Virtual Rallies and Cyberactivism vs Con Ass

By Carlo S. Ople I was just reading the latest articles on the recently concluded Anti C on-Ass rally on Inquirer.Net. According to the police, this rally had the lowest turnout, around 6,000 based on their estimates. The organizers, on the other hand, claim that they had 13,000-15,000 warm bodies. You got to ask yourself the question: despite all the outrage this issue has generated, why only 15,000 pe ople went to the streets? I'm sure there are varied reasons but at the end of the day the measurement of success for events like this is the number of participants. Sadly 15,000 is not representative of the majority of the Filipino people and can easily be dismis sed by the politicians pushing for Con Ass. However, the good news is that on the Internet, we have almost double the numbe r of the people who went to the rally sign up on the "Stop Con Ass Now" cause on F acebook. As of this writing, there are almost 28,000 sign-ups on the cause. With that in mind, I came up with this short article explaining the strengths of Cyberactivism and why it should be taken seriously not just by the proponents, but also by politicians and organizers who want to provide a platform for the ci tizens to be part of a cause. Physical Rallies can be Inconvenient Let's face it, life these days is hard. Missing a day of work means a salary de duction or a lost vacation/sick leave. The reality is a lot of Filipinos will n ot "pay" to be part of a rally by missing work. I think this was the biggest hu rdle a lot of office workers had to face in Makati when they wanted to join the rally last night. This was the sentiment of several colleagues I have here in the office. Rallies also need a convergence point. You physically have to be in one spot on a specific time to be able to make the effort count. This literally makes the rally limited since those who are outside of Manila, especially those in Visaya s and Mindanao, cannot participate because they won't buy a plane ticket and fl y all the way here to protest Con Ass. Virtual Rallies, on the other hand, are completely the opposite. All you need t o have to be part of it is to have access to the Internet. The good thing these days is that there are more than 10,000+ Internet cafes spread all over the Ph ilippines and most of them charge very reasonable and affordable rates. There are a few cafes in Davao that charge as low as P5/hour. By going to the w orldwide web, you transcend the inconveniences brought about by physical rallie s. You're still counted and your part of the movement without having to spend t hat much time, resources, and effort. Physical Rallies end when they're finished This, I think, is the biggest weakness of physical rallies. When the crowd disp erses, the event ends, especially if there were only a few or an average number of attendees. Other succeeding rallies are usually treated as separate efforts and they don't really all add up in terms of metrics. And that I think is one of the strongest qualities of Virtual Rallies. The mome nt a person joins, he's in it for the long haul. The count is cumulative regard less of the time and space. As long as the website is up and running, people wi ll be counted. That's the reason why the Facebook Cause against Con Ass is alre ady nearing 30,000 sign-ups. Imagine if we give it more time? That number will continue to grow and eventually might even end up more than 100,000. What is more effective in pushing for a cause? An unsure attendance of 6,000-15 ,000 in a rally in Makati or a virtual representation of more than 100,000? Organizers of the Anti Con Ass Campaign should really take Cyberactivism seriou sly. Given the right firepower, the Facebook approach might actually be more ef fective in the long run. Carlo Ople is the main author of New Media Philippines (http://newmedia.com .ph), a blog that aims to help Filipinos maximize and realize the potential of New Media. Apart from being a blogger, Carlo also serves as a Marketing Manager for one of the leading online gaming companies in the Philippines. He is also a freelance digital marketing consultant and has worked with various politician s and business owners expand their reach and influence through the use of socia l media. Read more about him at New Media Philippines (http://newmedia.com.ph)< /em>