In lieu of mass Txt messaging applications getting subpoenaed by the New York City Police, pro Tibet activist harnessed the power of the mobile medium last week while protesting the Olympic torch on its way to the Chinese olympics. According to my mobile-active friend Nathan Freitas (who helped organize the Text For Tibet blitz along with David Taylor of Radical Designs)

According to Freitas by the day of the protest (April 9th) 1600 protesters had subscribed to the service which provided real time information regarding updates and places to move to as the torch was passing through. The amazing thing, Freitas points out, is that such momentum was built up only after two days of promotion. And no special technology or service had to be created for this as it ran off of a popular service called Textmarks as well as Twitter (will these get subpoenaed now as well?)

A liveblog is available where you can view the information being blogged as well as a mapped out version that was being done for Students For A Free Tibet.ORG Just as TxtMob was successful during the RNC protest (even the police admit it, why else would they be giving Txtmob such a hard time) in NYC las presidential cycle more and more talk about the organic benefits of text messaging in San Francisco. Here are some that have floating around the mobileactive listserv.

" Soon after she spoke, cheers erupted among a crowd of Tibetans waiting near Ferry Park as an announcement came — via cell phone text message ” that pro-Tibetan activists were "declaring victory" in having turned the hallowed Beijing Olympic torch into a disgraced symbol of China's forced occupation of Tibet." "This is like heaven. Unbelievable," said Tsering Tamding, who moved to Berkeley from a community of exiled Tibetans in South India several months ago. "These people care about human rights. San Francisco has always cared about human rights."

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_8875065

"We are reorganizing the protest, sending text messages with minute-by-minute updates on where the torches are," said Tawni Tidwell, a member of protest organizer SF Team Tibet. "People are using their cell phones, BlackBerrys, and PDAs. We are also updating media though our phones, sending pictures." Tidwell added: "It would be really, really hard if we didn't have this. Can you imagine if the protesters in Lhasa had this technology? Witnesses could just send things in."

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9915609-7.html?tag=nefd.top

Whether the demonstrators' text messaging was an effective tool is tough to determine. After all, if they wanted to know where the torch was, they could have just turned on the television, which was tracking the route live. But the cellphones and text messages did give the protesters a tool on the ground, allowing quick adjustments on their part. All afternoon, as city officials sought to move the torch through the city without confrontation, they were racing too against the speed of mobile messaging.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/using-tech-to-track-the-torch/?ref=technology

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