Group items tagged

[Part 1] Lemos' paper depicts map-making as a socio-political act, an expression of power. Maps themselves are a visual way of presenting geographic information, and have been traditionally controlled by technicians, governments and private companies, but since the advent of interactive online tools, some of the power inherent in map-making has shifted to ordinary people. Interactive tools such as Google Maps, allow the everyday person to experience a new practice of place, as Lemos writes "mapping our moves on the streets allows us to control the space; it is territorialization. […] The use of GPS and other devices for location and location-based services puts the emphasis on control and domination over a territory" (Lemos 2008, p.15). From the perspective of student protesters in London at the end of 2010, the use of an interactive Google map (see and example at: http://www.movements.org/blog/entry/maptivism-in-london), allowed protest organisers to control the flow of digital information between cyberspace and the urban environment. Protesters themselves, those armed with locative media such as smart phones, had access to near real time data superimposed upon street maps relevant to their own position. This allowed protesters to collaborate by providing feedback to organisers or by reacting geographically to reported police location and action.

[Part 2] The act of real time digital mapping and urban annotation by protest movements potentially creates a new dynamic where the distribution of power relative to a location is altered. The ways in which citizens perceive the city and interact with its structure is changed when citizens have access to information about proximity and distance, when they are kept informed of lines of escape from controlled spaces. The act of protesting creates a temporary urban space, changing a location's social meaning. With the use of digital mapping tools a mobile social network is created, one that has the potential to communicate more effectively than the police forces arrayed against them. References: Cullum, B. (2010). Maptivism in London. Retrieved from: http://www.movements.org/blog/entry/maptivism-in-london Lemos, A.(2008). Mobile communication and new sense of places: a critique of spatialization in cyberculture.  Retrieved from:  http://www.andrelemos.info/artigos/spatialization.pdf Live Protest Map (2010). Retrieved from: UCL Live Protest Map

Lemos' journal examines the notion that recent mobile innovations have facilitated new and socially focussed communication systems. Locative media is the primary focus of the article and Lemos argues that technology and its relationship with mobility, community and place are creating new forms of 'territorization' - a socio-political act that involves control, surveillance and tracking. The distinction is made that locative media creates new uses for non-virtual space and bridges the gap between the physical and the virtual. This is achieved through augmented reality, mobile information consumption, events and geo-mapping; all which reinforce collaboration and participation among real world communities. Examples of locative media and territorization include CitizenMap, a community focussed web service which utilises Google Maps, Twitter and news sources to identify and detail environmental incidents throughout Hong Kong and the South China region. Sukey, an anti-police kettling application is another example of locative media, this service aims to improve communications throughout demonstrations by feeding police tactics and information from an assortment of data sources such as Twitter, Google Maps, Flickr and directly aggregating it to mobile / SMS enabled devices (Sukey, 2011). What Lemos fails to expand on in the journal is the technical and participatory expectations required for the services to be successful. Without regular and active participation these services add little or no value to the community or the cause.

CitizenMap - a South China Morning Post initiative is a web-based reporting tool which geo-maps news, community generated media and other local citizen reports throughout Hong Kong and the South China region. Its primary focus is environmental incidents including; the illegal dumping of waste, unauthorised construction and the removal of native plantation. Moving forward, CitizenMap will eventually branch out to include other topics in the future. CitizenMap utilises an array of online services such as; Google Maps, Twitter, Flickr and other Web 2.0 features like tagging, verifications and geo-mapping to encourage local participation and information sharing among the community. Although CitizenMap is not directly linked to the coordination of political demonstrations, it can still be a useful tool for environmental activists. The documented evidence contained within this web service can act as ammunition for protestors and further fuel their campaigns - especially once the report is official verified by the South China Morning Post. Example includes green groups challenging the HK Environment Bureau over a flawed policy which will allow a 5 hectare clearing to be used as landfill. Another incident involves journalism students providing photographic evidence that details the illegal dumping of waste in a Mong Tseng Wai pond (Reports, 2011). Encouraging the community to engage in citizen journalism surrounding environmental issues is an effective way to promote accountability, responsibility and the notion to 'think green' among the community. CitizenMap. (2011). Retrieved from: http://citizenmap.scmp.com/main Reports. (2011). CitizenMap. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from: http://citizenmap.scmp.com/reports/view/238

