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Part one of the plan is here. Part two to come.

New Revolutions

Integrating Information Technology into Contemporary Civil Rights Movements Part One

By Jeff Ginger | Revision Two | Afro Studies 398 | Independent Study

Sections

1. Introduction
2. Reflections
3. Rationale
4. Theory and Litterature Review
5. Goals and Intended Outcomes
6. Method of Evaluation
7. To the Future
8. References

Introduction

            The coming of the information age has fundamentally redefined American society through a tumultuous wave of socio-technological transformations we have only begun to understand.  One of the most significant changes characteristic of the information era is the Internet, a near endless global network full of intricate connections between persons and organizations.  Increasing opportunity for connectivity to the web and the creation and integration of worldwide networks has played a hand in the development of globalization, one of the most complicated and influential aspects of the way the world works today.  Access to technology has become a crucial component of survival in the world today – whether the entity in question is a business, government, or individual.
            Utilization of information technology is an essential factor of mobilization in social movements today.  Without internet-born communication tools any given cause will be inhibited if not completely prevented from moving from a local to a global scale.
            The purpose of this paper is three fold.  First and foremost, it establishes the particularly unique and beneficial nature of the internet and web-bound discourse.  Second, the paper explains the potential for positive social moments through use of technology and the internet.  Lastly, several specific examples of technology that can be effectively and immediately deployed in use of the African American Studies and Research Program (AASRP) at the University of Illinois (UIUC) are detailed.

Reflections (Pre and Post Assessment)

            The African American Studies and Research Program at the University of Illinois is in the midst of a multi-year improvement initiative.¹ Though my experience with the department has been limited, I’ve had the benefit of experiencing the work of several faculty members.  Without a doubt the AASRP program has a definitive progressive nature an a zeal for participation unseen in many other areas in academia.  In short, the department is not only motivated, but is strongly activist and oriented towards positively impacting the community at large.
            I had the benefit of taking a Black Leadership Development course here last semester and the experience was nothing short of impressive and inspiring.  A classroom full of intelligent, passionate, and assertive minds not only discussed at length the intricacies and challenges of Black Power and civil rights in America today but each and every student in the class furnished a comprehensive radical plan to battle inequality and oppression in society.  Many of these proposals were too radical to be seriously implemented but a number have been realized in community organizations, RSO’s and student leadership efforts.  I have seldom seen classes in any other discipline that yield such meaningful real-world effects and challenge students to take charge of their own education.
            Virtually every single plan for change in our class called for the need for internet communication as a required element of their plan.  Interestingly enough, only a handful of students even used computer aids when presenting their radical plans.  Granted the use of PowerPoint or multimedia isn’t required for a good speaker or effective communication, but one of the best strategies when addressing large audiences, especially contemporary youth such as those of the hip hop generation, is through the use of these tools.  Many students did not know how to effectively integrate their slide shows into their speeches and still others claimed they wouldn’t even know how to put together an effective PowerPoint.
            Many students included web sites and technology tools as parts of their radical ideas.  Almost none of the students accounted for who would be able to create these web sites or procure such tools.  Most, when asked, explained they didn’t have a good strategy for finding technical individuals or solutions for information technology needs, outside of using already difficult to acquire funding to pay for such resources.
            I also recently had the experience of assisting with technical needs in the Race, Roots, and Resistance conference held by the AASRP at UIUC in April of 2006.  The conference called in individuals from all over the nation to present on their specific studies.  One prominent speaker, Abdul Alkalimat, presented on eBlack Power, the University of Toledo’s adaptation of the Black Power movement to include an internet component.  In his presentation he included citation of a web site created in response to attacks on Black Studies programs.  The site entailed a collection of videos and information archived from numerous representatives of major academic institutions from all around the US.  A similar web site could be constructed for the Race, Roots, and Resistance conference to preserve and spread information about recent developments in African American Studies. The subjects, questions, and plans for change discussed in the conferene could be extended and revisited countless times in a web format.
            Despite this, action has been taken in other ways by the AASRP to integrate technology into the learning process.  The simple fact that the Black Leadership classes take place in classrooms with access to internet and projectors allow for instant look up of ideas and presentation of the web to educate students.  The Associate Director of the program, Dr. Patterson, has taken significant steps to record presentations and organizations lead by young black leaders on video.  He also recorded salient presentations in the Roots, Race, and Resistance conference.  These efforts have helped to lay the ground work for integration of technology into the learning process of AASRP. 

