It's Your World, So Change It

Introduction ...1 1 Online Activism 101 ...5 A New Tool,Not a New Project ...7 Where Do I Begin? ...8 Branching Out ...8 Planting Seeds ...10 2 How to Research Issues and Stay Informed ...13 General Resources ...15 Print Publications ...17 Laws and Legislation ...18 Keeping Up with News Sites and Blogs ...19 Your E-Activism Toolkit: Getting Informed ...21 3 How to Plan, Promote, and Maintain a Website ...23 Finding Your Audience ...24 Organizing Local Supporters ...24 Nonlocal Supporters ...29 Making Your Website Media Friendly ...35 Being Found ...38 Search Engines ...38 Cross-Links ...39 Repeat Visitors ...39 Social Networking ...39 Print ...40 Word of Mouth ...40 Five Steps to Building a Great Activism Website ...40 Your E-Activism Toolkit: Building a Website ...41 4 Engage with Social Networking Sites ...43 Social Networking 101 ...44 Facebook ...46 MySpace ...48 Other Social Networking Sites ...48 Summary: Social Networking ...49 5 A Short Guide to the Ethics and Etiquette of Online Activism ...51 Deadly Sin #1: Self-Promotion at the Expense of the Movement . .53 Deadly Sin #2: Unsolicited Bulk Email ...54 Deadly Sin #3: Hacktivism ...55 Deadly Sin #4:Violating Copyright ...57 Deadly Sin #5: Nagging ...57 Deadly Sin #6:Violating Privacy ...58 Deadly Sin #7: Being Scary ...59 Your E-Activism Toolkit: Following the Rules ...61 6 How to Raise Funds Online ...63 Other Ways to Raise Funds ...68 Processing Online Donations ...69 Your E-Activism Toolkit: Raising Money ...71 7 How to Use Multimedia as an Activism Tool ...73 Online Multimedia Content That Changed the World ...74 The Iranian Protests of 2009 ...75 The Burmese Protests of 2007 ...76 Abu Ghraib ...77 Justice for Oscar Grant ...78 "Macaque" ...79 The 2006 May Day Protests in MacArthur Park ...80 Online Video and How to Stream It ...80 Finding Photographs You Can Use ...82 The Art of Podcasting ...83 Great Podcasts for Activists ...84 Your E-Activism Toolkit: Using Multimedia ...87 8 How to Keep Allies and

Tom Head is author or coauthor of 24 nonfiction books on a wide range of topics, including Civil Liberties: A Beginner's Guide (Oneworld, 2009) and Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 2000). He covers civil liberties for About.com, a division of The New York Times Company with 34 million unique visitors per month, and also blogs on civil liberties issues in his home state of Mississippi via the Mississippi Human Rights Report.He also serves as an elected trustee for the Mississippi ACLU, as VP/policy of the Mississippi chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), as communications director for Unity Mississippi, on the steering committee of the Jackson,Mississippi, chapter of Parents, Friends, and Families of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and in various other volunteer capacities.He has operated online communities since 1989. An internationally recognized expert on distance education (and coauthor of four books on the subject),Tom is currently finishing up his Ph.D. in the history of ideas at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, through an off-campus study program.