[Part 1] The CitizenMap, created by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP), is a good example of a combination of crowd sourcing and crisis mapping. According to Blogger Jennifer Jett, the project's aim is to make up for the shortfall in staffing at Honk Kong's planning and lands departments. Jett wrote on her blog that "Almost 60 percent of government investigations into improper land use stem from citizen complaints, and the percentage rises to 90 percent for dumping". The SCMP mapping project's use of crowd sourcing to report illegal and polluting acts, therefore meets an identified need within the Hong Kong community. The South China Citizen's map uses an open source crowd-sourcing tool called Ushahidi to map environmental issues in Hong Kong. The Citizen Map site's tag line "For Hong Kong by Hong Kong" suggests ownership of both the project and the land itself by the people, it invites citizens to report instances of environmental destruction and disputed land use. As such it is a form of citizen surveillance. The map is interactive; sites of improper land use are pinpointed on a map by the placement of circles, the larger the circle, the larger the number of reports there are for a particular incident. Clicking a within a circle opens a dialogue box with brief details, clicking within that box opens an incident report page containing more comprehensive details including photographs and the option to append further details to the report. The act of digitally mapping and tagging environmental events provides the citizenry with a widely accessible forum for complaint, and the prospect of exerting some form of power over their environment.

[Part 2] References: Citizen Map (2010). Retrieved from: http://citizenmap.scmp.com/main Jett, J. (2010) SCMP uses citizen reporting to map environmental destruction. Retrieved from: http://jennjettkw.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/scmp-uses-citizen-reporting-to-map-environmental-destruction/ Ushahidi (2010). Retrieved from: http://www.ushahidi.com/

[Part 1] This article brings together a number of links to UK student protest sites. Reading this and related articles it becomes clear that the students protesting about the UK government's fee cut policy are willing to use any tools at their disposal. Their primary aim has been to collaborate with, and inform supporters of offline physical protests; predominantly marches and occupations. The article itself is posted on the movements.org website, a non profit organisation whose stated mission is to identify, connect and support grassroots digital activists from around the world. The support offered by movement.org goes beyond the mere publication of articles and offers advice to individuals and groups on how to choose and best use digital tools. It is interesting to see the number of freely available digital tools that student protesters have used to disseminate information: Facebook, Twitter, websites, blogs, Google maps, YoutTube, open calendars and Flickr are all part of the student protesters' arsenal. Fast adoption of new technologies seems to be one of the strengths of the UK students' movement. Recently, for instance, student protesters in London used the new "Sukey" application, a conglomeration of tools like google maps, twitter and SMS, to avoid clashes with police (Kingley 2011). Google Maps too have been a useful tool and have been utilised to show the locations of upcoming protests, the map posted at http://www.feesprotest.com/ gives a good indication of the nationwide spread of student dissatisfaction, while at the same time hyperlinking to fairly detailed information for each locality and directing viewers to facebook protest pages for up to date information and interaction.

[Part 2] References: 30th November Here We Come. (2010). Retrieved from: http://www.feesprotest.com/ Cullum, B. (2010). NETWORKED PROTESTS IN THE UK: hOW OLD AND NEW TACTICS ARE BEING USED TO FIGHT RISING TUITION FEES. Retrieved from: http://www.movements.org/blog/entry/networked-protests-in-the-uk-how-old-and-new-tactics-are-being-used-to/ Kingsley, P. (2011). Inside the anti-kettling HQ. Retrieved from:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/02/inside-anti-kettling-hq?INTCMP=SRCH

