Backed by the fanfare of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture Oiga.me was presented last night at the Patio Maravillas in Madrid, a cyberactivism platform based on free software. It is a political participation tool developed by the association Alabs and backed by movements such as Ecologistas en Acción, CGT or Dabne, which make up the so-called social council, which “will propose campaigns” and “will review the proper use of the tool”.
Through Oiga.me, cyberactivists will be able to propose campaigns (none is active yet, but four proposals have already been received) or join one of those under way. The petitions will not stay as a “simple list on the Internet” but will reach the centres of power: politicians, institutions, companies, media outlets.
The calling of Oiga.me is the same one that inspires Actuable and other ‘click-activism’ platforms, although with several significant differences, as Daniel, one of its inspirers, explains to us: “First of all, it is based on free software: we have given the code back to the community**; we are not for profit** and, finally, we do not want to stop at campaigns that consist simply of appearing on a list. In Anglo-Saxon culture that may be worth something, but in Mediterranean culture it is not effective”.
Oiga.me has been in the works for a year, although it suffered a standstill because of 15-M, the movement in which its creators have been involved. More than a standstill, “it contaminated the tool”, according to Daniel: “15-M has changed everything. We had been rehearsing swarm techniques but 15-M has exceeded all expectations. For example, the idea of the social council was to propose campaigns, but along the way we discovered that people have ideas that overflow the organisations”.
The first version of Oiga.me only sends emails, but successive versions, available in six months, will do the same with faxes and voice over IP. In these cases, and given that launching the campaign involves an economic cost, the collective proposing the action in question will have to cover that cost.
In yesterday’s presentation Daniel gave an example of a pressure campaign (he prudently prefers to avoid the term ‘boycott’): “If Endesa’s 15,000 customers dig in their heels and tell the company that if it does not stop usurping land from the Mapuche people in Chile to build dams, they will switch to Unión Fenosa, that may make Endesa think”. By the way, that campaign will not be carried out because Endesa has halted its ecocidal project in Chilean Patagonia.
Another example of a campaign: the controversial ABC front page about the 15-O demonstrations. The campaigns, in this case, should serve to “help the media to focus”.
Website and Twitter of Oiga.me.
–Actuable: otro activismo es posible
–Una turba de furiosos rumberos asalta el Banco Santander en Sevilla