politics

Voices without Votes, A Project of Global Voices and ReutersPeer-to-peer social change campaigns normally cross international borders like oceans and wind. They are designed to leverage a person’s worldwide social network in support of a desired outcome, no matter the location. In politics, peer-to-peer social change campaigns involve raising money and recruiting votes for a political candidate.

What do you do when you’re not a U.S. citizen and don’t have hundreds of Americans within your social network? How are you supposed to use social media to impact a presidential election, the outcome of which may be a matter of life or death for people in your community?

The answer can be found in a new online project from Global Voices called Voices without Votes.

I’m very excited to see the new project from Global Voices go live (on Super Tuesday no less) with support from Reuters. For the last several weeks, I’ve been participating in a listserv organized by Global Voices to brainstorm and make plans for this new website.

The new project carries the same name and purpose as an initiative I started in 2004. Voices without Votes 2004 was the spark that got me into the social media for social change mess that I now find myself.

At the time, I was living hand to mouth as a Masters student in History at the University of Toronto. A U.S. citizen by birth, I had been studying in Canada for the previous six years. I realized that my Canadian friends would not be able to vote in the election that could boot from office a U.S. president that none of us liked. My company on the streets of Toronto protesting the Iraq War would have to stand by and watch as U.S. citizens re-elected the reckless leader of a global empire.

My response to this conundrum was to build a website through which non-Americans could send “Dear America” letters to U.S. citizens. These letters would state non-American perspectives on U.S. foreign policy and the U.S. election. My goal was to encourage diaologue between Americans and non-Americans ahead of the 2004 U.S. presidential election. I crisscrossed the University of Toronto campus getting international students and Canadians to write letters. I transcribed these letters and posted them on my site.

Later, I rebuilt the website using a content management system called Xaraya, which made it possible for non-Americans to post their own letters. A small group of dear friends helped me with the design, programming, and outreach. We stood back watched as a few hundred letters flowed through the site ahead of the November 2004 election.

All this was happening before YouTube and Facebook and at a time when blogs and tagging barely existed. The web has evolved dramatically in the last four years. The new Voices without Votes project can draw on a robust social media toolkit as well as the amazing staffers and volunteers at Global Voices. Combined with financial and marketing support from Reuters, Voices without Votes 2008 should make big headlines.

As long as 3% of the world’s population votes in an election to annoint the "leader of the free world" while ignoring world opinion, the democratic process in the U.S. is left wide open to criticism. Maybe this year, U.S. citizens will wake up and pay attention to what non-Americans have to say about U.S. foreign policy.

I’m looking forward to reporting on the role that social media and peer-to-peer awareness raising campaigns will play.