Rationale

            Simply put, there is great potential for expansion of information technology tools into the education process in AASRP.  Integration could start small, among faculty of the program and in the smaller seminar style classes and rapidly move to use in larger scale environments once substantially established.  Not only would this process be beneficial to the program, but it keeps learning contemporary and dynamic in nature.  Students are often riding the edge of the technology wave and the more these technologies are infused in classroom learning, the more they can identify with and participate in the process.  On the other hand, without education about these tools in the classroom many students will never have any opportunity to learn and develop technology related skills.  In order to preserve a competitive academic setting information technology must be employed in the classroom.

Theory and Literature Review

            During the early 1990’s the Internet changed form and scope as it spread from primarily military and research functions to broad use by many citizens.  This rise in use by the general populace lead to a series of positive visions for the web.  Roger Hurwitz, in his article, “Who Needs Politics?  Who Needs People?  The Ironies of Democracy in Cyberspace,” exemplifies this concept.  People began to see the internet as an Egalitarian utopia, dominated by free thought and able to transcend virtually all political, racial, gender, and ability discrimination boundaries (Hurwitz 655).  This sort of electronic commons even gave birth to the term netizen, laying wide a prediction that the internet would become the center of power and establish a new sociopolitical identity on users. Proponents of the newly developing internet culture championed several benefits of internet technology.  First and foremost, they praised the inherent nonhierarchical structure of the web – with no one in charge there could be no Jim Crow, repression of the lower class, patriarchal motivated abuse of women, or any of the other major discriminatory movements.  Second, once granted access to the network, the transaction cost, be it selling goods, or exchange of information and services, is remarkably low when compared to non-digital methods.  Third, anything web born has the potential to have global reaches.  Fourth scalability is prevalent in cyberspace, movements that start at a local level can more easily move to a more global scale.  Fifth, nearly all internet exchange involves rapid response times.  And lastly, is the integration of subversive groups into the web.  Alternative routing, hacking, and open source answers to closed source problems all were reasons to be sure any individual could have a voice.  Hurwitz ultimately finds that while the Internet has the potential to undermine residing governments, but this purpose is not inherently built into to system (Hurwitz 666). 
            Barney Warf and John Grimes drive this point home sufficiently in their article, “Counterhegemonic Discourses and the Internet.”  They two open by discussing the mythical vision of the internet – a world where any individual with a computer can connect and plug-in to a glorious system of free and equal exchange.  They too find that while this counter-hegemonic potential is there, it is seldom realized.  Counterhegemonic, in this context, refers to groups and individuals who refuse to take existing ideologies (such as White Nationalism) and politics (radical conservatism) as normal, natural, or necessary (Warf 260).  This does not automatically mean progressive, the writers are careful to note that the extremist right has enjoyed just as much success employing the tools of the web for their purposes as well.  This is all the more reason to pursue interest.
            As idealistic as these claims for potential equality and usage may be, Warf and Grimes are quick to explain the true reality of the way the situation is realized in every day life.  First off, they address the fact that ‘average citizens’ don’t really exist.  If anything poststructural social theory teaches sensitivity to difference –there are highly contingent ways in which social categories reflect class, gender, race, age and more (Warf 261).  Although many households have computers, not all of them have internet access.  American Internet users are overwhelmingly white and middle class, and are typically well educated.  Many of those that control the flow of what is seen on the web: designers, artists, writers, and content managers fall in an even narrower spectrum of characteristics.  Lack of access to the skills, equipment and software necessary to drive the electronic highway threatens to create a substantial – and predominantly minority – disenfranchised underclass (Warf 262).  The academic world has long accepted the inseparable bond between knowledge and power.  Philosophical greats like Foucault and his notion of the all-seeing eye, or panoptican, drive home the fundamental tie of surveillance to power and regulation of behavior.  Though state agencies can keep track of some movement and information on the web, the thousands of internet users can better access information about anything imaginable giving them a distinct advantage in the game of knowledge.  The internet is largely conducive to free speech and emancipatory capacities.  Some governments, such as the Peoples’ Republic of China, have come to fear the internet and have taken extreme measures to violate human rights and free speech on the web.²  Warf and Grimes cite many progressive uses of the internet, including dissemination of documents and graphics, frequently asked question guides and other teaching tools, announcements of conferences, and communication between individuals via Usenets³ and listservs (Warf 263).
