It's probably healthy to have moments of self-doubt from time-to-time, and I'm experiencing one now; so I thought it would be appropriate to share it with Communicate or Die viewers since the doubt in question is about the efficacy of the kinds of technology I generally discuss here. It occurred to me to explore this issue while doing my weekly search for cool new stuff that might be of use to unions, and feeling like ... blah. Like, how many new tools can we use? How many different ways to communicate with people can we handle? Is all this stuff a distraction from more important matters for unions?
I'm just wondering if the digital explosion is built on a foundation of hype so immense that I might be wrong about pushing the newest tech overmuch. After years of chasing after the new new in online technology, and seeing the kind of corporate types that when all is said and done still do the lion's share of technological development in our society, I get worried that - to use an old abolitionist expression - "you can't use the master's tools to bring down the master's house." Or to put that in a labor context, you can't use the boss' tools to bring down the boss' house."
I don't believe that's the case. But I'm surfacing these issues up because I have a feeling that many viewers feel this way sometimes. I can hear people saying (and have actually heard some saying) "who needs this web-based social networking crap, we'll just put out newsletters and campaign bulletins like we've always done, and we'll phone bank when we have to, and we have rallies and pickets and potlucks and trainings, and at the end of the day all that will do far more to reach, recruit, retain and inform members than any electronic gizmos."
It's fairly obvious that if people think a particular technology is just reinventing the wheel - for example, there's a trend of people abandoning PDAs in favor of traditional paper calendars because PDA's just don't cut the mustard for some - they are not likely to take it very seriously. Especially established institutions like unions.
However, if a technology is a game-changer - like those oft-mentioned social networking sites and blogs - and a whole audience of potential institutional partisans is a mouse click away just waiting to be contacted, then institutions like unions are a whole lot more likely to see the wisdom in making use of them.
Now here at Prometheus HQ, we try to discuss technologies here that we think are going to be game changers, but we can certainly be mollified by shiny objects as much as the rest of the talking apes - and it's hard not to get excited by the prospect of, say, having video phones on our wrists like Flash Gordon or Star Trek or something.
But I really want to hear from viewers on this issue this week. How much do you think having web sites and all the whiz bang tech that goes with them is helping or harming your union organizing efforts, internal and external communication, and relevance to society in general. Good, bad, mixed or indifferent?
You may fire when ready ....
best practices
My two cents - I'm less interested in finding out about new software than I am in how unions are utilizing it, particularly in the context of organizing.
I wonder if it would be useful to send out a survey to national and local web stewards about how they're utilizing their web sites (and related technologies).
Seems to me the key to online communication is finding ways of cutting through the clutter and finding ways to attract members and potential members to union materials. I'd like to hear more success stories, even if they don't necessarily involve the very latest tools to hit the market!
new technology
I think it's clear we all want to use current technology and we are sitting there
wondering why the unions are not necessarily seeming to want to do it. Maybe we should
compare the traditional ways with the current ways? I'll start it off...
send info to membership:
traditional: printed material mailed by us post office
----------good pts:
non-intrusive to recipients (they'll read it if and when they feel like it)
relatively private in that only delivered to the person/address intended
------------bad pts:
costs money to mail
costs money to print (especially if commercially printed), especially if
colored.
hard to produce copy for commercial printing: lots of rules about layout, takes
lots of expertise.
long lead time for printing, addressing, and mailing so it's
useless for immediate action mobilization
hard to deny you said that
traditional: phone call to member
--------- good pts
two way conversation possible. May be able to be persuasive.
great deniability: you must have misunderstood what I said :-)
---------bad pts
need to get phone number
probably can't call people at work number
costs of phone service
time and effort of people making the calls one at a time.
target may not answer; may have callerid
current technology: email
------------good pts:
probably relatively free to both sender and receiver
easy to produce, include many kinds of content
------------bad pts:
have to get email address for person.
insecure unless encrypted. Maybe easily intercepted by enemies.
can be forwarded to enemies
probably can't send it via employer's email system
hard to deny you said that
numerous people incompetent or phobic of email
can't know who is really at the other end of an email address
People can ignore or filter it.
Vacation or reject messages can remove
addresses from list or messages can be id'd as spam.
current technology: web site
------------good pts:
very cheap to create and very cheap to read
low cost per "word" can put up vast amounts of stuff very cheaply
accomodates numerous formats of information
------------bad pts:
Needs constant updating so return viewers will see something new.
Enemies can see it unless assign ids and passwords to each union member, in
which case they may forget their credentials and not be able to read it.
