easy to use, it's like journaling.
It's a very accessible way of writing and also reading about issues.
The way most blogs work for info-activism and for advocacy
is through blog communities.
Blog communities centre around a particular issue
and they usually have a time-frame where they write around a particular issue.
Blogs, documentary videos and online stories
are three ways that personal stories can be used
to ensure that people's experiences reach different audiences
and bring about social change.
A good joke can spread far and wide
and can be a powerful tool, especially when it is used
to criticise or mock power in environments
where it is difficult to do that in a direct way.
In Egypt, while activists were trying to mobilise people
against the Mubarack's regime
we got tonnes of contributions from practically unknown
young people on the internet
of humorous images that are basically remixing of
film posters depicting the face of the President
in place of famous villains and thugs and thieves
and members of organised crime or whatever
to make a statement about the current situation.
In a very short period of time
because of the incessant use of humour
the whole mystique of power around the President
was completely destroyed and he is now perceived as
an aging old man who is
trapped into this role and being very inefficient about it.
That became like a kind of narrative platform
to build an actual movement that is demanding
democratic reform and clean elections and so on.
People don't only laugh at good jokes.
Ever been to a karaoke bar with your family or friends?
The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers in Thailand
use karaoke to raise awareness about serious things
using popular songs with lyrics and video clips
that are re-focused on sex worker's rights.
It's a clever tactic, which uses popular music
to transmit information to sex workers and their allies
and to get them thinking about what is wrong with the laws and policies
that affect their communities and to push for change.
I use video Karaoke because in Asia
people love to sing a song and see the picture
Video Karaoke in Asia is really popular.
So it's easy to get people into it.
That's why I got the idea to change the lyrics of a song
So it was easy to get a message across about anti sex worker policies
and the new trafficking laws.
For sex workers from the Asia Pacific Network
Kareoke provides a common language, even when they do not have
another language in common.
The group's karaoke videos have been screened across the region
at parties, performances and in front of audiences of thousands
such as at an international HIV/AIDS conference.
One video received nearly 10,000 views online
on YouTube and Blip.tv
A different example of how humour can be used
came in the form of a birthday gift to Belarus's President, Alexander Lukashenko
after he complained publicly that the internet was too anarchic
and announced plans to tighten content restrictions.
Activists responded with an online campaign that sought to mock
what they saw to be propagandising government-controlled media.
Humour is the first step to break taboos
and to break fears.
So by making people laugh about dangerous stuff
like dictatorship, repression, censorship
is a first weapon against those fears, actually
There is a very funny campaign launched in Belarusia, a few years ago.
It's called 'Give Luchenko his net'
Because Luchenko made statements accusing the internet of
playing against the government of Belarus
saying 'their is a lot of untrue content there'.
So the Belarusian activists made a clone of YouTube and Live Journal
And published their stuff, very funny videos
and humorous cartoons about President Luchenko
This kind of use of tools that are easily identifiable
by internet users, but switching the content
to something political and shaping it
in a humourous pattern that makes fun
and it makes political accounting interesting.
Making people laugh can be a highly effective way
of breaking down barriers that prevent positive social change.
Websites, karaoke video clips and film posters
are just three ways to convey a serious message
in a light, yet effective way.
Sometimes an overlooked part of info-activism work
is the value of maintaining and sustaining healthy networks.
Networks are power in the digital age
and exploiting them fully requires planning and time.
All the non-profit work and campaigning is
basically about people.
And when you translate it into technical language
People are contacts.
Not only people but organisations, groups,
relationships in between them.
All of this is information that you can build on
that you can use to engage your audiences
and you can use to engage your targets.
I am personally involved in a project called CiviCRM
which is a free and open source software
built especially for non-profit organisations and advocacy groups.
It has been built with a lot of feedback from all those groups so
in my personal opinion it's basically an excellent tool
for managing contact information.
FrontlineSMS is a different kind of software
that also supports targeted, network communication
this time, specifically using SMS.
Well managing contacts is obviously important from an organisational point of view
but speaking from the perspective of the someone you are communicating with
the last thing they want to be receiving is messages or information that
they are not concerned about, that does not interest them, is not relevant to them.
So if you're running multiple campaigns
clearly you don't want to be sending the wrong groups of people the wrong messages.
It may be necessary to send
a message just to a group of women in a particular area
or maybe to human rights activists working in a particular region.
If you're not categorising people in the right way
then you're going to start blasting people with things they don't want.
Not only does that affect the effectiveness of your project or your campaign
but it also upsets people and it can be very counter-productive.