            The internet does indeed come with some relatively revolutionary woven into the very fabric of the system.  Unlike counterhegemonic use, which depends more on the actions of users, the entire internet exists in a perpetually dynamic condition.  Gina Neff and David Stark discuss this in their paper, “Permanently Beta: Responsive Organization in the Internet Era.”  Though it is a relatively simple concept, the internet by its nature challenges the traditional norms of production and consumption in society.  Neff and Stark address this instability as it is manifested through open source – software or code that anyone can use and modify to make their own (Neff 173-175).  The same concept is truly expressed through the use of a wiki.  A wiki, simply, is a web page that anyone can modify.  Wikipedia is by far and above the most famous example, but there are many potential wikis on the web.  Academia is slow to accept dynamic and instantly updatable material such as wikis, but some like Abdul Alkalimat and myself believe it is the wave of the future.  The ultimate sustaining point that Neff and Stark make is that the producer and consumer are potentially one on the web.  With the use of wikis and open source software participants in the system are able to define and redefine their own experience.  The process is infinitely dynamic and democratic.  Self regulating systems have proven to be remarkably effective, even those that divulge abnormally large levels of private information, such as the extremely pervasive social networking service known as Facebook.  Facebook itself has even reached over a 92% saturation rate at the University of Illinois and most participants are more willing to trust information to Facebook and strangers in the online communities than to acquaintances and strangers outside of the internet.⁴ Even with this high level of risk by normal standards, Facebook operates without major issue under the principle of adapter engineering⁵ and self-regulation.
            With all of this in mind, I would like to introduce the theories presented by Abdul Alkalimat in his presentation “eBlack Power: From the Panther to the Spider: New Tools Require New Tactics.”  Abdul is a monumental thinker in the world of progressive application of internet tools to the new age Black Power movement.  He identifies three promises with the internet.  First, cyberdemocracy, an idealized system in which everyone can voluntarily connect and interact.  Computers are increasingly becoming available to everyone through public service centers like libraries, churches, and computing centers.  Second, he sees collective intelligence as inherent to the internet.  I could not agree more.  Perhaps the most powerful component of the internet is its nature to call upon the combined intellect of the whole.  People have been working together for centuries and the Internet allows for greater teamwork and connectivity than ever before.  Last Abdul identifies information society as one of free consumption of knowledge.  Vast amounts of knowledge on just about anything at all is publicly available on the internet, and many individuals like Abdul and I advocate the free spread of knowledge over the web.  Academia and libraries have kept knowledge locked away for too long.  Revitalized search methods and increasingly easy access to information should be an empowerment that everyone is entitled to.  Abdul also sees three great forms of digitization on the web: Discourse, scholarship, and experience.  Discourse refers to communication for educational, organizational, or mobilization purposes.  Scholarship is the potential to link academia such as African American Studies to online mediums for global transparency and accessibility.  Finally, experience constitutes the encompassing of daily life through the virtual community – capturing struggles for survival and liberation as well as joys and victories over oppression.
            Fundamentally, my theory is that the Internet is a multi-dimensional medium that can greatly assist with contemporary civil rights by providing unsurpassed connectivity, freedom of expression and education, and most importantly, unification through building of communities, both virtual and real.  Undoubtedly, this system can be adapted to the AASRP at the University of Illinois.

