Communications Technology in the Service of the Marginalized

In the Philippines, protesters using cell-phone text messaging mobilized hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in January 2001 to help oust President Joseph Estrada. Reference: Time Magazine, June 4, 2001

* In China, tens of thousands of followers of the spiritual group Falun Gong continue to exist-despite a harsh crackdown-in a vibrant community fed by the Web and encrypted text messaging. Reference: Time Magazine, June 4, 2001.

http://www.unites.org/Html/Resource/unites/unites4.htmI. SIMPLE LIVING and ADVANCED TECHNIQUES

Most of us feel ambivalent about technology. For many years technology has been a weapon used by the powerful against the weak. Time has changed things; the technology built around the digital revolution is becoming cheaper and easier to use. Gone are the days when people with advanced degrees and astronomically expensive equipment were the only ones “tuned in”.

Our fear of technology is exemplified by George Orwell’s vision of Big Brother: an unseen force, constantly monitoring us through a technological “one-way-mirror”. Our current reality is even stranger than Orwell could have predicted when he wrote 1984: we now have the tools to turn the “one-way mirror” into a window that looks back at those looking at us.

Tools such as scanners, the worldwide web, cellular phones and new communications satellites give us capabilities once available only to the military-industrial complex. It is our belief that these tools are most effective when used in the Spirit of Peace for a focused purpose. Government security services, the paramilitary right, survivalists, and cop wannabes have been using this stuff for years – since the technology is morally “neutral”, it is up to us to give it the power to do good. We focus on what we need and remain respectful of personal privacy…especially our own.

My goal is to introduce the powerful tools of communications and information technology to those in the environmental and social justice movements. I will focus on practical application rather than technical explanations of how things work. There is an interesting mix of time-tested ways and the cutting edge techniques available that could be of great assistance to those planning good deeds.

From the Ruckus Foundation web site.http://ruckus.org/man/comms/index.html