The crux, I think, is this: twitter et. al. provide more interesting and useful communication tools.  But communication isn’t enough, you have to wield power, and power doesn’t happen on the Internet… Communication is still really important to enable action.  But that communication doesn’t have to be new or fancy, and it may work better if it isn’t.

So what’s next in digital activism technology?  There’s a great quote in this Time article: “The sky is falling, but here we are — millions of us — sitting around trying to invent new ways to talk to one another.”  I think there’s something to that, and I think there’s something of a distraction and time sink that the Internet brings to efforts to enact meaningful social change.  I think we might be better served learning about what to say to one another than what incremental improvements we can make to the medium.  Learning how to influence people and change their minds, get them to be more aware of the plight of everyone else.  My personal research goals are around finding out how to get technologists to listen more deeply to communities in need about what their problems are, rather than what seems cool or exciting or technically challenging to the technologist.

Full email after the cut.

I haven’t been super-involved in the Iran goings-on other than a bit of following on twitter and reading news.  It’s interesting to see the number of people claiming both that twitter/facebook are the most important things in this uprising and also inconsequential.  I feel like I’d have to be on the ground in Iran to gauge whether the tools are actually proving valuable to Iranians, or just to foreigners.  Twitter’s proved remarkably proficient in drumming up frenzies, which may not accord with reality.

It seems that activists and technologists have vested interests in believing that twitter et al. are revolutionary.  They seem to have the fervor that tech. geeks have when they talk about operating systems or text editors — extolling virtues, but always from a standpoint of opinion and not from a standpoint of careful detached analysis.  The Internet is clearly becoming very important for politics and social organizing, but it’s also clearly not enough.

Noise on the Internet is not sufficient to bring about social change. Those participating in social media are still a pretty small and pretty self-selected crowd.  To actually bring about social change, one has to get off the Internet and into the places where that change happens: inside the legislature, government offices, board rooms, shareholder meetings, etc.  You have to get at the seats of power.

Even street protests in this country have had negligible impact since the civil rights movement.  When numbers similar to those now protesting in Iran rose up in San Francisco and New York in 2002/2003, this did nothing to stop our march to war.  The streets are also not where decisions are made.  Action in the streets only works when it either changes minds (doesn’t work for strongly divided or stubborn people), or has a substantial economic impact.  It may also be different in a country like Iran where protest is less easy to culturally ignore.  It may be that, unlike the US in 2002, the supporters of the status quo in Iran are not as staunchly determined that they are right, and are more amenable to the peer pressure of their families and friends going to the streets.  Or that there aren’t actually many supporters of the status quo, only people afraid to go out, who have been emboldened by the throngs that are risking violence and arrest.

But in any case, all of these things have NOTHING to do with twitter. At best, twitter is a potentially useful communication tool to help organize.  But in that respect, it’s an incremental improvement over existing tools like SMS, blogs, word of mouth, fliers, etc — it allows easier group participation on more devices and formats.  But it also brings in disadvantages, such as security threats, lowered signal-to-noise ratio, and brittle infrastructure that is prone to censorship.  How does the trade-off look on the ground?  I don’t have enough info to judge.

The use of digital media tech in other uprisings, such as the monks in Burma or Tibet, had a big impact on letting the world see what was going on inside those countries.  But it ultimately was not sufficient to bring about meaningful change, and in both cases was eventually stomped out by the governments in charge.  Burma and Iran are already on the western world’s shit list, so even if the western world does get an intimate perspective on what’s going on inside, it’s hard to get foreign governments to be any more influential.  ”The whole world is watching,” but that’s all, just watching and saying “tisk, tisk.”  Even if foreign governments did intervene, the results might not be pretty (see Iraq under both Bushes — the first one in inadequate support of an uprising, the second in invasion and occupation).

The crux, I think, is this: twitter et. al. provide more interesting and useful communication tools.  But communication isn’t enough, you have to wield power, and power doesn’t happen on the Internet, until the Internet is an economic choke point, which it isn’t pretty much anywhere yet, and even then you’d succeed via attacks on infrastructure (e.g. DoS) and not communication. Communication is still really important to enable action.  But that communication doesn’t have to be new or fancy, and it may work better if it isn’t.

So what’s next in digital activism technology?  There’s a great quote in this Time article: “The sky is falling, but here we are — millions of us — sitting around trying to invent new ways to talk to one another.”  I think there’s something to that, and I think there’s something of a distraction and time sink that the Internet brings to efforts to enact meaningful social change.  I think we might be better served learning about what to say to one another than what incremental improvements we can make to the medium.  Learning how to influence people and change their minds, get them to be more aware of the plight of everyone else.  My personal research goals are around finding out how to get technologists to listen more deeply to communities in need about what their problems are, rather than what seems cool or exciting or technically challenging to the technologist.

