Skype is a voice over internet protocol program or VoIP. Kari over at Politics and Technology asks a good question about the availability of the technology and the potential to use it for organized activity.

Skype is a voice over internet protocol program or VoIP. Kari over at Politics and Technology asks a good question about the availability of the technology and the potential to use it for organized activity.

A dream of mine for several years---to work full-time helping unions communicate on the Internet---has now been realized. There is no doubt in my mind that communicating labor's message is absolutely key to the labor movement's survival. So, I recently stepped down from my paid position at the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO and am turning my full attention to my newly launched business, Prometheus, http://www.prometheuslabor.com, which builds union websites. I'm very excited to have the chance to focus 100% of my attention and efforts helping unions do a better job to deliver their vital message to workers and the general public.

A dream of mine for several years---to work full-time helping unions communicate on the Internet---has now been realized. There is no doubt in my mind that communicating labor's message is absolutely key to the labor movement's survival. So, I recently stepped down from my paid position at the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO and am turning my full attention to my newly launched business, Prometheus, http://www.prometheuslabor.com, which builds union websites. I'm very excited to have the chance to focus 100% of my attention and efforts helping unions do a better job to deliver their vital message to workers and the general public.

Unions have to notify members of their democratic rights under Section 105 of the LMRDA. This requirement has long been honored in the breach, as they say. But we at AUD have had some success enforcing the rule in recent years. We also petitioned the Department of Labor to apply the same rule to federal employee unions which fall under an analogous law, the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA).

Unions have to notify members of their democratic rights under Section 105 of the LMRDA. This requirement has long been honored in the breach, as they say. But we at AUD have had some success enforcing the rule in recent years. We also petitioned the Department of Labor to apply the same rule to federal employee unions which fall under an analogous law, the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA).

"Faculty and grad workers demonstrated against the University of Florida's plan to "reallign" (i.e. gut) most of it's humanities programs in favor of other "more productive" programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS)...." This message was in my inbox. One of the exciting things about the creativity of this group of folks is that they are using YouTube to publicize their rally. And most exciting for me ;-) is that they have started a wiki (of the peanut butter variety). Unfortunately it is locked down, no open edit here. I was going to hyperlink CLAS - because it means something and I want it to link to what it means! For the open edit wiki! Let's what how they use these tools. also see earlier weblog post Google Video. And those new to this website, welcome, this website is called a "weblog" and new entries stack on top of each other. Here are the links that are embedded in the text above: * Click here for CLAS Unite wiki * Click here for the YouTube:ClAS rally video

"Faculty and grad workers demonstrated against the University of Florida's plan to "reallign" (i.e. gut) most of it's humanities programs in favor of other "more productive" programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS)...." This message was in my inbox. One of the exciting things about the creativity of this group of folks is that they are using YouTube to publicize their rally. And most exciting for me ;-) is that they have started a wiki (of the peanut butter variety). Unfortunately it is locked down, no open edit here. I was going to hyperlink CLAS - because it means something and I want it to link to what it means! For the open edit wiki! Let's what how they use these tools. also see earlier weblog post Google Video. And those new to this website, welcome, this website is called a "weblog" and new entries stack on top of each other. Here are the links that are embedded in the text above: * Click here for CLAS Unite wiki * Click here for the YouTube:ClAS rally video

http://www.ipdi.org/ Sounds like an interesting report (but it costs $20): "Person-to-Person-to-Person: Harnessing the Political Power of Online Social Networks and User Generated Content What's a campaign, non-profit, or advocacy group to do when the public wants individualized, interactive, on-demand content thisveryminute? The good news is that the tools for building active social networks already exist. They are surprisingly affordable, and they seem to work well for both national movements and small, local campaigns. Person-to-Person-to-Person takes what you already know about human nature and incorporates the concepts in an affordable, tangible way into strategy. Release Date: September 15th, 2006" You can read the executive summary for free, tho. Publicised by infoworld: http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/09/15/HNsocialnetworkpolitics_1.html

http://www.ipdi.org/ Sounds like an interesting report (but it costs $20): "Person-to-Person-to-Person: Harnessing the Political Power of Online Social Networks and User Generated Content What's a campaign, non-profit, or advocacy group to do when the public wants individualized, interactive, on-demand content thisveryminute? The good news is that the tools for building active social networks already exist. They are surprisingly affordable, and they seem to work well for both national movements and small, local campaigns. Person-to-Person-to-Person takes what you already know about human nature and incorporates the concepts in an affordable, tangible way into strategy. Release Date: September 15th, 2006" You can read the executive summary for free, tho. Publicised by infoworld: http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/09/15/HNsocialnetworkpolitics_1.html

