Thanks for the comments! Appreciate that you took the time to write really good insights.

Ultimately it boils down to integration. What’s disheartening is hearing and seeing people who actually believe in the same cause give a thumbs down just because they don’t understand or appreciate the value of the internet. It’s another channel that needs to be maximized and instead of shying away from it, we should embrace it.

Based from various studies, we now have 21M Filipino internet users, and we expect that to balloon to 28M in 2010. The internet may have been an option a few years ago, but it’s now a necessity for any good campaign.

Let me reiterate the last line of the post: “Like what I said above, the key is to integrate efforts so that instead of several small pushes, we have one cohesive giant effort that says the same thing and reaches more people.”

Thanks again for your comments!

Cheers,
Carlo

1) it is not true that activists (those who go out in the streets) are not pushing the cause online. you’d be surprised at the amount of organizing they do online. the only difference, of course, is that they show up. they know that FB and all that are just the means to an end, not the end itself, which I think what makes their activism different than the one you’re pushing.

2) reality check: not every one has a facebook account, let alone a computer and internet access. new technologies are far from the mind and way off the budget of poor people in the countryside and in the depressed communities — farmers, peasants, ordinary workers — who are directly affected by the policy these activists are fighting in the streets.

again, this is not to denigrate online activism because it does have its purpose. we all value what the internet has done for democracy in other parts of the world.

but to propagate the idea that your “movement” is more effective just because more people signed up on your FB cause than those who showed up in rallies — that is not only misleading, that is telling those protesters that they were wasting their time.

in any case, congratulations for nearing the 100,000 mark. here’s hoping that the arroyo regime now quakes in its boots.

Frankly, “proponents of physical rallies” have no qualms with the use of New Media tools in any campaign. The problem is when the people’s participation ends there, for change can never be achieved solely in the front of your desktop. A number of examples have been cited in the article if you are interested.

As per my fellow commenter Sheila Tan’s limitations, migrant activists in fact find ways to air their grievances, and not only limited to the web. I suggest you to get in touch with fellow migrants and organize your own mobilizations. The activist group Migrante has chapters all over the world who have done this regularly, and even in the most creative ways, for example.

In fact, the efforts of the Stop Con-Ass Now facebook cause all amount to a Facebook EB, does it not? It goes to show how a physical mass-up of people is still what we aim to achieve in tapping new media as a tool to address con-ass and cha-cha. Let’s face the truth – if the Arroyo regime doesn’t consider a few thousands on the street a threat, what more to a group that doesn’t physically materialize? Virtual actions alone will net virtual gains alone.

As the old saying goes, “kung gusto, maraming paraan, kung ayaw, maraming dahilan.” We must remember that we use New Media, not as the action that will stop chacha or conass itself, but as the means for patiently and tirelessly explaining, persuading, and convincing the people why we need to go out of our comfort zones to step up our action against the Arroyo regime.

Like you said, the key is to integrate efforts, and this goes for both the proponents of physical activism and online activism. There is no need to consider any of them a novelty different from the other.

Who knows, if the 2nd people power was bolstered by SMS, maybe our 3rd would be bolstered by Facebook, eh? Here’s to the success of the campaign against con-ass and cha-cha!