Chinese citizens alarmed about pollution won a rare victory on Wednesday when the city of Xiamen froze a chemical plant project after angry residents joined in opposition through a flood of mobile phone text messages.
According to the official Xinhua news agency, citizens compared it to an "atomic bomb" and sent nearly one million text messages via cell phones to pressure the government to renounce the project.
The port city of about 1.5 million people, centered on an island in eastern China's Fujian province, announced it was halting construction of a plant to make paraxylene, a petrochemical that goes into polyester and fabrics.
The Washington Post updated this story on June 28 with more details about how Xiamen residents used technology to increase the power of their activism.
Good item, Kevin. I've been tracking uses of mobile phones by advocacy groups and various nonprofits. In the U.S. along, I've found examples of NGOs using mobile to keep in touch with supporters on urgent issues (Working Assets Mobile, Planned Parenthood’s SaveRoe.org campaign in South Dakota), gathering petition signatures (Amnesty International, Natural Resources Defense Council), engaging with volunteers (United eWay), raising money (American Red Cross, YouthNoise, StandUp for Kids, Sweet Relief), coordinating rallies and demonstrations (SEIU International Justice Campaign), enabling supporters to phone political targets (Working Assets Mobile), and registering people to vote (Rock the Vote, Mobile Voter).
A lot of these examples are written up by MobileActive.org at http://www.mobileactive.org/guides/
--Michael Stein
http://www.michaelstein.net/
Posted by: Michael Stein | Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 09:46 AM