The A Spot

Two recent articles caught my eye - using small, flash memory sticks to transmit viral videos in Cuba and the use of SMS in Zimbabwe for election and voter advocacy. In both cases citizens are making use with the technologies on hand and not relying on overly burdensome or complex systems they would have to create and maintain themselves. There is great potential in people making do with the types of technologies that already exist. What do these examples tell us about the potential for cyber activism in other countries with repressive regimes? How can we help community based advocates develop the most compelling campaigns, collect the information they need, understand their target audiences, craft their message and use tools such as these in their campaigns?

ZIMBABWE: Election campaigns go hi-tech

BULAWAYO, 5 March 2008 (IRIN) - Savvy text messaging and cheeky ring tones are the new face of cost-effective political campaigning in Zimbabwe in the run up to the 29 March election, despite the creakiness of country’s cell phone networks.

Cyber-Rebels in Cuba Defy State’s Limits

HAVANA — A growing underground network of young people armed with computer memory sticks, digital cameras and clandestine Internet hookups has been mounting some challenges to the Cuban government in recent months, spreading news that the official state media try to suppress.

There is a dark side to this as was shown recently in Kenya where SMS was used to incite violence:

Kenya : SMS text messages the new guns of war? fuelling hate with cell phone text messages

Mobile phones are indeed part of the arms of war in the Kenyan crises. The Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR) denounced the hate text messages well ahead of the December 27 elections. The goal of the text messages was to fuel ethnic hate, just like certain songs and emails have recently done. “No one has complained about the reception of any hate messages, since the elections. We have not received any official complaint”, said KNCHR’s Victor Bwire, who also said that another report on the unrest will soon be published.

Tags: cuba, cyberactivism, flashmemory, kenya, sms, zimbabwe

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Articles, Resources, Teresa Crawford. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.