A good example of how FrontlineSMS is being used
to help send targeted messages and communicate
with targeted groups was during the reconstruction efforts after the Asian Tsunami
where a project being run by Mercy Corps was looking to have conversations
and send specific information to a different number of groups.
So using FrontlineSMS they were able to group people into different categories
and these people included farmers, who might want to know the coffee prices in different markets,
Government Ministers who wanted summary information on the different market prices being charged in different areas
other people wanted weather forecasts.
Using FrontlineSMS and using the grouping facility and functionality within the software
they were able to put people into multiple groups
depending on what information they wanted to receive and then they could target those people
with an SMS providing them with that market price, or that weather report or whatever the information might be.
If you want to manage your contact information in your info-activism work
you need to be systematic
you need to try to integrate information collection on almost all the levels
After some time, well I will not hide it, it's an effort!
But after some time you will see the incredible effects
of seeing different connections, seeing patterns.
Basically it's like getting a very powerful tool to find out about
what's happening around you and giving you a powerful tool to achieve your goals.
Databases, client relationship management systems and bulk text messaging software
are three tools you can use to manage your contacts
and to sustain healthy and productive relationships
with the people who want to support you.
Sometimes issues are very complicated.
They may involve issues that have been evolving for a long time
or they may be connected with many events and many different people.
To enable an issue to be understood
you may need to find out what information exists
and whether you have a legal right to access it.
Every year most of us pay our taxes to the government
and every few years we elect the representatives who will run that government
and therefore we're handing over power and money
and we have a right to know how that money is spent
and how that power is exercised.
In over 82 countries around the world
access to information or freedom of information laws
give everyone a right to ask a question and get an answer from their government.
The international standards are very clear that
access to information procedures should be simple, fast and free.
Generally they are.
In the majority of countries filing a request for information is free.
So we have many examples from around the world where
people have asked the government a question
got information and used that in public debate to change the way things are done.
Farmsubsidy.org is an initiative that lobbies for
access to information about government farm subsidies
across the European Union.
It aims to ensure that journalists and civil society
are able to scrutinise how the billions of euros of funding
allocated for farm subsidies is spent.
Within our campaign at farmsubsidy.org when we're successful
we're almost faced with an avalanche of information.
Deciding which information to draw the attention of the media to is very difficult
If you've got an enormous data set
and you're trying to find out ways to present it to people
one really good way of doing that is to make it relevant to them
in their locality, in the area where they live.
A great way of doing that is to use a map
to plot the data out on Google Maps, it's quite easy to do that now, the technology is free
we've done that with Sweden
because we got excellent coordinate information for Sweden
and so we were able to present seven years worth of farm subsidy payments in Sweden
on a single Google map so people could
zoom right in to find out where the money goes in their area
and that really makes it relevant to them -- much better than looking at a long list
that goes page after page of boring text.
But getting access to government information is not always easy
whether a freedom of information law exists or not.
It took me three years to get the data on the UK farm subsidy recipients
and I'm not quite finished in fact with my request.
So you have to be prepared for a long fight
and to not take no for an answer
and to use any tactic you've got whether it's your legal rights
or whether it's political pressure
that you can apply through anyone you might know working in the area
or maybe even through the media
You need to just build up the pressure
using your rights as a citizen.
In another example, technologists and rights advocates
obtained information from multiple sources
including government and non government agencies.
The information came in many different forms
and so the challenge lay in making it meaningful to a global audience
who could then take action.
A project I was involved with was the
featured layers on the Darfur Crisis in Goggle Earth.
We were a team of about a dozen people
assembled by the United States Holocaust Museum.
They wanted to, in a very engaging way
raise awareness of what was happening in Darfur.
We really pushed the boundaries of what could be done in Google Earth.
We had a great amount of information -- spreadsheets, photos, videos
plus the base layers in Google Earth themselves
which were recently updated satellite images
often showing villages that had been destroyed in Darfur.
We spent about six months working with that data
to really pay proper respect to the situation there
so that we could convey a powerful message.
It got great coverage by Google and in the media
and thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people
have seen those layers and it's greatly raised awareness of the issues there.
We also provided direct means for people to get involved in the campaign.
So from the layers there were links to sign petitions
and to get even more deeply involved in the cause.
It's not always an easy task exercising your right to information
and then finding the right ways to present dense information to engage the public.
But it is an important tactic in Info-activism.
If you can persist you may be rewarded
with significant leaps forward for your cause.
Not so long ago, real time collaboration between large numbers of people
was difficult if you weren't physically gathered in the same space.
