TXTmob: text messaging for protest swarms

ABSTRACT

This paper describes cell phone text messaging during the 2004 US Democratic and Republican National Conventions by protesters using TXTmob -- a text-message broadcast system developed by the authors. Drawing upon analysis of TXTmob messages, user interviews, self-reporting, and news media accounts, we describe the ways that activists used text messaging to share information and coordinate actions during decentralized protests. We argue that text messaging supports new forms of distributed participation in mass mobilizations.

REFERENCES

• 1: August 31st Republican National Convention - Direct Action Information (website). http://www.a31.org, accessed on 10 Dec 2004
• 2: Critical Mass Delegation @ DNC (website). http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/25223/index.php, accessed on 10 Dec 2004
• 3: Bl(A)ck Tea Society (website). http://blackteasociety.org, accessed on 10 Dec 2004
• 4: Arquilla, J. and Ronfeldt, D. Swarming and the Future of Conflict, RAND National Defense Research Institute, 2000.
• 5: Bialik, C. Get the Word Out: Protesters, Delegates Use New Technology To Send Rapid-Fire Cell phone Messages Wall Street Journal Online, 31 Aug 2004.
• 6: Bonchek, M.S., Grassroots in Cyberspace: Using Computer Networks to Facilitate Political Participation. in 53rd Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, (Chicago, IL, 1995).
• 7: deArmond, P. Black Flag Over Seattle. Albion Monitor, 72 (March 2000).
• 8: deArmond, P. Netwar in the Emerald City: WTO Protest Strategy and Tactics. in Arquilla, J. and Ronfeldt, D. eds. Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy, RAND Corporation, 2001, 289--310.
• 9: Di Justo, P. Protests Powered by Cell phone New York Times, New York, 9 Sep 2004.
• 10: Rebecca Grinter , Margery Eldridge, Wan2tlk?: everyday text messaging, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 05-10, 2003, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA [doi>10.1145/642611.642688]
• 11: Hughes, K. Criminalizing Dissent? NOW with Bill Moyers, PBS, 2004.
• 12: Mitchell, W.J. Me++. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA and London, 2003.
• 13: Rafael, V. The Cell phone and the Crowd: Messianic Politics in the Contemporary Phillipines. Public Culture, 15:3 (2003).
• 14: Reynardus, J.E. The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Inquiry Report: Civilian Oversight of Miami-Dade Police and Corrections & Rehabilitation Departments, Independent Review Panel (IRP), Miami, FL, 2004.
• 15: Howard Rheingold, Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, Perseus Publishing, 2002
• 16: Scahill, J. The Miami Model: Paramilitaries, Embedded Journalists and Illegal Protests. Counterpunch, 24 Nov 2003.
• 17: Scahill, J. The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad Counterpunch, 9 Sep 2004.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.3 Communications Applications

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces

Keywords:
SMS, activism, cell phone, political protest, text messaging