The Wall Street Journal is the last place where I would expect to find this
article.  But here it is.  The web sites below offer many tools for the
hell raiser within all of us.

kelly




    August 5, 1999 [INLINE]



Net Interest

Web Becomes a Cybertool
For Wired Political Activists

   By EDWARD HARRIS
   Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

   To the '60s radical, "Turn on, tune in, drop out" was a mantra. In
   these Web-happy days it could be, "Boot up, log on, download."

   Swept in with the human tide flooding the Internet are anarchists,
   zealots and every brand and shape of issue advocate. They range from
   the concerned citizen who posts a Web site about a tax bill to a
   Luddites' site denouncing modern technology to the site devoted to the
   woman who has perched for two years in a tree to protect it from
   loggers.
   Net Interest

   But compared with the Freedom Rides in the South, the Washington Mall
   protests and riots in the streets in years past, some wonder whether
   the Internet can really be an effective means of advocacy and protest.

   The answer is already clear to the bankers and traders in the City,
   London's financial district, who found themselves under siege on June
   18. A shadowy organization called J18 used its Web site to coordinate
   protests around the world coinciding with the Group of Eight
   conference of world leaders in Cologne. The largest demonstration was
   in London, where up to 2,000 anticapitalists coursed through the City
   shouting slogans and spray-painting buildings. The police were caught
   flatfooted. J18 had quietly and methodically planned the action
   without taking out ads in publications or using traditional ways of
   disseminating information that would have tipped off the public.

   Evan Henshaw-Plath, the 22-year-old founder of the Web site Protest
   Net, feels this is one of the unsung benefits of activists using the
   Web. His site posts information about hundreds of protests, meetings
   and conferences, most of which are left-leaning in their politics.
   "There are two benefits of the Internet that I see," says Mr.
   Henshaw-Plath. "One is that it enables users to discuss coordinated
   action and more easily mobilize others. The second is that there are
   no printing costs, which allows more people to express their views."

                                Where to Go

                                                                      J18
                                                              www.j18.org

                                                              Protest Net
                                                          www.protest.net

                                                             E-The People
                                                      www.e-thepeople.com

                                                      Electronic Activist
                            www.berkshire.net/~ifas/ activist/index1.html

                                                                     Znet
                                                             www.zmag.org

                                                      Conservative Caucus
                                                  www.conservativeusa.org

                                                               Net Action
                                                        www.netaction.org

                                                        Kent May 4 Center
                                                             www.may4.org

   Many use the Internet to advocate specific issues: There are hundreds
   of petitions and e-mail campaigns afoot on the Web. They range from
   saving the gray whale's habitat to an effort to reimpeach President
   Clinton on grounds of treason. One site, E-The People, has hundreds of
   petitions to choose from and 170,000 e-mail addresses of government
   officials. Others, such as the Electronic Activist site, offer
   information on ways to contact officials at the national, state and
   local levels, as well as a "how to" on activism.

   The online world manifests many of the same animosities that exist
   between proponents of opposing viewpoints in the real world. Mr.
   Henshaw-Plath's site, Protest Net, posted information about a number
   of protests against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's
   air-strike campaign in Yugoslavia. Another activist who thought the
   strikes worthwhile assiduously sought out every planned antiwar
   demonstration advertised on the site and posted announcements for
   counterdemonstrations that hadn't actually been arranged.

   There are few objective Web sites that give both ends of the political
   spectrum equal time. A quick Web search using a term for an issue or
   political inclination will yield many choices. Lefties might find Znet
   a useful place to start, while conservatives might like the
   Conservative Caucus site. The latter outlet lists times and contact
   information for many call-in talk shows and e-mail addresses for
   editorial sections of newspapers, magazines and national television
   programs.

   These days, nearly every government representative seems to have an
   e-mail address, making it easier for irate citizens to blast
   officials. But it also means that the recipients may take such
   submissions less seriously because they can be sent with so little
   effort. For example, a recent e-mail sent to Sen. Charles E. Schumer
   (D., N.Y.) under the subject heading "Mad as heck" garnered an
   automatic response telling the sender to submit an old-fashioned
   letter in order to receive a personalized reply. A spokeswoman for
   Sen. Schumer said the office receives 1,500 letters a week and over
   300 e-mails a day, many of which are sent to hundreds of other
   recipients. "We have limited staff and the infrastructure in place to
   handle written correspondence," not e-mail, she says. "Letters receive
   first priority."

   Audrie Krause, the executive director of Net Action, has created a
   site to help Internet activists have greater impact. She offers a
   veritable liturgy of ideas that can help the Web activist, from using
   muscular prose in e-mail to avoiding sending rafts of messages to
   hundreds of recipients. This practice, known as "spamming," is one
   that many people find odious. Says Ms. Krause, "For some organizations
   [the Internet] has added a tool or two ... but a good reputation is
   still central."

   While many agree that the Web can help activists coordinate
   like-minded people and schedule real-world protests, others have
   confined their protests solely to the Internet. One, Peter Baaij, of
   the Netherlands, has unleashed a computer script onto the Web that
   attaches itself to certain sites. A box pops up containing an
   anti-Microsoft missive if your computer uses the Microsoft Explorer
   Internet browser. The box instructs you to download a competing
   browser and offers directions on how to do so. The box is easily
   erased, and Mr. Baaij's campaign is completely virtual; he has no
   intentions of taking it into the greater world. "I never liked being
   part of demonstrations against this or that. I couldn't stand the mass
   appeal," Mr. Baaij says. But as a Web designer, he is capable of
   conducting his campaign online.

   Ultimately, the advancement in communications created by the Internet
   may prove the would-be revolutionary's greatest weapon. Alan Canfora,
   director of the Kent May 4 Center, was shot at Kent State University
   during the Vietnam protests on May 4, 1970, and has remained an
   activist since. He wishes that the Web had existed during Vietnam
   because war protesters were hampered by a lack of fresh news, relying
   on establishment newspapers and weekly news magazines. Having devoted
   his life to social activism, he says, "The Internet is a modern
   example of free speech. We have a golden age of information: Let the
   ideas contend in the Internet. Let them clash!"


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