New technologies have changed this.
We are now seeing innovative examples such as what is sometimes called swarming.
Swarming is what happens when people's experiences and knowledge
are pulled together to create a combined effect
far greater than their individual acts.
As the 2008 Mumbai attacks unfolded,
a swarm was created using Twitter.
A microblogging service that allows people to send and read each others personal updates
via the internet and mobile phones.
When the Mumbai terror attacks were happening
there were a lot of us within the vicinity
and we started pouring out our emotions
and talking about what was going on
and what we were seeing on television into Twitter.
We were feeling like 'what do we do?'
and we were feeling alone in our homes because we weren't allowed to get out
and it allowed us to feel less alone, less angry as a group
and we able to actually network with people on the ground
to bring out information that was required.
For instance, we had people going to hospitals
and collecting lists of injured and dead
which wasn't published anywhere on the web and they were faxed to us
and then we quickly put them up as links on Twitter to a blog that was supporting this.
In other cases it was about getting the right kind of blood
to the hospital that required that kind of blood.
So its about spontaneous mobilisation of a community that already exists
through the multiples nodes and hubs that you have
as you leave your footprints on the web.
The other thing that is really sort of almost magic about microblogging
is the aggregation of these things
and the amplification of these things
because it is a broadcast mechanism.
So that served in getting a lot of interest from mainstream media
which fed back into how effective the mobilisation could be
around awareness of what was going on.
As the Mumbai terror attacks showed, mobile phones
have become vital tools during crises.
In Madagascar, mobiles were used with computer software
to enable citizens to report what was happening
when anti-government protests turned violent.
One software program, FrontlineSMS
allowed text messages to be sent and received
by large numbers of subscribers in Madagascar
while Ushahidi allowed subscribers messages to show on a map.
In 2009, during the troubles in Madagascar
where I believe some demonstrators were shot by the army
there was clearly an opportunity there to collect
information and news and voices of people on the ground
who were experiencing the troubles, who were involved in the demonstrations
and who were impacted by what was going on.
Using technologies you can combine the collective voice of people
so people can SMS in information, they can send in emails,
they can complete online forms. You can then aggregate that information
with the news coming in from the mainstream and then bringing all that together
you get a much better picture of what's happening on the ground.
Ushahidi, the crowd sourcing platform, which used FrontlineSMS
to allow people to text a number and then contribute to the news
through their mobile phones so people could go to the internet and send emails
or they could go onto a website and complete a form.
People generally prefer, due to convenience and speed, sending an SMS
and FrontlineSMS was used to collect those messages
which was then posted to the Ushahidi site
and from that point they were aggregated with the other reports coming in
including information from the mainstream media and then placed on a map
and it gave a very good idea of where the hotspots of the trouble were
and it gave a much broader view of what was happening
in the country than otherwise would have been given.
As these examples illustrate, mobile phones, when connected with online platforms
can be a powerful way to combine experiences and knowledge
to report events comprehensively as they unfold.
Technology that listens is technology that responds
to individual information needs.
One example is Infonet's budget tracking platform
which allows people to send free SMS enquiries
about the allocation of funding for development projects in their local area.
Citizens can then contact social watch groups
to assess if funds have been spent in the way that was intended.
The context here is that we developed a system that uses short code SMSs
and we get people sending in queries about the amounts of money
that have been allocated for projects at a local level.
It's a two way process because they query the system
and at the same time, they feed the system with content.
Infonet's budget tracking platform has led to a number of discoveries of misused funds.
By leaking these findings to government and mainstream media
Infonet has been able to ensure that corruption has been addressed
and citizen efforts have been rewarded with action.
Recent developments have greatly increased the ways technology can listen
and respond to people's needs.
The phone used to be something that was controlled
by the telecommunications monopolies
and over the last few years, there's been a whole
renaissance in telephony technology that's built around voiceover IP.
You can now run your own phone company on free software.
What that means is you can do all of the creative call centre
and interactive voice menus and that kind of stuff
on your own phone system or on your own home computer
so many activist groups will now set up a call-in line.
Using their own phone system, the Kubatana Trust of Zimbabwe
developed a platform that ensured citizens
were informed via an SMS about where they could vote in government elections.
In Zimbabwe, we've had many elections over the last seven or so years
One of the government's tactics was to make it difficult
for people to work out where to vote and where to register to vote.
But one of the things that we did was to help people find out where to vote
by cooperating with another organisation that had managed
eventually to get the voters' roll into a database format.
We got people to send us their national registration IDs using SMS.
