Networked communities can be mobilized almost instantly, as antiwar organizers discovered. Viral marketing works with highly charged ideas and strategies. Bogus projects can travel and engage just as quickly as real ones, though, as signers to a petition that went nowhere discovered.

EXAMPLES

Moveon.org: With Without War
MoveOn.org sees itself as “a catalyst for a new kind of grassroots involvement, supporting busy but concerned citizens in finding their political voice.” Boasting 600,000 online activists, the organization is able to raise money and promote activism entirely through the Internet. Initial funding for MoveOn was provided by Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, with additional support by individual and foundational supporters. MoveOn participates in the coalition project, Win Without War. Its actions include a Virtual March on Washington where members jammed phone lines and email boxes of Congressional representatives, emailing UN ambassadors, and creating ads that run on television featuring celebrities like Martin Sheen.

More Info:
Moving On: A new kind of peace activism
Activists hold virtual march on Washington
At DC agencies, anti-war campaigns bloom
Threats and responses: Dissent, protest groups using updated media tactics to spread antiwar message
Antiwar campaign spreads online

Citizen Petitions
As war approached, petitions circulated quickly, sometimes clogging email inboxes. It wasn’t obvious to many readers which were bogus (like the first example) and which were real (like the second).

Email entitled An important petition for peace-please take a moment to sign and forward:

Please consider this an urgent request. Today we are at a point of imbalance in the world and are moving toward what may be the beginning of a THIRD WORLD WAR. If you are against this possibility, the UN is gathering signatures in an effort to avoid a tragic world event. Please COPY (rather than Forward) this e-mail in a new message, sign at the end of the list, and send it to all the people whom you know. If you receive this list with more than 500 names signed, please send a copy of the message to: usa@un.int, president@whitehouse.gov. Even if you decide not to sign, please consider forwarding the petition on instead of eliminating it.

Grassfire.net, a conservative grassroots organization, supports President Bush and the war. The organization began in 2000, by Steve Elliot and Randy and Bob Pritchard, in support of the Boy Scouts ban of homosexuals and has since grown to 1 million members. Interested supporters can join 246,000 others by signing an online petition in support of the war: “It's time to Stand With America…sign the ‘I support the commander-in-chief’ petiton.”

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Give peace a chance
Rallying around the flag online

Free Republic
The conservative online site Free Republic mobilizes its community for demonstrations via the Internet, on Iraq and other subjects.

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Online Activism-a lot more than just petitions
Rallying around the flag online

Patriots for the Defense of America: Support War Against Iraq
Patriots for the Defense of America is a “national activist organization promoting moral clarity on the war.” Similarly to its liberal counterparts, the Patriots website includes links to news articles, editorials and other resources in support of its position. The Support War Against Iraq projects provides activists with many ways to become involved in support of the war, such as calling congressional representatives and writing to service people.

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Rallying around the flag online