Goals and Intended outcomes

            In short, my goals are simple: to enhance and extend civil rights and black leadership through integration of information technology tools into the AASRP education framework.  I have already readied three technologies available for immediate deployment.
            First is the Afro Blog, located at www.afroblog1.blogspot.com.  This Blog is based on the Google Blogger service and as such is fully supported and dependable.  It offers a web site type announcement medium that users can go to visit and view postings about AASRP and related groups’ operations.  Posts made here are a permanent presence on the web and can be archived as necessary.  The blog appearance and interface options are moderately customizable but are generally kept to a minimum for ease of use.  Visitors are able to make comments on posts as they wish, which may be regulated by a moderator.  Readers cannot post comments in direct response to one another, only to the main postings.  Only a single account has access to post items to the blog, making it best deployed as an announcement and discussion tool for a leader or authority figure.
            The Afro Blog has several requirements for complete implementation.  First and foremost persons with access to the administration account must be identified and informed about usage of the blog.  Second, a promotional plan must be created.  I won’t detail this here, as advertising should be custom tailored to the specific use of the blog.  For instance, a blog used as a discussion follow up to a conference would be best advertised by emailing the disjoint conference participants (through a listserv!).  The blog could also be used for departmental or program purposes as well as class or organizational reasons.  Topics would be fitted to the audience and might include organizational interests (SPEAK, Urban League, etc…), program uses (feedback on classes, information about graduation, speakers or seminars, and more), activism (organizing protests, support rallies, outreach efforts or volunteer projects), conferences (prelude and post-conference, announcement or dialog oriented), and for community purposes (church groups, family events, hip hop gatherings, town government meetings and more).  These needs are easily met once a place for blog use is identified.  For instance, the blog could be used for a class.  The professor or TA’s would then have access to post, and material related to readings, tests, and concepts from the class would then be the subject of posts, along with any other information or announcements pertinent to the class.  Students would be encouraged (or required?) to go and make comments and participate in reading the blog.
            The next tool, which could easily be used as a supplement to the blog, is the Afro Listserv.  This resource is located at the email address AFRO-L.listserv.uiuc.edu. The listserv is basically a giant email list that is managed by one or more administrators and moderators.  Announcements can be sent over the list to participants.  The system is different then a Blog because users do not have to actively go visit a web page in order to receive information.  They may also subscribe and unsubscribe themselves at will.  The list is currently set up so that response emails to the list post are directed to the administrator.  Alternatively permissions could be altered so that users have the freedom to Email the entire list about topics.  This runs the very real risk of flooding recipient’s email boxes and agitating users to the point where they unsubscribe.  In my professional opinion discussions are best kept to blogs and forums, and listservs are effective email announcement tools.
            Requirements for listserv implementation are about as demanding as a Blog.  At least one person must be set as a list administrator in charge of sending out announcements and adding or removing users from the list as needed.  Emails of participants of the listserv are required for this tool.  Topics of the listserv would be much the same as those of the blog, but will generally be more oriented towards informing and announcing, as users are unable to respond back to the sender.  Ideally a listserv would function as a weekly announcement of events, perhaps a newsletter, or meeting minutes or way of advertising things like the Afro Blog or Afro Forum.  In terms of self sustainability the listserv requires more active effort by the moderator and administrators, because users can and will email back to them with questions.  They also have to deal with dead email address responses or full inboxes or whatever other problems one might encounter with email.
            Last is the Afro Forum which is currently operational at the address jag85.com/forum.  This is essentially the same as blog, but anyone is allowed to make discussion topic postings.  Users are required to create a profile (which encourages accountability as well as development of identity) in order to make posts.  Any person can respond to the post of any other person on a forum.  Visitors are able to read whatever they want, but must create an account to participate.  A forum offers all of the benefits of a blog with the only downside being that it is more complex to use and users must create accounts to post responses.  If user information is known beforehand accounts might be created for individuals by a moderator (say a TA who might create accounts for their class).  The forum offers many benefits beyond the Blog.  First and foremost, it is more conducive to dialog, dialectic and comprehensive discussion.  Posts are structured and organized in a hierarchal tree-branch fashion allowing for easy navigation.  The forum offers more flexibility and interface options – a totally customizable appearance and items like the number of users logged on.  Users can create polls, develop personal profiles (with contact information or more links to related causes), and post images and links (greater connection and visual elements).
            The forum, in all other regards, would have the same mission profile and requirements for deployment as the Afro Blog.  If anything, there are more potential topics because of the open-ended nature of posting.