Need to constantly remind people to look at the web site or they forget
No credibility to online voting, polls, fora, surveys (very cheap and
easy to create but just as easy to fake the results).
Deniability: better altho they could take a screenshot of past content
Enemies ?
Why Do You Refer to the Non-Union Element,,,, Being Our Enemy?
Does'nt Sound to Professional, Coming from a Professional...
Ya Know, Your Good Points, Bad Points... Point of View !
Charles Lezette
Carpenters L:ocal 370
Albany, NY
enemies
I didn't state who the enemy was. It could be anyone.
If you send a communication in a form that is easily intercepted by
someone else and that could be to your disadvantage then one can
interpret that negatively and it is customary to refer to the parties
that we don't want to read our messages as "enemies". I don't see
why that upsets you. What term would you prefer?
Upset, No Way... Just a Question...
What term would I prefer?
Mis-Represented, Unfortunate...
etc. etc. etc.
Charles Lezette
Carpenters Local 370
Albany, NY
Union Tech
Haven't contributed to this site in awhile, but happened to log in and saw your post.
Does technology help unions? It's like a joke about what a bear does in the woods. There was a time when unions didn't use databases but they do now. However, badly they use them.
There are lots of reasons why new digital technologies are a problem. I went into a lot of these in my old posts. Probably the most important is that Unions tend to be culturally conservative and reactive anyway so innovation has never been their strong suit.
Unfortunately, technology, particularly when it deals with basic human needs like communication takes on a life of it's own. This is just a way of saying unions will have less and less choice about the matter if society at large embraces some particular gadget. Take bank ATM cards for example. They were once a novelty and now I know people who've never had a checkbook. More and more of my (older) friends are signing on to social networking sites. If you look at Howard Dean's and now Obama's campaign's they have pushed these technologies past simply raising money. I'm sure there are people out there that don't use refrigeration but I'm not one of them.
So it's not a choice whether Union's will or will not get into these ICT's. As far as I'm concerned the real problem is there remains no effective technology advocacy group within labor that is seen as an authority on what and how to confront these challenges. A group that can talk about technology in a way that's acceptable to the non-believers. Until that happens we will always be a day late and a dollar short.
Point Taken
There are, however, models for progressive technology advocacy emerging that might be replicable by labor. Or just worth hitching our wagons to. The Organizers Collaborative here in Boston comes to mind. For now, I would certainly recommend that current viewers of this blog spread the word about us to all their key labor contacts. The more the merrier, and the more noise we generate the more likely we'll be to generate signal that unions will find helpful, if you catch my drift.
p.s. - we're glad you stopped by here again, Wayne, don't be a stranger ...
they need to stop spending money like they're corporations
I have a take on this which I was sorta trying to imply previously but that
didn't work so now I'm coming out and saying it, electrons are cheap.!
unions should embrace tech to save money IMHO. For example, how
much are they spending on phone calls and mailed publications?
Probably with the astute use of technology, unions could save a lot of money. Using voip, using
free telephony applications like asterisk (has a robocall capabilities,
has pbx and voip capabilities). Everyone wants to do web sites but
I'd like to suggest that the tech element look at what unions inherently want
to do now and make it cheaper, whatever it is that could conceivably be electronified.
. Is the union paying zillions for phone lines and people to make calls, is it paying a ton for commercial robo calls?
Are they using commercial color printing and physical mailing costing the
membership a complete fortune? This should change. If unions stopped
spending excessive sums on communications maybe they'd have more
money for organizing. (Yes some might be saying something about
officer and staff salaries that wanna be corporate too but I'm not going there. :-)
$$$$$ on Communication
You may just be right about spending so much $$$$$ on Communication, I just got a cell phone deal that every organization should think about using. Unlimited talking time at a fraction of the cost from other cell phone companies that charge by the minute. Another point you just made was cheap use of technology, If some unions whould just research their options they whould find that there are so many companies willing to under cut each other (FREE). For instance I have created a video blog for zero dollars, Video embed the whole nine... (FREE) It's not the best technology but it works for what is needed to get the message out there. Another good service is email blitzing, there are a number of them out there that are so simple to use, and cheap at that. Hey, Unions do need to wake up when it comes to spending on technology, It is a proven fact things are so cheap to do, that the everyday normal rank and file members are using it to there advantage.
Now if we the rank and file CHUM can do it, So can Unions.
Research, Research, Research... For the Best Price !
Hey, let me use this one for an example, When buying a home,
It's Location. Location, Location... Getting Our Money's Worth !
As Far as Officer and Staff Salaries, Accountability Is the Fix For That Problem...
The Internet, It Ain't Just for Porn Anymore !
www.videovoice370.com