This report on mobile media from the New Politics Institute was just emailed to me and although I haven't read it just yet, I thought I'd pass it on for those of you interested in the cell phone discussion. Fun Facts: · 80 percent of voting age Americans have mobile phones and an increasing number are becoming savvy at using them to create and consume media. · Mobile video services already reach more users than the 8th largest cable operator in the country. · By 2008 as many as 30 percent of wireless phone users will not own a land line. (What will political pollsters do?) · Last year U2’s Bono got 800,000 people to sign up for the One Campaign to eradicate poverty by sending a text message through their mobile phones at his concerts. All of a sudden, after years of being in the background, text messaging as a political tool is all over the web. What this usually means is that everyone is about to pile on and its usefullness will be over by the time Labor realizes it's even there as a potential organizing tool.

This report on mobile media from the New Politics Institute was just emailed to me and although I haven't read it just yet, I thought I'd pass it on for those of you interested in the cell phone discussion. Fun Facts: · 80 percent of voting age Americans have mobile phones and an increasing number are becoming savvy at using them to create and consume media. · Mobile video services already reach more users than the 8th largest cable operator in the country. · By 2008 as many as 30 percent of wireless phone users will not own a land line. (What will political pollsters do?) · Last year U2’s Bono got 800,000 people to sign up for the One Campaign to eradicate poverty by sending a text message through their mobile phones at his concerts. All of a sudden, after years of being in the background, text messaging as a political tool is all over the web. What this usually means is that everyone is about to pile on and its usefullness will be over by the time Labor realizes it's even there as a potential organizing tool.

I don't know if anyone has picked up on these news stories about the struggle between the Telecommunication Workers Union (TWU) in Canada and the Telus Corporation. It may be old news for some of you but it just made my radar. There is an article from labour.net and a slightly longer one from the OpenNet Initative. I don't know if there have been other examples of censoring unions by Internet providers in the U.S. but I'd be interested in learning about them if there were. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I don't know if anyone has picked up on these news stories about the struggle between the Telecommunication Workers Union (TWU) in Canada and the Telus Corporation. It may be old news for some of you but it just made my radar. There is an article from labour.net and a slightly longer one from the OpenNet Initative. I don't know if there have been other examples of censoring unions by Internet providers in the U.S. but I'd be interested in learning about them if there were. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Just an update on the progress (slow) of my local unions experiment with text messaging. Sent a 400 piece mailing and got a poor response. Only about a dozen members responded, a majority of whom wanted to be contacted in Spanish. My thought that folks would jump on this because we would automatically alert them to new job postings appears, with hindsight, to have been optimistic. There are a couple of other possible explanations for the response rate. We had a number of bad addresses (which this experiment is trying to redress), we suspect that many members just don't open mail from the union, and/or the letter could have been lost.

Just an update on the progress (slow) of my local unions experiment with text messaging. Sent a 400 piece mailing and got a poor response. Only about a dozen members responded, a majority of whom wanted to be contacted in Spanish. My thought that folks would jump on this because we would automatically alert them to new job postings appears, with hindsight, to have been optimistic. There are a couple of other possible explanations for the response rate. We had a number of bad addresses (which this experiment is trying to redress), we suspect that many members just don't open mail from the union, and/or the letter could have been lost.

Thanks to Francisco Cendejas for posting this to his social bookmarking. SEIU is the only union using these free internet video services. Hopefully they will spark others. http://static.flickr.com/62/198601855_30636e3111.jpg

Thanks to Francisco Cendejas for posting this to his social bookmarking. SEIU is the only union using these free internet video services. Hopefully they will spark others. http://static.flickr.com/62/198601855_30636e3111.jpg