Nelson, A. (2011). The limits of the 'Twitter revolution. The Gaurdian  Retrieved 11th April 2011, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/24/digital-media-egypt   

Nelson makes a strong argument suggesting the 2011 Egypt uprising was not necessarily fuelled by social media; instead she links it to years of oppression and dictatorship as the main triggers. On the flipside, many of Nelson's statements need to be challenged. Firstly, she states that only 15,000 Egyptians were tweeting - out of a population of 80 million - throughout the protests. What she fails to mention is that less than 20% of Egyptians actually have Internet access (Internet World Stats, 2011). In addition, many of these users also reside outside of Cairo and may not have directly participated in the demonstrations. Lastly, the Internet and SMS services were shutdown in Egypt two days after the initial January 25th demonstration and this act would drastically reduce numbers as the only way to circumvent the block was through dialup or a voice-to-tweet service. An interesting concept raised in this article is 'slackivism', a term coined to describe the attraction of getting caught up in the euphoria of online activism. The benefits however have little or no impact on society because clicking a 'like' button within a Facebook group is far from participatory and adds very little value to the cause. Instead, Nelson argues that web users need to be better educated in the use and the expectations of crisis-mapping platforms to effectively participate. Sukey , an anti-police kettling web application is a recent example of internet enabled, active participation. Its use during a recent political demonstration in London resulted in successful, non-violent outcome (Kingsley, 2011). This was attributed to activists working together and feeding information from Twitter, Google Maps and news feeds into Sukey to counter the act the police kettling. This example highlights that technical aptitude and active participation are required to effectively coordinate a internet enabled, protest. Internet World Stats - Usage and Population Statistics. (2011

References: Morozov, E. (2009). Moldova's Twitter Revolution. Retrieved April 13, 2011. From http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/04/07/moldovas_twitter_revolution Nelson, A. (2011). The Limits Of The "Twitter Revolution". Retrieved April, 16 2011. From http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/24/digital-media-egypt

"Sukey apps help protesters avoid police kettles" Sukey is a recently developed online tool for protesters. It is made up of a suite of applications that allow protesters to either submit or access information about police presence on roads or junctions during protests. Sukey can be accessed and updated online from any connected computer and also via mobile phones, meaning that protesters potentially have access to relevant information no matter where they are. There are two flavours of Sukey for mobiles, smart phones with GPS and Internet browsers can use the "Roar" version of Sukey which includes helpful graphics like a compass and an interactive google map (Doctrow 2011). The "Growl" version of the application is suitable for older mobile phones and is basically an SMS update service. Information is gathered by people on site at protests, from specially tagged Twitter comments, from news broadcast footage and geotagged photos from Flickr. Location information can also be submitted via Google Latitude or by SMS. This crowd-sourced information is intended to allow protesters to make informed decisions and hopefully avoid kettling. Kettling is a practice used by police whereby protesters are surrounded and confined, sometimes for hours on end without access to food, shelter or toilet facilities. At present the platform is only available in London, but the developers have plans to release national and international versions. References: Doctrow, C. (2011). Sukey: an anti-kettling app for student demonstrators in London. Retrieved from: http://boingboing.net/2011/01/28/sukey-an-anti-kettli.html Geere, D. (2011). Sukey apps help protesters avoid police kettles. Retrieved from: http