Method of Evaluation

            Methods of evaluation will be determined on an individual basis by deployment of each tool.  In general, if users participate and gain better access to knowledge through use of these tools, I would evaluate them positively.  Eventually tools can be evaluated by how much positive benefit they add to their related communities, but I would hold off on this kind of judgment until they have been given time to be fully adopted and understood.  Communities like Facebook and AIM did not happen over night; social networking on the web typically takes some time to set down roots.  The number of posts created and read can be analyzed on a forum as well as the number and activity level of users.  Other methods might be deployed, such as offering participants 1$ off the entry fee for a speaker if they print out the listserv announcement for the event.  The incentive would help show the participation in readership.  I won’t detail any more methods here, for lack of time and space, but know that there are numerous computer-related ways to see how much these tools are engaged, such is the nature of the internet.

To the Future

            These tools are just the beginning.  This is only the first part of this paper, the second will feature a detailed plan for integrating not only these tools into the Black Leadership class in the AASRP program, but the role I myself could play as a TA.  These communication resources are only the start of the avalanche, encouraging and teaching students to use them would be the subject of a few sessions. Check out part two for the plan.

At the end of day presence on the web is all about access, what you have to say, and how you present your knowledge.  Education is key – we have the access, we have plenty to say, now lets teach others how to present it.  Leaders create leaders and the chain will continue.  It’s time to start a new Internet revolution.

Part Two Notes

  Ideally I would take a period of time each week or during each class to explain the use of a technology tool and challenge students to integrate them into their own radical ideas, projects, and leadership.  More important and bigger items would be taught as well – starting with introductory web design (showing students how to access and use their own netfiles as well as how to do more than just post content!), good PowerPoint design (and as important how to properly speak with a PowerPoint presentation!!), and lastly running a crash course in basic multimedia design: creating movies with Windows Movie Maker.  The resources (software) needed to teach all of these tools can be found in library computer labs as well as most ATLAS labs.  By fulfilling the course, not only would students learn more about developing leadership, but they would learn how to apply that leadership through internet based applications and mediums. 

References

Alkalimat, Abdul.  “eBlack Power: From the Panther to the Spider: New tools require
new tactics.” From the Race, Roots, and Resistance Conference at the University of Illinois.  April 1st, 2006.

Hurwitz, Roger.  “Who Needs Politics?  Who Needs People?  The Ironies of Democracy
in Cyberspace.”  Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 28, No. 6 (Nov., 1999), 655-661.

Neff, Gina and David Stark.  “Permanetntly Beta: Responsive Organization in the
Internet Era.”  Economic Life Online. Chapter 11, 173-188.

Warf, Barney and John Grimes.  “Counterhegemonic Discourses and the Internet.” 
Geographical Review.  Vol. 87, No. 2, Cyberspace and Geographical Space (Apr., 1997), 259-274.