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Update 6-21-09: The NY Times is covering Iran with a piece on Twitter: Twitter on the Barricades in Iran: Six Lessons Learned, By NOAM COHEN

1. Twitter is a tool, difficult to sensor
2. Tweets are generally banal, but watch out
3. Buyer beware
4. Watch your back
5. Twitter is self-correcting, but a misleading gauge
6. Twitter can be a potent tool for media criticism

Update 6-20-09: Okay, putting the peace sign back in my avatar due to user feedback. I still believe that clickstroke activism is not very ACTIVE. But is is SOMETHING. And SOMETHING is SOMETHING.

So the pen is mightier than the sword, said someone. And writing can be an agent for change everywhere. And the internet is like this great big global network where we can all see and hear what is going on around us. And this CAN be harnessed for good, no doubt.

But our online activism leaves a lot to be desired. I would not say the keystroke is mightier than the pen or sword. I'm going to give a few examples of what I'm talking about.

First up, the Uprising in Iran. (I'm going to stay mostly clear of the politics here, I promise) I added a little green peace sign to my Twitter Avatar to signify my support for the people of Iran who are protesting passionately about the recent elections. As the NYTimes says:

"THE grass-roots protests that have engulfed Iran since its presidential election last week have grabbed America’s attention and captured headlines — unfortunately, so has the clamor from neoconservatives urging President Obama to denounce the voting as a sham and insert ourselves directly in Iran’s unrest." (That's all the politics, we're done.)

So we are all turning our Twitter Avatars GREEN or adding the Green Peace sign as our SHOW OF SUPPORT. Okay, so I went along with the idea. And…  And… Well, I guess it's better than doing nothing. Or, maybe it isn't. Maybe the EASY ACTIVISM is leaching off our actual participation in the process and, GASP, turning us in to CLICKSTROKE ACTIVISTS who do little more than sign up for the supporting role and then… Do… Nothing…

I am pointing the finger at myself here in this case. (and several more as you shall see) But what I am wondering aloud about is this. If we are given easy ways to SHOW OUR SUPPORT does that diminish our actual participation in that supporting process. So if you've got a green Twitter avatar or a green peace sign (mine's coming off in a few minutes: update, mine is gone) have you done ANYTHING ELSE to support Iran? Have you participated in any other forms of activism in support of Iran? I raise my own hand and say NO. Damn! Oops. No, not me. Nada. And I would suspect that the "feel good" part of this passive activism is the part we all love to jump on. But the WORK of activism, the pen to checkbook or pen to blog/comment/write is much harder to get motivated about.

So let's look at a few other examples.

Facebook Groups and Facebook Causes.
I have written about facebook activism before, but this time I wanted to give some specifics. I'd like to look at a recent Facebook group that I have been participating with. The group is called OPENAUSTIN and it was formed by local "activists" who were rallying to push the City of Austin into using Open Source as a methodology for building the Open Government website.

So here you have a group of 302 online workers, passionate about doing the right thing, signing up to participate in a Facebook group. And on this, what I would consider "very active" Facebook group we have 9 discussion topics, that's TOTAL. And only 5 people started those discussions, and 4 of the 9 were started by me. (you'd have to admit I'm doing my part to get the party started.) Now the Wall Post, the most basic and simple Facebook interaction, situation is better, but not by a lot. We have a TOTAL of 36 wall posts for 300+ members. In my opinion that's not all that impressive.

But what I will tell you is that this is one of the more active and successful groups on Facebook that I have been a part of. At least there is some activity. Here another example. A relatively new group formed by a local social media writer. This groups focus is WordPress and getting your ass online. Wanna see the stats on this one?

221 members in this group. Some smart people who I know and love. And there have been FIVE wall posts. FIVE! Out of 200+ people who are working to get online and into social media participation. So where's the fail? I'm not quite sure why Facebook has such a bad activism/participation record, but I can't point to many groups that are more lively than the OpenAustin group. And I CAN show you that on 90% of the 148 groups I am part of, there is NOT ONE WALL POST and NOT ONE ACTIVE DISCUSSION. Yep, you heard me shouting. I'm flabergasted by the LACK of participation.