From March 10:

Our Transsexual friend Ebru has been stabbed to death at her own apartment on March 10.

We; who have been saying that Transsexual and Transvestite murders are political murders, are going to protest the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual phobic system which does not define “Hate Crimes”, awards the Killers by reducing their prison sentences, does not provide any constitutional rights to Gay, Lesbian, Transsexual, bisexuals, and transvestite population, and makes these type of murders much easier.

To commemorate Ebru and many others like her, We will be having a press conference infront of Ebru’s house on Purtelas street. We are asking all to join us and support us on our cause for a just world for all.

And two days ago:

sorry to post this news,,
2 other transgender women have been murdered and one have been attached.
tomorrow we will make a demo and a press release..

rüzgar
on behalf of lambdaistanbul

“Attacks and murders in Eskisehir, Bursa and Edirne in Turkey”

LGBTT Rights Platform

Press Release, Thursday, 26 March 2009, Turkey

Subject: Attacks and murders in Eskisehir, Bursa and Edirne in Turkey

Homophobic and transphobic violence doesn’t stop: Assault in Eskisehir, murders in Bursa and Edirne!

A transsexual woman was attacked and beaten in Eskisehir. A transsexual woman was found her head cut in Bursa. A man has been killed by his friend on the claim that he asked for sexual intercourse.

There is still no word from the authorities about the cases of Ahmet Yildiz who were shot to death on 15 July 2008 in Istanbul and Dilek Ince who were shot to death on 12 November 2008 in Ankara. While we were in grief after them, another transsexual woman Ebru Soykan was stabbed to death on 10 March 2009 in Istanbul.

We continue to ask the same question again, “When are you going to stop watching?” The murderers, who are encouraged by the silence of the state, continue on their fearless attacks. The recent news from Bursa horrified the LGBTT community in Turkey. We are in great sorrow after these brutal attacks.

Human rights violations against LGBTT individuals continue in the form of violation of rights to life

Because crimes against LGBTT individuals are not punished!

Killers are being awarded with grievous provocation decreases in punishment!

LGBTT individuals are being excluded and isolated through hate speech!

LGBTT individuals forced into isolation are represented as lives with no values!

LGBTT individuals are being avoided from their legal rights and thus unprotected!

We are worried!

Because the government does not take action to enact necessary legislation and implementation to avoid human rights violations against LGBTT individuals

We don’t know if there will be any comments on the killings of Ahmet Yildiz and Dilek Ince!

We are worried because we don’t know whether the person who killed Ebru Soykan will be awarded with grievous provocation decrease in punishment!

We are not sure if the brutal murder in Bursa will be solved, or not!

We are concerned, because the government makes LGBTT persons easy targets by watching the attacks on them and thus encourages murderers.

We are concerned, because the government is paving the way for killings by not protecting the right to life of its LGBTT citizens.

We ask!

Until when are you going to stop watching the hate against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite, and Transsexual (LGBTT) individuals?

Until when are you going to stop awarding crimes against LGBTT individuals and encouraging new crimes?

Why are the police departments in Istanbul and Ankara not able to find the murderers of Ahmet Yildiz and Dilek Ince?

Why are there no comments from the Public Prosecutors?

Will the Bursa case be solved?

We wonder if there is an undeclared war against homosexuals and transsexuals in Turkey?

If not, how many others should be killed to make you take action?

We don’t need mercy; we claim our basic human rights:

The right to life of LGBTT individuals must be protected equally with other citizens.

Cases of gay and trans murders must be solved.

Attackers and murderers must be found.

Decreases based on grievous provocation while punishing murderers of gay and trans persons must be abolished.

Crimes against LGBTT individuals must be defined under “hate crimes.”

You are committing crime by watching the murders, not providing right to life and imprisoning LGBTT persons into an unjust life!

