This is wireless technologies (and, ideally community wireless networks) are so important. They help us to organize and communicate with each other.
This time it was to organize the protest. Next time it might be to discuss an important issue or to provide eye witness accounts of some other event that has just taken place. To let loved ones know that you’re okay — or to tell friends and neighbors where not to go when there’s an emergency.
Wireless can help us get organized — which is what it’s all about right now.
Power To The People! 🙂
Protesters relying on wireless, Web tools
By Jessie Seyfer for the Mercury News.
Sent from the thick of Thursday’s massive demonstrations, these messages are an example of how protesters are using the latest technology to communicate and coordinate their activities.
Over the past three days, activists created pirate radio broadcasts that streamed live on the Web and were rebroadcast at numerous sites across the world. They uploaded live video of marches to the Internet and sent hundreds of digital images of clashes with police to the Web. And they communicated on those cell phones to keep close track of one another’s whereabouts.
Instant communications helped the protesters stay ahead of events and solidify their community…
“Every desktop is a publishing station now, and so is every telephone, every PDA, every laptop with a wireless connection,” said Howard Rheingold, author of the book “Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.”
Police officers have used walkie-talkies and wireless radio communications for decades. Now, the digital revolution has put mobile technology in just about everyone’s hands, he said. Thursday, demonstrators used it to play a cat-and-mouse game with police. Once protesters were forced out of one intersection, they coordinated by cell phone and swarmed another intersection, Rheingold said.
