How to Build Tech With, Not For, Movements
In an age of mass participation, how best to make technology that serves good organizing? In this guest oped, Brian Young of Action Network offers some answers.
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The Making of a Wave
This week, MoveOn members will send more than 20 million text message to targeted voters. That is, on its own, nearly as many voter contacts as the 2012 Obama re-election campaign made in the climactic last four days of that contest. As of the end of October, the Beto O’Rourke...
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What We (Need to) Talk About When We Talk About Community-Led Disaster Response
By Liz Barry, Greg Bloom, Willow Brugh, and Tammy ShapiroHurricane season last year was wild, right? Harvey, Irma, and Maria—each storm spreading more devastation across the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. Many months later, communities are still recovering—especially Puerto Rico, where our government has outright failed its citizens.Our climate is...
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Book Review: New Power and the Dynamics of Digital Change
If you are looking for a fresh and comprehensive analysis of how the Digital Age is transforming the civic arena, get yourself a copy of New Power, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms’ new book, which is being released today. It’s based on their 2014 article in the Harvard Business Review,...
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A Year of Tech Solidarity
Since Trump's election, tech workers have shown unprecedented interest in political organizing—maybe even unionizing—but as efforts like Tech Solidarity show, it's going to take a while to see real impact.
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Testing the Testers: How Scientist-Activists Persuaded Their Peers to March
The March for Science in April was a coup for organizers: 600 marches around the world; an estimated 1.3 million marchers; and more than 300 organizational partners, from the Paleontological Society to the Center for Biological Diversity to the Consortium of Social Science Associations. But for one of the organizers,...
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The Trump Resistance Will Be Incubated
At the ripe “old” age of 38 with a pair of toddlers and more than a decade into a career as a public defender, Rita Bosworth doesn’t conform to the stereotypes of a Silicon Valley startup founder or a slick Beltway operative experienced in the ways of manipulating American politics.“I...
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Tech Surge: Silicon Valley Mobilizing
Silicon Valley underwent a political awakening in 2017. Catherine Bracy and Derecka Mehrens are harnessing the political moment to engage tech workers and service workers in the fight for a more equal Bay Area.
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Revolution? Text Me
Digital organizers on how they are using peer-to-peer texting in their work and whether it lives up to the hype.
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Strategy and Sustainability in Uncertain Times
Aditi Juneja is the co-founder of the Resistance Manual, a crowdsourced platform that harnesses the collective power of the people to resist policies that undermine justice and equity. In a series of interviews for Civicist, we’re discussing what makes a movement intersectional, and how to support inclusiveness. In the first...