ACTIONdigital

LOCAL FORUMS FOR DEVELOPING PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY

This project is co-financed by the European Commissionunder the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme

1 Effective cause campaigning online

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for

good men to do nothing.”Edmond Burke 1729-97

http://www.facebook.com

http://www.unsubscribe-me.org

http://www.facebook.com

2Yes we can!Getting young people to vote

http://www.americanidol.com

http://www.jaagore.com

http://www.poptech.org/blog/index.php/archives/2990

http://www.efg.co.in

http://www.powervote.org

http://www.rockthevote.com

http://www.facebook.com

http://my.barakobama.com

http://www.facebook.com

http://www.tigweb.org

http://youth.gov.au

AVOID the ‘dry’ language of politics and EU! AVOID talking about institutions and detailed

processes of EU and government

DO remind people why its important to vote DO talk about the issues they will care about

eg climate change, employment DO use relevant language for the audience –

friendly, casual, challenging, optimistic DO reward and/or acknowledge involvement DO personalise where possible DO collect data, keep the contact (dialogue)

going, and consider SMS

mind your language!

3 Using free tools to network

http://www.ning.com

http://www.wordpress.com

http://www.blogger.com

http://www.tumblr.com

http://www.youtube.com

http://www.addpoll.com

http://www.widgetbox.com

http://code.google.com

http://code.google.com/apis/ajax

http://m.shozu.com

http://qik.com

http:/www.webdesignledger.com

4 Case study: Megamouth

THE PITCH IDEA

http://www.actionaid.org.uk/megamouth

http://www.twitter.com/themegamouth

LIVE VIDEO FEED

LIVE ACTIVITY ON THE DAY:BLOGS, G-MAPS, IMAGES ANDMEGAMOUTH

5Rules Copy the best : look at MyBO, Jaagore etc - what works best? Copy it!

Don’t ‘re-invent the wheel’. Go to where people are – don’t hope they will come to you.

Be in the right spaces for your target audience: Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Tuenti (Spain), Bahu (France/Belgium), BlackPlanet, hi5 (Portugal), Netlog, Skyrock (French), Zoo (Greece) etc

Make your site relevant and live – change content continuously, allow subscription to feeds, registration and blogging. Your site should act as a ‘portal’ to your other internet presences eg on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc.

Don’t just hope they will come to you! Go out and seek ‘friends’ or ‘followers’. If you link to them, they will link to you. Promote! Promote!

Match online activity with offline activity – web people are multi-dimensional people! They don’t just want ‘virtual’ friends and activities.

Offer rewards. Even ‘virtual rewards’ – eg you can grade people according to how much they’ve done to promote the message – eg bronze/silver/gold ambassadors etc or link with a local musician and offer incentives like concert tickets or CDs

Allow contribution - People love to upload photos, comments and videos. If you make a flickr group you can get people to link to your group and their pictures can come through in a flickr gadget to your site!