10 Tactics: explore the content

Tactic 1. Bring them to the action: Mobilise people

This tactic is good to use when you want to support people to come together, online and in person, around a cause.

Video Volunteers Demand Land Rights: Citizen journalists in India

Interview: Namita Singh, Video Volunteers, India video

Tools used: Digital video cameras, editing software, YouTube, widescreen projectors, VCD/DVDs

Pink Chaddi Campaign: Women's advocates in India

Interview: Namita Malhotra, Alternative Law Forum, India

Tools used: Facebook, Blogspot, Flickr, posters, digital cameras

Using a Friendless Profile for Visibility: LGBT advocates in Lebanon

Interview: Rebecca Saab Saade Technologist, Lebanon.

Tools used: Facebook

TheyWorkForYou, MySociety UK

Interview: Tom Steinberg, My Society

Tools used: Custom-built content management system (CMS) made from open source software, Wordpress, Facebook

  Go to the tactic | Download the pdf here 

Tactic 2. Someone is watching: Witness and record

This tactic is good for ensuring that people have the power to capture rights abuses as they happen.

The Targuist Sniper: Anonymous advocate in Morocco

Interview: Sami Ben Gharbia, Global Voices, The Netherlands

Tools used: Video camera, video editing software, YouTube, blogs

The Saffron Revolution Bloggers and advocates in Burma

Interview: 'Aung', Rights advocate

Tools used: Blogs, news reports, digital cameras, mobile phones, photos

Remembering Neda, Advocates in Iran

Tools used: Mobile phone cameras, email, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, blogs

 Go to the tactic | Download the pdf here 

Tactic 3. Picture it: Visualise your message

This tactic is good for communicating creatively across different languages and literacies, and for capturing people’s attention.

Animating Folklore with a Feminist Twist: UK/Women and Memory Forum Cairo, Egypt

Interview: Tessa Lewin, Institute of Development Studies

Tools used: Adobe software (Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere)

Mapping a Conflict in Real Time, Lebanon

Interview: Muzna Al-Masri, Samidoun, Lebanon

Tools used: Adobe Illustrator, Blogspot, Wordpress

Putting Torture on the President's Map, Tunisia

Interview: Sami Ben Gharbia, Co-founder Nawaat.org

Tools used: Google Earth, Google Maps, YouTube

350.org: International Day of Climate Action

Interview: Phil Aroneanu, 350.org, United States

Tools used: YouTube, Facebook,  Orkut, MySpace, Twitter and Zandy.

 Go to the tactic | Download the pdf here

Tactic 4. No one is listening?: Amplify personal stories

This tactic is useful when people affected by the issue are not being consulted, and as a way to give an issue depth that resonates with the target audience.

Women’s Net: Digital Storytelling by women who have experienced violence, Southern Africa

Interview: Sally-Jean Shackleton, Women’sNet, South Africa

Tools used: video cameras, digital animation, digital video editing software, YouTube, blip.tv

A Duty to Protect: Justice for Child Soldiers in the D.R.C. by Ajedi-Ka PES/Child Soldier Project and WITNESS, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Interview: Sam Gregory, WITNESS

Tools used: video cameras, digital video editing software, website

Blank Noise: By women against urban street harassment in India

Interview: Cheekay Cinco, Association for Progressive Communications, Philippines

Tools used: Blogspot.com, Facebook, Flickr

We the Women, Saudi Arabia
Interview: Areej Khan, project director
Tools used: Facebook, Flickr, YouTube

Go to the tactic | Download the pdf here

Tactic 5. Provoke a smile: Just add humour

This tactic is useful when people affected by the issue are not being consulted, and as a way to give an issue depth that resonates with the target audience.

Remixed Presidential Posters Artists and Advocates in Egypt

Interview: Alaa Abd El Fattah, Technologist, Egypt

Tools used: Digital photo editing software, Facebook, blogs, email, YouTube

Karaoke Videos for Human Rights, Thailand and Cambodia

Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers

Interview: Dale C. Kongmont, Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers, Thailand

"Give Lukashenko his own Lu-net!": Advocates in Belarus

Interview: Sami Ben Gharbia, Global Voices, The Netherlands

Tools used: Blogs, LiveJournal, YouTube

Flash mobs in Belarus: Belarusian advocates

Interview: Zhenya Mantsevich, a journalist and blogger, Belarus

Tools used: LiveJournal, ICQ (chat programme) and SMS

 Go to the tactic | Download the pdf here

Tactic 6. Understand your connections: Manage your contacts

This tactic is good for understanding your connections and relationships so you can make the most of your networks.

Organise and mobilise your contacts: Open source software advocates and programmers

Interview: Michal Mach, CiviCRM, Poland

Tools used: CiviCRM and Drupal or Joomla or a standalone content management system (CMS)

Providing targeted reconstruction information: By Mercy Corps and Frontline SMS in Indonesia

Interview: Ken Banks, FrontlineSMS, UK

Tools used: FrontlineSMS, mobile phones

Kleercut campaign for the environment: By Greenpeace, United States

Interview: Richard Brooks, Greenpeace

Tools used: Drupal for the website and CiviCRM to manage contacts.

 Go to the tactic | Download the pdf here

Tactic 7. Make it simple: use complex data

This tactic is good to use when you need to present and share complex or hard-to-access information with the people who need it most.

