Personal Democracy Plus Our premium content network. LEARN MORE You are not logged in. LOG IN NOW >

EchoDitto's Michael Silberman Going to Greenpeace to Start a 'Global Digital Mobilization Lab'

BY Nick Judd | Thursday, July 21 2011

Michael Silberman. Photo: EchoDitto

On his blog, Michael Silberman, an online activism expert known for his work on the 2004 Howard Dean campaign, announces he will be stepping back from the work at the digital consultancy he founded, EchoDitto, and moving on to Greenpeace.

Silberman made his name in online activism on the Dean presidential campaign, where he coordinated the campaign's innovative use of the Meetup platform to allow supporters to self-organize across the country. Now, Silberman will lead a "new, global digital mobilization lab" at Greenpeace, the organization's executive director, Philip Radford, writes at the Huffington Post:

The lab will be a dynamic, forward-looking space that will work with Greenpeace and allies in 42 countries to envision, test and roll out creative new means of communicating, organizing and fundraising online.

Digital innovation -- how we use mobile phones, tablets, email and other technologies -- will happen at the edges of organizations and networks. The lab is designed to serve as a collaborative hub among networks -- inside and outside Greenpeace -- to find, test and push the envelope on the use of technology in campaigns. Greenpeace's global reach into 42 markets, from China to India to Brazil to the U.S., will surface creative new ideas that would not be found in any one country.

On his blog, Silberman says he will remain involved with EchoDitto as a founder, owner and board member. He calls out some of Greenpeace's recent social media successes, such as a campaign against how Mattel sources its packaging: The campaign, which spread a video of Ken breaking up with Barbie over the issue, has garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

"The Lab will be working with wildly talented Greenpeace campaigners in some 42 countries to help push the known boundaries of how we engage people in online campaigns," Silberman wrote in an email to friends that he also shared on his blog. "We'll be serving (and learning from) allies outside of Greenpeace as well. The plan is to build a team that can experiment with everything from tried and true tactics to newer and emerging opportunities for online advocacy, fundraising, marketing, and communications."

News Briefs

RSS Feed yesterday >

This Isn't What Political Air Time Usually Means

MoveOn.org is asking supporters for $150,000 in donations to fly a plane above high-dollar fundraisers for Mitt Romney with "a message that reminds voters how he represents his corporate and 1% donors." MoveOn previously hired a plane to fly over Romney's Liberty University graduation speech with the message "GOP = HIGHER SCHOOL DEBT." GO

There's a New $200 Million Fund for Super-High-Speed Broadband Projects

An initiative to build and test gigabit-speed broadband networks is set to fund up to six next-generation Internet access projects across the country, fueled by a new $200 million broadband development funding program, Gigabit Squared and Gig.U announced this morning. GO

New Rice University Paper Chronicles Impact of the Internet On U.S. Foreign Policy

We all know that the Internet has transformed the way that the United States conducts diplomacy, and the way that it views national security, but where should we look to find evidence of this? This is the wide-ranging subject matter of a new paper published on Tuesday by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. The paper provides a round-up of some of the major turns of events between 2005 and 2011 in the realms of Internet governance, the development of online public diplomacy at the State Department, the evolution of the Internet-fueled Arab Spring, and the establishment of the shadowy U.S. Cyber Command in Fort Meade, Maryland, among other things. GO

Messin' with Lamar Smith, Revisited

Remember that grassroots fundraising campaign to put a "Don't Mess with the Internet" billboard in the home district of Rep. Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas and sponsor of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act? All of the money required came in, and Fight for the Future, the advocacy group opposing more stringent copyright protections online, writes that the billboard went up. GO

Republican National Convention Organizers Sever Ties With Becki Donatelli's Campaign Solutions

After eight years producing online content for the Republican National Convention, GOP web consultant Becki Donatelli's Campaign Solutions is off of the project. "Campaign Solutions was retained to help develop our convention website and digital strategy, but they are no longer involved in convention planning," James Davis, the convention's communications director, told techPresident Tuesday. It's unclear what precipitated the of the relationship between the convention organizers and Campaign Solutions, which has been producing the online component of the event since 2004. But Donatelli's name surfaced in a controversial anti-Obama ad pitch sent to a Super PAC backed by TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, which appeared in its entirety in the Times last week. Ricketts has since disavowed the proposal and Donatelli has denied any involvement. GO

PD+ This Thurs 1pm: Thriving Online With Howard Rheingold

I'm really looking forward to talking with author Howard Rheingold this Thursday on the next PD+ teleconference. His new book, Net Smart, is a concise and thoughtful guide to understanding and making the most of the hyper-networked, always-on, firehose of information and distraction that is the contemporary experience of anyone who uses ... GO

City of Joplin, Mo. Launches New Online Center Ahead of Tornado's Anniversary

The city of Joplin, Missouri launched its new web site over the week-end ahead of the May 22 anniversary of the massive tornado that devastated the city and killed 161 people. The new site enables Joplin citizens to sign up for emergency alerts via text message, e-mail and RSS. In addition to those alerts, individuals can also sign up for ... GO

In Virginia, City Council Debates to Include Questions Posed Online

The Alexandria Democratic Party in Alexandria, Virginia has partnered with online civic engagement platform ACTion Alexandria to include questions solicited in an online forum in the final Democratic primary debate for a City Council election there on June 4, ahead of the June 12 election, according to a statement released by the group. ACTion Alexandria hopes to work with both parties during the general election.

Participants in the project can add questions to the forum, or vote on questions that have already been posed, although each user is only given three votes to distribute. Users are also encouraged to use their real names. Questions submitted so far hit on topics ranging from broadband access to a ban on food trucks in the city.

GO

More