Internet-Based Organizing

Session 1A - Internet-Based Organizing
Chair: Darius Makuja, Ph. D., Le Moyne College


1. Whose Honey, Whose Hive: Qualifying Global Email Petition Drives, W. Kurt Stavenhagen (Syracuse University)


Introducing himself as Kurt Stavenhagen, he took the floor. He introduces his issue: BEES!!! Normally, we don't really care about bees, do we? They're just insects. People usually have a 'As long as it doesn't bother me, I won't bother it' attitude or 'IT'S A BEEEEEE!!!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!AHHHHH!!" attitude.
He taught us that studies have shown that, on average, 1 out of every 3 bites of food you eat has honey in it.He passes out flyers, introducing us to AVAAZ.org, an online petition website. The print-out screams:


"GLOBAL BEE EMERGENCY - ACT NOW!
Quietly, globally, billions of bees are being killed off threatening our crops and food. But a global ban of one group of pesticides could save bees from extinction.
Four European countries have begun banning the poisons and bee populations are recovering. But chemical companies are lobbying hard to keep all killer pesticides on the market. A global outcry now for a ban in the US and EU, where debate is raging, could provoke a total ban and a ripple effect around the world.
Let's build a giant global buzz calling for these dangerous chemicals to be outlawed in the US and EU until and unless they are proved to be safe."


"Bees are vital to life on Earth -- every year pollinating plants and crops with an estimated $40bn value, over one third of the food supply in many countries. Without immediate action to save bees many of our favorite fruits, vegetables, and nuts could vanish from our shelves.
Recent years have seen a steep and disturbing global decline in bee population -- some bee species are already extinct and last week we learned that some US species are at just 4% of their previous numbers.


It was interesting to watch him explain the online petition and use a couple of quotes from books. He talked about some of his own experiences with petitions. He was also quite cute. He is also married with kids. I like him: Family man with an urge to change the world.
If you would like to help him:
Link to the petition

Some More Information
Link to the Theory of a Major Study:  "Bee decline could be down to chemical cocktail interfering with brains"

Link to Soil Association Bee Briefing : The evidence that neonicotinoids [a chemical in pesticides] are implicated in the decline in honey bee populations, and why they should be banned in the UK:

$15 Billion Bee Murder Mystery Deepens
"Nicotine Bees" Population Restored With Neonicotinoids Ban
EPA memo reveals concern that pesticide causes bee deaths
Beekeepers want government to pull pesticide
Bees in freefall as study shows shark US decline
Pesticide industry involvement in EU risk assessment puts survival of bees at stake

2. Internet-Based Organizing in the Liberian Diaspora, Sanicee H. Kromah (Le Moyne College)
He spoke about Liberia (which means "Land of Free People"). It was the place that Freed Slaves were sent because the White Man believed that if they were free, they would want to go 'home,' so they sent them to a location in Africa. This was no 'home' for them. Africa was not the place they were born, not where their family were, not where they were raised. Africa was just as strange and unknown to them as it is/was to many Americans. Nevertheless, they made their home there and it was named Liberia.
Sanicee seemed to be a decent speaker, with an accent which I can only be racist and label as an "African-American" accent; it was thicker than I am used to, so I am deeply ashamed to say I could not understand most of what he said. Also, most of he said seemed to be scripted on paper, which he looked down at for most of his speech.
Otherwise, being the naughty student that I am, I, honestly, kind of zoned out for a lot of what he said. 
He seemed decently knowledgeable about what he was talking about, but I didn't feel any passion for what he was speaking about. Sure, he said that he has been working with this for years, but I just didn't feel it.


3. A Comparison of Internet Usage in Recent Political Uprisings and the Orange Revolution, Gregor Hintler (Plant-for-the-Planet and Technical University of Cottbus, Germany) Skype
Honestly, I woke up a little for this. His voice is not what I'm used to, but he was, honestly, kind of cute. 
However, I wasn't able to just stare at his face for the whole thing, because he had a PDF file that had to be pulled up and we had to look at that. (I was going to ask for the PDF file to be sent to me, but I didn't - Too late now though.)
However, his presentation was a bit more exciting and he seems to have had more enthusiasm than Sanicee.
The title of his presentation/PDF file was "The Role of Social Media in Social Movements."
His focus was a lot on how Social Media (like Facebook and Twitter) played a large part in a couple recent uprisings in Egypt (January 2011) and Spain (May 2011). These happened just earlier this year! Of course, having been blocking out all the political and global news until now, I haven't heard about them!
He pointed out a couple key points / terms on using Social Media as a tool for bringing people together and using it to start uprisings and getting attention and making a change:

• Visibility
• At least in the U.S., everyone knows about Facebook and Twitter and Myspace. You consider very sheltered and deprived if you do not know about these Networking sites. If you set your profile to public everyone can see what you post.
• Authenticity and Immediacy
• First, it's authentic. All the Facebook statuses and the Twitter tweets are posted by the people on the scene and in the midst of the action, it doesn't get more authentic than that.
• And it's immediate. As you as you press 'post,' many people across the world will be able to see what you wrote. Think about viral videos - it gets to a lot of people in a short amount of time.
• Autonomy
• Facilitation of Communication and Networking of the like-minded, but geographically diverse
• Sometimes things are getting done because the people that would get things done are across the globe from each other and they don't know the other exists. Then there's things like Facebook Groups! Create a group that many people can connect with and you'll have tons of people from around the world joining/liking in no time.

This post was written by: Korean Lovers

Korean Lovers is a professional blogger korean Addict, web designer and front end web developer. Follow him on Twitter