Mapping Farm Subsidy Payments in Sweden: By FarmSubsidy.org and advocates in Sweden

Interview: Jack Thurston, FarmSubsidy.org, UK

Tools used: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, Xapian database (open source software), Google Maps, website

Visualising the Crisis in Darfur: By advocates/technologists working with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Interview: Mikel Maron, OpenStreetMap, USA

Tools used: Google Earth, data from the United Nations and Amnesty International, photos and videos, website.

Fair Play Alliance: Bratislava, Slovakia 

Zuzana Wienk, Fair Play 

Tools used: Custom-built database, using open source tools (mySQL, Apache server, and PHP).  

Go to the tactic | Download the pdf here
 

Tactic 8. Report it live: use collective intelligence

This tactic is good for creating or gathering information, reporting on public events such as elections or protests and responding to disasters or outbreaks.

Field Reporting the 2008 Mumbai Terror Attacks: By citizens of Mumbai

Interview: Dina Mehta, Researcher, India

Tools used: Twitter, Flickr, MySpace, blogging, mobile phones

Gathering Citizen Reports of Violence: By Foko and the Citizens of Madagascar

Interview: Ken Banks, FrontlineSMS, UK

Tools used: IntelliSMS, FrontlineSMS, Ushahidi, Twitter, mobile phones, blogging

Unsung Peace Heroes in Kenya: By Butterfly Works and Media Focus on Africa Foundation

Interview: Marten Schoonman, Media Focus on Africa, South Africa

Tools used: Ushahidi, mobile phones, Facebook, website.

 Go to the tactic | Download the pdf here

Tactic 9. Technology that listens: let people ask the questions

This tactic is good for getting vital information to people when popular information or sources are incomplete or misleading, or when other forms of direct communication are difficult.

Budget Tracking by Citizens: By Social Development Network, Kenya

Interview: John Kipchumbah, Social Development Network, Kenya

Tools used: database (WampServer: Apache, PHP, MySQL), website, mobile phones

A Freedom Fone:for Zimbabweans: By Kubatana Trust

Interview: Brenda Burrell, Kubatana Trust of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe

Tools used: FrontlineSMS, mobile phones, desktop computers to run Freedom Fone call-in system

MyQuestion, MyAnswer: OneWorld UK/Education as a Vaccine Against AIDS

Interview: Uju Ofomata, Oneworld, UK

Tools used: mobile platform customised from open source software (Apache web server, PHP application, MySql database), website, mobile phones

 Go to the tactic | Download the pdf here

Tactic 10. Reveal the truth: Investigate and expose

This tactic is useful when you are able to collaborate with others to identify, share and act on evidence that is being concealed from the public or ignored by those who need to act.

Exposing Torture by Police in Egypt: By citizens/journalists in Egypt

Interview: Noha Atef, Tortureinegypt.net, Egypt

Tools used: Drupal for creating the website (before that, Blogspot), photos and videos, usually shot on and sent from mobile phones

Presidential Plane Spotting: By advocates in Tunisia

Interview: Sami Ben Gharbia, Global Voices, The Netherlands

Tools used: Planespotters’ websites (like Airliners.net) Google Earth, YouTube, Flickr.

Caught Between the Tiger and the Crocodile: Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) & Women’s Network for Unity (WNU)

Interview: Dale Kongmont, Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW)

Tools used: Flip video cameras, digital video editing software (Final Cut Pro), blip.tv, YouTube, website.

Go to the tactic | Download the pdf here

Campaign strategy

Provides basic information and activities that will help you create a campaign strategy. This strategy will help you to strategically select the right tactics and tools, craft your message, create a timeline, as well as implement, document and evaluate your campaign.

Activity 1: Identify problem - solution – change that is needed.

Activity 2: Map issue stakeholders and their relationships.

Activity 3: Move from stakeholders to target audiences.

Activity 4: Move from target audiences to choosing the right tactics.

Go to the card | Download the pdf here

Access to information

This card presents the basics about your right to access information and how to use this right as part of your advocacy strategy. It explains how to access government-held information and make information requests and how to respond if your request for information is denied. Your right to access public information.

Activity 1: Decide exactly what you want to know.

Activity 2: Try to find information that is already published.

Activity 3: Make an access to information request.

Go to the card | Download the pdf here

Think creatively

Even with very few resources, you can turn information into action – if you are creative. The activities included in this card will help you engage the participation of your colleagues, supporters and partners in a creative process to design campaigns that will inform, motivate and influence your target audience.

Activity 1: Identifying inspiring campaign actions.

Activity 2: Thinking outside-the-box to come up with fresh ideas.

Activity 3: Seeing an issue from the perspective of your target audience and participant groups.

Activity 4: Brainstorm and test out new ideas on different audiences.

 Go to the card | Download the pdf here

Online and mobile, security and privacy

New technologies, such as mobile phones and the internet, are powerful tools for advocacy but using them to communicate sensitive information can create risks for you, your contacts, friends and colleagues. This card will help you access information securely and protect your data when using mobiles phones and the internet.

Activity 1: Identify your security risks.

Activity 2: Explore other privacy & security resources.

 Go to the card | Download the pdf here

Campaign analytics

Built in to the online platforms and services you are using for info-activism are analytical tools that allow you to see who is accessing your online campaign and how they are using it. These tools can help you to see if the techniques you are using are actually working. This card explains how to track the dissemination of your campaign's message, follow public dialogue around your campaign issue and monitor the online behaviour of your targets, allies and opponents, using a variety of free tools. 

Activity 1: Track your own campaign message online

Activity 2: Track the issue you are trying to resolve

Activity 3: Track your targets, allies and opponents

Go to the card  | Download the pdf here