New Barriers to Reaching Your Activists at Work
One of the staples of activist mobilization by email, being able to reach them at work, is being undermined by many companies across the country. In an attempt to reduce the risks of contracting viruses, many US companies, like GE and Global Crossing, are joining many government employers by restricting access to outside email services and instant messengers while they are at work. If this becomes widespread, advocacy groups will need to reassess their email lists to identify what percentage of their activists have provided non-work email addresses and readjust message strategy and timing to account for the need to reach people when they are not at work.
This will have an especially strong impact on being able to mobilize activists for same day action to influence an impending vote in Congress. If those emails don’t arrive until after work hours, or the next day, then they will arrive after the vote has passed.
Restrictions on instant messaging services, like Skype, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN Messenger, will undermine the emerging use of these communications networks to organize flash demonstrations and immediate calls to action. While these networks have not yet become the staple of US mobilization campaigns, they are on the rise. Similarly, if restrictions extend to accessing online communities like MySpace, it would make it difficult to replicate the successes of the immigration reform demonstrations we have been seeing this past week on future campaigns.