People's Press Collective Invades SPN (and DNC)

Published on Tuesday, October 21, 2008
ARTICLES

A small troupe of bloggers called The People's Press Collective were tramping around the recent SPN Annual Meeting. They had cell phones capable of streaming live, Web-quality video, and donned buttons with a logo reminiscent of Marxist revolutions. This group of citizen activists is an interesting example of the spontaneous reporting on a single issue, using Web 2.0 methods. And this rag-tag team of guerilla journalists is on our side.

It all started in a bar. Liberty on the Rocks, a Denver-based group of freedom-loving people, who meet once per week at happy hour, provided an environment where like-minded individuals could talk about anything from rock climbing to movies to ideas. With the Democratic National Convention coming to Colorado, conversations turned to covering the DNC from a liberty perspective. As the group became more organized, they set a plan.

Because this informal group of activists and bloggers had no budget, they decided to use inexpensive existing technologies. The biggest road block: how to support streaming live video - to record participants saying crazy things. The solution came in a small package, the Nokia N95. This cell phone paired with the qik (qik.com) online network allows a non-techie person to record video, bounce it off a satellite and broadcast the images on the web.

The People's Press Collective set out a strategy: to design a site that aggregated their various blog posts, could stream video and had a brand. The PPC covered the event as it had never been covered before (visit peoplespresscollective.org). Thus, throughout the convention, local media were citing information directly from PPC's website, from which the national media published stories.

So what can a think tank learn from this?

• Continued expansion and development of your network, long before you need it or have a project in mind, is like putting money in the bank: You will have a full account when the time comes to withdraw the cash. If you don't develop and grow your network all the time, it will not be there for you when you need it.

• On a small budget a think tank can do amazing things with existing technologies. Many think tank employees testify at government hearings, or attend community meetings - why not invest $400 in live streaming these activities?

• Focusing a coalition on a specific topic with clear goals will allow people with varying philosophies to work together to make change in one area - just look at the strange bedfellows many of us have identified through our various transparency efforts.

Finally, what a difference a name makes. People's Press Collective. Think about that the next time you title a study or start a group. Make friends with the people who work for such groups with such names. They might just be on your side.

Nicole Williams is the management & technology advisor at SPN. Write her at williams @spn.org.