Texting Technology for Coordinating Anti-War on Iraq Protests in DC, September 24, 2005

An Anti-War on Iraq March on Washington is planned for September 24 and groups across the country are coordinating efforts. A new Ann Arbor based Protest is Patriotism web site is helping to advance the use of technology by grassroots people, enabling them to coordinate better and send a message (pun intended) to the government. Young people have caught on to text messaging with their cell phones much faster than the older generation, but hopefully this coordinated effort may help to get some of those older folks to try text messaging, which is probably on the phones of many people who have never used it before. There will be two TXTMOB listings for the demonstration. The "protest group" is open to anyone (not just Ann Arborites) attending the protests. It will keep its members updated and function as a way for protestors in the street to communicate. The "A2B" group is the Ann Arbor bus list, for people riding busses from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Washington, DC. This list will keep its members updated on bus related news and provide a way for the bus passengers to communicate while in DC.

The TXTMOB technology being used by the new Ann Arbor web site is a free online service that lets you quickly and easily share txt messages with anyone. The format is similar to an email bulletin-board system. You can sign up to send and receive messages from various groups, which are organized around a range of different topics. TXTmob was first developed by the Institute for Applied Autonomy for protestors at the Democratic National Convention in Boston and the Republican National Convention in New York. Tad Hirsch, a researcher in MIT's Computing Culture Group continues to offer TXTmob as a free service to the general public, and is currently coordinating a major software upgrade. Ann Arbor has a lot of technology people so, If you wish to help with development or are interested in adapting this technology for your organization or event, please email the TXTMOB folks at "info at txtmob dot com"

If you are interested in learning more about the social implications of texting, required reading is Howard Rheingold's "Smart Mobs: the next social revolution, transforming cultures and communities in the age of instant access. OK, so the US is behind the Philipines in learning how to use texting for social protests. Here's a quote from Rheingold's book: "On January 20, 2001, President Joseph Estrada of the Philipines became the first head of state in history to lose power to a smart mob. More than 1 million Manila residents, mobilized and coordinated by waves of text messages, assembled at the site of the 1986 "People Power" peaceful demonstrations that had toppled the Marcos regime. Tens of thousands of Filipinos converged on Epifamio de los Santas Avenue, known as "Edsa," within a n hour of the first text message volleys: 'Go 2EDSA, Wear blck.' Over four days, more than a million citizens showed up, mostly dressed in black. Estrada fell. The legend of 'Generation Txt' was born."

And TXTMOB is not just for protests. This author and Network Downtown host, Ron Suarez will be trying out TXTMOB for our next event, which is being planned for the Michigan Theater on October 13, 2005. Network Downtown is business networking where the only speakers provide music. We also host new works by artists we feature at our events, which helps to liven up the business networking.