We compared those IDs against this database and then we SMSed back
to the people where they could vote.
It was a very interesting campaign and a lot of people took advantage of it.
While thousands of people used this system developed by the Kubatana Trust
the experience showed that lack of literacy and language differences
continued to limit people's use of SMS services.
To address this, Kubatana are now developing 'Freedom Fone'.
A system that uses voice recognition rather than text
to provide people with information.
The Freedom Fone project is being built out so that each group
can take a copy of this software and run it on their own system
and simply provide the menus of what kind of information
they are going to access and provide.
Freedom Fone registers that they called and the phone system calls them back
so the organisation is able to cover all the costs.
There is a tool that has been overlooked I think by the development sector
and that's the area of interactive voice response.
We believe that if we can make this an easier device to use by non-profits
that we will see people reach out to their communities
using dial-up information services which would become almost the poor person's
equivalent of the internet, being able to dial up for information when you need it.
Designing and using technologies that can listen to people's needs and respond quickly
can be a good way to quickly address immense gaps in information
and improve information flows.
When corruption and right's abuses
are being committed by those with the most power
such as governments, multinational companies, police or the military
It is sometimes necessary to investigate and expose
what is going on.
Although there was widespread knowledge
of police brutality in Egypt
it was an issue the mainstream media seemed unwilling to report on.
To help affected citizen's carry out investigations
Journalist, Noha Atef, began a blog called 'Torture in Egypt'.
All the content is about torture crimes committed in Egypt
and the relationship between policemen and citizens.
'Torture in Egypt' was started at the time
when torture was not highlighted enough, at all.
Torture crimes were rarely mentioned on TV
It was not very interesting to mainstream media.
So 'Torture in Egypt' highlighted it
and it was inspiring to other internet users, especially bloggers
to write about torture and even their views.
Because what they were reading
in 'Torture in Egypt' that was really shocking.
By uncovering human rights abuses in Egypt through though this blog,
Noha has managed to correct some serious injustices.
In 2007 a woman wrote telling Noha that her husband
had been kept in prison for 14 years
even though the courts had found him not guilty
of the crime he was arrested for.
The court said that he was not guilty
but the policeman, a certain policeman, kept him detained.
And he was renewing the papers to keep him in jail.
And I wrote about it many times
and I was following it up.
Noha's article was cited in mainstream media across Egypt.
The policeman involved in the case wrote to her
upset at the public attention he was receiving.
A short time later the jailed man was released from prison
free, as he should have been 14 years earlier.
Another effective investigation was carried out in Tunisia.
The story of the Tunisian aeroplane video began when
a friend of mine, Tunisian activist and blogger
was searching the internet for photos related to aeroplanes in Tunisia
and he found the image of the Tunisian Presidential aeroplane
in a website for jetspotters -- people who share photos of planes they have taken in airports.
He kept on searching and found more than 20 photos
of the same Presidential aeroplane in different airports in Europe.
So he went to the Tunisian Presidential website
and took the list of the official trips of the Tunisian President
and compared that with the photos with dates and places
of the photos of the Presidential plane in Europe
and he found out that only one trip was official
So the question that he asked was
'Who is using the Tunisian aeroplane and why?'
He went out and made a video
mashing up those images using Google Earth
flying over the different airports
where the plane was witnessed.
He published that on YouTube
and engaged the Tunisian blogosphere to talk about
issues of transparency and the abuse of power.
Big mainstream media like foreign policy magazine
published the story and investigated the case
and said that the Tunisian aeroplane was used by the first lady of Tunisia
for some personal shopping in luxury shops in Europe.
As a result of the public attention this video received
the government in Tunisia blocked YouTube
and another popular video sharing site, Dailymotion.
Despite this, this story, like the Torture in Egypt blog
shows how the internet can be used
both as a tool to investigate abuses of power
and to broadcast and spread the truth.
As digital tools become cheaper, more widespread
and easier to use
our ability to access, analyse and share information grows.
By linking new technologies with creative thinking
communities and advocates can transform information
into powerful action that defends and promotes human rights.
Tactical Tech have been working with rights advocates
to use information for advocacy for over a decade.
In this film we've collected advocates stories
and shown 10 tactics you can use to
turn information into a force for change
If you'd like to implement some of these tactics
Try using one of our toolkits and guides
which will tell you how to use different techniques
and provide you with the software and tools you will need.
Then, think about how you can document your own info-activism stories
and when you have done this, tell us
so that we can share these stories with others.
The information age is here.
And with it comes the power for us all
to make change.
For updates and content visit: http://www.informationactivism.org