And now the Data Center and Virtual Worlds. This is the NYTimes article that helped get this post rolling: Data Center Overload, By TOM VANDERBILT, June 8, 2009:

"On a recent rainy evening in Brooklyn, I was at a friend’s house playing (a bit sheepishly, given my incipient middle age) Call of Duty: World at War. Scrolling through the game’s menus, I noticed a screen for Xbox Live, which allows you to play against remote users via broadband. The number of Call of Duty players online at that moment? More than 66,000."

And when I juxtaposed that idea of the online community playing a game and worlds away a country in turmoil and a similar number of people taking to the streets, in opposition to the brutal leadership that claims to have won re-election… Well, something seemed out of whack.

We've got a lot of click living going on. Some examples of the top realms are World of Warcraft, Second Life (are people still doing 2nd Life? not hearing much about it any more), SPORE, RockBand, HALO online, Knighthood on Facebook, and all these other fantasy worlds. We are talking MILLIONS of people online at any given moment in some twitch-response shooter or roll playing masturbatory alternative life.

So is the same thing happening with things like Iran. We're all coloring our avatars green, we're adding green peace signs to our pics, were all tie-a-yellow-ribbon-round-the-old-oak-tree activists. We're groupies more interested in the Flair of the badge or group logo, the inclusiveness of click activism, without the action ACTIVE part.

So in summary, there is no doubt that we are part of a GLOBAL ONLINE COMMUNITY. And I am also not disputing the intention or integrity of the people (me included) who sign on and add peace signs and Facebook Groups or Causes. The idea that I would like to leave you with is this: It's easy to join a movement online. It is harder to commit time, money and other resources to actually DO SOMETHING IN SUPPORT OF THAT CAUSE. Mostly we add badges, join groups and go online to play our fantasy out in a virtual world.

The REAL WORLD and the REAL WORK required to participate in a movement is much harder than clicking JOIN. You have get out there. You have to write something. You have to comment, blog, discuss. And in the REAL WORLD you might actually have to step away from the keyboard (computer, phone or Nintiendo DS) if you want to have an impact. Fine with me if you want to add the green peace sign to your Twitter avatar, but then go do something. Seriously, the peace sign without the action is a false token of caring, one that I have now taken off my Twitter pic. One that I added back, now with "Got Innovation?" green avatar.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/activism

Jon Lebkowski has a great post on Worldchanging.org about Iran Green.

I posted this comment to follow up on my ideas on clickstroke activism presented:

Jon I appreciate your exploration of the GREEN AVATAR in support of IRAN. And while I agree that Something is Better than Nothing, the point that I would like to make here is that the GREEN AVATAR is a pretty small something. A bit like putting a pink ribbon icon or yellow wristband icon on you twit pic. While it shows your sympathy or connection to the cause — again, better than nothing — it does not contain any real action or "activism" in this case.

Turning your Twitter avatar green is a visual demonstration of support, and it can be symbolic of a deeper emotional engagement. Says Shirky, "Twitter makes us empathize. It makes us part of it. Even if it's just retweeting, you're aiding the goal that dissidents have always sought: the awareness that the outside world is paying attention is really valuable."

In your own words it CAN be symbolic of a deeper emotional engagement. It CAN aid the dissidents in showing that the world is watching.

What I WISH it did was represent ACTION that the person has taken in support of the cause. Perhaps an ICON that showed "I have contributed $5 to the Help Iran Campaign badge" would at least have some Action behind it.

As it is, in my opinion, this "keystroke activism" that gives us the warm fuzzy of activism and tribal joining that may be reduce some "social media enabled events" movements to symbolic gestures. In an ACTIVIST's dream all these green avatars and green peace signs of support would carry more weight than a pressure of a click.

Namasté,

Tags: change agent, clickstroke activism, clickstroke activists, data center, data center overload, do anything, do something, facebook causes, facebook groups, global online community, green avatars, iran green, lack of participation, online activism, online gaming, participate, pen and the sword, real work, real world, show our support, support of that cause, twitter activism, twitter avater, twitter badges, uprising in iran, virtual worlds, wall posts