Activism Goes Digital

From e-mail to meet-ups, women's march organizers extend their reach online to plan this weekend's event.

Emily C. Kumler, Medill News Service

WASHINGTON-- Activists planning the March for Women's Lives here this weekend are finding a new partner: technology, which they say has radically changed the way they organize and mobilize.

"Technology is a godsend," says Eleanor Smeal, president of Feminist Majority, one of seven cosponsors of the April 25 rally. "Without technology we'd be in serious trouble."

The March for Women Web site averages 400,000 hits daily, providing information about the event. The organization sends e-mail alerts to everyone who registers on its site or those of its cosponsors. And organizers are working with other Web-based services, such as the community-building meet-up.com, and Internet-savvy political efforts like MoveOn.org, to reach millions of people.

Digital Allies

Technology is enabling the march organizers to build a movement that extends beyond this weekend's scheduled event.

"Out of the seven groups, five have e-mail lists of tens of thousands of people," Smeal says. "This isn't like spam; the people sign up for the alerts because they want to be involved. We can communicate with volunteers immediately, and feedback is immediate so you can easily and affectively adjust plans."

In the "Get Local" section of the March for Women's Lives site, registered users can communicate and plan other activities. By clicking on a map of the United States, they can find people in their area attending the march. The message boards include people looking for a ride to the march, people delegating others to bring water and supplies, and participants revving each other up for the event. One subgroup in Texas calls itself "Don't Mess With Texas...Women" in a play on the state's slogan.

Hits on the site increased dramatically after the group started working with meet-up.com, says Krista Landon, Webmaster and e-organizer for the march.

"Membership on our site increased 20 percent after we joined," Landon says. "We were one of the fastest-growing groups on their site, on the top ten of political meet-ups in the country." The Howard Dean presidential campaign also relied heavily on Interent-facilitated meet-ups. Landon says site activity jumped after the march organization started working with moveon.org, which has an e-mail service with a high number of activist subscribers.

Another site section, "Tell 10 Friends," encourages people to list ten e-mail addresses and write an accompanying personal message with information about the march. Landon says the service is popular, but hasn't tracked the numbers. The march site also has a donations section, but the organization has relied on direct mail for primary fund-raising.

"People are not used to contributing online," Smeal says. "The generation that gives the most money is still used to snail mail; they're more comfortable writing a check and mailing it in."

No Guarantees

Although the march organizers and other activists have embraced technological tools to extend their reach, they recognize that their use doesn't guarantee success. For instance, Dean's presidential campaign organized more than 180,000 people and set a new standard for online fund-raising, but the online support didn't translate into enough voters showing up to win primaries.

"The Dean campaign found that using high tech created a social experience," says Nikki Heidepriem, president of Heidepriem Mager, a Washington-based consulting firm. "With the other side of the abortion issue being very threatening, the Web allows people to contact each other with anonymity. They might otherwise not get involved."

Smeal is looking to the march itself as a measure of the organizers' success. But she adds that even if not everyone who registered joins the march, the technology has allowed the activists to reach and inform millions of people.

"We are able to tell people our message, and it is not diluted," Smeal says. "Ninety Americans were killed in Iraq this month and people were alarmed, but 80,000 women died last year of unsafe abortions. People should be appalled. Technology has allowed us to get that message out there."

Technology also allows groups to more accurately count participants.

"We've been doing official counts since the 1980s, but now we've e-mailed delegations with sign-up sheets," Smeal adds. "We'll get an exact number of all the people on buses with their information, including their e-mail."

A Lasting Change

Smeal has worked with feminist groups for 30 years and recognizes technology has caused other changes in the organizational process.

"In the old days, you would see and hear people on phones and out leafletting all over the place, now it is much quieter," Smeal says. "I'm 64 years old and have been doing this for a long time. The feeling of this march is different."

She expects the organizations backing the march will continue to rely on the technological tools they developed for this event.

"We are looking very carefully at the effect of e-mail. I don't think there is a leader who isn't," she says. "I hope we're not too reliant on it."

But she notes that the low-key but far-ranging process of a digital organization allows activists to reach a worldwide audience.

"I think it makes us infinitely stronger, even if it is passive," she says. "We are supposed to have people from 50 countries coming. In our office we have a lawyer from Poland and one from Lebanon, both in their 30s, and they found out about our efforts from the Web."