Tools and Tactics for Advocacy – Messages in-a-box and Mobiles in-a-box
Description
Message in-a-box and Mobiles in-a-box are toolkits that have been developed to support citizen journalists, small NGOs and rights advocates to use information and create digital media for positive social change. The toolkits have been designed for users with access to limited resources and they were developed using a participatory peer review methodology with content created and tested by the target audience. Message in-a-box gives you everything you need to make and distribute your own media. This book covers A Strategy for Making Media, Print, Images, Audio, Internet and Video. Each chapter includes information, references, links and inspiring case studies that show how the right tools and tactics can be used to make media with impact. The toolkit includes free and open source software tools and video and text ‘how-to’ guides. Mobiles in-a-box is a collection of tools, tactics, how-to guides and case studies designed to help rights advocates use mobile technology in their work. This toolkit is designed to inspire and present new possibilities for the use of mobile telephony for advocacy and campaigning. The toolkit supports users to design and implement their own mobile advocacy strategies and projects using free and open source software.
What we deliver
Content – tactics, best practice, software tool profiles, How-to Guides (video and text), Case studies. We also provide online support for advocates who need further advice. We are able to provide the means for activists, advocates and designers to network and learn from each other by enabling them to access to access each other and our network of partners – both online and in person at our training camps.
Whom we deliver
The toolkits are created in collaboration with our target audience: they are part of the research, writing and production. The online version of the toolkits is interactive websites. We encourage feedback through an online evaluation and we update the toolkits based on this feedback. We also support users through email lists when they have questions about how to best use the toolkit tactics and tools. We promote the outputs and work of our toolkit and users through our website and extensive networks.
Why is the project unique?
While there are many free and open software tools available they were not contextualised and tested within the realities and needs of rights advocates in the Global South and often this makes them irrelevant, hard-to-find and unusable for these groups. There are no other resources available to support rights advocates using digital technologies that combine information on tested tools and tactics, with best practices and case studies. Mobiles in-a-box and Message in-a-box provide a missing link between free digital tools and low-cost digital media production and campaigning. Our toolkits make free and open source software accessible and usable.
Roadmap
Tactical Tech’s work is based on the belief that information is a primary asset for driving change. If information is used effectively, it can empower marginalised communities to engage with and take action on issues that affect their lives and enable advocates to address abuses of power. Tactical Tech’s work aims to empower marginalised communities and advocates to use information and communications technologies in their advocacy by providing them with skills, tools and tactics. Working at the macro level in 2007 and 2008 we directly trained 1,500 advocates, reached close to 10,000 advocates with our toolkits and guides, and received over two million unique visits to our websites and online resources. At the micro level we worked close-range with social movements that included large-scale initiatives such as the Digital Advocacy Burma Project and Getting Sex Worker Voices Heard project in Asia. But while there has been a high degree of optimism related to how digital technologies can fuel advocacy, there has been very little attention paid to the question: what difference does this make? Taking a close look at digital media based actions raises serious questions about their impact beyond media flashes. Our experience working directly with rights based groups in the Global South has shown that there is an enormous disconnect between the one-off creative interventions of individual activists and the long-term targeted work of experienced rights advocates. However, advances in digital media are providing new outlets for direct action and for ad hoc organising. What is increasingly referred to as ‘Digital activism’ intersects with Tactical Tech’s work, but our strategy is built on a far broader interpretation of how information can create change. Our extensive experience in strengthening information for advocacy has led to a deep understanding of the shortcomings of current evidence-based advocacy and lobbying techniques. Advocates face major challenges combating information overload and finding accessible and interesting ways to expose their hard-won data. Exemplary initiatives that effectively use information in combination with digital tools are still few and far between and are predominantly limited to North America and Europe. Our strategy seeks to address this by unleashing the power of information and digital tools for advocacy and ensuring that efforts to expose and disseminate information are linked to strategies and communities that drive change. Our work is characterised by the notion of ‘turning information into action’. Mobiles in-a-box and Message in-a-box have proven to be effective at achieving this goal.
Contact
Allan Stanley
Tactical Technology Collective India
Apt. 201, 39, North Road, Cooke Town
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
560084
URL/Website – http://www.tacticaltech.org
