Upcoming Events and Digital Media Roundup

BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET & SOCIETY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
June 24, 2009 // Upcoming events and digital media

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[1] [TUESDAY 6/30/09] Berkman Center Luncheon Series on "Changing the World of Changing the World: Pushing the Models of Online Organizing" with Ben Wikler of Avaaz.org (http://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2009/06/wikler)


[TUESDAY] BERKMAN LUNCHEON SERIES on PUSHING THE MODELS OF ONLINE ORGANIZING
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6/30/09, 12:30 PM ET, Berkman Center Conference Room
RSVP is required for those attending in person (rsvp@cyber.harvard.edu).

Topic: Changing the World of Changing the World: Pushing the Models of Online Organizing
Guest: Ben Wikler of Avaaz.org

Consider two approaches to online political organizing: the "broadcast" model, where organizers trigger simultaneous mass action by sending emails to large lists (think of the Obama campaign, MoveOn.org, and, globally, Avaaz.org), and "network-centric" or "net-centric" activism where participants generate actions themselves (eg the China's grass-mud horse). On close examination, their differences shrink--effective broadcast organizing requires constant dialogue between organizers and participants, and net-centric organizing is often fueled by small groups of informal leaders--and ultimately, both succeed only when they tap the latent energy of groups.

Avaaz.org has grown to 3.5 million subscribers worldwide through a mostly broadcast approach--with the mission of closing the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want, by nimbly aggregating small actions by individuals around the world into focused campaigns on issues like conflict, human rights, and climate change. Staff polls and test campaigns with random samples of the membership, a process that preserves alignment but limits the quantity of activity we're able to generate. Now, we're exploring ways to expand the model and increase capacity by devolving the process of campaign generation. How can we--or any similar group--empower larger numbers to shape strategy, while still putting the mass membership at the center?

About Ben

Ben Wikler directs climate change campaigning for Avaaz.org, a 3.5-million member global online advocacy organization. He led the Avaaz teams at the Bali and Poznan UN climate change negotiations, the 2008 G8 summit in Hokkaido, and the 2007 APEC summit in Sydney. Avaaz climate campaigns have mobilized more than 1 million people from 192 countries, been covered by the New York Times, Asahi Shimbun, BBC, and CNN International, and been credited with helping shift the climate policies in Japan, Canada, and Germany. Previously, Ben worked for Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio; soon-to-be-Senator Al Franken of Minnesota; and economist Jeffrey Sachs. He is a past regular contributor to The Onion

This event will be webcast live; for more information and a complete description, see the event web page: http://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2009/06/wikler


OTHER EVENTS OF NOTE
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[1] 6/22-6/24/09 Open Translation Tools 2009 (http://aspirationtech.org/events/opentranslation/2009)

[2] 6/25/09 "The Internet is People" with Ben Werdmuller // Hauser Center at Harvard (http://hausercenter.org/site/learn/seminarslectures/brownbaglunchtalks/ben-werdmuller/index.html)

[3] 6/26-6/28/09 8th International Conference of Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry (http://cepe2009.ionio.gr/) // Berkman Executive Director Urs Gasser will give a keynote.

[4] 6/28-6/30/09 COMMUNIA Conference 2009 in Torino, Italy (http://www.communia-project.eu/conf2009/programme)

[5] 6/29/09-7/5/09 Modernity 2.0 // Including Berkman Fellows danah boyd and Corinna di Gennaro (http://larica.uniurb.it/rc51/)


DIGITAL MEDIA: Watch and Listen
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Did you miss this week's luncheon talk? Catch up with Berkman videos, podcasts, pictures, and dig in to our archive at http://cyber.harvard.edu/interactive.

-BERKMAN LUNCHEON SERIES: "Skill Matters: The Role of User Savvy in Different Levels of Online Engagement" with Berkman Fellow ESZTER HARGITTAI (http://cyber.harvard.edu/node/5462)


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BERKMAN CALENDAR & UPCOMING EVENTS PREVIEW
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See our events calendar if you're curious about future luncheons, discussions, lectures, conferences, and more: http://cyber.harvard.edu/events. All of our events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.


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The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University was founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. For more information, visit http://cyber.harvard.edu.