Thank you for sharing Alio. This is the first I have heard of Sukey and after reading Geere's blog post, I can really appreciate its usefulness throughout political demonstrations, in particularly the recent protests in Egypt. After some further research it appears Sukey emerged on January 27, 2011, two days after the initial January 25th 2011, Egypt demonstrations; however, there appears to be no connection between the two. The purpose of Sukey is to improve communications during protests and to counter the act of kettling, a crowd management tactic used by police that involves cornering protestors in a confined space with only one possible - normally guarded - exit (Kingsley, 2011). Sukey facilitates this through the amalgamation of information sources such as; Google Latitude, Geo tagged Flickr photos, Twitter and television news, feeding the content to web enabled phones or for a small fee traditional SMS. Throughout the Egypt uprising, there were many instances of kettling captured on video and submitted to YouTube - as per the below links. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXbRdumboZ0&feature=related. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xWiBCIxjIk&feature=related If available at the time Sukey may have been an advantageous asset to Egyptian activists. It can be argued that the police clashes - which resulted in numerous injuries and 125 deaths - could have been minimized if protestors had access to real-time information indicating police strategies. It is worth mentioning that Sukey would have been effective up to the point the Internet and mobile networks were shut down by Egyptian authorities. Provided there is robust communication infrastructure is in place, Sukey proves to be a powerful participatory tool that has the potential to reduce injuries and fatalities throughout demonstrations. Geere, D. (January 31, 2011). Sukey apps help protesters avoid police kettles: Wired [Blog Post]. Retrieved April 11, 2011, from, http://www.wired.co.uk/

Kravet's Wired online article details the role social-media services such as; Facebook, Twitter and YouTube played in the 2011 Egypt political revolution. The primary focus of his article suggests the uprising was the result of years of oppression and dictatorship, not simply a Twitter or mass media revolution as some have labelled it (Bergstrom, 2009). Kravet does acknowledge the link between technology and modern upheavals by using the example of the fax machine and the role it played informing the world of the Tiananmen Square massacre. At the same time, he still emphasises that social-media and communication systems are used as an effective way of coordinating protests and political gatherings. A quarter of Egyptian citizens have Internet access; therefore, it can be said that social media is a powerful channel activists could utilise - in conjunction with leaflets and spontaneous amalgamation - to effectively facilitate organisation of the masses. Activists also used social media as a way of gauging the scope of their proposed protests by encouraging Facebook users to confirm their attendance. Prior to the Internet being blocked, one particular organiser had 80,000 confirmations for a January 29, 2011 demonstration. After the Egyptian government's initial block of popular, social-networking services (prior to the entire Internet being shutdown in Egypt) protestors took leverage from a variety of technologies such as; web proxies, VPNs and smartphone applications to gain access to Facebook and Twitter. Again this demonstrates the importance these tools play in information sharing and mass collaboration. Bergstrom, G. (2009). Egypt: The First Twitter Revolution? Retrieved, April 4 2011, from http://marketing.about.com/od/crisis_communication/a/egypt-mubarak-power-in-social-media.htm Kravets, D. (January 27, 2011). What's Fueling Mideast Protests? It's More Than Twitter. Retrieved April 5, from http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/

The article is interesting, but i just wanted to touch on the statements that were raised around communication after the Internet had actually been shut off. I was fascinated to read about how society can mobilize and use the resources that are available in times of need. Using third party proxies, organizers were able figure out ways to bypass the Egyptian Internet filters and to be able to once again access Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other Internet sites (Osam, 2011). Despite the Internet blackout, landline communication was never blocked; Egyptians found another way to access the Internet through landlines dial-up Internet services and fax services. Egyptians living outside Egypt were receiving faxes through regular landline phones, by using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies they could convert the fax image into text contents, and post the contents, news and updates into Facebook, Twitter and different blogs (Sutter, 2011). This convergence in technology just goes to show that these types of situations cannot be simply shut off by closing down all Internet connections within the country. As an indication on how fast online communication services are popping up into the spotlight, Google in the meantime launched a new service called "speak2tweet", which allowed Egyptians to call a regular landline number in Cairo and speak their tweet to an IVR/Voice recognition system. The speak2tweet system would then convert the caller voice message into a text tweet (Osam, 2011). References Osam, M. (2011). The eRevolution. Retrieved, April 13, 2011. From http://www.famousbloggers.net/the-erevolution.html

Sutter, J. (2011). The Faces of Egypt's 'Revolution 2.0'. Retrieved, April 13, 2011. From http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/02/21/egypt.internet.revolution/index.html