OCTech E-mail Digest 2003, #4  ----   March 1, 2003
Published by Organizers’ Collaborative, Inc.  (www.organizenow.net)
Contents of this Digest:
1. The 13myths Experiment Makes the News
2. A commentary on Online Activism
3. The New Democracygroups Site is Available!
 
 
1. OC in the News
 
The last OC digest was largely devoted to the idea of using
the Internet to bring together researchers for interactive
research and factchecking, to “innoculate” the media against
false stories.
We also ran an actual experiment: we launched a much-improved
version of the web site www.13myths.org, and recruited people
through a couple of email lists to develop a fact sheet on the
myths about the case for war.”
This project attracted our first press coverage in some time:
Who you gonna call? Mythbusters
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=14525
It also attracted about 70 or 80 people who went to
http://13myths.org and commented on the Iraq piece (during the
16-day period when it was open for comments).  The result is
a factually-based response (with 120 footnotes) to the leading
arguments used by those urging a unilateral attack on Iraq:
http://islandimage.net/oc/13myths/FactsheetAllRef.cfm
Thanks to all the participants in this fantastic example of
online collaboration, as well as the participants in the
iraqmyths email list that was used to get everything started.
Also a big thanks to our web volunteer, Dan Schueler, for adding
dozens of capabilities to 13myths.org as the project progressed.
 
 
2. A commentary on Online Activism
 
You might notice that online activists have often seen their
greatest success when they organize around the “issue of the moment.”
Clearly that issue is now the proposed war in Iraq, as evidenced by
the fact that Moveon.org was able to mobilize 100,000 people to call Congress last Wednesday.  See:
http://www.winwithoutwarus.org/html/action.past.html
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%257E1865%257E1205657,00.html
?search=filter
This phenomenon cuts both ways: a group funded by the religious
Right called “grassfire.net” has been attempting to use the Moveon.org
protests as a catalyst for “virtual counterdemonstrations” in
support of the “Commander in Chief”:
http://www.grassfire.net/mygrassfire.asp?rid=
http://www.coralridge.org/crmsearch.asp?qu=grassfire
Two years ago, Organizers’ Collaborative began a project, called
Web-Based Social Change Networking, to develop web sites that
would provide a vehicle to enable the Internet to be more
useful for activists working on issues which are NOT necessarily
the current “hot topic.”  This project progressed to the point where
we completed our first interactive web site, DemocracyGroups, in 2002.
DemocracyGroups is a national directory of email lists for social change.
The idea behind DemocracyGroups is to enable activists to locate
forums where they can communicate with people that share an
interest in organizing around a particular issue, constituency, or
geographic area.  This linkage can help people form coalitions and
avoid reinventing the wheel.
But in reality, the energy to create and sustain a web site like
DemocracyGroups often comes when the web site is used to organize
around a “hot topic”.  So, why not try this now?
 
 
3. The New Democracygroups Site is Available!
 
The Democracygroups.org design that our intern, Estelle Dang of
Mount Holyoke College, developed last was unveiled today, March 1.
(Also thanks to Marissa King, Rachel Pinsky, Marjean Tardif, and
web architect Mako Hill, who worked on earlier versions of the site.)
By releasing this, we are hoping to illustrate how Democracygroups
can be used RIGHT NOW, as an organizing tool.  The new version
of the web site has an important change:  if you submit an
email list, it will appear immediately, and stay up as long
as an editor looks at it within a couple of days.
Please go to http://Democracygroups.org, check out
the new design, and then add just one email list to the web
site.  Not all email lists, but those that you think would not
mind to have their sign-up information in a public directory.
We are of course in need of additional volunteers to enable
the launch to go well.  The site is powered by editors who
screen new listings, as well as web programmers who are able
to understand the Perl software in which is written.
So if you want to take on an editor role (not very technical,
but detail oriented) or a software design role, PLEASE EMAIL US
at dgroups@organizenow.net
Here is a current list of the 42 email lists that are currently
devoted to “Peace” issues.  If you see an omission, you can
just go to http://democracygroups.org, click on ‘Submit a List’
and voila, your new list will be added!
I am willing to be that we can find 50 people on this email
list who are willing to try this.  You can add any kind of email
list you want.  Just let us know (at dgroups@organizenow.net) if
you find any bugs in the web site!
 
| Abolition Caucus, nuclear weapons   | abolition-caucus@yahoogroups.com
| Al-Awda Connecticut: Palestine Rts. | al-awda-CT@yahoogroups.com
| Angel Goddess Newsmuse              | news.muse@justice.com
| Boston Psychologists-Peace/Justice  |
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BosPsyP-J
| Campus Greens                       | campusgreens-L@georgetown.edu
| Campus Peace                        | campus-peace@yahoogroups.com
| Central Iowa Students for Peace     | cisp@lists.riseup.net
| Coalition for Peace Action          | peacecoalition@yahoogroups.com
| Connecticut Peace Activists         | CTpeace-activists@yahoogroups.com
| COPRED                              | copred@lists.evergreen.edu
| Crossborder UPDATER                 | americas@lists.irc-online.org
| CUSLAR listserv                     | cuslar@cornell.edu
| Disarmament Action Network- MA      | disarmnetma@yahoogroups.com
| DoeWatch                            | doewatch@yahoogroups.com
| Food Rights Watch                   |
http://www.foodfirst.org/progs/eshr/frw
| Fulbright Youth Conference          | Fulbright_youth_peace@yahoogroups.com
| Global Network Ag. Space Weapons    | globenet@yahoogroups.com
| Human Rights- Condor                | condor@derechos.net
| IAC Discussion                      | iac-discussion@yahoogroups.com
| International Youth Cooperation     | peacefocus@yahoogroups.com
| Jubilee USA Net                     | jubilee-usa-net@yahoogroups.com
| Labor Against War                   | LaborAgainstWar@yahoogroups.com
| Long Live Palestine                 | longlivepalestine@yahoogroups.com
| Maryland Libertarians Annoucements  | mdlp-announce@yahoogroups.com
| Military Environmental Forum        | cpeo-military@igc.topica.com
| Model United Nations                | mun-e-news@yahoogroups.com
| Mystic River Greens Announcements   | mrg-announce@massgreens.org
| National Campus Anti-war Network    | nsan@lists.riseup.net 
| National Priorities Project         | nationalpriorities@topica.com
| No Star Wars (E. Mass.)             | no_starwars@yahoogroups.com
| Nuclear Issues                      | nukenet@egroups.com 
| Peace Action List                   | palist@peace-action.org 
| Peace Lover                         | peace-lover@yahoogroups.com
| Peace Studies, Colorado             | peace@csf.colorado.edu 
| Professors for Peace                | professors_for_peace@yahoogroups.com
| Progressive Response                | newusfp@lists.zianet.com
| Red Rock Eater News Service         | pagre@ucla.edu
| Self Determination Conflict Watch   | selfdeterminationlist@fpif.org
| September Disaster                  | SeptemberDisaster@yahoogroups.com
| Student Peace Action                | span@peace-action.org
| Student Peace Action Network        | span-talk@peace-action.org 
| Students No War                     | studentsnowar@yahoogroups.com 
| Tikkun-Israel                       |
TIKKUN-ISRAEL-Open-heartedness@yahoogroups.com
| Washington Action Group             | waggers@yahoogroups.com
| WomensNet Discussion Forum          | womensnet-news@igc.topica.com 
| World Federalist Association Youth  | wfayouth@yahoogroups.com
| Youth Hague Appeal for Peace        | hapy-list@ipb.org
 
 
 
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using technology to enhance grassroots organizing, research,
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