In my last post I spoke of my desire to see how big the digital activism “iceberg” is, to study the many unnoticed actions that precede highly visible “Twitter Revolutions” and mass digital mobilizations.  In my current task for the Global Digital Activism Data Set I am inputting posts from Global Voices‘ “cyber-activism” category.  I [...]

Today the Global Digital Activism Data Set hit 500 cases, and it is still growing.  Part of this is due to the great diversity of digital activism campaigns, but most of it is due to the small acts of digital activism that don’t make the national or international media.  For every Iran or Moldova “Twitter [...]

by Mary Joyce (updated) What can digital technology actually do for activists?  The response to this question usually comes in the form of a long list of tools or a recounting of several case studies.  But what if we looked at these tools and cases in the aggregate and focused on the similarities?  Could we [...]

by Mary Joyce The Global Digital Activism Data Set is the first attempt to quantitatively study digital activism as a global phenomenon.  It is an all-volunteer project to create an open case study database under a Creative Commons license that will be accessible to scholars and activists around the world.  It currently has 342 cases, [...]

Last week, The Guardian ran a piece called “Clicktivism is ruining leftist activism,” (12 August 2010) by Micah White.  The basis of it was that digital activism has been diminished to mere tallying of things like clicks, email subscribers, Facebook followers… you name it. While he offers a small glimmer of hope at the end, [...]

I was delighted to read a familiar name in the current issue of Fast Company magazine.  In an article entitled “Is TED the New Harvard?”, Meta-Activism Project Board of Advisers member Esra’a Al Shafei talks about the effect that being a TEDGlobal fellow had on her organization, Mideast Youth, and their new project, CrowdVoice (profiled [...]

Talking about the digital divide is a bit passé. It was once a major issue. According to digital policy expert Sonia Arrison, in the late nineties “the Rev. Jesse Jackson called the digital divide ‘classic apartheid,’ the NAACP’s Kweisi Mfume dubbed it ‘technological segregation,’ and President Clinton urged a ‘national crusade’.” International institutions funded programs [...]

by Mary Joyce (updated) Liberation technology is “any form of information and communication technology that can expand political, social, and economic freedom”.  It is the focus of a new program at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, and the subject of an excellent article by Larry Diamond in the July issue [...]

We’ve submitted a panel to SXSW, which is now in public voting stages.  If the topic below sounds like one that you’d like to hear, please consider voting for it on the Panel Picker.  Of course, if you know anyone else who might benefit from the topic, feel free to pass it along to them. [...]

At the Guardian Activate Summit last month, social media entrepreneur Gaurav Mishra (full disclosure: we dated) argued that there are two digital activism paradigms: information and inspiration: In the first paradigm of digital activism, you work with a disadvantaged group that suffers from limited access to even the most basic information and tools for self-expression. [...]