LGBTT RIGHTS PLATFORM

Izmir Black Pink Triangle Association
Izmir Transvestite and Transsexual Initiative
Kaos GL Association
Lambdaistanbul LGBTT Solidarity Association
PurpleHand Eskisehir LGBTT Initiative
Pink Life LGBTT Solidarity Association
Diyarbakir Piramid LGBTT Initiative
Lambdaistanbul LGBTT Dayanisma Dernegi

Tel: +90 (0) 212 245 70 68
Istiklâl Caddesi, Katip Celebi Mah. Tel Sok. No: 28/6 Kat:5
Beyoglu - Istanbul
www.lambdaistanbul.org
lambda@lambdaistanbul.org

I also was forwarded a letter from Lambda Istanbul in response to the support they received after the murder of Ebru Dilan. Unlike the above, I don’t know that it’s meant to be public so I won’t reproduce it in full, but I will quote a little inspiring snippet: Transgender community in Istanbul and Ankara are radically strong. I feel that strength when we all march and dance together down the streets during istanbul pride, you should come and join us in 2009!

Photos of Istanbul Pride 2007:

I’m taking a course in genetics and evolution this semester — a good month to start, no? — to fill in my biology background as I work towards a future involving neuroscience. So I am likely to post more about science here, and also less frequently.

Especially since I had an epiphany about “focus” last month. For most of my life I’ve sympathized with Sylvia Plath’s fig tree predicament, too engrossed in possibilities to fully realize any of them. But perhaps some process of maturation has culminated, because it’s become easier to prune away activities and possessions (tangible and electronic) that aren’t contributing to my goals.

(If you’re looking for inspiration along those lines, try the chorus of Saul Williams’ “Break” — NSFW)

PS — For the record, I do think one can be too goal-focused. In part because goals set by our conscious mind are likely to represent only our conscious needs and desires, which aren’t the whole picture.

Image by Colin Purrington

But from primary season through today, I have been on his side – not as a Kool-Aid drinker (been there done that), but as a realist. People who think elections don’t matter need a reality check. And may get one this week, if children’s healthcare is passed and Guantánamo is ordered closed.

So, I’m not embarrassed to be happy today. Tomorrow, we’ll see.

Favorite image of the campaign:

(h/t witz.org)

And the day’s soundtrack has to be Justice, probably this track (mildly NSFW):

(version without the crowd noise here)

Though perhaps not a surprise if you’ve previously read about the alarming level of “aggressively evangelical Christians” in the military. I need to read Mikey Weinstein’s book sometime.

I also think that those who love the [humanities] enough to engage in arcane arguments in journals will continue to do so, whether paid or not by universities. We’re therefore looking at a future full of independent, hobbyist scholars — not the worst of all possible worlds. A return to the world of the gentleman-scientist, a reversal of the halcyon days when all the funding went to theology and fledgling geologists roamed the hills on their breaks from work as masters of divinity and grammar-school teachers. The world moves on, and so can we.

Not sure how I feel about that…

In my post about the British atheist bus campaign, I said I wasn’t interested until I actually saw the ads, which were attractive and well-done.

Because initially I was afraid they might look more like the following visual atrocities:

From Washington, DC –

And from Spain –

(If you need to refresh your eyeballs, here are the UK ads again, and here is a turtle eating a strawberry.)

Discussion

So my first thought is, WTF is up with the Santa? Let’s have a closeup:

Nothing against him – looks like a super cool dude. Just don’t understand what the hell he’s doing on this ad, in a Santa costume, shrugging his shoulders as if to say, “I’m as confused as you are.”

But the rest of the ad is fine, right? Sadly, no. Here’s the version that goes on the sides of the buses, sans Santa:

Not offensively bad, just bland. The most obvious font in the world, in the most obvious colors, with some seasonal clipart thrown in at random, all working together for a coordinated aesthetic of goofiness. It says, “I was designed by a committee, or a professional they didn’t pay enough.”

(Next year they should use some of the million dollars they just raised.)

As for the Spanish buses, the campaign deserves kudos for trying to emulate the British ads. Except they committed the worst typographical sin made possible by the digital age: artificially condensing (or expanding) a typeface by rescaling the letterforms horizontally, instead of switching to a font that was designed to be narrower (or wider) in the first place. Looks like they’re using Twentieth Century, of which a properly condensed version is available for only $30.

Really though, if they’re going to emulate the British ads, they should’ve used the same font, which is available for free.

(h/t Renko at Typophile)

Conclusion

I say all this not to be negative, but because I want these groups to do better. Design is important. If you’re going to invest thousands of dollars on ads, you need to spend some of that money on the design.

These ads, while they get their message out, I think also hurt the image of humanists and atheists in some viewers’ minds. The British ads may not win any high-profile design awards, but they do look like the product of a community that is modern, sophisticated, even a little hip, while to me the others recall John Brockman’s image of atheists as losers, which we’d all like to put behind us.

That’s a harsh note, so why don’t we end with a beautifully designed (and hopeful) billboard from the FFRF.