Wikis, Workers and the Web
In the mid-1990s, all journalists writing about the net were focussing on the
Google and Online Campaigning
In a previous column, I made the case that the Internet has made campaigning much easier, cheaper, faster and more effective than ever before. All of us who are connected to the net are by…
Real-time campaigning for trade union rights
In early May this year I visited Canada as a guest of the trade union movement and conducted several workshops on the subject of online campaigning. During one of the workshops, an all-day session with…
Email: The ‘killer app’ of online campaigning
Given a choice between having a website or an electronic mailing list, I always tell people to choose the mailing list. The web is a fanastic tool — don’t get me wrong. But there’s nothing…
Organizing, language and the web
If we want our unions to grow, we have to recruit thousands of new members. Many of those new members will not speak English as their native language. If we want to use the web…
Trade union websites: Maximizing their use
According to recent Internet surveys, there are now around 580,000,000 people online. Most of them live in North America and Europe. That number continues to swell even after the “dotcom bubble” burst, and even though…
Online syndication opens new possibilities for union rights campaigners
When we think of how we can use the Internet in the service of trade union rights, we’re usually thinking of three things: 1. Provision of information through websites 2. Online protest and solidarity tools…
Online campaigns work
In November last year, the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia closed down for a $400 million face-lift. It was scheduled to re-open in 18 months time. Several weeks earlier, the Hilton management told shocked employees…
Why a website is not an online magazine
Trade union websites, including those of teachers’ unions, are about to enter their third generation.
Beyond the website: The experience of LabourStart’s labour newswire
It’s one thing to have a website that a few hundred or thousand members of your union visit. It’s quite another to have a newswire service of your own, with your content appearing simultaneously on…