On this day, July 2nd, 2008, the news brings to our attention some fresh approaches to collective action, peace movements in Nepal, email tips, and more.

• “Imaginary friends who live in my typewriter” and “the inverted Matrix.”
• The World Bank walks us through collective action against corruption.
• Tips for successful action-prompted emails.
• Diversity and collective action in Nepal (lengthy but interesting).
• And finally, a different approach to acting collectively.

-Filed in News

On this day, June 17th, 2008, the news brings to our attention super-young organizers, thoughts on Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, a look at how to take action, suggestions on how to blog from the road, and much, much more.

• The third in a three-part series on Public Participation Theory
• What would Trotsky read? The left decide to get into organizing… book clubs.
• Even more of the same on how Americans are [politically] using the Internet
• Need to blog from the road? Here’s a way to do it.
• The youth, social justice, and thinking outside of the box.
• The All-Powerful Drudge and the art of the Internet boycott.
• Wiki-what? Britannica pulls stick out of their…
• A conservative considers Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty
• And finally, Mr. Shirky and the leveraging of the network for social action.

-Filed in News

A friend forwarded me this chain mail today:

When googling “Jew”, one of the first sites that comes up is JewWatch.com. an anti-semitic site. In order for Google to remove this, they would need a petition of over *500,000* requests…. so let’s make it 1,000,000! Current total signatures approx. 382,574, that’s me. Please help. Go to: http://www.petitiononline.com/rjw23/petition.html to sign the petition. VERY IMPORTANT !! Please pass this one on! It is a truly offensive site spreading lies and hate.

Take a look at the actual petition and you’ll notice a slight difference:

In order for google to remove this They would need a petition of over 50,000 requests….

As far as I can tell, both numbers are arbitrary. The petition isn’t exactly untruthful, but like the statement “I need over $100 to buy a personal jet,” it obfuscates reality.

Having that target number helped this petition become the most active item on the largest petition website. Why? In the parlance of The Point, 50(0),000 acts as a tipping point. Petitioners sign under the pretense that when it’s reached, the problem will “tip,” i.e. it will be solved. We act when we feel like it makes a difference. The petition is popular because it defines the endgame — 500,000 = no more JewWatch. Joining gives us satisfaction because the psuedo-tipping point makes our contribution tangible, however small it may be.

Rather than hoping that Google will listen, a campaign on The Point forces them to listen by coordinating a group action when the tipping point is reached, one that will make Google’s offensive policy cost them more than it’s worth. In this case, a tipping action might be for 1,000,000 people to stop using Google’s search engine.

Every campaign on The Point has what made this petition so popular: a clear path from words into decisive action.

-Filed in Uncategorized