howto.informationactivism.orgThe Info-Activism How-To Guide | Strategies and tools for digital campaigning

Skip to main content The Info-Activism How-To Guide Strategies and tools for digital campaigning The Info-Activism How-To Guide Strategies and tools for digital campaigning About This Guide Welcome to The Info-Activism How-To Guide What are you looking for? ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ Just the essentials Just the essentials An introduction to basic campaigning how-tos. This content is based on material from our previous guides, and 10 Tactics. Who are you talking to? Know your audience What are you trying to say? Frame your message Collaborative working: Build your network Policies & practices: Create your content Track your reach: Campaign analytics Top 5 tips for digital security & privacy Basics page An introduction to basic campaigning how-tos. This content is based on material from our previous guides, and 10 Tactics. Who are you talking to? Know your audience How to identify the people who will support your cause or help make a change What are you trying to say? Frame your message How to craft your campaign message to motivate change Collaborative working: Build your network How to expand and organise your network for effective outreach Policies & practices: Create your content How to figure out issues around licensing and copyright Track your reach: Campaign analytics How to monitor and evaluate the progress of your campaign Top 5 tips for digital security & privacy How to secure your information in the digital realm Show me the big picture Show me the big picture Strategies and practical tips on creating effective digital advocacy campaigns. Make your Issue their Interest Jam the Signal: Creative campaigning Take it offline: Print-based media Branch Out: Social media to garner interest Make your Issue their Issue Keep watch: Monitoring & recording Speak from Experience: Digital storytelling Make your Issue their Action Be in the Moment: Documenting on the go Engage communities in participative projects: Crowdsourcing Reach Out: Action through mobiles Strategies Page Strategies and practical tips on creating effective digital advocacy campaigns. Make your Issue their Interest Jam the Signal: Creative campaigning How to draw attention to an issue or bypass censorship using creativity and humour Take it offline: Print-based media How to create an impact offline with tried and true print-based techniques Branch Out: Social media to garner interest How to make your message stand out in the sea of mass media Make your Issue their Issue Keep watch: Monitoring & recording How to collect or search for data and document your issue Speak from Experience: Digital storytelling How to transform your content into rich and detailed stories. Make your Issue their Action Be in the Moment: Documenting on the go How to react immediately and effectively to an event happening in the present. Engage communities in participative projects: Crowdsourcing How to use the power of shared knowledge and community participation. Reach Out: Action through mobiles How to harness mobile phone technology to innovate and reach out to a wider audience. Give me the Tools Digital tools for info-activists. Tools Audio Collaborative Image Mobile Outreach Print Security Video Tips Digital tools for info-activists. Audio Collaborative Image Mobile Outreach Print Security Video Tips Photo tips Outreach tips Security Tips DIGITAL SECURITY TIPS Print media tips Tips on creating print media Web2PDF There are many online services that can convert webpages to PDF files. These may be of use for printing or archiving internet pages. Collaboration tips Mobile tips Mobile phone security Airtime: West Africa Democracy Radio West Africa Democracy Radio ownCloud: Sharing data and events ownCloud Creating a video remix or mashup A mashup or video remix is created by taking multiple sources of video, audio or stills and mixing them up. Automated cross-posting: Sunseed Desert Technology Sunseed Desert Technology Jitsi Jitsi is a communications program that allows you to chat securely using well-supported protocols like SIP, XMPP / Jabber, AIM / ICQ, Windows Live, ObscuraCam ObscuraCam is an Android application that allows you to obscure faces or objects in photos or videos to keep certain information private. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) The details of users using live chat provided by Yahoo, Windows, Skype and Gmail are readily made available to law enforcement agencies by the comp HTTPS Everywhere HTTPS Everywhere is an add-on for Chrome or Firefox. Tor TOR is a network tool that allows you to improve your privacy and security on the internet. K9 for Android K9 is a stable and popular email client for Android mobile devices. Screenfly The proliferation of mobile computing devices in recent years has meant that websites can no longer remain static or stick to one screen resolution Bambuser Bambuser is a live video service that allows you to capture, upload and store video from a mobile phone or webcam. Magpi Magpi (formerly Episurveyor), is a web-based application that enables anyone to create a data entry form online, and then use this form to collect Ushahidi Ushahidi is a highly flexible platform for information collection, visualisation and interactive mapping. FrontlineSMS FrontlineSMS allows you to send and receive text messages over a mobile network. Video tips Video recording techniques Etherpad Lite Etherpad is an online word processor with formatting options. Zxing ZXing (pronounced 'zebra crossing') is an open source barcode image tool. Booktype Booktype is an open source platform for writing and publishing print and digital books. Scribus Scribus is a page layout program. It can be compared to Microsoft Publisher or Adobe InDesign. LibreOffice LibreOffice Writer is a word processing and desktop publishing tool. ProjectLibre ProjectLibre is a project management tool similar to Microsoft Project. Thunderbird Thunderbird is a popular free software email client from the Mozilla foundation. CiviCRM Customer relationship management (CRM) is a way of tracking a company’s interactions with customers and clients. Skype Skype is the most popular service around for voice calls over the internet. You can also use live text chat and send files. Crabgrass Crabgrass is an online tool which enables group collaboration. ownCloud Cloud computing, where data and services are stored online instead of on your local computer, offers a lot of advantages. Status.net Status.net is an internet-based piece of software for microblogging, and is an alternative to Twitter. Cross-Posting Tools Brdcst.it & ifttt are two online services that provide essentially the same thing. Drupal Drupal is a content management system (CMS) which can be compared to WordPress. WordPress WordPress is a tool used to create websites and blogs. Screencasting Screencasting software lets you record what is happening on the screen of your computer as a video file. Online video editors Because of some of the challenges of editing video on the desktop, it may be a good idea to try an online video editor. Desktop video editors Most video editors are similar in design. Handbrake HandBrake was created to convert DVD discs into smaller video files suitable for viewing and sharing on the Internet. DVDStyler DVDStyler is a cross-platform, free DVD authoring application. Amara Amara is a free online subtitling service. Flickr Flickr is a popular photo sharing site and one of the largest online image repositories. Pixlr Pixlr is one of many online browser-based photo and image manipulation services. It stands out as the fastest and most flexible. Synfig Synfig Studio creates 2D animation. Inkscape Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editing application, with capabilities similar to Illustrator and CorelDraw. Xmind XMind is software for mind mapping. Gimp GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) can do just about everything that Adobe Photoshop can do, and it's free for anyone to use. WordPress for audio and video distribution WordPress is a ...